IHOP — Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe

I had one of the worst customer experiences at this location. Myself and my family were up Tahoe for a little weekend snow getaway. We decided to go out for breakfast and IHOP was right there. As soon as we step in (probably about 9:05 - 9:15 am on a Monday) all we see are wall to wall people packed into the waiting area. I shuffle through the crowd up to the hostess podium and she wouldn't even look up at me. I say "Hi." and she looks up at me and has this look on her face like she just smelled someone's fart. She then says with no emotion or smile "How many?" I then say "Four please. My wife, myself and our two daughters." She then says "It's going to be at least half an hour." I then say "Ok." and then I noticed that half of the tables and booths in the restaurant are completely empty. So half an hour goes by, then it becomes 45 minutes and I start to notice that people who came in after me are getting called up to be seated. At the 55 minute mark, I go up to the podium and ask where we are on the list. By this time, there's another server and manager up there trying to figure out what is going on. The same girl who gave me a sour greeting gives me another look like she's in disgust by my presence and then the other server says "You're next." I get my wife and daughters and then they lead us to our table. They then lead to our table/booth because it was exactly what it was. Half of it was the long cushioned seats and the other half was on the other side of the table with hard wooden chairs. And every space on this set up was filled in with another customer. I was literally up against someone else's shoulders while my wife was squished into the corner. My daughters were seated on the hard wooden chairs and had countless people bumping up against them the whole time. After the waitress sat us down and walked away another server comes up to us within 30 seconds and just says in a monotone voice with no emotion or smile "Are you ready to order?" I had to say "We just sat down and haven't opened the menu yet. Can we have a few minutes to look over the menu?" She doesn't even say anything and turns and walks away. Literally 30 seconds later another server comes up to us and says the same thing. I said "We're still deciding, but may we please have something to drink?" She responded with "What do you want?" I then said "An orange juice for my wife and I and apple juice for my daughters please." She then leaves and then the first server comes back within thirty seconds again! Same thing "Are you ready to order?" I then say "Ok, I guess we're ready." I think I ordered stuffed French toast, pancakes for my wife and I can't remember what my daughters ordered. She doesn't repeat the order, just walks away. We get our drinks in about 2 - 3 minutes and then 15 - 20 minutes go by and we then have our order brought out. Two servers bring it out and neither were the two who took our order. We start to cut into our food and take our first bite and then the first server comes out and says "Do you need some boxes?" I had just barely swallowed my first bite. I said "We just got our meals. May we have a few minutes please?" Again, she doesn't say anything and just walks away. About three minutes go by and she comes back and says "Are you ready for the check?" I'm already pretty annoyed by the whole situation. I then say "Yeah, I'll pay the bill right now." She drops the bill off, and I put my credit card in the little book. She then picked it up, and came back and dropped, not placed, the little book on the table. She then walked away and I didn't see her the rest of the time we were in there. After we finished our food (and nobody came by to see if we needed refills on our drinks) we then get up and leave. We didn't take any of the leftover food with us(there wasn't very much left) and on the way out, there was a new hostess at the podium. When we were walking past, she said "Thank you for coming in. Please come back soon." Needless to say, it was pretty...

My husband and I always enjoy eating at IHop, but today when I elected to go in by myself to have a relaxing lunch I was very disappointed for the first time. The table that I was being seated at had food all over the booth's seat. When I looked for a napkin to clean it myself, which I thought was no big deal, there were none at the table. So I grabbed a nearby girl who is not a server to asked if she could give me something to clean it, but she did it herself and with a smile! When I ordered my drink from my server, the tall blond hair older gal (she did not share her name with me), she set my ice tea down so fast on the table and took off, before I could ask for Splenda (that was missing from the table) and a straw (I can't have ice hit my sensitive front teeth). When I ordered my food, I completely forgot to ask for my choice of 2 sides, but not did she ask me like they normally do for the tilapia meal. Instead, she brought me corn and red mashed potatoes, again she took off so fast before I could get her to correct this. I ususally ordered brocolli and spinach. She never once came back to check on me, so I ate the corn and tilapia. I never touched the red mash potatoes, nor have I in the past. They are instant red potatoes and stick together like playdo. Ugh!! They always serve them that way too! My husband and friends always joke about those very nasty-tasty potatoes too, if that tells you anything. LOL. But their pancakes and other food are great! I looked around while I was eating trying to figure out why this visit was so different (I was thinking my server was extra busy), but there were only 5 other occupied tables in my section. Plus, the parking lot was not that full either. When I paid at the register, my same server was at the register too and asked how was everything (a little too late)? I told her the truth, and she said I should have said something about my two side choices, and I said I wasn't given a chance. She just laughed and said she can't even stand their red mashed potatoes either (straight from the horse's mouth . . . LOL). Will I come back? Probably, but not during...

I'm a local and I used to eat here all the time, but I'm done with this place.

I ordered online at 8:55pm, website says I can pickup inside til 9:30. I arrive at the restaurant at 9:05, door is locked (even though they're supposed to be open til 10.)

Being that they had already billed my card for the order, I start knocking on the door. It's 20 degrees outside and cold as all hell. The old skinny woman inside sees me knocking and shoos me away. Obviously I'd paid for my food and they'd billed my card already so I wasn't just going to go away. I keep knocking, beckoning for her to come over and see what I wanted. Instead of coming and opening the door for me... get this... her and her other waitress friend start mocking me and laughing at me. Obviously I'm pretty much furious at this point.

Then I see the cook put my togo order up in the window, and you can see the woman's heart sink as she realizes her and her friend just had a good laugh at the expense of a paying customer. She now has to come to the door and hand me my food in one of the most awkward exchanges imaginable, trying to say sorry but there's just no saying sorry in this situation and the fact that she even tried just made her look even dumber. She literally went from her and her friend pointing at me and laughing, to then handing me my food and saying sorry. How embarrassing.

Keep in mind, I was waiting outside the whole time in 20 degree temperature, never once was I even allowed in the restaurant, despite the fact that the inside of the restaurant is supposed to be open STILL WHILE I'M WRITING THIS!

I have a lot more things I could say but I don't want this review to get taken down. I could just say, maybe take your money to a restaurant where the help doesn't...