IHOP — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

I will start with this: Patronized the restaurant on Sunday night, September 9 - I truly cannot comprehend the absolute inefficiency, ineptitude, unproductiveness, and ineffectiveness of this particular restaurant staff. What an abysmally run operation. I will never ever visit this IHOP (5201 N. Classen Blvd., Oklahoma City) again or any other IHOP for that matter. There are definitely better dining choices available. What a dreadfully run restaurant comprised of an indifferent, incapable, and incompetent staff led by an uncommunicative, unaccommodating, and unhelpful manager. My friend and I, along with her two seven-year old twins, arrived at the restaurant around 7:20 p.m., Sunday, September 9. Upon arrival, I should have known there would be issues when I observed the man behind the cash register trying to ring out a customer. He seemed very unsure of himself and hesitant as if he was unaccustomed to having worked a cash register with any level of frequency. Turns out, the gentleman behind the cash register was actually the cook and seemingly the only one who made an effort to work that night. The gentleman assigned us a booth, but only brought enough flatware for two people rather than four. Looking about, there were approximately 25 people in the restaurant, excluding us, several tables of two to three guests and two large tables of about 10 with one of the tables actually leaving as we arrived. In the back room sat five-six Oklahoma City police officers. So while there were customers, the restaurant was certainly not sufficiently busy to overwhelm a well-trained and organized staff with a capable and efficient manager who pitched in to assist. After about a 15-20 minute wait we called over the lone waitress. She came to our table, never greeted or welcomed us, and acted quite unsure of herself, too, as if he has never waited on a table before. Her presentation and presence instilled no confidence in me at all. We placed our order around 7:40 p.m. We had to ask that she bring to us four glasses of water. After bringing me a dinner salad as part of my entrée (around 8 p.m.), we asked for two more flatware settings, which she never brought (we ended up taking them off another table). In fact, after bringing me the salad, she never visited our table again (no one ever filled our water glasses) and I would go so far as to say that the waitress did everything in her power to remain out of the dining room. At one point I observed the waitress exiting the ladies’ room still trying to button and secure her jeans, which I found a bit repellant. I looked about trying to find the manager, who seemed to be doing her best to remain invisible rather than address or resolve the glaring problems unfolding before her. On the rare occasions the manager was visible, I did observe her convening with the cook and waitress, but at no point did she assist either in any way, shape or form (she did not visit with customers or maintain any presence in the dining room). As far as I could tell, that night the restaurant was staffed by only three people (manager, cook, and waitress). She made no effort to help the cook or the waitress. In fact, it was the cook who I observed bringing the order to the lone large table (I will give kudos to the cook who checked-out customers, sat customers, waited on tables, and cooked orders). This table was the only table I saw served in the 60 minutes we were at the restaurant. Finally at 8:25, after a 45 minute wait from when we ordered our dinner that never arrived and with our glasses of water never filled, we left...

Returned back to this IHOP a few times in June and July, and found that the quality of their food has gotten better! It seems that the staff has become friendlier, efficient, and the food is coming out rather quick. The last time we went, we ordered their summer pancakes, omelet, and crepes. They were all rather delicious and we had no complaints! –July 2016

Decided to have a very early morning breakfast with my friend. She ordered the Strawberry Rhubard Cream Cheese crepes, and I ordered some pancakes with hashbrowns on the side. The food came out decent, but what got me was the service. We have been in several times before, and the waitress tend to make us feel uncomfortable. She's friendly enough to my friend, but with me, she always appear like me ordering is a hassle. It makes me feel awkward and I'm always hesitant to even take a little bit more time since she rolls her eyes. It's not a good feeling, especially when she treats other customers much better. Not sure what that is about, but I found out recently that my friend also felt uncomfortable with how she treated me and the other customers. We may just need to change our IHOP meet up from now on... –October 2015

After a long day, we stopped by for a quick, but satisfying breakfast. We ordered the short stack pancakes and coffee. Pancakes were warm, delicious, and melt-in-your mouth creamy (with, of course, warmed maple syrup) and the coffee was deliciously strong. The wait staff is always a hit and miss here (this time, they barely served us, so it was not the greatest of services). Still, we enjoyed our in-and-out breakfast. –July 17, 2015

Tip: This may just be me, but if you like French Vanilla Creamer (any other flavor will do too), pour a little on a fresh stack of IHOP pancakes. Because the pancakes are so fluffy, one or two of the creamer cups will suffice. This is the only way I really eat their pancakes (though of course the occasional hot maple syrup is good too)! Call me crazy, but it is rather good, haha. –June 14, 2015

Always fun to people watch on Friday & Saturday nights at IHOP! My friend and I decided to have our usual 'late night coffee runs'. The manager greeted us with a friendly manner and demeanor. We were served promptly. As per usual, IHOP is 'decent' (above average) on their pancakes and their combos attached to them; we ordered from their Summer meal line that they are pushing out and got the Banana Pudding Pancakes & Sausage and Egg Combo, plus coffee for the both of us. As for the people watching part? We were at IHOP as the crowds came in from the clubs. It's always fun to hear the laughter and loud conversations from people that had a good time. Our server was very friendly, but he could have been more attentive to our glasses of water, coffee, and post-ticket experience. But other than that, it was an overall good atmosphere, service, and...

Don’t let the exterior makeover fool you. The service was horrible. We walked in at 4:45pm there were 3 tables seated in our section(4 including our table). Our waitress came by and asked if anyone had helped us about 5 minutes after we were seated. She took our drink order and then shortly brought our drinks. Our food order was taken shortly after the table next to us. We waited...and waited... and waited... There were SEVEN tables in our section that had food orders taken but NONE had been served their dinner in 45 minutes. It was 6:10pm when we received our order for five(3 adults and 2 very hungry kids). That is an HOUR AND TWENTY-FIVE minutes after we sat down. This was not a complicated order at all. I consider our bacon, eggs, and toast to be a simple order. In the meantime we witnessed multiple workers standing around aimlessly by the kitchen and coming by to tell ALLthe tables it wouldn’t be much longer multiple times. We also saw our waitress eating fries off of a plate in the hotline in the kitchen!!! I tried to watch to see if she was going to serve that plate to anyone but didn’t see her take it out. Workers should not be eating or touching anywhere near their mouths while they are serving others food!!! Disgusting. They brought our food out and my daughter’s egg was COLD and they still managed to get two of our orders wrong (gave both of my kids two pieces of bacon instead of the 1 sausage and 1 bacon they requested). Absolutely horrible service! They need more cooks as far as I can tell. Not sure what the problem is, but we will NEVER go again. There were only three tables out of seven served their food while we were there. The store manager needs some serious help with proper training. I felt as if we were on some reality ‘How Long Would You Wait’ reality show. Do NOT ever go to this IHOP unless you have a few...