IHOP

Zero point Zero… Seated by the hostess/​waitress, seemed pleasant enough. 25 minutes later, only 4 other tables with people in the whole place, Jade just kept walking by as we called her name. Basically just forgot we existed. Another 15 minutes and we just had to walk out. Decided it would be faster to go home and cook.

I have to agree with the negative comments. I was by myself, seated after a short wait, and gave my order in what seemed like a reasonable amount of time — they were very busy. And then I waited. And waited. At least two other parties seated near me who had arrived just after I did had their meals delivered, finished them, and left. I kept trying to get my server’s attention and was told «the kitchen is really backed up» My food (French toast) finally arrived. It was cold. On the underside of the slices, it was clear that they had sat somewhere, either on a cooking surface or on a waiting area for quite awhile. It was hard to cut the slices, the bottom surface had cooked so firmly. I ate about a third of the serving (I WAS hungry) and called the server to request the check and to complain about the food. He disappeared. I could see him near the front of the restaurant. He returned with the check to say that he had arranged a discount. I left without leaving a tip, when I got to the cashier and examined my check — the discount was the senior citizens’ discount, which I qualify for in any event! I won’t be back.

Several groups that I help run have had meetings or gatherings at this IHOP since it was opened, & we’ve run into a few problems. But, some of the issues could just be a matter of, the place is new & still has a few kinks to work out. Most of my experiences at this location have been with a group.
The IHOP has a great back room, with one door that closes, so we can keep our conversations mostly private… The problem with the privacy is the staff.
— They have staff who uses this room as their break room, & they often leave their dirty dishes from their meals in a corner of this room, rather than cleaning up after themselves.
— While we’re having meetings, they have staff that rolls silverware noisily in a corner while we’re trying to discuss rather sensitive topics.
— It doesn’t matter if I reserve that room a month in advance or 3 days in advance, or even if I call same day to ensure that they know we’re coming, they are never ready for us when I arrive. They act like they have no idea that we were coming. This seems to be the fault of management not telling the waitstaff that the room has been reserved. I often end up having to move the tables together myself, which I don’t mind, but when you call ahead, ask to reserve a room & say that you’ll have 10 – 15 people coming, you expect that the room is clean & that tables have been organized to fit 10 – 15 people by the time that the room was reserved at.
— Again the fault of management, we often have to hunt down a server to get our drink orders in. Once we are seated, they don’t know that we’re back there (management doesn’t seem to communicate well with staff), & the servers don’t seem to know whose job it is to wait on that room, so they’re slow to get to us.
— Different management seems to have different rules for using & reserving that room. One manager will tell me that I can’t make a reservation a month in advance. Another will tell me that I can, but I need to call 3 days prior to the event to confirm that we’re still coming.
Many places have a minimum of some kind to use their back room, like everyone must have a full meal, or the group check needs to be a minimum dollar amount. For this particular IHOP, one manager will tell me that there are no minimum requirements to use the room. Another will tell me that every person needs to order a full meal, with a drink. There’s no consistency at all.
— They usually bring us one check with everyone’s order on it, rather than individual checks, which often results in confusion at the register, & things no one ordered showing up on the check. I feel like this confusion wouldn’t happen if they didn’t try to put 15 people on one check.
Another interesting thing about this location: They have a bunch of clearly marked handicapped parking very near the door, & there’s even wheelchair accessible stalls in the bathrooms, but they don’t have an automated door of any kind, & there are two doors you have to open to get into the place. Kinda defeats the purpose of some of the other amenities, & is a pretty major design flaw.
Other than that, the food is pretty standard for an IHOP, & the staff is friendly, even if they’re not the most attentive. Hoping this place gets better with time.

We love this IHOP! The staff are super friendly and very nice, and the food is constantly delicious!

Waited one hour and 20 minutes for breakfast with screaming children nearby. The restaurant wasn’t crowded at the time — we won’t return to this place.

From other poor reviews, I gotta say there is a great improvement over their
opening «jitters» and getting the crew well trained and working as a team.
Our waitress was attentive, manager was extremely friendly and open to
making sure our meal and visit was outstanding.
This will be our favorite breakfast place to work our way through the menu.

What a horrible experience I’ve had here twice! At first glance this ihop is a great addition to the Belmar area, and the inside is beautiful. But the wait staff is TERRIBLE! I have come here twice. The first time it wasn’t busy and we waited for ten mins for a waiter to even come to our table. We waited even longer for our food which was mediocre. The second time coming they were really busy so we needed to put our name on a wait list. While waiting, the man called out our name but we didn’t hear it due to the music blasting and the loudness of the people in the restaurant. He immediately called the ppl after us and sat them. We asked a few minutes later how long the wait would be and they said they called us but we weren’t around, even though we were sitting at the booth in the waiting area. When ordering, I got an apple juice that I sent back because it tasted old and like vinegar. The waitress told me it was fine because she got it from the machine, which was insulting because she didn’t try it, and it felt like she was telling me i was a liar. We ordered and ended up receiving our food after multiple people who had been sat after us. When we did get our food, we didn’t have any silverware and had to wait a few more minutes for our waitress to bring us some. Food was again mediocre and disappointing, and not to mention cold. We waited for our bill at the table for ten minutes before going to the main register and getting it there. Needless to say, we will not be back to this location, which is a shame because its right down the street from our house. I love the staff at the ihop at Sheridan and Hampden which is where I will be taking my business!

the wait was 20 minutes to be seated which is fine but once seated it was 5 mins when a waitress offered to help out the other waitress and take our table but the waitress mickey said no. so the girl took our drink order and didn’t come back for 15 mins. finally mickey took our order but the table next to us was there before us and still didn’t take their order even after we told her. mickey told us the kitchen is backed up so it would be 15 to 20 mins. when the guy brought our drinks he said it would be 45 mins. we asked for a manager to be sent over and two hosts come over instead. so we left. the kids were hungry

I have to echo the comments about terrible service. Really fancy looking IHOP that’s a nice change from the normal greasy spoons but just awful service.

Well. This place overall sucks. I recommend the IHOP off of Sheridan and Hampden. This location has horrible service. Waited an hour to be seated and an extra hour for our food only to get burnt eggs and hashbrowns, undercooked French fries and an egg sandwich that seemed like it had been sitting a little too long. I felt bad for our waiter because he didn’t get a good tip all because of their cooks. They really need to step it up. It’s a beautiful restaurant with crappy service. Not good.

I have tried the new ihop in Belmar 3 times now. The first was for dinner right after they opened and everything was good. They seamed to be doing a lot of training but the orders were correct and the service was decent. The second time was for breakfast and they were slammed but still The orders were correct the food was good service was decent. Today they weren’t busy at all there’s a lot of people just messing around and the orders weren’t correct the food was horrible and the service was lousy. Manager did try to correct everything that was wrong and didn’t charge us for one of the dinners but what a horrible experience.

Interior wise this place is great. Looks new and clean overall. The bathrooms were a different story. This is about the overall experience though. Our waitress seemed great when we first arrived and then it all went downhill. We waited forever for our food. We did not get any refills and our food was half edible half burned. I love IHOP but this location is terrible. I would find a different location. Can I also add that we got here when they were slow and we still had slow and overall bad service.

Beautiful new addition to the area! Great change from the other breakfast restaurants in the area.
I’ve never seen an IHOP with an outside patio, and such beautiful décor.
We will be back!

After a relatively fast process to be seated I was hopeful that this new IHOP would live up to its new décor and friendly hosts. But, the service was worse than any «grease spoon café» That I have ever attended. It took 45 minutes to get my friends order. By this time we asked to speak to a manager. When our server, who had been completely inattentive to us the entire time we had been sitting there, magically appeared and wanted to give her two cents about whatever she believed happened, I had to tell her that we were having a private conversation with the manager and she
was not privy to it. When all was said and done, my order never came and we ended up at a different locally owned restaurant, «The Egg and I».

Horrible service. We went in but there was nobody at the front to seat us. One of the waitresses saw us but still nobody came to seat or even acknoeledge us. We waited for about 5 minutes before leaving. The place was not even busy, it just seemed like they didnt really care. Imagine how horrible the service would have been if we waited to get seated.

This IHOP is a great addition to our Belmar neighborhood. It’s super clean and new, the food is great, and the service is above average. I really hope this lasts and doesn’t wear off with the new.
There is so much to choose from here. I can’t imagine having more breakfast options. They also have a smaller lunch/​dinner menu, so my husband, who isn’t crazy about breakfast foods, can grab other options. And it’s open 24 hours! Woohoo!