IHOP — Restaurant in El Paso

After a not-so-great experience with the IHOP on Hondo Pass, I decided to take the coupons they gave me (compensation for a compromised experience) to the IHOP on gateway east. Our server was Stephani (same name as the server I had a "compromised" experience with at the Hondo Pass location, so for reference purposes we'll call Gateway East Stephani "Stephani #2); Stephani, from the get, was super pleasant and helpful, and not that phony kind of helpful you come to expect, but genuine. I don't even care if she was faking it, in fact if she was then give this girl an Oscar.

My family and I ordered onion rings as an appetizer, and 3 main entres. Food was 7/10 great with the only complaint coming from me regarding my pasta plate. I ordered the Italian Pasta with Loaded Potato soup... Soup was delicious, but the pasta was dry and very underwhelming. I figured this would happen before I ordered it so what can I say other than ordering a pasta dish from a breakfast joint isn't a wise idea. Maybe they have it on their menu for diversity purposes, I don't know, but it was no bueno. Chicken was dry and sauce was under seasoned, but enough about that. Everyone else felt their dish was great.

Overall, this was definitely a 4 star experience. Stephani #2 was awesome, kind, courteous and attentive. I would have given the experience five stars except for my meal, and the fact that our one cup of tea cost $2.29, the same as a 3 liter drink. Inflation at its most despicable. I was expecting to see a .75 charge, or maybe 1.29, but 2.29? It's flavored water!!!!! Ugh. But...

Came in 10/27/2024 after work, at 4 AM. Place was very slow and not busy. Waiter, I don’t know his name. Slim, young, he was frantic since the beginning and all over the place.

Took 40 minutes to get my food. The waiter said he was sorry and forgot to bring me my food. The waiter said he got busy with other tables, but all he was doing was chatting with a large party who were not even his table.

Hash browns and egg cold, the pancakes did not have chocolate drizzle or whipped cream as they are supposed to. They were also cold and smaller than usual.

Sausage was fine and hot. I ate hash brown and eggs as well because I was hungry. I asked the waiter to at least subtract the pancakes, he said he could not. I called some guy who looked like the manager. I complained and he just said sorry. He said I could talk to the manager (man in a yellow shirt), but the manager never actually came.

Terrible service from this waiter who was too busy chatting with a table that was not even his. He was frantic and all the place. No refund or even a solution from either the waiter or the other man I spoke to. The manager never actually came.

Avoid this place at least at this hour if you can. Manager, a man in yellow shirt, dreads in his hair. Was in a back room and never came. Never saw him check on tables either.

Edit:

I went to the front and had to call him when he passed by. He said he was sorry and gave me a “voucher” for a free break fast (a written note on a paper) it just sucks that I have to come back to try and “redeem” that hand...

This specific location was my to go place. Had not been here in a minute, customer service was horrible. As me and my family went in, the hostess noticed we were waiting to get seated and completely ignored us walking back and forth from the kitchen. He then seated us at a table after a while. Our server Jacob asked us for our drinks we had ordered our food right there and then. As usual almost every restaurant serves you the drinks first before receiving the food, however we did not receive our drinks until we had to ask for a manager (20min later after ordering) our server said the manager was busy and apologized because ‘ they were busy in the kitchen’ after waiting we received our food, never once while being there did our server Jacob ask if we were okay or if we needed anything we had to be hunting him down for a simple refill that he never even bother to check up on us. We really understand that there is other tables being served besides us but the thing is that it was not even busy at all plus our server Jacob was constantly asking the tables around us if everything was okay passed right by us and never acknowledged us. He claimed he was busy but all we saw was literally doing nothing just walking around. We understand it gets busy (store was not even in a rush hour) but at least have the courtesy and Communication. Was really...