IHOP — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

I arrived at 5:30 AM today to a nearly empty 24 hr restaurant. Almost every seat was empty, but there were 4 people waiting in the lobby who had not been seated. I sat among them and waited my turn to see a host. I noticed the make line was almost dinner rush busy and empathized as I have also worked in food service. I went to my car to get a mobile device to kill some time as I was waiting on a nearby appointment for a couple hours anyways. With more plates being made than customers present in the restaurant something seemed off. I began to listen. The others in the waiting room were discussing that those were all door dash orders. As door dash drivers they were worried about the speed of their breakfast deliveries. They claimed to one another reasons why the orders were taking the time they were taking. There were only a couple diners inside. They talked about suspecting the other IHOP of rejecting the digital orders so that they get routed through this one, effectively doubling the actual work load here as compared to their expected work load. This makes sense. They are half staffed for the work load they just got and over loaded. I explained the experience I am having in my head to my self, "The hostess is helping bag dash orders or something and that's why I have not been seated, greeted, or acknowledged in any way by any staff member. Be patient. You have been overloaded at work too." At this point (only maybe 3-7 minutes after arrival) I recognize that I am the only one actually waiting to be seated in a restaurant that is full of mostly( 95%) empty chairs and clean tables. I stand up and I approach an employee at the inner edge of the waiting area, as I have not been acknowledged by the staff as a customer or diner yet. I ask if I can be seated. She asks if it's just me. I confirm yes. She says they are pretty backed up/loaded up (sorry I remember exact verbiage) on orders and that there might be a wait for food. I reply, "I am totally fine with that. I have an extraordinary amount of waiting to do today anyways." She walks over to check on wait I think. She then parrots someone else's words, "we are not seating the door at this time, is what I am being told." I could tell that was uncomfortable for her. But she delivered bad news with a smile and was courteous despite being interrupted by me while she was working hard. I stopped listening and walked out. Not seating the door in an empty brick and mortar restaurant. Wow. Door dash you may have ruined in person dining at more establishments than the world recognizes. Also, they were taking photographs of your make line so that they could use them as disclaimers for their deliveries not being on time. …. To the IHOP employee who eventually spoke to me, sorry for this review. This is not a jab at your performance, in fact you did a good job parroting someone else's unreasonable response with confidence. To the employee who gave the order to parrot…. Ie. the decision maker who told me I can't be seated in an empty restaurant despite me not caring about the properly set expectation of an extended wait: You motivated me to use my down time to write this in my car instead of using an hour or so of table time (which would have resulted in negligible income in comparison to all of those door dash orders) to read peacefully and wait as long as was needed to receive some basic breakfast food when stuff slowed down a bit. To the manager who reads this who has power to change things. These employees do not need reprimanded. (Maybe the one who turned away a patient paying customer from a restaurant nowhere near capacity does.) I don't leave a detailed review unless I believe something can be done. My suggestion would be to see if the other IHOP is deflecting their orders to this one and causing this strange and unexpected spike in digital carry out business resulting in the shut down of in person business. This experience seemed more like I made the mistake of walking into a catering company who was not open to walk-ins than that of a properly...

Ok so food-wise IHOP's aight. Always was, and perhaps always will be. If you want good breakfast stuff go to Cosmos (or Breakfast Clubbbbbb-b-b-b-b-b. Whatever they call themselves nowadays.)

Star rating is based on food only so the rest of this review is literally just me rambling about the fact that it's open 24/7.

No, seriously. inhale

So, perhaps a better question to ask is not "how's the IHOP?", but rather, "what's an IHOP?"

You see, IHOP is not a restaurant. Heck no. IHOP is a mood. IHOP is that sinking feeling at 3 am when you suddenly realize that your Asian mom will never be proud of anything you do, and you still need some energy to finish that "group" project that's due by noon. Oh sht. Was that for Web Dev class too? Good Lord.

So you abandon all hope of ever having a good night (or living to 60), and you weigh your options. What's there to do at this hour? Showgirls? You're on a college budget. Bars? You're on a college budget. Taqueria el Ranchito? They changed owners last month and it's not good anymore. 152 Pub or whatever-chacallit? Too normie and you need CAFFEINE, not ethanol godammit! "IHOP?" - You uttered, the thousandth time at this point. You holler up your ol' classmate within the same group project - the only one doing anything besides yourself - and before you know it, both of you are strolling on the road, passing that fine RGBridge (verily, the design of you-one-day).

You see, back in the (concrete) jungles of HCMC, most places don't sleep at night and outdoor cafés open past 2 am are a dime a dozen. Injecting caffeine into your veins past midnight while singing karaoke loud enough to bother people on the 15th floor of a high-rise apartment 1000 ft away is just a Vietnamese tradition, one we thought worth keeping. You already wasted too much of Mom's money on the in-home karaoke setup that violates all sorts of noise codes from Housing, so the caffeine and excess energy are the only things still missing. The caffeine can be found at the IHOP at Coldwater Rd (hereafter the "local IHOP"), and the excess energy... I mean, this is the Midwest. The air has excess carbs.

So you arrive at the local IHOP. The old waitress - who's handling too many DoorDash orders - asks why you're coming 'round 3 this fine Thursday morn, instead of 4 as usual. You get seated 20 minutes later and notice a couple of folks from ML class, struggling with THEIR group project. The first time you came here, you noticed the ripped seats, the floods of teenagers - all taller and bigger than you - coming in for Friday night, the smell of oil in the air, the empty "private" dining area that they're not letting you in anyway, the couple of awards - obviously bought, the Minion Meals... The 1000th time, you don't notice anything anymore. The local IHOP becomes the very concept of Zen. Totally nil. Totally empty. Like your wallet after the fact.

You then feel a sense of peace. A little something to fill the void of your life. You may not be the only one living this life after all. Together with the ML folks, you lift your hot choc and...

I went to this establishment after an event at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum with my family We were "greeted" by one of the servers but he didn't seem happy that there were more customers there, basically looked at us like we were a nuisance (which was a theme for our entire time in the restaurant). After being seated, we had to wait upwards of 10 minutes to even get a drink order placed as it appeared that this was the only server on the floor despite numerous people walking around in uniform. It took another 10 minutes at least to actually get those drinks to the table and get our order placed, and my drink was incorrect because I was told this server "had somebody else make it." (For reference, I had ordered a mango iced tea and was given a mango lemonade. Not necessarily the world's worst mistake, but it definitely added to the bad experience with the attitude I received from the server when I mentioned it.) My family and I placed our orders (a burger, turkey sandwich, steak tips, and a chicken sandwich) and it took 40 MINUTES for us to actually get our orders to the table. (Before anyone claims I'm being dramatic, I actually timed it because we were in this town for an event and had to still drive back home that night, and it took considerably longer than expected because of this experience.) Finally, after the food reached our table, we didn't see our server again until the bill came around, meanwhile the family member who ordered the steak tips stated that they weren't cooked right, to the point that my family member said they "wouldn't feed this bad stuff to my dog", but again nobody was there to try and fix this issue. Also, the entire bill was 70 DOLLARS, for basically 3 sandwiches and steak tips that would've been better if they had just opened up a can of Alpo and served that. It is absolutely ridiculous on so many levels. This was definitely an experience I'll never forget, and one place I'll definitely make sure to avoid unless there's absolutely no other choice; I mean, Taco Bell was an option, and my family decided that this place would be better, but clearly that was a mistake to...