IHOP — Restaurant in Spring Lake

I love leaving great reviews. I really don't like writing bad ones. I try to leave very few bad reviews because anywhere and anyone can have a bad day. Both my husband and I have many years of restaurant experience (he was a line cook and I was a server and bartender). We are not complainers. However, not the case here. Our whole experience was a trainwreck. Let's see..... 1 No one at the hostess stand to greet and seat us. Waited about 5 minutes. Two lights on the ceiling over our dining area were flickering crazy like a strobe light. It was dim in there as it was after dark, so it made a huge difference. It made me sick. Our server waited till we were ordering (when we asked for pancakes) to inform us that they're out of regular syrup...and grits. NO PLAIN SYRUP?? THIS IS IHOP!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That completely changed our order and disappointed us. Wouldn't you tell the customers that right from the start though (like when you take the drink order) so they can better figure out what they want? I'm sure there's tons of people who only like plain syrup like us. Ugh! After being told there's no grits, I told the server that I may want to add something else but wasn't sure just yet. I told her I'd let her know if so but I needed to think about it. She then informed me that I needed to decide everything right now because they're shutting the kitchen down and I quote "right at 7:00". It was 6:48 (we got there around 6:35 but weren't seated by the hostess right away and then needed extra time to decide our order due to the syrup shenanigans). You're going to shut the kitchen down while we're still trying to decide get and trying to get proper service?!?!? I know places start doing closing things early but don't you let customers already there at a decent time continue to have options until they're done? Here, they tell you when you're done apparently. I've served at 3 places and I've never been encouraged, or more importantly ALLOWED by management, to tell a paying customer no to menu items while they were there. I never rudely pushed a customer to hurry up because the staff and I wanted to close and leave. That's ridiculous! I mean, we were not there that late and it's Saturday. We had no clue they closed as early as 7:00 on a Saturday!! Partly our fault for not checking the hours during the pandemic. I get it. But still, we were there at a reasonable time! 4.The coffee was cold and bitter (clearly old) 5 I asked for sweetener with my coffee. Never got it. Our server apparently said "whatever" to drink refills. My son and I waited and waited and waited for our first refills after they were empty and sitting on the edge of the table for her to see. However she didn't see because she didn't come back over! At this point, my husband still hadn't even had anything to drink because he wouldn't drink the cold coffee like I stupidly did- rightfully so. He was waiting to ask her for hot coffee. And waiting. And waiting. I finally had to go ask another server in our vicinity for some hot coffee, the sweetener, and the drink refills. There were 4 tables total and 3 servers. Our server was extremely slow moving with no sense of urgency and doing other things way on the other side of the room without ever glancing at us. Why??? All our food was cold. All 4 of the meals!!!!! Eggs- cold. Waffles- cold. French toast- cold. Omelet- cold. I got the Spicy Poblano omelet which is my favorite thing and I get it every time. Guess what....not a single little bit of poblano pepper on it. Not one tiny bit!! Isn't that what makes it the spicy poblano omelet???!! Come on! Our server also had the personality of a wet noodle. Not friendly at all. I don't expect cartwheels and jokes, but can you act like you care at all? Just a tiny bit of friendliness please? When I complained to the other server about her, she told me she's not new to IHOP, just new to the location. She did briefly apologize for the other server and she did correct some things...none of them her fault. This place was...

UPDATE: The general manager truly does care about how her customers are treated. She reached out to me via phone call and wanted to know what happened so I told her all that transpired. She asked for another chance to show how there customer service really is and offered to cover the cost of breakfast if we would come in Saturday which we did unannounced. I did not ask to speak to her until we were almost done eating because I wanted to see the true customer service and not service because she asked us to come back. The service Saturday was the service that I am accustom to receiving at IHOP so I have changed the stars to 5 and not 1.

My wife and I came here after Church for dinner. We actually visited some friends before going to IHOP. There were 5 vehicles in the parking lot so they were not busy. We ordered omelets and 2 coffees. The waitress (Mahaljah) brought out this thermos that is not much bigger than the cups, as seen in the picture, and filled both our cups leaving only enough coffee to refill 1 cup. Never once did she offer to refill it even after watching me take this picture showing the size comparison nor after watching me finish off my cup of coffee (the refill went to my wife as any gentleman would do). After laying the bill on the table I asked to speak to the manager. I explained to the manager what happened and asked her what kind of review she thought was going to be left and her reply was "not a good one" which I said correct, it will be 1 star and if I could give less I would. I also told her the picture would be included. She said the waitress did not leave the right size thermos for 2 people drinking coffee and she apologized and said she would speak with the waitress. At the rate of $3.00 per cup and lack of refills, they are making a killing. You would think from a manager's standpoint if a customer was this upset about the service that they called you over, told you about the service and the fact they would be leaving a 1 star review, offer a discount on the meal but the manager did not so the 2 omelets and 2 coffees cost $41.51 without tip which I obviously did not leave. I did tell the manager I wish I had been driving my truck because I had the PERFECT tip in there which is exactly half of a $1 bill that does absolutely no good to anyone except to send a message. I did however write at the top of the receipt I signed "Service Was VERY POOR!!" If I visit here again and this excuse for a waitress is our waitress, we...

The to-go service here is very poor, first of all. They don’t tell you ahead of time that you won’t be able to do curbside pick ups over the phone so when you get there, bra-less, you’re made to go inside because -surprise- their registers can’t take a card number over the phone. Embarrassing (for them, not me).

Second of all they updated their online ordering website and policy to make things worse and way more expensive. I used to be able to customize my omelette all sorts of ways online, only to find that now you can’t add anything to the omelette, only take things off under “customizations.” When I got to the restaurant I find out (with no warning from the employee over the phone) that switching my meat option was a FIVE DOLLAR UP-CHARGE (1/3 the cost of the whole omelette) even though I ultimately get less on my omelette thanks to all the things I take off. Ridiculous policy change there. Seems they’re taking business advice from the likes of Netflix these days.

Also they literally always forget the sauce for my omelette and I have to check myself and ask for it every. Single. Time. And they have the gall to check after I do it right in front of them like “Oh… you’re right.” Yea. I know. You always forget it.

Eat here at your own risk. It’s simply not worth it for me anymore after that insane rip off on my order. If you get it to go, CHECK EVERYTHING before you leave — especially if you’re someone that likes to...