IHOP — Restaurant in Corpus Christi

A so-so experience which is consistent with any other time I've eaten here. For the out-of-towners the place looks like maybe it's on the rougher part of town, but it's not. You can expect IHOP food, they are pretty consistent here. We went to Denny's originally because I wanted their veggie omelette but the line was too long. I ordered the similar item on the IHOP menu and it wasn't particularly good. (Denny's had many more veggies) In fairness, it was a healthy omelette but it was bland. The only bites that were yummy were the ones that had more avocado and hot sauce in it. My son had the kids meal cheeseburger and said, and I quote "amazing!" I'll take his word on that. They were out of apple sauce (which is fine) His fruit cup was nice and fresh. Watermelon and pineapple. The people behind me were also out of some chicken items they ordered. In fact, I wished I had ordered the kids meal myself. It was a pretty good size. A manager walked by and instructed his people to take the menus they just gave people and replace them with the fall menus. I watched as he threw the old menus in the trash...the menu I ordered off of. I found it funny, but it made me wonder if they were never going to need those menus again...maybe there was going to be another menu change. I waited for the waitress to come by so I could order the pumpkin spice cold brew I saw on the fall menu. She didn't come until we were done with our food but I asked for it anyway, since our drinks were never refilled, she seemed overwhelmed..or...new. Someone else was new I overheard them say. Several cranky elderly people came in while I was there so I wouldn't be surprised by a high turnaround. It took 20 minutes to get the food and then 30 minutes to get the ticket. I was in no rush, so this didn't concern me, but this is a typical wait time if you are coming in for a quick bite. The pumpkin cold brew ended up tasting more like tea which was confusing. They are clearly having a similarity war with Denny's with their "kids eat free" after a certain time. I will say, that everyone was very kind to my child. Honestly, I was going to try Atomic Omelette to support local, but I'd have to go past the new sonic playground to get there and I have a toddler who is not exactly the most...

I have had multiple bad experiences here with overly greasy food (even my eggs and pancakes were coated in grease) and bad wait staff. I've had a waiter straight disappear for an entire hour after serving us our food (he wasnt even anywhere to be seen in the resturant). No other staff came to check on us, or even acknowledged us when we tried to catch their attention. Finally, he came back and at least apologised for the bad service. I've also experienced the exact opposite type of waitress here. I had barely been seated before she asked my order, which is fine, it happens, no big deal. But every 2 minutes, she would ask me if I knew what I wanted yet, and would set this trend for most of the meal. When the food came out, I wasnt even half way done with my first item on my dish (my eggs) when she placed the check down and said "no rush". But every 3-5 minutes she'd come around seeing if I was ready to pay yet. It's not like I was slow, or the place was jam packed line out the door. I was on a short time frame so I needed to be go be quickly anyway, and there were many tables open and free. But this woman just would not stop pestering me and rushing me. Despite her constant hovering, she never refilled my drink, and never stuck around when I'd try to ask. I finally had to stop another waitress and ask her to refill it.

I did have a very positive experience here well over a year ago however. I was with a local chapter for an entertainment group, and we showed up with roughly 25-30 people. They had a whole area prepared for us before we arrived, and dedicated a server and the new trainee to wait our tables. The main waitress kept up with all of our orders without a single mistake on her end, and even caught mistakes from the kitchen and corrected them before she brought us our food (we could hear her yell at the kitchen staff haha). The two of them kept everything flowing smoothly and no one had to wait very long for refills or any other requests they had. They also were both very talkative and funny and kept up a positive energy through our group. To say the least we all left very happy, and many of us even tipped more than our food was worth due to the quality of service...

So when we arrived there it should have been clue 1 that we should have just left. We got there and there was not a lot of people for being a Sunday at 8:30 am. Si when we get there they seat us and walk away. We noticed that the table was sticky so we found somebody and asked them to clean it. 10 min later we clean it ourselves. Then the lady comes over and asks what we want to drink. 5 min to bring it. So she walks away again. The 5 more min she cones back and asks if we are ready? (Condidering we were ready when she brought the drinks and walked away without asking) so we order. 40 min go by and in between she keeps letting us know its almost out. Its coming. When it gets there we got our 4 omlets. Then she brings the rest of the food about 3 min later and yet we still did not get all our order. We could not find her to ask her nor did she come by and see of we needed refills or if we were doing okay. When we finish we had to ask somebody else for 2 boxes to go. Then finally she cones with the check after 12 min of us just sitting there. Now here is the worse part, the little lobby that has benches to sit and wait for a table WAS PACKED LIKED A JAR OF PICKLES! They were not asking them to wait in their car or outside. Bad enough we had to clean the table and ask people for stuff but to not be filling County Rules during a pandemic? Never again. The service was horrible and nothing wiped down. We were given silverware not disposable plastic silverware, no refills and not even our completed order. (When she gave us the check she knew she forgot something and told us she took them off, yet no apologies or anything) I am not one not to tip, I have ex worked as a server for years so I understand but I left no tip. Why am I going to tip for bad service and then we had to clean our own table. Nope sorry. Reminds me on why we stopped going there years ago. Guess it still has not changed it has gotten worse. DO NOT GO HERE WITH THE PANDEMIC (or even after) GOING ON! If I could give no...