IHOP — Restaurant in College Park

I haven’t visited an iHOP in over two years and I was very surprised by this location’s shortcomings and lack of efficiency and care. My sister and I visited the College Park location on 7/23/2022 after 12pm for a late breakfast. She ordered the lemon ricotta pancakes and coffee and I ordered the strawberry and banana stuffed French toast, hash browns, and a water. I will be the first to tell you that the water was TAP and had an odd taste (they should probably offer bottled waters), my sister received a pot of coffee which we believed was picked up from another table and served because there wasn’t no more than 4oz of coffee in the container. Furthermore, the coffee tasted like brown water. No flavor nor was it freshly brewed. Again, our guess is that the coffee was only brewed once with fresh coffee grounds and to make additional pots and servings that the staff is reusing the same coffee grounds used previously. Before we received our food, our waiter informed us that there was no more stuffed French toast and so I ordered the plain French toast with blueberries as a topping as a replacement. Meanwhile, another wait staff is putting an order in for the exact thing that I was told that they were out of. Go figure.

Something told me that I should leave instead of waiting to see how much worst it could get but we stuck it out. During that time, we informed the waitress about the little to no coffee in the serving pot and she promised to bring a fresh pot. Minutes go by and the food is brought out. As the waitress asked if we required anything else-we had to remind her about the coffee. She brings out the coffee and again, it was the same as before. Lackluster.

My French toast had an odd taste as if the toast was dipped into pancake batter…as weird as it sounds, I wouldn’t put it pass them to use such measures and shortcuts. I barely stomached the French toast. I’m also not sure of the bread used as I cut into it part of it seemed to be stall.

While I gave up on the French toast by pushing it to the side, I hoped to have better luck with the hash browns and those were cold. No sign of fresh cooked, right off the oven, skillet, etc. NOTHING. Cold hash browns. The only saving grace was the hot sauce and ketchup.

The lemon ricotta pancakes were also subpar as it was contemplated to send back the food or count it as a lost. Surely, iHOP has either changed or has gone extremely down hill. I guess I’m left with the only great experience that I have had with iHOP outside of Durham, NC where the food was hot, hot beverages were HOT, and hospitality was top tier.

It is truly time for this location to undergo a do over. All I will say after this experience is, never again. If I could give this location a half of a star, I would…maybe even a 1/4 of a star. You would be better off going to a mom and pops spot that...

This is ridiculous, worst ihop ive ever been too and horrible customer service. And im from new york city and even in a more crowded place like new york. The store moves like a well oiled machine and customer service is great because the workers know that's how you earn a good tip. I made an over the phone order and paid for it and gave my name, i was at work and couldn't be gone for long so the goal was order, get there, pick it up and leave. That's the point of making over the phone orders, i get there and im told my order was never taken or paid for when i showed the front desk little girl what store i called and she saw it was her store number she then froze and thought of an excuse for a good 10 sec. And says "who took your order?" i tell her it was her and she says it wasant. So i proceed to tell her it was her because the girl i spoke to sounds exactly like you and no other woman in there sounded like her. She still proceeds to say no. Then tries to find the manager and then forgets about me completely and said some rude things about me while speaking to either a manager or another worker in Spanish and because she did not realize i spoke Spanish that's why she said it in spanish but im Dominican and black and heard her clearly say in Spanish "he said i took his order but he is lying and just being annoying" then proceeded to tell her in Spanish what i got and then dissapeared so i ask the manager about my paid order and when it will be ready and she was 10x more lost than the 1st girl. Revamp that whole store. Disrespectful staff and no one focused on the fact i said my food was already paid for so i just left from anger and disrespect and they got to keep my money so hope they enjoy my hard earned money while i starve at work. Never going in here again y si eres latino no vaya tampoco porque te tratan como segunda clase or como que tu dinero y tu tiempo es una complication....

Ordered curbside pickup. Arrived 5 mins before the specified time and was told it would be a few minutes later. Had a small $2 gratuity ready for the person who brought my food out. Put the gratuity back in my wallet and called again from the curbside pickup parking spot 20 minutes later, they put me on hold, and then someone came running out with the food. The food was not hot enough to melt butter and had obviously been sitting for some time. Called and asked to speak to the manager, was given some response about miscommunication and problems with online ordering giving times that were too short, but of course no mention why multiple cars had come and gone for 'indoor' pickup orders while I sat and waited, and waited. The county this IHOP is in has some of the worst COVID case counts in the country, and is experiencing a resurgence with the Delta variant. Yet, they are obviously prioritizing in-person diners/pick-ups at the expense of curbside pickup customers. The manager offered a free replacement meal, but not with any assurance that the problem would actually be corrected, that is, I could eat indoors or try my luck again with pickup. Given that I saw several people exit the building without masks despite a county mandate I am not likely to risk my life to dine inside for a replacement hot breakfast, and given my experience I am not about to try and get a to-go order again. I guess this is what happens when they don't need my business and the staff know it. Oh well, in the future I'll gladly pay more to a locally-based business that...