IHOP — Restaurant in State College

Inconceivably awful. This IHOP deserves its own episode on Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" show. On Shrove Tuesday ("National Pancake Day") Feb. 13th, 2024, there was one lone server working the entire restaurant at 10:20 AM. More than half of the booths and tables were covered with dirty dishes. I was seated at the back of the dining room, which was at least 7-10° colder than the front. Having left my arctic mukluk boots at home, I requested to be re-seated, after which my server inexplicably took my place settings away. I asked her for coffee, and was informed the restaurant was all out of half & half, but I could have flavored, artificial creamer instead. (No Michelin Star for that alone.)

My omelette arrived slightly undercooked and unappetizingly served at room temperature. Meanwhile, out front, about 15 customers were waiting to be seated. After some time, a heavily-tattooed gentleman in a beanie (who bore a distinct resemblance to actor Danny Trejo) emerged from the kitchen and told them there would be a "10-20 minute wait," although the dining room was less than 1/2 full.

Finally, as I was leaving, I saw a frail-looking, older female employee with a cart begin clearing the numerous tables covered with dirty dishes. My heart went out to her. I asked the server, "are you understaffed today?," but she seemed puzzled and replied, "no, I'm always the only one here Tuesdays."

If this is a company-owned restaurant, the management should be fired immediately, or else be made to spend a week being re-trained by Chef Gordon Ramsay. If owned by a franchisee, their contract should be torn up, and their IHOP shingle pulled, pronto. It's difficult to believe this place is actually allowed to operate this way in 2024 in a major university town, but it is.

I went the day before Lent begins, but eating here is a great way to do Lenten penance. Otherwise, avoid at all costs, and try the excellent Original Waffle...

A few months ago I visited the State College, PA location with my 2 children. This was my first IHOP experience. We waited over 45 mins for our food and it was impossible to explain to my young children why everyone who came in after us had been served their food but we had not. We had simple ordered plain pancakes. No side. No fanciness. It taught them patience....

A few weeks later, my mother-in-law took the kids as a treat for the Grinch breakfast, again there was a long wait but it was a special treat so they waited. Only to be told they had run out of green coloring for hot chocolate and pancakes..... Therefore a wasted trip.

Since it has been a while, we decided to give it another shot....

We got to the restaurant and were told there was a 15 min wait for a table.... The were a total of 9 diners at 4 tables. The restaurant was otherwise empty. So we sat in the waiting area. There were 4 servers and someone who seemed to be a manager... A server came out to tell us there were not enough chef's and we would have to wait - we asked to be seated at a table while we waited so we could look at a menu, let the kids color and get some coffee. We were declined.

Ten mins later, we asked again. We were told the chef needed time to catch up..... Again, 4 tables. 3 of whom already had food. We just wanted coffee at that point, and to be able to sit at our table to read the menu...

We got a table at 5:30pm. It took 80 - yes, EIGHTY - minutes to get our food. Omelets and pancakes. The kids were exhausted. I was infuriated. Nothing was offered by way of compensation. The manager on shift said nothing - never once checked on us.

Extremely disappointed in the service. 3/3 times have been disappointing but that last night was the most ridiculous restaurant experience I...

Unfortunately, our visit was less than satisfactory. We completely understand the dynamics of the world right now and we're doing our best to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. We had no troubles with the sweet host and getting into dining, however once dining in we waited over 2 hours for our food and 15 minutes for someone to come greet us and take our drink order. I'm unsure of the waitress, however, she looked hungover with making running down her eyes, dirty fingernails, and just not an appearance you want to see when carrying your food out. After about an hour of waiting, the waitress came back and proceed to tell us our order may take longer due to the ONLINE ORDERS that had just come through. To me, this is completely acceptable as we are the customer that took the time to actually come into the restaurant and it should be first come first serve REGARDLESS. If they can't handle online orders while handling the line out the door they shouldn't be even doing the online ordering. Finally, our food finally came out delivered by another waitress who put our plates down in front of us and it wasn't right. So she took the plates back after I had already put a fork in mine EWWWWWW so unsanitary. While a few other serves huddled around to try and look at the ticket we waited even longer. After finally figuring it all out they realized it was ours, but just all twisted around with different sides for different people, etc. The food was COLD, rotten bananas and gross strawberries. It's easy to say I will not be coming back and after reading some of the reviews online after the fact ... you might as well just shut...