Huddle House — Restaurant in Wichita

When it was announced Huddle House was coming to Wichita, the social media comments were universal..."Hopefully they'll be better run than the Newton and El Dorado stores were." Those short-lived franchises were indeed poorly run with slow, uncaring service.

I used to be a big fan of the chain when I would travel in the South because I really loved their chili. It came off as canned, but the best canned chili you ever had. Huddle House was simply a Waffle House knockoff then. But over the last decade or so, they've undergone a makeover to appear more upscale, and they "upscaled" the chili along with it, and with that, I stopped going to Huddle House. But hey...it's been years, let's see what's new.

Being brand new, there's a larger than normal number of employees, particularly managers, and they're all overly eager to please. I was greeted by no less than three people at the door. I was seated and my order was taken quickly. Then we hit pause for awhile. I ordered the MVP platter with a bowl of chili, which when it eventually arrived, included four plates of food. Server: "I'm gonna fill this whole table with plates!" She wasn't kidding. A pancake, a bowl of chili, a plate with biscuits and gravy, and one with hash browns, eggs, and bacon. Going hungry? Not today!

The pancake was the highlight. It's an unusually thick fluffy concoction topped with butter that is just thick enough to not be melted but which melts perfectly as you spread it across the top. They should make a bigger deal about these in their marketing. The rest of the breakfast items? It's all fine. Nothing better or worse than any other breakfast establishment.

The chili? It's been awhile, but I think they changed the recipe again. Better than what it was, but nothing like the stuff that I'd go out of my way for back in the day.

Welcome to Wichita, Huddle House. I wish you all the best. If you ever open an east side store, I might drop in...

Service: We were greeted by a VERY nice lady and seated quickly. Tables were pretty packed so we could tell it was popular. An older couple was seated after us and got attention before we did. When the waitress asked if we had been helped i told her no and she immediately apologized. Took our drink order and brought them out approximately five minutes later. A coffee with creamer and a sunrise spritz. Food took about 20 minutes. A lot of commotion going on between staff members. One waitress seemed to have an attitude and just about knocked the "Please wait to be seated" sign. Manager had to speak to her. Could definitely tell they had not been open long. Waitress apologized again for the wait one the food was brought out. Something about they had the wrong table. Waitress was VERY nice as well.

Food: Totally surprised by the food. Waffle was really good. The only place that we have been to that actually made my eggs the way i ordered which was sunny side up. Bacon was really good as well. Stuffed Hash browns were pretty crispier than i would have liked. The rest was really good. They DO NOT carry Tabasco because apparently its not Huddle House approved. They have Texas Pete in its place which does not measure up to Tabasco. Would have even settled for Louisiana Hot Sauce.

Disappointment: The manager/owner, couldnt tell which one, made us feel very uncomfortable. Our seat was close to the door. He literally stood within three feet of our table pretty much the whole time we were seated. Made my husband, who is a retired Army veteran, VERY uncomfortable especially when he would just stand behind him. It felt like he was just staring at us while we ate. Very unpleasant for him to do that.

Would we return? Yes, we would, but next time hopefully there is a seat on the other side of the lobby...

We ate here for the first time and it was unexpectedly bad. First off I want to say the staff as in the waiter and cook was very nice. The manager seemed very stressed and irritated, before we left she was yelled at by what I'm assuming is the owner or supervisor but it was unprofessional and not something people should deal with working for anybody I would quit personally lol. Uncomfortable! Anyway the orange juice was almost $4 and it was nasty. I complained but was nice about it as you do, I was told it had been frozen and that it just changed the taste. It tasted like water with a hint of orange and was not sweet at all. I did not drink it after a couple tries just awful stuff. We got our food the waitress did forget our fruit bowls and brought it out as we were leaving. The ham steak I got was disgusting. When it arrived I was sniffing around trying to find what was stinking like canned corned beef hash! It was the steak. I took a bite and I could not tell what was wrong. It didn't taste spoiled completely but there was a sick smell to it when you were eating it and then a weird after taste. Like fake meat flavor when you microwave a Salisbury steak almost it was very strange. The biscuits and gravy, hash browns, and eggs all tasted normal and was fine was not seasoned just standard diner food thank goodness. After all that I was happy to leave and the waitress brought us lemonades to go telling us she felt bad about the orange juice (yes I told her the ham steak was not good ) and I try the lemonade...it's bad lol it has no sweetness almost tastes salty . I just feel like it is a very low quality place with nice people working for not so nice people. I won't be back for sure...