IHOP — Restaurant in New Orleans

One of the worst experiences I've had in a restaurant. I ordered online and walked in to pick up my order. There were two groups in front of me. After they were waited on, I was skipped by a woman that walked in and the greeter started assisting her. I hadn't moved from my original position. I was just glazed over. The woman that walked in asked, after she had already began her inquiry, did she ship me? I stated yes, but there was nothing else after. I walked out because I didn't see my to-go order ready. I sat back in my car and patiently waited a few more minutes. When I walked back in, the same greeter just walked to me with saying a word and handed me my order. I thought that was rude, but then it struck me to check my order. As I thought, it was wrong. The pancakes were missing three ingredients. I told the greeter about this so she went to the back and said I was wrong and that the type of pancakes I ordered weren't any that they made. I proceeded to show her on the display that was in the lobby that it was a combination of the two in the picture. She continued to say they didn't make it that way. While this was going on, another customer must have thought i was the one in the wrong and started commenting one the situation as if I should shut up and leave. I was at this point getting flanked by someone that just wanted to instigate the situation and I still want being heard by anyone. At this point another employee came to help. I asked her to read the item from my phone. Hoping that this would at last stop this weird back and forth. All I wanted was my order . This new person didn't even read what was on the menu. She just asked what it was missing. I told her it was missing three of the four item. I had the pancakes, but it was missing the cinnamon spread, cream cheese and wiped cream. I told her that her employee Kayla told me that they didn't serve that combination. She asked me what items it was missing and she would get them for me. At this point I had two CUSTOMERS commenting on the situation as if I was wrong and two employees that didn't want to just admit their errors and say they were wrong. Then it dawned on me that I should just request a refund and not give my money to this establishment. I was disrespected by the staff and because of that I had two customers that only believed they were justified in their comments because of the horrible way IHOP handled this situation. I am not happy and this experience will forever remind me how far we have to go as a society. Understanding the situation would have defused this whole thing. The IHOP employees refused to do so. Listen to your customers IHOP. I am not happy...

On Jan 22, 2022, I entered the restaurant and the front counter was empty. There were approximately only 3 tables in the whole restaurant that were occupied, so they were not busy at all. A couple minutes later after standing at the front register a young woman approached and took my to go order. She said it would be a 10-15 minute wait; I said cool, I will wait in my car. I came back into the restaurant 20 minutes later to an empty front register again and actually waited longer this time. Finally an employee from the kitchen came out to leave and as he passed me, I'm sure he could visibly tell I was very annoyed at this point and he asked is someone helping you. I said no, I was waiting to pick up my to go order. He went to check on my order and it still wasn't ready. Finally the same young woman brought my order out and I said thank you. After getting in my car I looked through my bag and there was no eating utensils. With increasing annoyance, I went back into the restaurant to meet again, the empty front register. After waiting about 5 minutes, I walked toward the kitchen, didn't see no one, so I walked to the back of the restaurant where I found 4 young women just sitting and chatting in the back tables, including the young woman that serviced me earlier. I looked them and kindly asked for a set of eating utensils. They all looked at me like I was clearly disturbing their chat, and it was also clear no one wanted to move. Finally one of them (not the young lady that serviced me at the register), got up grudgingly and went into the kitchen to get the utensils. This was the worse experience I've ever had at an IHOP. If the employees do not want to do their jobs or provide customer service they need to find another job. This is simply NOT a good look for any restaurant. The nasty, lazy, attitude the women employees had here was disgusting and I will never return! IHOP managers and all employees must do better, we are paying for service, you are not giving...

We came in because there was a big banner saying "All you can eat pancakes for $5!" I had seen it on my way home from work and came back with my kids to get the $5 deal. When we got in, they explained that, actually, it is all-you-can-eat pancakes for $5 extra, after you have paid for a full meal. (!!!) Umm, after a full meal, we would be full. There was no fine print or an asterisk or anything on that banner, so it was blatantly false advertising, which was really irritating.

However, I guess it did what was intended, since we stayed for a meal. It took us awhile to find someone to help us (we poked our heads in the kitchen after waiting awhile) but then the waitress was really nice. Very responsive and pleasant, and apologized for the "misunderstanding". Our food was also really quite good.

That was the positive, but there are more negatives-- first, we were given plasticware to eat with. Really? Restaurant prices and plastic forks & knives! (And, despite our waitress saying it was because they were busy, the restaurant was completely empty.) Also, the coffee was served in a paper-and-plastic cup, and other drinks in disposable plastic cups. I mean, really, I expect this for McDonalds prices, but these were not McDonalds prices. The bathroom also did not have the trashcan near the door, so you could not easily open the door with a paper towel, which makes me think that the people working there first touched the contaminated bathroom door handle and then touched the food. Hopefully they have an additional handwashing station in back; I would love to hear from a manager in the comments that they do additional handwashing in the kitchen before...