IHOP — Restaurant in Chillicothe

I'm amazed that people give this Ihop any kind of good recommendation. We've had terrible experiences here over the last several years with nothing good to say about it. During the COVID period sure, I understand being understaffed and running thin. Several places were the same. They've all gotten much better. Thought we would try Ihop again though. Still simply terrible. Severely understaffed. Light fixtures look like they're falling out off the ceiling. Our side of the bench had like a huge hole in it maybe a missing spring. We had to scrunch together to not sit in a hole. Our waitress spent more time apologizing to us and other tables around us instead of just helping. It was a little strange. They didn't look very busy and maybe would have asked for a different seat. Our food took forever to get there. Wrong food only on one plate. It was quickly replaced with what was ordered but looked soggy and raw. The guy at the table next to use kept getting the wrong food and you could hear him complaining as well. Chicken and Waffles was probably the best dish where the waffles were okay but the Chicken was hard and crunchy like it had sat under a warming light for a week. When ordering drinks, just a specialty lemonade came with a long list of things they were out of stock on. All fresh fruit. They had no gravy at a breakfast restaurant? We have a local discount card from one of the high schools. We presented the card and asked for the discount. She took the check back to adjust it and got back and it was still not adjusted. Don't sign up to be part of these sponsor cards if you won't honor the discount. That eventually got sorted. We will simply never eat here again. There are plenty of good and well maintained places around Chillicothe but...

In short, it was a good visit and a good place to get lunch after a funeral. In length, the food was fantastic and Management is strong at this restaurant. The food tasted incredible, especially for the price; it was almost as if we were eating at a higher end restaurant. The food was professionally prepared and served. My only complaint(s); one of our order was taken incorrectly and the same Waitress that took it wrong was also eating everything she wasn't serving. I understand people have needs which is why I'm not personally against this, however not cleaning your hands in between each serve is a slight red flag; all issues were corrected by management almost instantly. We do not typically complain about orders unless it is something that may effect another customers experience; as we feel every person deserves the best they can get for what they have. The manager took our messed up order off of our bill entirely, which they did not have to but decided to do so. We are tight on money at the moment which helps our budget, however since our budget was not fully fulfilled for lunch; we took what was left from the taken off order to order a meal for the homeless gentleman that lives around the corner, it was only $5 and fulfilled our eat out budget. So in a way, the management that day helped us do something for someone else by allowing us to get more within our tight budget. Again, great service and wonderful food and...

Issues with ordering online carryout! I suggest you call the store if you are in a timecrunch or dont want to risk the chance of having cold food.

One time I ordered online for carryout and selected ASAP. It gave me a pickup time like 20 minutes into the future. I got to the restaurant a little after the specified pickup time and "checked in" with the link they sent to my phone right after I submitted my order. It would seem that that was when they actually started on my order. I Ended up waiting like 20 minutes just on my food to cook. Luckily I wasnt pressed for time that day.

The next time, to avoid waiting at the store like last time, I ordered "ahead" and specified the exact time that I wanted my order. Well when I arrived exactly at the said time to pick it up it was already bagged up and sitting on the counter. The food was cold and obviously had been prepared way before the pickup time i had specified.

Both of these instances were at the same time of day and the store wasn't busy. Different crew each time, though.

So from what I can gather, the decision on whether or not to "premake" an online order is being left to the crew that is working at the time. Given the problems that I had, maybe that policy...