IHOP — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I'm writing this review because Angel provided the worst service I have ever had, and I am using the term "service" very lightly in this case. Mine was a party of 8. There were between 3-5 tables seated during the course of our meal and Angel was the only server. I'm not sure if he was having a bad day or if someone called out, but the first issue started while ordering drinks. I had asked if one of the iced teas was sweet and given a "it could just be flavor or it could be sweet" response, which was a confusing answer. So I decided to try the tea. Three of us had different iced teas, some had water, one had pepsi and one had diet Pepsi. The busser brought out the drinks and just set the tray on our table and walked off. We had to get Angel to come tell us which teas and sodas were whose because we had 3 different flavored teas. My iced tee was over steeped and bitter so I asked for Sierra mist instead. Both people with Pepsi ended up with diet Pepsi. After I asked for a different drink, Angel stopped acting nice. His demeanor changed and he was deadpanning at us the rest of the night. We waited for our food for about half an hour, which we understood because we were a large party. But three of us had finished our drinks and there was no Angel in sight for a refill. For meals, everyone got the right items except for me. Instead of the right sides, I got two sides of fries instead of a side salad and Mac and cheese. When I asked for the sides I had ordered, Angel let my plate fall onto his tray with a loud clack and two people in my party agreed that I wasn't hearing things and that it was very passive aggressive. He brought back the right sides, and set them on the table silently and turned and walked off while I tried to ask for refills for the three of us. He would proceed to lock eyes with me a few times and ignore my waving him down from his host stand when he wasn't busy with others, but he refilled a single drink at our table and just flat out ignored me for 12minutes of trying. He also did not replace my partner's drink and would never stick around long enough to ask him to fix the diet Pepsi for regular. I was squeezed in between the other members of my party. We had considered getting milk shakes for dessert, but did Angel ask how our food was at any point or ask if we wanted to order anything else? No. He just walked up and left the bill without a word, yet again. I understand if someone is having a rough night. I work in food service and get how tough things can be, especially in downtown LA. But I have never felt so blatantly ignored by a waiter before. The sides being wrong were not my fault and the iced tea should have just been an easy swap without attitude. It felt like this server takes things personally and he chose to let whatever feelings he was dealing with get in the way of even the most remote form of decent service. My whole party felt uncomfortable with our waiter by the end of the meal. I hope this restaurant staffs enough people or finds people who can at least pretend to like their jobs enough to do the bare minimum of refilling drinks and sticking around the table long to enough to ask us if we need anything.

I'm always going to remember this as the worst IHOP experience I have ever been to, and that's saying a lot, seeing as I worked across the street from one in Burbank where car jackers stole the catalytic converters from two Prius of guests inside and another time there was a grease fire in the kitchen, and I had to call the cops on some guys dragging a dude out and beating him up in the...

HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, DISGUSTING EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO. NOT. EAT. HERE. EVER!

Walked in and the security met us at the front desk (we should of left at that point) and asked how many people are in our party, I said 12 and he went to tell a waiter. It took the waiter (his name is Juan) 15 minutes to come and ask us again how many people. Again I said 12 people. I asked Juan if they validate and he said yes. We didn't get a table until about 30 minutes after and there was hardly anyone inside! After we sat down Juan gave us the breakfast menu and left. Then he came back 10 minutes later to take our drink order. Juan asked if we wanted to order any food and I said that we would like to see the dinner menu. Juan brought the dinner menu and he NEVER came back!! We had to flag down another waiter (whose name is Pedro and who is also the night manager) after 20 minutes... My sister asked for steak tips with mashed potatoes and Pedro told us that they stop making the soup after 10:00pm, it's a 24 hour restaurant -- Then I find a hair on my hash browns, disgusting!! But wait....THERES MORE!! My sister finds a dark black and thick hair on her pankakes, disgusting!! I let Pedro know about both of the hairs and he looks at us like if we placed them there or something -- Pedro puts in another order for the hash browns (steak tip with eggs meal) and for the pankakes. We pay our bill of $150 dollars and we give Pedro a tip and leave. We go across the street with our parking validation in hand and try to leave. The parking machine is malfunctioning so I run back in to ihop and let them know that the validation ticket they gave isn't working. I run back and try to use but it still doesn't work! I go back to ihop and tell them that it's still not working and they give me a new ticket. I try the new validation ticket and it STILL doesn't work! I go back and tell them that it's not working. Juan tells me that the validation is only good for 1 hour, NOW he tells me!!!!!!!! I had parked down the street and I paid $20 dollars, I would have just stayed over there had they told me it was only validated for an hour 😡 I talked to Pedro and he said that there was nothing he could do about it and to come back in the morning when the general manager (Bill Barbero) was there. Disappointing to say the least. I ended up paying an additional $15 dollars for parking. Sigh.

This was the most horrible experience in my whole life. I will never come back to this restaurant and I pray that none of you do either. Please, please, please, please don't eat here please!!

If you do come and eat here then make sure that Juan is not your waiter! Horrible! Horrible, horrible! He should be fired.

You have...

Overall: 2.5/5 (take out)

We ordered online for pick up. It was a pretty simple process. You just give your name and they will go get your order. IHOP seemed understaffed though since there was only 1 guy serving as a waiter and check-in so we had to wait a bit & grab his attention. Everything was packaged nicely though & they use pretty big plastic containers. I like their rewards program system too.

Crispy Hash Browns ($4.99): This was good but oily. Because they fried it so much, it felt like the portion was smaller.

Cowboy BBQ Steakburger ($14.29): We got this with no American cheese since we're lactose-intolerant which is one of the reasons why I felt the meat patty was super dry. The onion rings didn't taste good and were hard to chew through. The bacon was overcooked & hard. The burger overall was lacking flavor. Hard pass.

We chose 2 buttermilk pancakes as our side and it tasted exactly as I remember it years ago; you have to put the butter on top and pour the syrup on top for that iconic IHOP taste. Updated 07/30/23 Overall: 3.5/5 (take out)

I ordered online for pick up for a Sunday right before noon which was a mistake. The order ready time was 11:59 AM but I didn't get my order until like 10-15 mins later. When I walked in around noon, it was packed. The check-in ladies were nice though and handled things professionally & calmly. The online ordering process is easy though and they added a new text feature where you can notify them that you're on your way, when you've arrived, & when you picked up your order.

I ordered the new country chicken & gravy pancake tacos which they had a promotion for $6. The entree comes with 3 tacos which were a good portion size. It was loaded and heavy for sure. I took off the majority of cheese since it was a lot. The pancakes were soft & fluffy. The chicken is like an American popcorn chicken which wasn't bad. Crispy & not too dry. If it is dry, the gravy helped boost its moisture & flavor. The pickles were surprisingly really good alone and with the pancake tacos. I tried dipping the taco in syrup but didn't like it so I just ate it as is. Definitely...