IHOP — Restaurant in Town of Oyster Bay

I liked it because the food is always great here but of the many IHOP's I've been too, that are mostly always bizzy when I go, this one was the most confusing and uncomfortable layout. It was like a long wide hallway but not that wide . Towards one side of the building it look a bit more spacious. I could see there were plenty of more tables on that side then there were on the side where they put us at. On the other side there where a lot less tables and of course space. It was the smallest size IHOP I have ever been to and where we were seated we actually walked aside their kitchen through a small space where the kitchen was on my left and cashiers counter was on the right. The space had to be about maybe 3 feet wide. Waiters, cashiers, and customers were all passing thru here. It was like walking through a packed subway train.I went with my 2 kids. A 2yr and 4 yr and it was an uncomfortable atmosphere for me. The only good thing I felt was that they sat us down all the way in this section at the end of the building on the side where there was less tables. Less noise too. Small spaces that are very crouded make me anxious and nervous and I already was with passing through that 3 ft space I had to walk through with my kids. We sat down. Ordered our food and ate. The food of course was delicious as always. I had absolutely no complaints or issues there. My kids were happy and eating their breakfast.

Then my kids needed to use the bathroom. That was the worst. Considering the layout of this place I was wondering where the bathroom would even be. To my discovery. That same space I spoked about. The 3 ft wide space. Bathrooms where there. So Im going to box this space to help you imagine this little walk space aria. Its about 3 feet wide maybe 7 feet long. This is the same open area where where customers, the cashier works at the counter, and the kitchen workers walk through and now it's also the spot where if your lucky, 2 feet passed the kitchen door you can go to the bathroom. I was not lucky. The womens bathroom was being used. My kids really needed to go. We waited in this so small clamed space with people coming and going from the kitchen door. I was trying to keep the kids out the way from the kitchen door and trying to make sure we would not be in the way from the person in the womens bathroom. There was no way we weren't going to brush up against each other. It felt like forever standing there and still whoever was in the bathroom was not coming out just yet.

Did I mention I was now extremely uncomfortable. Workers going in and out of kitchen. Customers passing through to get to either side of the place and whoever was in the bathroom was taking their sweet time while the kids now couldn't hold it anymore. I choose to see if maybe the mens bathroom was unoccupied. It was and I walked right in. Jesus that was another frightful sight. I had to clean the toilet quickly. There were spitter spatters of urine on the seat. My kids needed to go. Thankfully there was enough toilet paper and they did have soap. Mama had to do what she had to do for her kids. Quickly I cleaned up and set the toilet paper. They did their business and then my plan was to pack up the rest of the food and get out of there to freedom. After that experience I couldn't stay in such an enclosed atmosphere. I grab my receipt, food, kids and went to the cashier's to pay like I always do. When right there standing in front of the cashier's the waitress comes up and says oh I'll take that. She took the receipt and my card payment from my hand and I thought she was going to the cashier's but I guess with that small 3 ft walk through space she got caught in a traffic jam. I don't know why she did that. I could have paid for it myself and been out but instead my kids and I again where in the waiting area amidst a bunch of other people waiting for my card back. By now I just wanted to get out of there. What was probably just a couple of minutes felt like forever. Finally got my card back...

Hopefully you will have the same thoughts as me after reading this review about IHOP.

The main thought is just why wouldn't you go to a diner?. I think the overall user experience at IHOP has just declined the at this location or otherwise. They got rid of the different syrup selection at the table and replaced it with like this fast food syrup. Speaking of fast food you see these wonderful pictures in the menu and then you get your food and it does not look like that and it really has declined in taste and quality over the years I felt like my Waffle was rather soggy and my Nashville hot boneless chicken wings did not look like the picture and you can tell they were just pre-made chicken wings with some breading and the soft slapped on there. Of course I went on a Saturday so things were chaotic loud with children running around and such. I suppose that is not IHOP's fault but just the idea of the general public to go to IHOP on a Saturday. Additionally the bathrooms were actually disgusting I feel like they were never cleaned they were stains on the toilet and the toilet paper holder I get that it was a busy time but it really looked like no one came in there for days to clean it. Now to talk about the service there were some things that the server forgot but honestly it's not really her fault and I never blame the server thing is multimillion dollar companies want to hire these kids and pay them minimum wage honestly what do you expect they are going to get orders wrong no matter how long they've been doing it I blame the company for hiring inexperienced managers and servers..

So I just go back to the idea that, especially on Long Island, why wouldn't you just want to go to a diner there is better food you get better portions it's most likely half the price and you're supporting small(er) business. Instead of a $55 corporate breakfast meal where you can literally get it anywhere else. They only reason why I went is because they sent us coupons in the mail. But I had a feeling that this restaurant is on deaths door and now I know why. Whoever responds to these Google reviews feel free not to we're probably not coming back...

My coworkers come to this Ihop often and said it used to be a better experience than what we had so I'm not sure what changed but TERRIBLE SERVICE, COLD FOOD, AND STAFF TRIED TO RUSH US OUT WHEN WE TOLD THEM WE WERENT HAVING A GOOD EXPERIENCE. We arrived and despite there being many open booths and no line, we had to wait for them to clean a table for us. That explains why there were so many flies at our table. They should be cleaning before having to seat people. The guy who took our orders came out only to bring our drinks out then to bring our food out over half an hour AFTER ordering and never came back to the table after that. Everyone's food was cold and one of my coworkers wanted to ask for a remake but after waiting 15 had to just settle for the cold omlett. WE NEVER GOT ASKED IF WE NEEDED DRINK REFILLS and we had a coworker who needed water to finish washing down their frozen pancakes. I was bothered by the poor service and tried flagging down the employees but one saw me waving to our waiter and looked at him said something and they both continued ignoring us. That's when I had enough and called out to them and then he printed our check visibly annoyed and asked if we were ordering anything else. I asked for 2 waters and he kept asking if we were actually going to buy anything else. Rude. I bought a drink to shut him up so my coworker could get his water since we have to order more terrible food in order to continue to get terrible service apparently. I manage food service and so I am very understanding of food service workers but these people were beyond compassion. Just a...