IHOP — Restaurant in Overland Park

Worst dining experience of my life. Horrible service. Never returning. Breaking this into sections to fully convey the nonsense:

Hostess. Before I even arrived, someone set up the tables for a party of ten people very foolishly, Straight across the front of the main dining area, leaving one open end and at the other, a teenage boy with a perhaps 8" gap between his chair and that of a very large woman. I myself am a very fat woman. The hostess told me to follow her, and went through this tiny gap! That's wildly inappropriate for anyone of any size to attempt, and actually physically impossible for me, so I went around. She put me at a 4-top despite me being alone and walking past a couple open 2-tops. She tossed down my menu, looked back at the gap/woman and laughed. What was so funny? Me not fitting? Her "clever" little four-top dig? Expecting me to mock another fat woman behind her back? Wow.

Kitchen/food. Incredibly slow, yelling, I overheard a fight. (I understand that Sunday afternoons are stressful and can get backed up but it was beyond.) Rest of my breakfast sampler was fine, but my scrambled eggs were wildly overdone and died in the window at least 15 minutes before they ever made it to me. Browned and old, dried out to death. Kind of a bummer that they don't stock boysenberry syrup at this location.

My server Danielle was brusque, rushed, and couldn't get away from me fast enough. I had to call out to her turned, running away back TWICE to give my order and I still didn't get it out all the way. Around 15 minutes into waiting for my food, she deigned to stop by and tell me the kitchen had only 2 cooks, might be longer. Why didn't anybody tell me this sooner? (The table next to me who got there way before me were also talking about this, so this was not a new development.) A random person dropped my food off wordlessly. I had to ask someone else for ketchup after ~15min because Danielle never showed that whole time. She flung the bill down as rushing by. While I was waiting for the manager to get back to me (see #4) she+other servers started sweeping so close I felt the broom on foot. Felt uncomfortable, in the way, and rushed out.

Told the sarcastic unprofessional manager about my eggs when she stopped by to rush me out, and she said she'd look into it. She took my plate with the hashbrowns I hadn't finished into the kitchen, to an angry outburst--from the timing, I don't think the two cooks were happy with my complaint. I waited, and waited through the sweeping and she never returned. I gave up and chased her down at the cashier station. She cheerfully greeted me like nothing was wrong, and I told her how the sweeping made it blatantly clear I wasn't welcome+in the way. She sarcastically chirps "oh neverrr" and then asks for full price with a straight face. I ask her what she found out about my eggs. She insisted I told her to throw them out, then offers new eggs to go.

Why on earth would I want more bad eggs, that I'd have to wait a long time for, sitting up front without any water with the hostess who thinks I'm a walking joke and the manager who belittled me?! From cooks who already show they overcook eggs, and were angry with me, told to prepare them by the same manager with no respect for me?!

She kept babbling at me about remaking the eggs, and did not offer even my drink off the bill. So I very stupidly paid full bill+tipped (habit/flustered) just to get out of this hellhole and away from...

I had a horrible customer service experience at the 119th street location in Overland Park Kansas. It was around 6pm when I walked into the restaurant in hope of having some dinner. I waited to be seated, which is customary for IHOP. And a male server approached me and said, “You can sit wherever, because there’s no one else here.” I mentioned the, “Wait to be seated” sign, and how the servers usually grabbed a menu and silverware, and led the customers to the dining area. No matter how many people were there. Again, he tells me to go seat myself, because no one else is in the dining area.

I go sat down, and then asked to speak with a supervisor on duty. And was told that he and the cook were it. As I headed to go use the ladies room, I see the cook lying in one of the booths sprawled out sleeping. I stood there in disbelief! And after a few seconds asked, “excuse me sir, are you the cook? He says, “Yes, I tired.” In broken English.

After the server headed to the back area, I made my get away. And as I was preparing to drive off, I see the server approaching my car, through the rear-view mirror. I immediately drive off. During my conversation with this server,, he came across as cognitively not all there. Or perhaps, under the influence of something. Creepy!

After leaving that location, I called the 90th and Metcalf location to speak with someone from management. I was told that they weren’t affiliated with the 119th street location. Evidently, IHOP is a franchise, like MsDonalds. You can visit various locations, around the city, and experience different customer service scenarios. Depending on the quality of the management team, and their crew. Including the quality of the food, and who prepares it.

I decided to give the 90th and Metcalf location a try. And I hit the jackpot that day! I had a member from the management team as my server. And one of their experienced cooks prepared my meal! I now call ahead to find out if Rachel and Leo happen to be working the same shift. No disrespect towards the other servers and cooks. It’s just that Rachel and Leo were my first encounter with this IHOP location. I recently encountered Tammy. She rocked it with her customer service skills! Thanks again Ms. Tammy! Best regards...

Nightmare service. I mean beyond awful. We expected it to be busy but we weren't expecting service that was rude, belligerent and actually involved a server having a tantrum. The hostess was sullen, wandered around giving stink eye to people showing up and was just basically rude and nasty. The server left us 15 minutes without even acknowledgement, took another ten to bring coffee - but another 5 to give us everything we needed for that coffee. The table next to us of elderly church folk had to ask our server again and again for sugarfree syrup and finally it was practically thrown at the poor man. My stuff was crammed on a small plate so my waffle on half hanging off. I had to put it on top of my water glass to eat my eggs. Then I realized the waffle didn't fit on the plate at all and I couldn't eat it (This order is always served on two plates.) He did check back to ask if everything was okay...and tried to walk away without a response. I told him that actually, it wasn't and asked for a box. Full plate, told not okay..asks for box. He brought me a box and threw it on top of my waffle with a "there you go." He was fast in bringing the check and did care about that. My mother did put her card out and asked for a box for her sandwich. She could tell she wasn't going to get her box so she told him she would pay her bill after she got her box. With that, HE STARTED YELLING AND HAVING A MONOLOGUE TANTRUM AS HE WALKED ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE KITCHEN, WHILE HE WAS IN THE KITCHEN AND AS HE CAME OUT. Everyone could hear it. I asked for a manager because this was too much. So he started his yelling again. She came out LAUGHING. She tried lying about how my order was plated. I told her not to lie because I knew better. I told her that there was no excuse. It was all weak responses for something completely unacceptable. Yes, she comped the check but this was beyond anything acceptable. I don't expect much from an IHOP but this was ridiculous and there should be...