IHOP — Restaurant in Northborough

It's not the first time I visit this restaurant, the first time we were a big group, like 10 people and it was my nephew's birthday and as soon as we sat down the waitress took our order, after about 30 minutes they didn't even bring a juice for the children, my brother had to go and ask them to at least serve drinks and also bring some paper with coloring pencils, so the children could be entertained. After 1 hour and a half waiting for our food, we decided to cancel everything and go somewhere else. After a year I decided to go back there with my mother for breakfast and gave it one more chance, maybe the problem was that there were a lot of people on the first visit, but this time with just 2 people everything would go well. It didn't go very well. They took the order quickly, the drink and food were served in a reasonable time. But after we finished eating we waited for our attendant to come with the bill, but nothing, she disappeared, about 10 minutes passed and I raised my hand to get the attention of the attendant who was nearby, she saw it but decided to ignore me. My table wasn't assigned to her and she decided to take a few steps to the side and get out of my vision. Then after about 3 minutes I got up and went to reception and to my surprise there were 3 attendants there chatting, talking and having nice time and fun. Then I approached and explained that I was just looking for my bill, because I needed to leave. She answered me with question: "who is your attendant?" I said she's not here, if she were I would go to her. Then she looked inside the restaurant and saw that an attendant wasn't really there and simply without saying anything, she went into the kitchen and went to call the waitress that was assigned to my table. Who left the kitchen with a handful of orders to deliver food to the tables. The question here is: what does it cost for another attendant to simply help and print my bill or any bill from other table? But no, since my tips would go to her, she can't help. The servers today don't see it as a total restaurant and they should be a team. This is very sad because in the end, the restaurant's name...

The Battle for 2 Free Pancakes

I took my mother out for her annual birthday breakfast and thought IHOP would be the perfect idea. I didn’t know I’d be in a fight for the ages over 2 Free Pancakes.

On the table lay a flyer to sign up for MyHop (IHOP’s official rewards program) and as part of the benefit of signing up, one is supposed to receive free pancakes. In addition, if it is the user’s birthday, they are entitled to 2 free pancakes. It was my mother’s birthday, this was going to be sweet! I would help her sign up, and we would get a free short stack. Boy, was I wrong.

Challenge #1 - We tell the waitress that it is indeed my mother’s birthday, and we have a MyHop account in her name. She asks to take my phone to her manager. I have it opened on a page showing that we signed up for MyHop in the name of my mother. The manager returns the phone back to the table saying that we need to sign at the website. This appeal is denied.

Challenge #2 - I open up the MyHop website in Google Chrome and again give the phone to the waitress to give to the manager to show that we have an account in my mother’s name for 2 free birthday pancakes. This appeal is denied.

Challenge #3 - The manager returns, claiming there is a 24 hr delay for receiving a birthday coupon (later this is revealed to be inaccurate, as I did not receive any coupons in my email inbox) while ignoring the fact that we also should get pancakes just for signing up for MyHop. Appeal denied. We order the pancakes anyways, because darn it, this is my mother’s birthday.

FINALLY, on the bill, the 2 pancakes are comped after 3 failed challenges. Fine print be damned, why the management of this IHOP thinks it is a wise idea to challenge a customer multiple times over 2 pancakes boggles the mind. We will never go to this IHOP again, and we will recommend everyone in our social network avoid this...

IHOP has a history of being slow, much like Friendlies. If you have been to one, you know what you are getting at pretty much any other. I expect service to be a little slow. I do NOT go there if I expect to be in and out in 30 minutes (though generally we are in and out in 45 minutes or less). We go there about 1 or 2 times a month. Depending on the night, you can expect slow service (Wednesday being over 55 night it is packed and we have had to wait for a table once). Kids night, Tuesday, is pretty good. We have gone there many times on Tuesdays and have been out within 45 minutes (have to be somewhere by 6:30 on Tuesdays so if it was horrid we wouldn't go). I cannot complain about the food. It is generally good. It is what you expect with no glitz or glamour. If you expect that, don't eat here. If I put in an order and it came out in 5 minutes I might wonder how long it had sat under the heating lamps. I am an extremely picky eater: If it isn't well done (even the eggs) I won't touch it. If I have one bad experience at a place, I won't eat at that place or any associated place. Overall, I take my mother-in-law to this place and my sisters with their kids. My wife and kids go as well. If there was an issue, i certainly wouldn't take my kids there (can't say the same about the Shrewsbury location...just bad service there...spent 30 minutes in a both during an uncrowded night and walked out the door...not sure they...