IHOP — Restaurant in Chattanooga

My family has eaten here twice. Both times were not positive experiences. The first time was about 2 years ago. They were very nice but unorganized and it took forever to get our food and check.

This weekend we decided to give them another chance. We had a party of 8 and arrived around 10:30am. We were asked to wait outside. We had no problem with that and we understand that times are different these days. I asked her how long of a wait and she said around 10 minutes. Again, we were good with that since they could only seat at half capacity.

We stood out there for about 20 minutes so I was getting a little hot. I walked back in on my own to sit for a few minutes. The same lady asked how many in my party. I reminded her it was 8. She asked me the last name. I told her and she answered back that it was about a 10 minute wait. I realized she had forgotten who I was. So I reminded her.... Well, it turned out that she had completely forgotten us all together. So I told her no problem. We could wait another 10 minutes.. no big deal.

So I continue to sit inside to cool off. Another lady comes up to me and asks how many. I explained that we were already written down and that there were 8 of us. She asked if we would mind 2 booths. I told her that was acceptable. She said that she would wipe them down and come back for us.

So I go outside and gather the rest of our crew. We walked in and waited for her to return... The lady comes up, again, and asks how many..... I repeated 8... She then asks me for a name. I repeated that we were the party of 8 waiting on the 2 booths to be wiped down... Frustrating but I know the mask situation makes it hard to recognize people. However, it really wasn't that busy. There were only 3 other people waiting to be seated besides our group.

So we get seated in our 2 booths and proceed to order our beverages and food. 10 minute wait on drink orders then another 30 minute wait on our food and during that time, all of us had ran out of drinks. Finally the food comes and there were several orders that were missing items. It took an additional 10-15 minutes to get the missing items. Half of us were done eating before the other half got the rest of their meal.

The food was good. The server was sweet but seemed overwhelmed. They had several other servers that morning and only seating half capacity so I would hate to see the service at full capacity. Most of them were in the back for the majority of the time that we were there.

I think this could be a management issue. Either proper training isn't being done or there isn't enough structure. I say all of this, not out of ugliness, but out of constructive criticism. I have been to other locations and I have never had...

We waited an hour for our food which came cold, tried to get a drink it was also incredibly rough on the server the servers have to pay for the people who just up and leave. Yeah don't do it. EDIT: Let me be very clear, one when we arrived we waited 10 minutes to be seated. That was no big deal. Two when we where finally seated we got our drinks no problem. But then she didn't come back for 25 minutes to get the order. She said she had a table of 7. Okay we could deal with that. 3 when we did finally place an order, my grandmother asked for bacon scrabled eggs and pancakes because she wanted to eat cause she is a diabetic. Not a problem until when she came back after an hour with the food (which was Luke warm) the waitress said sorry I'm really behind cause of this table of 7. (Okay still not a problem.) I attempted to grab her attention to correct the mistake, she said "you did not say bacon or scrambled eggs." I attempted to be polite and said "maybe you got it mixed up cause uour really busy however she did cause she told you to please make sure the bacon is crispy and same with the eggs." She said "I can bring you the bacon. But there is nothing to do about the eggs." My grandmother was livid at this point kept telling me we should just leave. When I did finally agree, I had already talked to two other dine in customers who had been waiting for 30 minutes just to order. When I finally finished we went to the front desk and the waitress said "I'm sorry about the wait your total will be 35 dollars." My mema having had enough said "I'm honestly disappointed short staffed or not I think you should discount because of the listed reasons above." She swipped my card cause I was just done. And one of the people I was talking to flat out walked out because they had to leave. The woman then said "great there is another ticket coming out of my paycheck." And began crying. I have worked in fast food. This is illegal. I was guilt tripped into giving a tip because the girl was gonna be punished for people leaving. Add this to the fact that again I didn't get a refill even in the water I got food was Luke warm and my grandmother basically had to stop by a McDonald's afterwards cause, "it comes out of my check." I am from Utah. We are only here for a few days and when contacted the automated system that I was requested to fills out said "Hey when did uou come in? Time? Yeah we will call you." Typically I like ihop. But this specific location did not meet the requirements usually upheld with service, or professionalism and may need an audit from the better business...

Wellllllll, we had to wait a while at the door. Employees passed by several times but no one addressed us at all. Finally I stopped a young lady whom I assumed was a manager and asked were they serving this morning. She apologized and begin to grab condiments to seat us. At this time I informed her that there were two other patrons that were there before us that had not been seated two. Again she apologized and requested ALL of us follow her (blank look we all had). We were seated at separate tables and drink orders were taken at my table. When they were brought out, we placed out order. When our food finally came out, it was hot and delicious but that was literally 45 minutes later from the order placed time. I would have left but it was my little 6 years old grand choice and I didn't want to discourage him. It was determined that they were short staffed,, as all other restaurants are also suffering too.

Visit #2, August 30th. My experience was horrible. We were seated at approximately 10:45. Order taken about 11am. The young lady came by to check on us several times. Approximately 11:45 half of our order came out (which was wrong and cold). Advised the waitress that some items were missing. It was so late we just went with it being cold. Then I see that my order was wrong. She came back and got the plate to have it remade. Mind you, several people that came after us had their food and was almost finished. The waitress came back out with only my side item, which was hot. I asked for condiments when our table never received. She came back 4 more times advise me that they were still remaking my order. Now it's 1pm, I finally advise the young lady this was unexceptible, and she advise she would send over a manager. Manager came over, I explained our dissatisfaction and advise we didn't feel we should pay for anything. She said okay and walked off. We tipped the waitress and began to leave. The waitress advised we would have to pay for all the cold food. Requested to speak to the manager. She came out which seem to me with an attitude. I explained again why I was dissatisfied and shouldn't be charged. She didn't offer an explanation or an apology. She just asked me did I feel I should not have to pay. I answered yes and she balled up the ticked and turned her backpack and say "bye, have a good day. This was so frustrating and time consuming. I always try to give restaurant the benefit of doubt due to not having adequate staffing but this manager...