IHOP — Restaurant in Topeka

Went in to IHOP last night at about 1:30AM... they only had one person in the kitchen, one person waiting tables, and no manager on duty. I get it. Sometimes, someone can't make it to work, but when that happens, management needs to pick up that slack. It took us 18 minutes to even get seated because the one waitress that did show up was trying to take care of the roughly 30 people that were already there. I place no blame on her. She can only do so many things at once. When she did get the chance to break away, she got us seated and got our drinks very quickly, and gave us a minute to decide our orders while she took another tables order. Truly, this young woman was working her butt off to take care of everyone. Which is the reason I'm giving 4 stars for service. She, personally, would get 10 stars for her service, but the complete lack of backup she had to help with workload is why I won't give that 5th star. She got our order, made sure our drinks were refilled, and went to seat another couple of groups that had come in. Our food came out amazingly fast considering the lack of staff, and was made just how we had ordered it. Top marks to the one guy back there, making the food happen.

Dear IHOP management,

You understand that there are very few options open 24 hours in Topeka, right? And on the Wanamaker corridor, you're literally it. Maybe you thought because it was a Monday that it'd be slow, you were wrong. You left that waitress high and dry, and I felt terrible for her. Your staff worked harder than they should ever have to.

If anyone at the corporate level of IHOP sees this, you really need to assess the management of this location. Your investors deserve better, your staff deserves better, and your customers deserve better.

The place itself was very unclean, which again, with only one person working the floor, she can only do so much, but I have a feeling that most of that mess was left by a previous shift.

If the manager of this location sees this post, you failed everyone and if it wasn't for your staff going above and beyond, you'd have lost a lot...

It’s fun, I went with my friends after Homecoming (right now). Haven’t gotten food yet but we just ordered so it’s fine, our waiter is cool, one of my friends messed up her words when ordering it was funny he laughed with us 👍. 10/10 would recommend. I’ll update after we get our food

Idk how long it’s been, not thatttt long, my lemonade tastes good. My friend checked, it has been 17 minutes since we ordered, they are really busy tho so I don’t mind. I do still want my food tho 😠. I’m not that mad more likeeee this ☹️ not even that more likeeee 😕. I’ll update later bye byeee.

IM BACKKKKK, it’s been like 2 minutes since that last I wrote, my friends got their food, and I got my baconnnn, but there’s some drama! Apparently another waiter STOLE MY PANCAKES AND TOOK THEM TO ANOTHER TABLE!!! I know I’m very disappointed 😔 but it’s fine, I’ll wait, as long as I get them at some point, our waiter was chill about it, he’s great, I still don’t know his name, I GOT MY FOODDDDDDD, while I was writing the last part!!!! Yummmmmmnnnn I’ll be back after I start eating, I also got a refill of lemonade!!!! Brb

BACKKKKKKK I ATE ALL MY FOOD!!! Except for like one piece of my bacon because it looked a little weird 👀 it’s fine tho I’m still happy! When our waiter came to ask if we were ready to pay he asked and I quote “how’s it going” as in how are we splitting the check and my friend (yes the same friend that messed up in the beginning) said “Good?” Like it was a question and we laughed again it was really funny this time and after our waiter left we (mostly I and another of our friends) laughed for a solid 3 minutes, I couldn’t stop I almost choked on my pancakes! I know NOT GOOD. My dumb blonde friend almost KILLED ME because she didn’t understand what our amazing waiter was saying, GREATTTTT JOB M————. Anyway I’ll try and wrap this up because it’s pretty long, a great night and we had a lot of fun, such a good way to spend my first homecoming. Thank you to my waiter whose name I never got you were awesome!! BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (maybe I’ll come back next year after...

Starting off the experience with just walking in and having a long wait, not looking busy at all, only 4 tables full. Being sat, then having a tremendous experience with our waitress, trying to persuade my accomplices to get a bigger meal for the same price, ordering a kids pancake meal, originally $4.90, expecting that the pancake would just be a bit bigger, little did we know that the waitress would then turn the kids meal into a full adult meal, 2 inch thick pancakes, not even eating most of it due to the amount that was served, racking up the price to $12.00. Our waitress also had the tendency to forget half our order leaving out a whole adult burger meal, eggs, pancakes. She also was not visiting our table giving terrible customer service, coming over and convincing the kids to get more and uprising the price of the final tic, without even asking the payer if it was alright. When sitting and waiting for the bill, being about 30 min after being finished, we could here the crew talking horribly about why they hate the tables they are serving, including ours, maybe because we had 8 people, but I don't know. Watching my surroundings and seeing what others were doing during this situation, there were many walk outs before ordering due to the elongated wait, still having half a Cafe open, I don't know what the reason was to have such a long wait, they weren't understaffed or busy at all, having over 6 employees out at all times, maybe slacking. Overall I would not recommend, the experience was unbelievable and terrible, if there are other options for dine-in,...