IHOP — Restaurant in Maryland

If your looking for a good meal with expedient service you might want to look elsewhere.

I hadn’t been to an IHOP in about 30 years and I’m fairly sure it will be 30 more until I go again. But I wanted to take my kids out to breakfast and we hadn’t been here. A visit here starts off with a wait to be seated. So I thought this must be better than I imagined.

But once I was seated and got to review the picture class menu, my expectations were reset. After reviewing dozens odd pairings of proteins and carbs my family was ready to order.

After we ordered, I explained to my kids food runners and food auctioning. They were a gassed by the idea of food auctioning. Stating they would never participate in such a thing. Until they did some 30 minutes later.

After the food was auctioned off to our table, I soon realized that my omelette did not come with toast. Weird but certainly my fault for not ordering some. After flagging down the server I was able to order some toast. Never did it cross my mind that an order of toast could take as long as our meals to prepare. It didn’t, but it came close.

When the server appeared with my toast I was nearly done. And I would have been done long ago if the toast had arrived quickly. But she explains that somehow some of my toast had been “lost” and I would have to accept an incomplete order. Whatever I just wanted my toast. I decided it is time to ask for my bill.

First of all. IHOP is surprisingly not cheap. Also, they charged me for my toast! I fully expected to be charged until the order arrived with 25% missing! WTF IHOP. I know it was only a $2+ charge but charging me for your screw ups is not acceptable.

See you...

I had not gone to an IHOP in over two decades because over time, the quality, service, food and definitely the cleaning standards had gone downhill. I had just finished a long walk and my traveling companions and I were looking for quaint diners that weren't too far from us. Well, needless to say, we couldn't find anything that wasn't a chain, so one of my fellow walkers suggested IHOP. I reluctantly agreed and was pleasantly surprised. We arrived around 3pm, the building looked like it had once housed a bank and at first we thought that maybe it was closed because there were only about 5 cars spread out in this massive parking lot. We walked in, and there were absolutely no other customers inside, so I thought maybe they were doing a grand opening thing and just getting set up for that. But to my surprise, the hostess appeared at the hostess stand and seated my party of four. The inside looked new and the seating area and bathroom were Clean. The waiter was prompt and the food and service was good. This was by far the cleanest IHOP I had Ever been to. I inquired about how long they had been open and was told about 5-6 years. (No way, I will have to Google that). We were the only customers they had the whole time we were there. Normally, there's a line or a crowd of people inside. I hope they continue to maintain standards. I know this was long, but that was why I gave this...

The food was great...once it all came out. It took an extra 20 minutes to get the toppings we asked to have put on the side. And the best part, it wasn't even our waitress, Imani, who brought it out. We had to ask the general manager, Alejandro, and a new employee, Josh, to get it to us. Both gentlemen were very pleasant and helpful. Imani gave us a seat next to a very loud family, WE had to relocate ourselves, she took every order with a snarky, condescending attitude, face, and posture. She brought out our food and then never returned to our table, except to take the check and her tip, which is incredibly unprofessional. I was trained in the multiple restaurants I worked in to wait til the guests leave to do that. When she gave the check, she essentially tossed the book onto the table, and my girlfriend had to bring the check up to the front to have it verified and paid. We waited a solid ten minutes for her to ask if we needed boxes, but realized we had to get them ourselves once we saw her sit down in the other room. If it hadn't been for our poor service and very ignorant, immature, unprofessional server, I would happily give five stars. Maybe next time we dine here, we'll have a better server. Imani behaved poorly and needs to be addressed for her professional performance (or lack thereof) or reprimanded. I hope that in the new promotion of IHOB, the "B" stands for...