IHOP — Restaurant in Durham

The worst IHOP experience I have ever had. Please continue reading below for why.. and a spark notes summary (bullet points!) at the end of the review. :)

This may have been an isolated incident, but looking at some of the other reviews, it seems on point. Our party of 4 walked in at about 10:15pm with a party of 2 ahead of us already waiting at the front door. We waited a couple minutes until one of the waitresses finally decided to acknowledge the line at the front and proceeded to take out a waiting list to record our names. I found this extremely odd to have a waitlist at this hour and especially since there were only 5 tables filled at the time. From my count there were 3 waitresses on duty... I do not understand how 3 waitresses cannot take more than 5 tables at a time.

We proceeded to wait it out for roughly 45 minutes at the front door and finally decided to leave at 11pm after this joke of an experience. During our wait, another two parties came into the restaurant and were not acknowledged by the staff. This whole time, none of the staff/waitresses came to check on us or the other parties other than the initial waitlist. The waitresses were literally standing in the kitchen waiting for the food to be cooked for the people that were already seated. Could they not have gained another table by seating us during this down time?? This just clearly shouts that they did not want to work at all or just didn't care. The tables that were already full, slowly began to leave and emptied to only 2 tables left. Meanwhile, no one was allowed to seat still. This may have been completely normal to locals here, but as someone that was visiting the area and wanting to go to a familiar place, it was anything but.

So to summarize...

Do not go to this IHOP during late hours IF you do, expect a ridiculously long wait The waitresses can only serve about 1-2 tables at a time, thus you will have to be put on a wait list until they finish serving their tables completely. Going back to #3...when I say completely, they will not seat another customer until the one they are currently serving has completely finished their meal and leave apparently. I'm sure the food here is great! I just wish I was...

We visited this morning as a group of 4. After getting our drinks, we waited over 35 minutes for food to be brought to our table. During this time, the next section over had 3 groups seated 10-15 minutes after us get their meals. We even overhead a table nearby say they were given the wrong order, and what they were given was exactly what I had ordered. The waitress that had served the wrong meal had an apron labeled manager.

Finally two of our four orders were brought out and our waitress said she’d bring the rest out as soon as it came over the counter. We sat for another 20 minutes before finally, my fiancé got up and asked the waitress to put the rest of the order in to-go containers when they come out because we’ve been here for so long and need to leave. She hadn’t come over to bring syrup or check in about our lack of food once so getting up himself was our only option.

5 minutes later, she brought over to-go containers with food that was not what we ordered. She said she brought half of the food when it was ready so it wouldn’t go cold in the kitchen, but our family follows table manners of not eating until everyone has their food so their meals went cold at the table anyways. We were never given the other half of what we ordered, just some pancakes that were not part of our order.

The waitress was kind and not at fault, but when we asked to speak to a manager about the experience, she walked away and no manager came. We ended up leaving without eating our meal. One member of our party returned a minute later to give money to our waitress since it wasn’t entirely her fault, and she walked in to 4 of the waitstaff loudly bad-mouthing us.

We recognize that many places are short-staffed right now and that we were also not the only table experiencing this lack of service this morning, but as someone who has worked in food service, this was unacceptable. After an hour and a half at the establishment, none of our group of 4 ate, were offered an apology, or even treated with respect when we spoke up.

We will not be returning to...

I am going to start off by saying I rarely leave negative reviews and I don't complain often but I just left the Durham NC I Hop and I have to say I was far from impressed. I have an 8 year old daughter who uses forearm crutches to walk. Now it was raining today and I did expect to have some issues with the floors being wet and slick but she literally fell 5 times while we were in the restaurant walking to our table and leaving. Apart from the entrance being wet with no signs placed out to note a wet floor, the walking floor was also crazy slick. I almost fell myself. I also noted a gentleman in the same area with us, who had 3 small children that also almost fell due to the floors being so slick. They looked clean and they were not wet but something was causing them to be very slick. We have been to this location before with no problems at all. I could see the wet floor signs available but they weren't being used. On the way leaving is where she fell the worst. She fell very hard on her behind and at this point I felt the need to let people know. If you have a disability and plan on eating here. please please take precautions so you don't fall, especially if you use any type of crutches. My daughter slipped on the way back to our table from the restroom and one of the gentleman servers helped me pick her up and walk her to the table. While the food was very good, our service was far from impressive. The place was not busy, and we had met a friend and her son to have a birthday lunch. The food was good but we weren't brought syrup and once our food was served, she only came back to bring the bill. I ended up finding syrup on another table. There was a gentleman bussing tables who was actually one of the nicest people and helped us during our visit, so it wasn't all bad. I also did make a point to personally tip him and let him know he was appreciated. Again, I just don't want anyone to get hurt, thus my review. The food...