IHOP
Reviews and Complaints

2friends eating at IHOP in Norfolk Va.Service was HORRIBLE! Table dirty, waitress gave horrible service, she(kim) got the order wrong 3 times, forgot to bring a bowl back 4 times, waffles were doughy, chicken was brick hard(chicken & waffles), had to ask for refill twice.i asked another waitress for a bowl she said Ok, walked away stood beside a Co worker talking and NEVER CAME BACK to my table.I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THIS IHOP!

Hello Julia Stewart,

I'm writing to share my experience of working for IHOP in the year 2002 for two years. You may wonder why I am writing you so many years later and I can tell you why. It all starts with a college student who had a passion for teaching and was attending college to become a teacher. This college student also didn't have any support financially or otherwise from my family. That person is myself who is now a successful teacher and at the time needed to work to pay my way through college. At some point during my college years I learned that I enjoyed being a waitress and thought I was good at doing so. I had just entered Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and began working at IHOP in San Luis Obispo on Madonna Rd. Since I was completely independent and could not rely on anyone if any unforeseen financial burdens arose I did feel a need to keep my job at IHOP regardless of how I was treated. That is where the why comes in with my being compelled to contact you regarding my experience. I worked for a manager at the time who yelled at myself in front of the customers such as "Hurry, Hurry!" inches from my face with plates stacked on my arms. She also treated me like I was less than or stupid. I continued trying to improve my abilities as a waitress since I was so young, in my 20s, and thought maybe I was doing something wrong. She continued to yell at me very loudly with her eyes pierced and yelling closely to me. Also, the cooks that I worked with would make me feel uncomfortable as well making advances toward myself and my sister. My sister also worked there at some point and was her first job as well as being quite young. They flirted with her as well.

The manager did nothing to curtail their advances. I was quite uncomfortable working with my co-workers but I believed in the quality of the food as well as enjoyed my customers. It was quite difficult to enjoy the aspects of the job I enjoyed due to the mental duress I was under. After all, I was afraid and feared losing my job. I do hope that others do not have these experiences and haven't since I left. I do not think it is alright for restaurant managers to treat their employees like they are stupid and create an uncomfortable working environment. They need to know there is more than upselling and making money. Wait staff are humans who may be a college student as I was who was quite alone in the world and felt a sense of accomplishment being a waitress and building those connections with customers. Building those connections with staff is just as important. Thank you for your time.

Kerri Essex

[protected]

Got the online order wrong and call back to the store and talk to the manager and she remade it to early and it was cold when I got there and still left the fresh fruit out of the bag again and asked to remake the order because of it was cold but she refused to get it right so I asking for a full refund.
Chk 2070
Please give me a call at+[protected]
My Nick Therrell

When we first got there we waited 10 mins to be seated the floors was really sticky all the tables were filthy not cleaned and when we finally got our food they brought my son applesauce and never a spoon he had to eat it with a straw we never got checked on some of the food was over done and then we was over charged and waited for almost an hour and still never got money back worse ihop we have ever been to. Service was really bad and supervisor was mouthy about us trying to get our money back.

Like many other occassions, my wife and I, both seniors, decided to go eat at IHOP in Temple Tx. After driving more than 30 miles, we arrive to our favorite IHOP, this restaurant is the one we always come to eat. The place was almost empty, except for several cops eating. The waitress came and ask my wife what we wanted to do, that was a surprise question and odd, because we choose a restaurant to eat, so my wife replied, we cane to eat. She said sitdawn a server will come to help you. We were made to wait longer than unusual, and nobody came after about 10 minutes. We notice 3 waitresses taking care of the cops. The manager knew we were there waiting. The person telling us to sit down and wait was very rude and had a bad attitude. Since noone came to help us. We left and went to eat at another restaurant.

My children and I went to IHOP Store #691 yesterday June 18, 2019, located in Madera, CA.
We ordered Jr.Cupcake Pancake Combo, and on a sides of nutella which it is placed in a mini cup. As my daughter eating, my daughter chewed on a golden wrapper found in the nutella, my daughter immediately told me and I immediately informed our waitress, Kelly. Kelly then did not charge us for the nutella...Our waitress, Kelly, was very pleasant, cordial, professional at her job duties. Despite of the golden wrapper found in the nutella, Kelly provided us an excellent customer service.
This is awakening for IHOP Leadership to fully properly train their staff and perhaps sign them off if needed to be competent to do their job. Their staff needs to double tripple check food prior to serving to customers.

Visited Jessup, MD location on 5/28/19. Coffee mug arrived with a huge pink lipstick stain on it - the mug was clearly dirty and unwashed! To make matters worse, the Breakfast Sampler arrived with a long dirty hair with unidentified sticky sludge material on it! The unsanitary conditions, lack of maintenance and cleanliness for a restaurant are astonishingly poor and unacceptable. A manager did not appear despite reporting both incidents to the waitress.
Additionally, IHOP is practicing false advertising! Our dining receipt indicates a free stack of pancakes if you fill out a survey for a coupon code however when you go to the link a message pops up "We are no longer accepting surveys." False advertising should be removed from the receipt if fake "offer" is unavailable. Overall this was quite a nauseating experience and I will not choose IHOP again.

We visited the IHOP in Gastonia, NC (#4405) yesterday, June 16th - check # 3493. We arrived at 1058 a.m. and were told it would be a 20-minute wait to be seated; no problem. We were seated at about 11:23 and our orders taken at 11:28 (Please note, I only kept track of time because we had already purchased tickets for the theater for a 12:30 p..m. show). Our drinks were brought promptly, however the Siera Mist was rotten, tasted like a dirty drinking fountain. It tasted like the fountain had not been cleaned for awhile; a LONG WHILE.
The restaurant was busy, but not like a normal Sunday busy, surprisingly there were many empty tables throughout. Our section had 4 servers alone (and we were in the back of the store).
At 12:03 our server Christy returns and apologizes for the wait and says our order should be up momentarily, it's next in queue; says she doesn't understand what's going on, she placed the order over 20 minutes ago and we kindly correct her to state more than 30 minutes ago. We're still not completely worried because we are 5 minutes from the theater.
My husband begins to get antsy and my son now is quite hungry as overall we've been in the restaurant more than an hour. At 12:20 (Now we're going to miss our movie at the theater) - My husband gets up and notices the line of food (a later picture taken and can show what he means) is piled up under heat lamps. My husband sees our order and sees his gravy getting congealed under the lights. Speaks to our server and and asks why our food isn't being served. She responds with it's not ready - He corrects her and points to our order - she explains that while it's up there under the heat lamp, orders have to be taken / served in the order they are received and ONLY the table server can deliver the order. Please note at this point there are a minimum of 5 servers waiting to take their orders to their tables but can't because the Manager WILL NOT release them because they are NOT "ready" - My husband frustrated and returns to our table and tells us this story. I tell him that's BS... WHY, because the table that was seated just 5 minutes before ours (and they were the ONLY table seated directly before us) got their food at this point, 45 minutes ago. And the table next to us seated 20 minutes after us, got their food 10 minutes ago - we're still waiting...
At exactly 12:29 (now at our showtime) - The manager and our server bring us our food. My husband asks why there was so much food sitting under a lamp - The manager has no response other than to apologize and say, "I kept watching the food and sorry, but you see I watched and as the food gets cold I get the cooks to make a fresh batch" - WHAT?!?!?!?! So you purposely allow the food to sit in the window and get old and then get your cooks to make again, isn't that a complete waste of money versus allowing your servers who are just standing around waiting for their "turn" to serve their customers? She did not respond and walked away.
Our server kindly apologized and thanked us for speaking up, because she and the other servers do not understand the policy of not being able to serve the customers until it's their turn.
Needless to say our food was cold, but we were SO HUNGRY - we did eat it - my son who would've eaten just a child's portion under "normal" circumstances ate his serving plus my husband's side pancakes - why because we were literally served 1hr and 7 minutes after our arrival. Oh and the two tables behind us that arrived 30 minutes after us, got their food at the same time we did.
You manager gave us a whopping $5 discount on our meal - comping ONLY our drinks (3 coffees and a sierra mist, which was rotten anyway) and we never got refills anyway, because your carafe's hold less than 3 cups of coffee - so we didn't even get a full cup to begin with.
We still paid $30 and lost $50 because the theater would not honor our tickets for the next show and had to repurchase tickets. I don't know your Manager's name because she had no desire to share it, or ever come back to talk to us. She did stay hidden in the back of the restaurant.
As we were leaving at 1:00 p.m. - (2 hours in a restaurant that maybe should've been at most 1 hour) - My husband's back sore from sitting 2 hours in a booth with a hole in the bench; my elderly mother who also got stuck in a hole in the bench of the booth also very sore. In all the years of visiting this store, in all my years of going out to eat and we go to high end restaurants this is absolutely the worst we've ever experienced. We've never waited over an hour to get our meals and have always been treated with the utmost respect. Your Manager was horrible and obviously does not know how to handle a mediocre crowd. If leaving food under heat lamps is the "new way" of iHOP - then please know we have no desire to be loyal patrons any longer.

management is the worst in this resturant. They let they servers disrespect the cooks and sometimes threaten them. i am a employee of this franchise and i am scared to speak up for fear of loosing my job. older manager Ray just takes up for the females because he is a pervert that likes looking at their backsides. Something has to be done, us male employees need to be treated fairly.

My family and I visited an ihop in New Orleans and the service was the worst. We never received all of our food and the manager came out to speak with us and he proceeded to tell us that he was the manager and cook and they were short staffed. All of the staff we spoke with told us it was the managers fault. I said I was not going to pay because the food was wrong. They blocked the door and would not let us leave. Even after I agreed to pay. They called the police and traumatized my kids. I have never been treated so bad. The manager came out rubbing his sweaty face and his nails were so dirty Please call me regarding this as I plan on filing a grievance. Thanks in advance for you response to my concerns. Did I mention the street people who came in the restaurant and asked us to buy him food? Not the type of service I have ever received in another of you restaurant.

Back in June 2012 at the Cookville IHOP, my wife and I were shocked when our 3 year old leaned forward and that very, very long straw punctured his eye. It was horrific. Staff did adsolutely nothing. We left and went straight to the emergency room where the doctor had issues looking at the damage. Over time it healed, but our child wears glasses to this day. Our complaint is that the staff and management refused to ever acknowledge what happened; but rather watched from twenty to twenty five feet away. To anyone reading this: if your child gets injured at IHOP, don't just rush to the emergency room. The damage is done. Call an abulance, make a report and hold those heartless people accountable for what happens on their property. We did nothing wrong. They stuck a straw that was about 11 inches long into a 3 year olds drink. I hear they no longer use those straws: great. We were business owners at the time and we responded to every complaint, injury or concern. We have avoid IHOP since.

I visited the IHOP on 126th and Lexington Avenue in Harlem and the horrible waitress named Steasi added an extra drink to my bill after I told her there was hair in my orange juice. When I tried to speak to her and explain she spoke over me and didn't let me talk. She started yelling at me in front of all the other customers and her manager said she will take care of it. When I spoke to the manager she let the waitress stand right next to me while I was complaining about her I told her she has bad customer service she said no I don't and told me I can't count she was standing very close to me with her hands folded in a threatening manner. I told her you're not going to speak to me like that and then her manager (lekasha) who seems like she is a friend to the waitress pushed her away from me as she tried to come closer to hit me. Her manager pushed her into the kitchen and then came and told me with an attitude that she was right again not listening to me at all. I paid my bill and left. This was supposed to be a nice outing with my mother instead it was horrible and I felt like I was lucky to leave without getting hurt. NO ONE should ever be treated like this at a restaurant on Mothers day.