IHOP — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

My family comes to this IHOP for breakfast for our birthdays every year. This is a tradition that has gone on for decades, but has officially ended today.

The past few birthdays, we have noticed a steep decline in the quality and value of the food, the attitudes of the hosts who seat you, the speed at which the food comes out, and the cleanliness of the restaurant. My one exception to this assessment is the waitress Maggie. She always puts in an effort to make this a good experience for our family and is clearly trying to work within the limits of a VERY poorly managed restaurant.

We have persisted in coming here for birthdays despite the past several subpar experiences to keep up the tradition. Today we decided the tradition wasn't worth it any longer.

This morning, we came for my sister's birthday to a nearly empty restaurant (this was a weekday at 8am). When we told them we were a party of 8, they said they had two big groups already and walked away. They proceeded to seat all the other smaller groups that came in with no update to my family for 20 minutes. When we asked if they could seat us at two separate tables if that's easier, the hostess said "yea yea, that's what I'm working on now" with an extreme attitude and smug smirk. Even though she was clearly not working on that. She'd been standing around for nearly the full 20 minutes we were waiting. Bear in mind, of this party of 8, there are three small, hungry, and antsy children under the age of 6.

We were eventually seated at a large table that was empty the whole time we were waiting. We know this because we could see it from where we were waiting.

Maggie, who is often our waitress, got our orders in as quickly as possible, but as always (as of late at least), it took ages for the kitchen to make the food. This is concerning seeing as the place was not even 1/4 full. I can't imagine what happens on busy weekends.

The past few times we've also been astounded when we got the bill. At well more than $100 for 5 adult breakfasts (primarily pancakes) and 2 children breakfasts, this is by no means an affordable option for families any longer.

My suggestion is to go to a diner or cafe for a family breakfast. The food will be lightyears better and the service and friendliness will be remarkably better pretty much...

Update 9/23/23. To go order from app took so long and was missing items. My pick up time was 11:58a, and I didn’t get out of there until 12:22pm and had to go back for the missing items, so 12:30pm by tue time I got out of there with everything I ordered. The person handling the to go orders was not organized and looked confused or overwhelmed. There were to go orders just dying on the warmer. My order was missing the salsa for the omelette, the whipped cream for the strawberry banana pancakes and the sour cream I ordered extra. The expediter didn’t know where anything was he tried to get the missing items for me. I miss when this place was owned by Steve. It was like clockwork then even when it was super busy.

I have to change my rating. 8/17/18 Tried to put in a take out order today at about 9am and the person who picked up the phone mumbled some greeting so unintelligible that I had to clarify that this was IHOP. After she confirmed, I said I wanted to place a take out order. She says abruptly, “can you hold?” without letting me agree. And I waited 5 minutes and hung up since she never came back. So, I ordered breakfast from a nearby diner. Dining in is fine, take out ordering needs better standards.

The new appearance looks great! And the food is I’d say 95+% consistently good. Wait staff is always courteous and accommodating. There’s a reason it’s packed on the weekends, good food...

Waitress with the glasses and sweater acts like it’s an inconvenience to do her job. We’re a party of 3, one person was ready to put their order in, 2 of us weren’t. We said we didn’t mind if it came out separate so she’d like to place hers first. Waitress responded “okayyyy??, so like, just one person?”, with a rude face.

Okay, maybe it was inconvenient for her. Understandable. So 2 of us ordered, 1 person asked for one more minute. I got a burger. When she came back, the third person also ordered a burger, so she asked them what sides they wanted. I realized I also had a side so asked if I could have onion rings with mine. She said “No they’re already making it the order is in”. I ordered less than 2 minutes ago. Like actually, less than 120 seconds.

Even if so, understandable, but there is a better way to say things. It was my fault for not noticing I had a side, but in the food industry, it is also standard for her to confirm which side I would like, like she did with my fellow diner. Tone and attitude were so rude it ruined my morning. I could’ve ordered a separate side of onion rings, wouldn’t have minded paying, but genuinely just didn’t want to converse with...