Ihop - Elgin

When we walked in the restaurant there were few tables taken but slowly the started to get busy. There were roughly 2 to 3 servers. Our server though she was busy managed to provide us decent service and courteous towards us. We enjoyed our food and headed out with zero complaints.

First visit in several years. Fewer choices on breakfast. No option on menu for just two eggs, hash browns, and toast. But they have added plant-based sausage, which is a plus. Omelette now comes with hash browns OR pancakes, not both. 3 stars on food prepared. Hash browns were so salty I could barely eat them. I ordered sauteed onions and green peppers (which is one item on the menu), but it was raw pieces in my omelette. And I think we were charged for two added items, not one. It did have generous cheese. My husband ordered the spinach and mushroom omelette, which he really enjoyed. 5 stars on service. Samantha and Ashley (trainee) were very attentive, welcoming, and helpful without being overbearing. That said, I think $45 for an IHOP basic breakfast for two is ridiculous. I would go to Cinnamon or Sweet Berry for that price in the future.

They Never have enough staff. We used to come here every other week years ago and they had great service. But since a couple years ago they are always short staffed… they have different employees every month. Is like they all quit, which probably means that management is terrible. They want to make you wait 40 minutes for a table and another 20 just to have a waiter come serve your table. We used yo love coming here but service is terrible now. Sadly for us we will not return….

If I could give this place less than one star I would. I don't know what happened to this restaurant but the staff almost seems as if they are trying to run off customers and go out of business. A few years ago it was fine. Stayed fairly busy, service and food was decent. For more than a year now it has been absolutely awful. Slow to get a seat, dirty, waitresses have an attitude, don't check on you, the food is not great, etc. The last time we went we waited for about 10 minutes to be seated when there were people at only about 3 tables. Several staff members milling around an almost empty restaurant and finally some woman with a bad attitude came over and told us it was going to be about a 2 hour wait and we might as well just go somewhere else. I never see anyone in the parking lot anymore. If they aren't closed down I expect they won't be open much longer. There is no way this restaurant is making enough money to stay open.

Sooo I ordered online. Went in a few minutes early for pickup. They never received my order. I had an email confirmation and text notification. So I sat and waited a bit. Food didn't take long and the order was correct, but the omelets are WAY smaller than they used to be. Was the size of a tamale. And the avocado was a giant hard chunk, not even sliced. For $17 I didn't get much and I'm still hungry.