IHOP — Restaurant in North Carolina

How do I choose 0 or negative stars? Very disappointing experience. This was my first time at this restaurant, and based on my experience, I will not return.

Myself, my wife, and our granddaughter arrived around 9:00 am on Saturday morning, before the breakfast rush really began. When we entered, the hostess behind the counter was taking care of one other person in the lobby that had a take-out order. Once she finished with that customer, she disappeared. While waiting, 2 other parties arrived. When a different hostess finally appeared, she didn’t bother to ask who was there first, she simply began seating the others before us.

Once at the table, the server arrived to take our drink orders. Simple order - 2 coffees and 2 milks, one coffee with cream and sugar please (They did not have these items on the table). I did not sit there with a stopwatch, but, in my opinion, it seemed to take a rather long time for our drinks to arrive, especially since things were not very busy yet. Coffee was barely warm when delivered, and cream and sugar were not delivered with the coffee. By the time I got cream and sugar, the coffee was cold.

When coffee was delivered was when our order was taken. By this time, business was starting to pick up. Again, I did not sit there timing things, but this also seemed to take much longer than it should have to get our food. While waiting for our food, I attempted several times to get the server’s attention to ask for more coffee, but he seemed oblivious to any customer other than the one that he was attending to at that particular moment.

When our food was finally delivered, it did not all come out together, and my wife had to wait an additional several minutes for her food to be delivered. At this time, I also pointed out to the server that I had not received my side order of toast that I had ordered. We were able to get our coffees refilled at this time, but again, they were not very hot. Also, the food itself was barely warm. Once our food was delivered, there was absolutely NO follow-up attention from the server. He seemed to have tunnel vision, going directly to and from other tables that he was waiting on, and not following up on other customers along the way, and oblivious to attempts to get his attention.

The menu item that I ordered included all you can eat pancakes. I had no intention of abusing this privilege, but the main reason that I chose to go to this establishment was that I had a strong desire for pancakes that morning, and would have liked to have gotten at least 1 more serving, especially since the pancakes were rather small. Unfortunately, due to the lack of any follow-up attention from the server, I was never able to get his attention that (1) I would like to order more pancakes (2) We would like to get more coffee (3) I STILL have not received my toast.

The eggs that came with my order were ordered over easy. I like to dip my toast in the yolk when I eat eggs that are prepared this way. Since I never got my toast, I never ate my eggs (which by this time were cold). I was finally able to get the server’s attention to ask for the check, and I made sure to point out that I had never received my toast and to make sure that he removed it from the check.

When I went to pay my bill, I requested to speak with a manager, and expressed my disappointment with the service that I had received. To their credit, without my asking, they did apply a discount to my bill.

Overall, it was a very disappointing experience, both in service and quality of food. I doubt that I will ever give them a second chance. Would NOT recommend it, especially after reading other...

FIRST REVIEW: 8/20/2023 UPDATE: 12/9/2023 Food was awful and I ended up puking it up. I gave this toxic place 5 months before I went back in hopes they would have fixed the previous issues. Once again I received a waffle that was smashed into pieces, eggs that were dripping wet and slimy (this is after the second time of them bringing them to me after I asked for them to be dry, the mozzarella sticks had some sort of white liquidy goo dripping out from them that burned my finger, I cut myself on their broke plate, and I had to remove a freaking hair from my coffee! So fed up with this place! I will NEVER be back and I HIGHLY recommend you steer clear of this cesspool. It’s filthy and dirty. They’ve had enough time to fix the problems but they have not. I’m done here and I won’t ever be back.

I am beyond disappointed. This used to be the best IHOP around. The one on Western Blvd is the absolute worst. But this made me very sad and angry at the same time. I own my own business and I NEVER put out a sub-par product or let anything go out my door that’s not 100% professional so when I say what I’m about to it’s with experience in business.

What happened today is unacceptable period. It’s not just the fact my food came out like this but it’s the fact you have a cook that not only made this but made the clear conscious decision to send this waffle out the way it is. What’s worse is you have employees and a waitress that this also passed through their hands and their decision making said “oh this is ok to give out” as well. The fact that no one had the common sense and professionalism to say “hell no. This is not being served to a customer” says to me this place is not trust worthy and I no longer want to eat here.

How am I to trust this food now and those who make it…that it’s safe for consumption because if this was acceptable to them to be served…then who’s to say they wouldn’t allow dirt, or hair or something else to be done to my food and served to me? This is not ok.

I am beyond upset with all of this. I travel 25+ minutes to come here because it was the best around and now they are doing the same nonsense the one on Western Blvd does. Thanks but no thanks. I’m done eating at IHOP’s for the remainder of the year and maybe longer. Y’all burned my trust and multiple times of this stuff is an example of a lack of leadership, “quality employee’s” and common sense. I’m sorry but not sorry. I do not have to tell grown adults this is unacceptable. If someone does not understand this then they have no business being employed. This is a COMMON SENSE sort of thing. What else would they let slide if things like this are ok with them?

So that’s all I had to say. I hate to have to leave this review but it was so egregious I had to say something. I mean really…even the dishes and utensils had old food remnants on them. So...

Worst IHOP and restaurant experience ever.

Worst manager i have seen around! From the very beginning of me walking in and waiting to be talked to it took 15 minutes.

The manager, dark skin with locs gentleman continued to ignored me, until after 15 min, he asked me if I was dining in or picking up, then he proceeded to tell me that he won't sit me until my husband and 2 babies were in the lobby with me, and he walked away (my husband had the kids outside because they are young and don't understand waiting) Then a server came to me and asked my name and how many were in my party and told me that it would be like 10 more min until I could be seated (the restaurant was NOT busy at all) abd I proceeded to tell her I had been waiting for over 10 mins to just talk to someone, so then she proceeded to sit me at a table (why did I need to wait 10 more mins if there was a table available???). Then it took another 5 to 10 to just get a server to ask for our drinks. Which I then went ahead and placed an order for my son since we were waiting for so long already.

I asked for a high chair for my infant daughter and they didn't want to give me one because it would be on the way. But I didn't pick my table and I told them I had 2 kids/babies.

I order a short stack, chicken strips and applesauce. It took like 20 mins to get to us. But WAIT!!! we did not get Silverware, so we also had to wait another 5 min for that. Finally, my son starts eating but OH!!! NO spoon for his apple sauce. I get up and I stopped a random server and asked for one, and she proceeds to tell me that they have NO SPOONS!?!?!? And I asked "you don't even have plastic spoons?" And she said no. I told her my son had applesauce and how was he supposed to eat it with a fork? And she said "ok hold on" and came back with those super round soup spoons. Seriously, it felt like a joke.

We stayed hoping at least our food would be good, but as expected, not good at all. My spicy omelet was not spicy, there was like maybe 3 pieces of meat. Pancakes were horrible and tres leches syrup was not good at all. My husband's country fried steak with gravy looked like hard cat food.

And to make better, our server took a smoke break so she came to our table smelling like cigarettes, when she could have used that time to give us some refills instead.

The whole place was dirty, their window where they received food from the kitchen was disgusting and had a container of whipped cream opened there for the whole hr we were there with trash around it. My sandals were sticking to the floor. Silverware was not clean.

How is this place still open???? We read the reviews too late. But will not be coming back. 0 out of 10.

That whole meal was $60. Speechless.... It was disgusting, terrible service and expensive?...