IHOP — Restaurant in Milledgeville

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times…I just really like pancakes, ok?

I have visited the Milledgeville IHOP on a number of occasions, but in recent times it seems to have fallen far from its halcyon days. Our food has been wrong on multiple visits and it reached a point today where we simply refuse to return. While we might visit other locations, we will no longer be stopping at the Milledgeville store.

Today’s visit was perhaps the worst, but it is definitely part of a larger pattern, not simply a bad day.

It started with the cream for our coffees. Our server didn’t bring it with the drinks, but mentioned she would be bringing it in just a moment. Over the next minutes, we watched in confusion as she passed us multiple times without any. Eventually I asked her about it and she returned to the table promptly with some….silverware. But still no creamer.

After 10 minutes, we finally received a bowl of half-and-half and could begin the process of actually drinking our drinks. It was actually a bit longer than that. I only know it was at least 10 minutes because my wife complained about it in a message to a friend - so I had a time stamp. So for clarity: we sat there long enough that she complained about it in a text AND THEN 10 more minutes. Yes, I do realize that drinking coffee without cream is technically possible, and in fact I do it on occasion, but the IHOP’s coffee is too bitter for that.

Now we were faced with a new problem. Our coffee was already cold and we weren’t provided with the customary carafe of hot coffee. So we had to ask for that too. It didn’t take tooooo long so we finally managed a few sips of our drink just before our food arrived.

My wife ordered the New York Cheesecake Pancakes. She ate about half of them before finding any cheesecake. We actually thought they had left it out - because that’s what happened the last time we ate at this location (in fact that time BOTH of our orders were wrong). But instead it was all clumped together in one spot.

So ok fine...not wrong. Just poorly prepared this time. I can deal with that. No biggie.

Except that there was literally a giant piece of onion in one of the pancakes.

We aren’t complainers.

We didn’t bother the manager. We did tell the waitress, but she just laughed about the problems. We are telling you.

Don’t visit the Milledgeville IHOP. You will be...

The five stars is not for the food; pretty much every one of the hundreds of these pancake houses that dot the generic, frontage-road Anywhere, America strip mall landscape is the same except for the regional accents that can be overheard floating up from the packed booths that characterize this quantity-driven all-you-can-eat pancakes and "bottomless coffee pot" breakfast giant. What set this location apart was the extreme cleanliness of the place at all hours and the genuine friendliness of the staff. When my friend realized she had left her (very costly) mouthguard wrapped up in a paper napkin amongst the post-meal wreckage of our T-Rex sized plates of eggs, bacon and (of course) short stacks on the side, we did a stunt-driver U-turn on the traffic-clogged highway to sprint in and try to find it on the table before the server had cleaned our table off. When I ran back in (my friend sat in the running car, panicking over what would come next if the removable splint that held her broken jaw in place until she could have surgery was gone) to find our table already cleared and wiped down, the manager grabbed every single server and kitchen worker so that every single pony-sized trash can in the place could be torn apart, bit by bit, until the costly mouthpiece was found and sanitized so my friend would not have to spend several thousand dollars on an emergency replacement. It took twenty minutes (which felt like two weeks) but the amazing manager and willing crew did not stop until the dental piece was found...and they sanitized it thoroughly for my friend then APOLOGIZED for cleaning the table "too fast" and offered us free cups of coffee to go for inconveniencing us. What??? I tried to give the search party twenty bucks each for giving us unheard-of customer service, but each person refused the tip, saying it was "the least they could do," and it was clear they meant it. I don't know what made us feel better-the soul warming kindness of the crew or the excellent coffee we took with us. I'm going to go with both. I never take for granted that sometimes true human generosity CAN come with a...

I would like to start by saying that my wife and I love eating at IHOP and almost always receive first class service, however, our visit tonight fell short of our normal experience. Our server Sandy seated us promptly and took our order correctly, however this is where things took a turn for the worst. We placed an order for a sandwich, a dinner, and an appetizer to be brought out first, but 40 minutes passed before we received the appetizer, not once in this time did the server even pass by the table to check on us. When she did bring the appetizer, her only comment was that it had just come out and the rest would be out soon, and when she brought our meals we had to remind her that we needed silverware. About 10 minutes later she comes to the table and leaves the check, adding at the last minute, "You don't want anything else do you?". We were both surprised to have the check delivered so quickly, as if to hurry us out the door. When I was ready to pay, I had to signal another server to get Sandy, as she was sitting at a table playing on her phone with her shoes off. The biggest shock came when Sandy brought our change (with no receipt for me to take a proper survey I might add) and I noticed that she was wearing a manager's card on her shirt. As a veteran of retail and food service I am appalled to see such unprofessional behavior from a manager. The food was great as always, and the server Kaylee was courteous and professional, and we look forward to...