IHOP uses a slogan that my kids love… come hungry – leave happy. And my kids certainly do. We enjoying eating breakfast at our local International House of Pancakes, and have enjoyed their lunches as well.

THE RESTAURANT

I’ve always thought of IHOP along the lines of a touristy restaurant in vacation areas but that isn’t the case. IHOP is a full service, year round restaurant that serves all types of food all day long. We only go a few times a year because, compared to a diner, IHOP is priced a bit higher.

Each IHOP is independently owned as it is a franchise and is basically follows the same plan, booths and tables surrounding an open kitchen area housed in a triangular shaped blue edifice. It almost looks like a house of worship but for its regular patrons, it very well could be. My kids worship the pancakes there.

There are always an abundance of busboys and waitstaff. You don’t ever wait too long for service once seated but you can wait an hour for a table at peak hours…. Saturday and Sunday mornings around 10 am. We always get there by 8 am when we go and never wait for a table unless it is a holiday.

Unfortunately, I have always felt that my local IHOP is a bit run-down and old but is usually spotlessly clean. And as parents, we appreciate that they almost always have crayons for the kids and always have plenty of patience for them!

THE FOOD

One of the delights of IHOP that parallels a diner is that you can order breakfast at any time and you can have steak in the morning. Each of their breakfasts are HEARTY to put it mildly. The omelets are huge and the complete meals are served with hash browns and a short stack of pancakes. This is always a substantial amount of food but we always go on and order a side of bacon or sausage AND a side of corned beef hash (which I highly highly recommend).

Popular amongst the kids is the Funny Face stack of chocolate chip pancakes doused in whipped cream that forms a face. Yummy. And the Eggs Benedict are the best I’ve ever eaten.

IHOP also offers some health conscious food with its harvest grain options. You can get harvest grain pancakes as well as get them in crepes. I don’t know how many calories you can actually save but at least you boost your whole grain total for the day!

When you order coffee, you are presented with a carafe on your table for doling out your own refills at your convenience. I have always LOVED this feature of IHOP as it serves my need for instant coffee gratification.

IHOP’s menu runs the gamut of foodstuffs. Of course there are pancakes, waffles, eggs, and crepes but there are also hamburgers, steaks, fish, soups, and salads. Truly something for every palate. And there is a very nice kids’ menu filled with smaller portions of their menu. A popular kids’ item is the Rooty Jr, which is the small version of their famous Rooty Tooty meal. The Rooty Tooty is a serving of each of the main breakfast items on one plate. It’s extremely popular for breakfast if you are indecisive about what you want, and it is a very reasonable price.

As a note, if you order IHOP’s omelettes, you will notice that they are BIG and they are fluffy. This is a signature technique that they employ by adding a small amount of pancake batter to the egg mixture before making your omelet. You should know this in case you are on a restrictive diet (gluten or wheat free, low carb or no flour… whatever).


MY THOUGHTS

I’d equate the IHOP fare with Friendly’s fare as opposed to diner fare, t’s that same family style menu of crowd pleasing fried and grilled food at very reasonable prices. IHOP rules this domain for breakfast while I think that it takes second place in lunch. There is a high kids’ tolerance here and the food comes in a moderate amount of time.

My kids love that on each table there is an array of different toppings for your pancakes including strawberry, blueberry, and maple syrups. And the server always brings a small bottle of warmed maple syrup and places it on the table whenever you order pancakes. While we love the pancakes, eggs, steak, and chicken at IHOP, we are not too crazy about their hash browns. They always need salt and lack a true crispiness.

I recommend that you take your family to an early breakfast at International House of Pancakes but avoid Mother’s Day and Father’s Day as those are their notoriously busiest Sunday morning meals.

Recommended: Yes