IHOP — Restaurant in Kenosha

Not only was this the worst service EVER, but this was the worst experience overall, EVER. If there was a way to leave NEGATIVE stars, I would.

This past Friday night on my way home from work, I decided to stop at this IHOP to enjoy the Free Unlimited Pancakes with an omelette.

From the start my experience did not go well. The place was not busy, it was 7:50 PM at night and had a total of 5 tables with guests. I stood directly in front of/at the hostess counter/stand waiting to be seated for 15 minutes, with NO ONE even attempting to approach the hostess counter. After about 5 minutes of being there, staff members, and a manager, were glancing at me over the partition/through the glass, yet NOT approaching, much less acknowledging me, to be seated. On the East side of the restaurant, staff members were sitting at tables, prepping silverware, on their phones, visiting with each other, never once acknowledging my presence. Finally after waiting at the counter for 15 minutes, the manager approached me at 8:05 PM, stating, "Can we help you?" When I stated that I wanted to dine, her response was, "Oh. Sorry. We thought you were DoorDash or something." Even had I been a delivery partner, I'm not sure why I wouldn't have been acknowledged sooner, instead of the 15 minutes it took to be approached and find out why I was there.

Once I was seated I placed my order quickly since I wanted the unlimited pancakes. I received my order relatively quickly, and during this time 4 tables left while only 2 more came in. All the same staff people that were there when I first arrived were still present. The reason why this is important, is if the number of tables went down, then I should have been able to see my server more often yet I didn't. I had to flag her down to place another order of pancakes.

While eating my second batch of pancakes, I witnessed two of the wait staff get... loud with each other and... toss things... towards/at each other. Another patron witnessed this and asked to speak to the manager, however considering that there were other people present with families, this is something that should have never happened. Especially since there was swearing between the two.

Even though I really wanted to place another order for more pancakes, I had had enough and decided to leave instead. Especially since I hadn't seen my waitress for a while and I had finished my second plate a while ago. I flagged my waitress down and asked for the check. She stated, "If you're paying by cash you can pay at the front. If you're paying by card, I can take it." I CLEARLY stated, "I'm paying by card." While reaching for my wallet. My waitress disappeared and I didn't see her again for another 15 minutes. Mind you, THEY WERE NOT BUSY!!! AT ALL!!! They had 3 TOTAL other tables besides mine.

As I was leaving, AT 9:30 PM, I could understand WHY I had such lousy service. BOTH waitresses, an employee/staff member in reddish blouse, a bus boy/cook, and the manger were all congregated, socializing in the East dining area of the restaurant.

WORST SERVICE/EXPERIENCE,...

UPDATE: Most of the issues complained about in this review have been fixed as of my most recent trip to this location. The door is fixed now, they restaurant seems like it's cleaner. The staff was very attentive and had me seated in in less than 2 minutes. Which is great by comparison. It seems they've made some changes. The splitting checks thing is still a problem. I DO NOT recommend coming here with a non family group unless a single person is paying for everyone. They will accept multiple forms of payment but they won't figure out who owes what. That's still a major issue that I wish this location would address. The staff was far less rude to the people I heard them explaining this to today. So that's a huge plus as well. I'm going to up my review to 3 stars but until they figure out how to split a bill like EVERY OTHER RESTAURANT CAN DO. I will not be raising my rating above 3 stars.

ORIGINAL REVIEW Below for context: The last two times I came here there was no one at the host station and we were left waiting for a unreasonably long period of time. The last time it took us about 5 minutes to be noticed by anyone which isnt terrible but certainly is bad service by most restaurants standards. The time before that there was a line out the door that wasnt moving because somehow the host couldnt be bothered to check if there were customers waiting to be seated.

To be clear this wasnt an above capacity issue. No one even addressed the large number of people waiting to be seated. This isnt me complaining about being told that we'd have a long wait due to capacity restrictions.

Edit: While here I overheard our waitress lecturing another table in her group about them expecting her to split up their bill. Apparently they have a (broken and unreadable) sign on the door saying they dont do split checks. Which makes no sense and is such a basic concept in restaurant operation its frankly shocking that they cant split a check. Its unbelievable actually. Its such a simple thing to do and I'd argue necessary. News flash. Not every group that comes in together is paying together. She was incredibly rude to them. Made them calculate their own sections of the bill and I overheard her wildly inflating the amount of tax they owed (like a $7 meal magically became $11 when factoring in tax). Probably to inflate her own tip.

The place is also not well cleaned. Its falling apart and literally the first thing you see as a customer before being ignored by the hostess is a door that's stuck open because the recloser hinge thing is broken off. It's been like that for months and no one has fixed it.

The food is still reasonably good and the prices are reasonable. But if this wasnt one of the only breakfast places in town I would not come here. The management here obviously doesnt care. And if they dont I'm not sure what reason I have to continue eating here.

Edit again: The unreadable sign I was talking about was quickly replaced with a new one when the staff saw my wife take a look at it then come...

My husband, son, and I stopped at Ihop for dinner recently. We actually thought they were closed (they were open) since there was not ONE car in the parking lot. The waiter came right away to seat us. His entire section (and the entire restaurant) was empty, yet he sat us at a booth with a huge slash in the seat. Whatever. We ordered drinks right away, and got them. We then asked for a few minutes to finish deciding what we wanted to eat. He said he'd be back in a few minutes, but was gone for about 15. When he did come back, we ordered our food. I had ordered the "Fisherman's Platter" which consisted of 2 pieces of fried fish and some fried shrimp with fries. He told me right away that he didn't think they had fish, but would check. He then asked that if they didn't have the fish, if I just wanted extra shrimp, or something different altogether. I told him I would look over the menu for something else while he checked the fish situation. He came back about 10 minutes later and said they indeed were out of fish and were actually also out of shrimp. I told him I would take what I remember being like a turkey club-like sandwich. He went back to the kitchen and came back about 5 minutes later. He looked terrified and told me that they were actually out of turkey, too. I couldn't believe it. He offered to make it with chicken instead, so I accepted. Our meals finally came out. The fries that came with my meal didn't seem as hot as they should have been. But that being said, the meal was good. My husband and son enjoyed theirs also. The waiter also took the children's discount...