IHOP — Restaurant in Wilmington

Well today was an experience. Me and 3 of my friends came to enjoy brunch around 1 pm and I was asked my name to put on their short wait list. Only 3 tables ahead of us. ( two 2-tops and a 3-Top). It was busy inside but not outrageous, very typical of an IHOP on a Sunday. We didn’t wait very long, about 7-10 minutes. I am confused though why I was asked my name and had it written down, when the man who was seating the tables merely stood by the entrance of the dining room and waved people toward him to signal that a table was ready. I wasn’t sure if he was waving at us or the people sitting next to us and so we didn’t jump up when he made a hand gesture. Then another man actually took 3 seconds and looked at the wait list and called my name. We got up and started following the hand gesture guy when he turned to me and said “I was trying to call for you.” In which I replied “oh, I didn’t hear you, I’m sorry” very well knowing that he didn’t utter a word. I hoped he got my point. And because he didn’t bother to look at the wait list, he only grabbed 2 menus instead of 4. We had to wait for more menus and silverware. They also double sat our waitress and so when she came by (about 10 min after being sat) she had to ask us who was sat first, us or the table in front of us. The other table was first and so we were honest with her. Her name is Tatiana and she was great. This review should not reflect her, she came by a couple times as we waited for our food and refilled drinks. I will repeat that she had to come by a couple times because we waited 1 hour and 20 min after placing our order to receive the food. We just wished we had been warned about the long wait. But then again, it didn’t seem like a typical wait time because we watched 2 other tables sit, order, eat, pay and leave before we even received our food. We didn’t order anything that would have taken longer to cook or even more than 1 entree per person. At about an hour and 10 minutes in, one of my friends found a manager and told him about our experience thus far and he was actually really nice and quickly gave us 50% off even though we hadn’t gotten our food yet. He had great customer service but I can’t say that for the rest of the staff. As we were eating, I overheard another waitress, who was cleaning the table behind us, complain about how she knew they weren’t going to tip her and she doesn’t know why she bothered to take care of them. Our waitress had a lot going on and so we were happy to forgive her for forgetting a few items, she quickly fixed that. But I must say that when the food is brought out, they try to grab as many plates as possible and so the bottom of my friends plate was placed on top of my food and it kind of skeeved me. But anyway. The food was good, it was hot and we spent maybe 15 minutes out of the 2 hours we were there actually eating. Even though our bill was significantly less, we still tipped her as if it wasn’t comped any. She was doing all that she could. None of it was her fault. I feel that I need to blame whoever hired the rude hand gesture man and who staffed the restaurant that day because it definitely seemed under staffed. We watched the table next to us sit dirty for at least a half an hour. I just wish we were warned at the very least. We will not be...

The last time that we came here, they had closed inexplicably early on pancake day. Shameful. However, this IHOP really went over the top this time to disappoint.

For starters, it probably took the better part of a half hour just to have the server come acknowledge that our party was there. The tables were sticky, and we had to move our own tables to create seating for 7. We had to ask a second time to get something to clean the table.

When the drinks were delivered (at about the 45-minute mark), they were not only incomplete, but the server also substituted lemonade for chocolate milk, because she said they were out of milk. Seems like something you ought to ask the customer before substituting. I mean come on, who wants lemonade with pancakes?

Then we waited a solid half-hour more for the food to be delivered. Parts of everyone's order except for Dad's (mind you, we are there to celebrate Father's Day) were brought all to varying degrees of success. Or lack thereof. Every single person explicitly asked to leave off the hash browns. They all had hash browns. The kids clown pancake looked like something from a bad horror film. The strawberry banana pancakes had no bananas. And the strawberry cheesecake pancakes only the tiniest smattering of cheesecake topping. Three of six only half came out.

So we continued to wait.

Finally, my "Belgian" waffle came out. For an "international" house of pancakes, it was clear they had no idea what a Belgian waffle looks like. Belgian waffles are supposed to be thicker, with deeper dimples, and crispier exterior. The only thing that resembled Belgian about this was that it was round but I'm not even sure that that's a defining characteristic.

To add insult to injury, the server came back to the table with the check and asked if we needed any "to go" boxes. I said, well we're definitely going to need some boxes for the food that you haven't even brought us yet. Apparently, she was completely unaware that Dad had not gotten his eggs and bacon. And Mom had not gotten her pancakes. Deplorable.

When the food we ordered was finally delivered, at least I got my hash browns. Oh wait, I didn't want hash browns.

Not only will I never recommend IHOP again, I think from now on I will just stay home on Father's Day and cook my own waffles. They literally wasted...

My daughter and I visited this IHOP on Friday Jan 24, 2025 it was the worst experience ever and still is a nightmare to deal with. The server was walking around with gloves on touching and contaminating everything, she handled the food, drinks, register, cleaning off the table and never changed her gloves. When I asked the manager Skyler why she was doing that he said it’s because it’s equivalent to a persons touching things with their bare hands and I told him that’s not true, gloves are disposable because they’re for single use, The server Jasmine disappeared for a long period of time, with no one covering her tables. The hostess was walking back and forth using her cellphone, and seemed to be annoyed by the customer asking her for assistance. Jasmine spilled Juice on my table and just left it there, the manager Skyler bought out my cold pancakes that weren’t good and I barely ate half of them, he noticed the juice that Jasmine spilled and he came back to clean it up. The kitchen staff were hollering/ arguing in the kitchen and we could hear them. The facility was freezing, The silverware was dirty, we requested plastic wear, The kitchen staff that you could see through the window of the doors were wearing gloves, I wonder how long they wear the gloves for before changing them. I had also placed a to go order at the table with the hostess, I then asked Jasmine the service once she reappeared for the status she lied and was rude. Then I went to the front after 45 minutes to ask another sever and the hostess lied, so I requested a full refund because that was ridiculous to wait for that food all of that time and my experience was terrible. Skyler only claimed that he was refunding me for my to go order, which as of today 1/30/2025 I still haven’t received. I called their customer care line 3 times, and still No Refund. Not to Mention that I was sick From Friday Evening up to Wednesday with diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. This was the only outside establishment that I had food from. They are in there cross contaminating food and practicing poor hygiene and health. Just Terrible but I thank God that my daughter wasn’t sick. I want my money back. This...