IHOP — Restaurant in Virginia

We went to the Warrenton iHOP last night to celebrate a special family occasion. We do not eat out often, so … ‘nuff said.

To get the weird stuff out of the way first: The floor was sticky. The knife served with my burger and fries was sticky, and visibly dirty. Its handle was very sticky indeed. The fries tasted strangely sweet, as though they had been fried in oil that had also had something sweet in it. That said, the food was good. Also greasy. After eating, I had to go to the bathroom to wash my hands twice before my fingers felt clean.

We had to wait an absurdly long time—well more than ten minutes—at several points: the initial “do you need another minute,” the later “do you want dessert,” and then time to pay. After fifteen or more minutes, my husband had to go and physically search out someone to accept our payment. The booth next to ours was clearly equally frustrated—they began singing out, “Waiter! Waiter!” It was clear that the restaurant was understaffed.

All of that said, we had a good meal, and we were grateful. I will say that sweet French fries are weird.

While I was in the restroom washing my hands for the second time, the wait staff finally processed our payment from my husband. On the way to the restroom, I had seen a sign for “iHOPPY hour.” It was turned so that the person sitting at that table could not see it. Hmm, what is iHOPPY hour? So when I got back to our table, I looked. We had a sign about beverages, but when I turned it around, sure enough, it talked about iHOPPY Hour. Turns out that my meal should have been $8 instead of $11.49. So we questioned the waitress.

I have rarely had a less satisfying interaction. I was never anything other than courteous. She tried to tell me that the “iHOPPY Hour” offerings were actually smaller than the regular menu offerings by the same name. Well, ok. If that’s true, then why are the calorie counts the exact same? Does this franchise short people who order “iHOPPY Hour”—?

Bottom line, she told me that if people did not know to ask for the special price, they did not get it. Well, that’s cute, since the sign was turned so that we could not see it. She wouldn’t fix it. I asked to speak with the manager, but he did not care to speak with me personally, and the bottom line was that since we had not asked for the special price, it could not be given us.

I was not at any point less than polite, but none of this seems okay to me. The wait staff would have done well to realize that if what she said was even true—that the “iHOPPY Hour” menu offering was a smaller serving than the regular menu offering, despite the identical calorie count—she would have retained a customer by asking which I preferred. As it is, this iHOP has lost several customers—my family members, who do sometimes dine out independently, and myself—permanently.

Nice job, folks. Please do keep on giving us your dirty knives with sticky handles, and please do keep on treating your customers like if they don’t know to ask for the “special deal,” oh well, it can’t be fixed. Because eventually they will speak up, as I have just done. I don’t like being treated that way. We...

This had to be a joke! We patiently waited quite a while for our food. When the food finally caim, three out 6 orders were wrong. We let our waitress know what was missing.. We waited and waited. Reminded our waitress again. Said she would check. Never did get our correct food. Waitress knew it and we seen her discuss it with the manager. And you will never believe this... they charged us for extra sides on food we never got plus they charged us $3.29 for a vanilla ice coffee that nobody ever ordered!!!! And three of us ordered flavored lemonade drinks for $3.29 each. We got water with strawberries in it. I asked them to check the lemonade. She said they would bring us a fresh glass as soon as they check it. It never came. I asked her to put it in a togo cup and she says "oh we are out of lemonade" ! And we got charged for it anyways too! Needless to say this place is really a messed up confused place! They took off the food we didn't get off our ticket , but still charged us for three cups of water with a few pieces of strawberries in it! I have worked and managed in restaurants and I would have given a discount to those who didn't get all their food! After all 2 of us didn't order an extra side, we exchanged our side so therefore was shorted food that we had paid for!! Very poor business...

Not that bad if you’re in a rush. It is a chain-and a lower end product-with that in mind-for breakfast it is okay. It’s a bit hard to mess up breakfast. Coffee is decent. They offer egg whites, which is nice. Ordering an omelet I noticed the diced peppers and onions appear to be from a can?? Over all, for $15 breakfast it is decent. My big concern is staffing. I have had breakfast at this ihop three times (while having work done on my house i didn’t have a kitchen to use so I came for breakfast and coffee) the same waitress was there all three times. She is older and has been working for this location many many years you would think she would have stellar customer service. Nope. This morning I was the only one dining at 6am. Yet, I had to get up to get coffee refills because she was busy playing on her phone. And when asked for more coffee, she appeared bothered and angry. When I was ready to leave it took awhile to get her to take my money. A few more tables (4) came in and she seemed very overwhelmed. If it wasn’t for the location and hours I’d...