IHOP

I first heard of the place from Anne Curtis' Birthday Breakfast post in Instagram back in February. There were already a lot of raves about the place then in which the common denominator was the long line you would need to stand up to for the experience. Given than I am a big breakfast being, I know that I wouldn't have forgiven myself for not being one of the firsts to try it out.

photo credit: Cosmo PH

I was able to finally go when I had too meet up a couple of friends in the area. Since I already anticipated a long queue for a Saturday brunch, I went ahead of time and reserved seats for the three of us. I got there around 10am and there were already 20 names on the list before mine. I asked if they could just text me once our seats are available, but the receptionist handed me a small piece of paper with their mobile number and asked me to contact them instead. I agreed and decided to just wait at CBTL in BHS which is just adjacent to their building. I've read online that the average waiting time was just 20mins so that's how long I waited before texting the number to inquire about availability, to my surprise, they already got us seats! I checked the whereabouts of my friends and upon finding out that they won't make it until prolly the time I am able to place an order, I advised the receptionist to give our spots to the next guest/s in line for the meantime. After about an hour, we went back to the place and checked on the status of the "reservation" under my name in which the available seat was immediately given to us. Five stars for customer service!

The main dining area is in the 2nd floor. To be honest, the view of how crowded and noisy the place was marked a very bad first impression to me. I am a big fan of cozy, homey  and laid back breakfast places where you and your loved ones can stay for hours having coffee, and this place is just way way far from that! It's like a modern yet very loud and busy diner.

photo credit: Happy Bambina

I already had second thoughts but then I realized that it's maybe just because of the place's popularity status. I thought that it can actually be a good thing since the main reason why we try restaurants would be for the food, since I haven't even gotten to that part yet, who am I to judge. ;p Good thing our seats were located on the hidden-more private area of the restaurant for a stress-free meal.

Their menu looked sooooo inviting! It took us almost half an hour to decide on which to get since we wanted to try out almost everything. We decided to order a different set each so we could get to taste a portion of more selections. Plus we got more excited with the number of flavored syrups sitting on our table that we also wanted to be able to try all of them. The waitress who took our orders was very patient. She remained friendly despite having to change my mind for about three times on how I wanted my egg done or which pancake flavor to get. They would gladly take note of your preference in terms of how you wanted your food to be served, plus our orders came in less than 15mins, five stars for customer service indeed.

  

Everything changed upon our first sight of the food presentation. It was not like how they were beautifully photographed on the menu. Since we knew that this is the case most of the time, we gave it the benefit of the doubt and decided to postpone our judgement until we get to taste them. To our disappointment, the taste is just as bad as its presentation. The small serving of the breakfast set was just highlighted by their huge plates. They were all too oily too. The pancakes did not give justice to the name of their place "International House of Pancakes" either. They were too dry, it doesn't even have any distinct taste that would pass "international" standards despite soaking it on any of their syrup options. Eating them doesn't make you feel at home at all. I can't believe I paid almost P600 for some breakfast that I wasn't happy about. (I ordered Strawberry Pancake and Bacon breakfast set, photo below)

  

 

My friends and I then had second thoughts on whether or not we would still give it another visit. They have an extensive menu and we left the place still feeling curious about how their other offerings would taste like. But it got me thinking, if we have given their supposed specialty, a failing grade for both presentation and taste, what more for their non-pancake servings. Too bad we can't eat great customer service.

iHOP (International House of Pancakes)

Unit E, W Global Center, 30th Street, Taguig City

https://www.facebook.com/pages/IHOP-Philippines/152780568211645

Date of Visit: April 6, 2013