IHOP — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Don't waste hours of your time unless you have something you can work on while you wait! I went there yesterday (Wednesday 11/16/2022 around 11AM) and there were many available seats and parking spaces, however, after 90 minutes of waiting for our food that never arrived, I had to walk out. I haven't ever done that before. While we patiently waited, the waiter would run by without stopping and announce that our food was coming out "next" even though we didn't ask. That was nice the first time but the second and third time felt insulting, particularly since we were desperate for water. She did that every 15 minutes for about 45 minutes and yet, never brought out any food. I ended up leaving $10 for 2 terrible unsweet iced teas and left the restaurant to find food somewhere else. The two glasses of unsweet iced tea had a smell and taste that I can only describe containing notes of seafood and bleach. I needed water to get rid of the taste out of my mouth. After about 20 minutes of trying to get her attention to tell her to please bring me some water, I just went out to my car and grabbed a bottle water and came back to the table to wait again for our food. She did bring us water eventually (30 minutes later) when she started dashing by our table without stopping announcing "you're next." After a total of 1 hour 30 minutes, I had to leave. I waited another 10 minutes to tell her my plan but never saw her (or any staff) again. I had to get on the road to make a 2.5 hour drive (and I had just waited 1.5 hours inside this restaurant). Also, none of the customers at tables nearby had food either and apparently they were waiting there longer than us. A few of them said that they would probably leave soon too. The restaurant sure seemed to have enough wait staff, so I am not sure what was going on. I'm giving one star because I at least came out of it with basic script outline for a dystopian "twilight zone" type of story about being stuck inside an ihop. Now that I am writing this up, I am a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't stick it out another hour or so, because I feel like we (the customers) were about to make friends similar to a scenario like being trapped inside an elevator with strangers. We were exchanging names, where we were from, how long we were there, and suggestions of other restaurants nearby. Humans, sharing information for survival. If you own this particular franchise and are reading this: pay your employee better. Give them respect because you're obviously unaware. Find out what's going on in the restaurant (in the back) that is creating this situation. Be good to...

UPDATE Responded to the survey and STILL GHOSTED.

I visited this location a couple days ago and upon arriving the place was empty, so empty that we weren't sure if they were even open and just forgot to lock the doors. We stood at the front for 5 minutes before looking around to see if anyone was there, in the very back corner we saw someone there looking down at their phone with an earbud in, talking on the phone. After calling out to her 10 times and her still not hearing us, I finally walked up next to her and got her attention. I asked if they were open and she said, "Yeah" then grabbed 2 menus, put them on a table and walked away.

When I started to order my food, I went there specifically for this dish, she quickly said "Don't got it.". This is not her fault, but I was really offput by her rudeness up until this point. I apologized and asked for a few more minutes, and she walked away without a word. She returned a few more minutes later and we placed our orders, when she returned later with our food, she put mine down and said "We don't have gravy" (I ordered a country fried steak) and asked if I wanted a different sauce. I would have ordered something else if I knew there was no gravy. She never checked on us, granted she is only one person but there was only 3 other tables sat a while after us. Not once did she smile at us, or show kindness. She was kind to the other tables though, so I'm not sure what we could have done to make her dislike us if anything. I was kind the whole time, even after I didn't really get anything I wanted.

When I asked for the check, which was about $25 and some change I put down $40 and she asked "Change?". This threw me off a bit, I was absolutely NOT going to give her a $15 tip. I said yes, and she walked off and returned with no receipt and $14. I just wanted to leave at this point and left a $4 tip, which I wish I hadn't. I only realized the next day she didn't even give me my correct change, which I can only assume was on purpose since I wasn't even provided my receipt. I can't even tell you the name of our server because she never introduced herself either. It was overall a really disappointing experience, as I love IHOP, but I do not want to return to this location due to...

The food was good. But I was there for forever. I finished eating at 3:25pm but i was not able to leave ihop until 4pm due to their card system being down. i understand that things happen but our server had my debit card for 10-15 minutes before another waitress told the table next to us that the card reader was down. that’s how we found out about the card reader being down. five minutes later and still no word from anyone directly to us that the card reader was down. after about 20 minutes of initially giving them my card, i was told by someone else (not our server) that the card reader was down and asked if i had cash. i did not have cash. instead of directing me to the nearest ATM they told me to cash app a server. I told them I did not have cash app and would not be doing that. My decision to not pay a server was reinforced by the table next to us attempting to cash app a server and they told the server that the cash app information provided did not even show up on cash app. That concerned me. The servers were then telling us and the only 2 other tables in the restaurant to apple cash them. Which both me and the table behind me refused to do. I told them how we had to leave due to work conflicts but they still refused to give me back my card. They eventually came back saying the card machine worked but they could not give me a receipt showing how much they charged on my card. I was not able to see how much they put in for a tip or sign for anything. Mind you this was about 40 minutes after initially giving them my card. I have worked in the food service industry for 6+ years as a manager of a store and if our machines went down for any reason we gave people their food for free even if we were packed. I was not asking for a free meal, i was more than happy to pay for my meal but considering that i had a prior obligation and had to leave not even offering to comp a 40 dollar check feels extremely...