IHOP — Restaurant in Fruitport Charter Township

Glad we finally got one (an IHOP) in Muskegon. ---‐---------‐---------‐----------------- UPDATE, 7/2/22:

Today, we had the sorriest meal we've ever had (delivered) from an IHOP! There were so many problems, I'm only going to mention the worst of them.

1. SAUSAGE LINKS (of which there were 6, total): They were so undercooked that they were GRAY. Talk about unappetizing... YUCK! One of my husband's favorite foods is sausage... be it links, patties or crumbles... you name it, he loves it. Even he wouldn't eat this sausage, that's how bad it was. The bacon was inedible, too.

2. "BA-BA-BANANA" PANCAKES: These are supposed to be banana-pudding-inspired pancakes with a 'Minions' (as in, the "Despicable Me" movies) theme. There was, literally, no more than a tablespoon of (so-called) banana pudding! Such a small amount that it fit in one of those tiny plastic containers (the ones that you sometimes get, say, salad dressing or ketchup in from some restaurants), along with 3 jelly-bean-sized pieces of banana and room to spare. I ask you, WHAT'S THE POINT??

There were supposed to be Minion-themed sprinkles and vanilla wafer crumbles, but both of those were both missing. Granted, they wouldn't have affected the taste of the pancakes much (if at all), still, it left for a very disappointed child.

3. SHARP CHEDDAR MACARONI & CHEESE: This was a side order. I didn't expect there to be much, quantity-wise, but I sure expected a good deal more than what there was! You know those (approx.) 4"x4"x2" containers you might receive, say, a side salad in? Well, the macoroni & cheese came in one of those and there was SO LITTLE of it that, even if you spread it out so that there was only a single layer, it did not cover the bottom of the container. Only 3 adult-size, or 4 child-size, bites. Really? REALLY?! As with the banana pudding, I ask you, WHAT'S THE POINT? It's insulting!

I'm sure you get the gist, without my describing the additional problems, that it was a disappointing meal. So much so that it will be quite a long time before we order from there again. Sad.

UPDATE: October. 2024

My husband and I ate in-house today. We both ordered the smoked sausage links, but they brought out and order of smoked sausage and one of regular sausage links (on the same plate, I might add... which isn't too bright of the cook). We pointed out the error to our waitress, who politely apologized and said she'd get another order of smoked sausage.

We were sitting 2 booths from where employees go in and out of the kitchen. One of the women in the booth between us and the kitchen overheard the cook say to the waitress that we were just trying to get something for nothing! How does he figure that, when we just wanted what we ordered?! It was either the waitress' fault for not writing our order correctly, or it was the cook's fault, NOT OURS!!

Well, the woman who heard that eats there frequently and she's become familiar with the manager. Unbeknownst to us at the time, she marched back to the kitchen, gave the cook a piece of her mind, and asked for the manager. The manager promptly presented to the woman's table and the woman explained what occurred. The manager then came to our table and, long story a little bit shorter, she made things right.

That day, the poor waitress was new and overwhelmed (only she and a young man were waiting tables that day and it became quite busy for only 2 people), so I have a feeling it was her mistake about the sausage. We didn't fault her though and we told her we understood her predicament, and that she had no worries with us. The manager stepped in to help with orders, so kudos to her! But I sure hope that cook got fired! Not just for his attitude, but also because he was a lousy cook! That was the worst IHOP experience we've EVER had, food wise.

P.S. If I have typos or other errors in my text, please excuse me. I have a retinal bleed in my left eye and am currently blind in that eye. Plus, I had surgery last week on my dominant hand and can only "hunt and peck"...

Drove in on a Monday morning around 8AM to a completely empty parking lot, aside from the "open" sign being lit you would have thought they were closed. I parked and was greeted by a cute family of geese wandering towards me , but they soon realized I was a deadbeat and didn't have any food for them so they turned tail and waddled off. Entering the building I was greeted by the hostess, seated , drink order taken , handed a promo menu for some movie and regular menu . I was completely alone in that restaurant except for someone probably waiting for a ride in the lobby and the hostess/waitress. I ordered off the" downhill slide of life" side of the menu (55+) 2 x2 x2. for $7.49 . After a few minutes the food came and I dug in. Eggs were good ,bacon on the "holiday inn express" thin side of things but Ok and the pancakes were fine except the very last two bites of the bottom pancake (I ate the top one first then the lower one second) suddenly something tasted like a wet mop or scummy dish rag. My best guess is there was some left over scuzz on the plate surface under that last section of pancake that crept into the pancake.. So that's a bit discouraging and possibly the reason why no one but me dined/dines there. I didn't mention it to the waitress as most of the food wasn't tainted, and got my bill prompt enough. However after getting the bill I noticed promo signage displayed for weekday special 2 x2 x2 breakfast for $6.99 (.50) lower than the pre death menu for what seemed to be the exact same meal. I understand yep I ordered the 55+ 2 x2 x2 $7.49 item (and we'll the customer gets what they ordered and pays for that) but ideally I would think when taking my order or maybe when presenting me with my bill the waitress could have said something like this. " Hey, just so you know that senior 2 x2 x2 is the same thing as the "Weekday 2 x 2 x2" promo for $6.99 so if it's ok I'll put it in as that and save you .50 cents". sure ....why not , but that didn't happen. So a couple of things , IF that did happen I probably would have tipped that .50 discount or higher because I would have been in a better mood . But Hey, it's my mistake I missed the $6.99 promo signs..., I ordered the 55+ version for more money instead. I suppose I could have said something at the register ," hey isn't this the same thing? for less", and had a void done and a re ring etc... But I kinda wanted to see if the waitress would offer it on her own., but that didn't happen... As I was leaving a couple of other diners did show up , so they had 2 customers by 8:30 or so. Luckily for me Target was open across the street as those last few bites of the mop flavored pancake triggered a "chili emergency" which was taken care of at the "red circle" Target to the rescue restroom.. I happened to drive past a competitor breakfast joint a bit farther south on Harvey after leaving target and they were very busy... maybe it's more of a support the local guy...

The food was similar to another I Hop I've been to as well as most other mainstream breakfast joints as far as the quality of food. I ordered the sweet cream cheese crepe combo. It came with one crepe, 2 eggs of your choice and 2 bacon or 2 sausage. I'm allergic to egg so I asked if I could have a substitute for the eggs and was given multiple options. I ended up just asking for additional hashbrowns. The sweet cream cheese crepes usually come with a raspberry or peach topping. I requested strawberry instead. When you get the combo you only get one crepe rather than two. I will say I wasn't that happy with the sweet cream cheese crepes. I only got 3 strawberries and the sweet cream cheese is gooey with no resemblance to cream cheese and was a little too sweet. The hashbrowns were great. The bacon was typical as in not high quality bacon and plenty of fat. The coffee was good and that was a surprise. I expected watered down coffee with little flavor. I was also happy they had a few flavors of liquid creamer available, however, I believe it was an additional charge. The packets of powder creamer is free. By the end of the meal we were offered to go cups for our beverages and I was given a decent sized disposable to go coffee cup and lid with fresh coffee to take with me. I thought that was a nice bonus. We went at about 1PM on a Sunday and there was no wait. The restaurant was slow with about 75% + of the tables/booths being empty. Unfortunately that meant service wasn't that great. It seems that the slower a restaurant is the quality of service goes down. Our server was kind, informed, able to answer questions and brought our drinks and food within a timely manner. The downfall came when she brought the check just after bringing our food. After that we didn't see much of our server and they never took any plates that were finished with. We ended up stacking plates together for all four of us at the end of the table to give us a little more room and in the hopes our server would come get them but that didn't happen. The server did come once the bill was ready to be paid and told us she would take the plates and whatnot after she was done taking care of the check. It wasn't a shock that there were some downfalls but it was still a disappointment. I'm not sure that I'll be going back anytime soon. Muskegon and the surrounding area has some really great breakfast places if you know...