I used to come to this place really often when I was a kid with my family. After some of the…read moreinfamous videos showing awful violence in this building, though, I've avoided it despite wanting to come back for their Chocolate, Chocolate Pancakes. In fact, their Chocolate, Chocolate Pancakes were one of my favorite things to eat as a kid.
Recently, I decided to go ahead and come and risk it, though. First thing I noticed was that the building has seen better days. It's definitely not "awful", but you'll notice it if you look carefully. Some of the booths have tears, and the bathroom doesn't have shiny gleam anymore. There's a couple spots where it looks like wallpaper is peeling too. It's not run-down enough to be a concern, but if you remember it from years ago, you'll see that not much has been done in terms of renovation to make this place look nice.
Everything felt sticky. That wasn't so pleasant. The table was sticky, and all of the syrup bottle handles were sticky as well. I know syrup tends to get sticky and it's staple of most breakfast places, but honestly, I've never been to a place where so much was sticky. My drinking glasses, silverware, and food plate were okay, but still, it became where I didn't want to touch anything.
The menu was just as amazing as I remember it. Compared to other breakfast place, IHOP just has so many more options. It's actually at a point where I couldn't pick what I wanted to eat because I wanted to eat multiple things. Normally, I have to narrow down to what's LEAST offensive. Here, there were tons of things. Obviously, though, I went with my childhood favorite of Chocolate, Chocolate Pancakes. My foodmate (is that a word?) also had the same time to choose between all of the great options.
We placed our order and waited. No big deal. Well, ten minutes later, the waitress comes back and lets us know that they are out of chocolate chips. (Is that even a thing? They're less than a block from like 3 grocery stores) They, however, already made the chocolate pancakes, so I end up making some mutant zombie mutation request between chocolate pancakes with strawberries and bananas. They're okay making it. The waitress, while seeming a bit confused about everything, was very nice and courteous. She also was pretty attentive. She's definitely above-average on waitress quality.
The food itself was okay. My foodmate said the french toast and bacon was absolutely amazing, but the pancakes and eggs were on the "meh" side. I enjoyed my pancakes, but it wasn't really what I originally wanted, so I wouldn't rate them too highly. They were okay. The bill was reasonable, and it was promptly taken care of. There was an error on the bill (an ironic error, even, because they charged me for "extra chocolate chips" despite, y'know, being out of chocolate chips), but when I pointed it out, the waitress was happy to change it.
Final thoughts: I'm not sure I would come here again. It wasn't downright awful, and I wanted to give them a chance to redeem themselves because I really want to love my pancakes, but I'm not sure it's ever going to be the place I once loved. It's not horrible, but it's certainly not up to the standards that I'd expect a restaurant to be.
