IHOP — Restaurant in Springfield

Was told my wait would be 15 minutes. After 25 we came back in to see if a table was ready for us. While standing there for sometime to be seated I can see the dude that seats people is over there making friends with the table of high schoolers. All the tables are dirty and there are two families waiting to be seated as well. (One on crutches) When the host finally comes to talk to us, it's to tell is that it's at least a 25 minute wait. I told him no, I've been waiting 25 minutes while also watching him have the time of his life with the teenagers. I told him if we weren't seated soon I was going to start cleaning the tables and will seat myself. He very quickly found us a table. We were seen twice by our server. My husband's coffee was refilled once. Couldn't find a soul to get my check so while my husband got up to find someone I decided to take things into my own hands as there was obviously no adults in the restaurant to manage the place. With my purse over my shoulder I walked around until I found an unlabeled bottle of what I believe to be lysol and a stack of brown napkins which happened to be under the hostess stand. Hmmm...he must not have realized it was there. So I pick it up and bussed and cleaned four tables before someone came to THANK me for doing THEIR job. I eventually did get the check..one of the tables had left a $2.50 tip on the table for the server...I did leave it there for her as she seemed possibly new and overwhelmed. So all in all I spent 2 1/2 hours at the restaurant from check in to check paid and I maybe spent 30 minutes actually eating. Get a gm in that place that can control the staff...I watched as big families left in shock of the place because no way were they waiting ANOTHER 25 minutes to be seated while the kids who work there are fooling around. It was unbelievable and so frustrating. (It is homeschool week and they were kinda busy, buuutttt) When we finally were able to pay, my husband's card declined. He stood there in awe and looked it up...there was plenty of money in the account. The server who was in charge of our table was the one checking out our ticket. When the card declined she just said we needed another form of payment. Ok. That's fair..I had cash...but instead of being rude about it she could have gave us a discount for the whole hour i worked there to make sure other people were able to be seated. I bussed and cleaned FOUR tables before anyone noticed. No one felt ashamed, but instead I was thanked. Worst experience ever!!! And I once worked at ihop. My husband and I always fight over waffle house and ihop. Guess I'll be joining him at waffle house from here on out. So ashamed to say I ever liked ihop after that experience. And to be clear, I understand being busy and overwhelmed. What I don't understand is listening to everyone in the kitchen fool around and make jokes while tables Are dirty and my food is sitting...

Ridiculous... Worst ihop .super unprofessional.. I was door dashing there but I'm good...I'm done with that...the amount of insults I have are too great to even start in on..so I wont.. Trust me....the drive down the road to the glenstone restaurant wjere they actually perform as a ihop..is worth the gas...and u wont have 50 homeless people asking u for anything u can spare from ur life.....the food will acrually look as if ihop trained a cook ... I've literally even spoken to the managers about how unprofessional it is at this location bc I've worked at ihop and I got the response...good... Ohkay....weird I guess... The security for the shopping center makes ke leave says I'm tresspassing on private property...while I'm door dashing and ihop is the main rest on the hot zone... Like......do u even know how to do ur job..or...what door dash is....learn something...they're all rude and think they're gangsters ..I'm done helping them make money...they're ridiculous at this location...no register at front to cash out on u stand at the divider and wait for a waitress to ring u up on a monitor..the waitresses are poorly trained....and I mean that to the fullest extent of the meaning...the cooks are outside washing their vehicles and working on them all night...or smoking with random girls that show up...they have their young children their all night long while they work seating u and asking u questions... What u get is never consistent...way overpriced not ihop standards at all....they only use one sid of the restaurant....and the staff hangs out on the other side...it's super unprofessional... Trespassed...for literally working..or taking a break.... Ridiculous..I swear...

Zero stars.....go to the glenstone location ...better service and ihop...

I tried to post thisnon the website iHop tells you to post on, but my session timed out and this was too long.

To start, the staff took roughly 5 minutes to acknowledge my family walk in the door. It took 15 minutes to recieve the drinks we ordered (2 small shakes, one regular shake, a hot chocolate and three waters). The food took about 30 minutes to arrive after we ordered, and my French toast was mostly soaked with syrup. The rest of the meal was good. The server was at our table a total of four times; to take drink orders, deliver our drinks, and take food order, giving us our food, and, finally, handing us the check. We didn't receive any drink refills for water, she had hardly any interaction with us, and my husband had unlimited pancakes and he only received one extra serving of that; which we had to retrieve another waiter for. Overall dissatisfied with the whole experience, which is upsetting because we usually have a decent experience.

Our whole dining experience was an 1 1/2 hours, which was longer than what we wanted.

The wait staff had something nasty to say about several customers to the cooks, I had also noticed. A time in particular, when we were waiting to be served; the server apologized to the cook and stated (harsher words were used) he was sorry for continuing to bring back food, but the patron seemed to be unable to be satisfied. During another part of our visit there was a booth that was not cleaned, and a client took it upon herself to clean it.

The experience isn't thrilling to me, but I've had worse. My husband was extremely hangry so this put a bad taste for one of our favorite food chains, but I'm sure we will be back, but I just hope it's a little better with...