I’ve never worked in a restaurant and certainly have no real management skills but I’m telling you . . I sometimes wonder if some restaurants even have a manager and if they do, what are they thinking?
We don’t eat out much but when we do, it’s usually not real expensive places and I don’t expect to be treated like royalty but whether I’m at McDonald’s or Taco Bell or Taco Bueno . . I”m thinking there could be other restaurants in the world but those are the only ones I’m familiar with! 🙂 Anyway . . I only expect to be treated with respect and as a customer who has chosen to eat at their establishment.
While passing through Oklahoma City last week, I was pretty much through town, on the east side and I’m telling you . . I needed desperately to stop! I so rarely let my gas gauge get below 1/2 full, and it was down to where I was pretty sure some warning was about to go off. I doubt I really have a warning . . never been that low before but I could see me calling Vince from 6 hours away and saying “I ran out of gas. What do I do now?” Worse would have been calling Vince and saying “I didn’t make it to the bathroom in town. How do I clean these leather seats?”
I found a place to get gas. Kinda looked like a truck stop . . not great, not the worst but I was desperate. Not desperate enough to go to the bathroom in there though. It was about 11:30 a.m. and there was an iHop right there close. I could get to it easily and get back to the interstate easily. I couldn’t see any other cars in the parking lot. But . . hey . . it’s an iHop . . how bad can it be? I was so wanting iHop and have been for seems like forever.
So I went in thinking I would sit down and order and then go to the restroom. It’s almost noon and I saw customers at one table. I did see four of the wait staff sitting at a table in the room. Here’s how this experience went down:
Hostess: How many please?
Me: One.
She walks into this huge empty room with the four wait staff sitting at a table. As she seats me at a table, this conversation ensues across the room.
Wait Staff #1: Don’t sit her there! I’m on break!
Hostess: Didn’t you just get off break?
Wait Staff #1: It’s my break!!
The hostess leads me to another part of the room.
Wait Staff #2: Don’t seat her there. I’m on break too.
Hostess: You’re on break too?
Wait Staff #2: Don’t you see I’m on break?
At this point, I said “Where’s the restroom?” She showed me and I went and when I came out, she was waiting for me and told me she had a table for me in another room. I said “No, thanks! I’ll go somewhere else.”
There was no scientific survey done here but I’ve never seen an empty iHop. Maybe that one’s only been empty once — when I was there. I doubt that but you can bet that restaurant will not be on my list of places to stop on future trips.
On the other hand, I have always had such great service at Cracker Barrel. On my way back through the area, I stopped there and the waiter was so friendly and so quick and the hash brown casserole was so darned good!
Thank you Cracker Barrel chain for always having such consistently good restaurants.
carolyn says
GOOD FOR YOU!!!! that was the horrible service and the food woul dhave been bad too! glad you left and went somewhere else!
Suzanne says
It seems to me in this day of technology that any business would be outstanding in their customer service-goods news travels fast but bad news travels even faster!!
Lynn in Va says
Good for you for leaving! Love that Cracker Barrel and Chick-Fil-A. Always consistently good food/service/iced tea no matter what part of the country you’re in.
Karen B says
IMO, you should have taken down the address of that I-hop and called the manager or owner. He/she may wonder why business is down and you could have given them an earfull!
Gwen says
We had a similar experience with an empty restaurant recently only it was a Cracker Barrel. This location opened near us last October and just can’t get it’s act together. We went in about two one afternoon and approached the hostess stand to find no one there. No clerk at the register and a few scattered patrons in the dining room. Finally a hostess comes out of the kitchen area and asks how many. We replied two and she said there would be a 15 minute wait before she could seat us! I replied that there were empty tables everywhere. Her reply was that they had had a little rush and the waitstaff was a little overwhelmed right then so we would have to wait. On our way out the clerk who was working on a display asked if our meal was okay. My reply was that we couldn’t be seated so I would let her know about WhataBurger! We have been back and it was okay but you never know at this one ten minutes from my house!
Debbie Rhodes says
Our local Cracker Barrel is okay service wise but has to the the loudest place.. My head starts to spin with dishes clanging people talking… good food but the noise is overwhelming.
I-Hop is quieter and a lot less busy.. but the food and service is good. husband is a breakfast fan so both places are on our radar.
Sarah M says
When in the Okla City area, use the Love’s Truck stop restrooms. They are always clean, I have found. Gas is usually less also there. When my family travels, we always look for a McDonalds or Wal-Mart for restrooms. Works for us.
Claudia Wade says
I have a problem with our local IHOPs too. Not as bad as what you experienced, but they have so little business that I worry about the freshness of what they serve. If they have so little business, I’m guessing their ingredients don’t turn over as often as I would like. Cracker Barrel is OK but everything except their breakfast dishes seems overcooked and bland. And, like someone else said, they are so noisy!
Dora, the quilter says
I can’t remember the last time I visited an IHOP, but I remember that I don’t visit because of horrible service. I find the same thing to be true of Village Inn Restaurants–I’ve been in only one that gave quality service. On the other hand, I have never been in a Cracker Barrel that didn’t give good service, even when the lines were out the door! However, I do know that Cracker Barrel has all sorts of quality controls in place in all their restaurants.
Laura says
That was incredibly rude of those IHop staff. We don’t have Cracker Barrels where I live, but we do have IHOPs. The service isn’t always stellar, but it’s a lot better than what you experienced!
Susan Torrens says
DH and I are also Cracker Barrel fans!
We recently stopped at a fast food place at dinnertime on a Sunday night. They were out of our first choice, and suggested another item – more $, but new on the menu. When we received our food, the serving was less than full, and the person laughed and said that she had to scrape the bottom of the container to get our servings! DH wrote an email to the company, and the manager of that location called, apologized, and invited us in for a free meal any time we were in the area!
She blamed it on summer student staff, but that is not an excuse.
Missy says
You should email IHOP and tell them what happened, give them a link to this post! They will probably give you a coupon for a free meal.
Linda says
I emailed them…didn’t even get a response!
Carolyn says
The last IHOP we went to was in Biloxi before Katrina – unfortunately it is no longer there but the service was great. The only Cracker Barrel we tried to eat at was in Herculeum. We were seated immediately in a room with patrons at 2 other tables. The wait staff repeatedly went past our table. When DH finished his 3rd cigarette I said lets go and picked up the menus and returned them to the hostess. When she asked how our lunch was we explained that we were never served. Manager immediately stepped in and said he would serve us himself. Sorry too late. We went across the street to Wendys. Just shows that its not the chain but the individual management.
Lee Ann L. says
I LOVE Cracker Barrel! While I stayed with Mother, I went to several different IHops and each one is different which is weird in my humble opinion.
Diana in TX says
We’ve had good and bad experiences at IHOP. Fortunately ours must have changed management as it has improved. Of course it also has a lot of competiton close by now. Have only had one bad experiece at a Cracker Barrel, that was a Sunday morning after 2 bus loads of people had just left.
the place was a mess. WE usually do stop at chains when traveling the interstates, off the Interstate we love to find the little local places. Glad you left that IHOP.
Linda Steller says
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? With all the people out of work these days, you’d think that folks who do have a job would be busting their butts. I had a banner made at Staples a few weeks ago. The advertising in the store and on the webpage (where I designed the banner while inside the store) said they were made while you wait. The gal at the counter took my order while ignoring the phone — I knew it was for her, because the intercom kept saying, ‘copy shop, line 1!’ Anyway, she couldn’t get it to total the sale and said I could pay for it when I came back to pick it up. I asked when it would be ready, as I needed it by 7:00 a.m. the next morning. She said, ‘well, I’ll try to get my co-worker to have it done before we close at 9 tonight.’ Harumph! I left, a little ticked and thinking about calling the manager. An hour later, I got a call telling me it was ready. Of course, by then, I was already on to doing something else!
Linda says
We have only been to iHop once…we were there nearly an hour – for breakfast. We never did get a meal and as we left several other families followed us out. The worst part was that I sent an email to iHop to tell them about our experience and didn’t even get a reply! I’m guessing we won’t ever get an iHop meal!
We do love Cracker Barrel! Unfortunately don’t have them in Ontario!
Alma says
The empty parking lot is a sure sign of a place to avoid. We follow that rule whenever we travel.
vickie van dyken says
10-4 on Cracker Barrel 🙂 I love the Waffle Houses, but Cracker Barrel rocks…I do like to shop when I go there 🙂 They have cute stuff. Ya when we go down to that area of the country we always try to find somewhere, not a Truck Stop, to eat at. The old story about getting good food where a lot of trucks are works…trouble is finding a parking spot for the house….
Glenda in Florida says
I think the management makes all the difference. The worst meal we had on a recent trip was at an IHOP in Carlsbad NM. It was brand new, and I’m sure the waitress we had received no training. But, it seems like she had never eaten a meal in a restaurant either–just clueless. I should have asked for the manager when I left, but hubby had already gone out to the car while I waited (and waited!)to get the check, and then to pay. But, the next week we tried another in Arizona, and it was great. Funny–that was our second bad restaurant experience in Carlsbad–I think they figure tourists won’t be back anyway, so why bother with good service.
Michelle says
I think our best story was stopping at the Denny’s in Moab and they were out of clean plates. ?!?!?! But they were trying very hard to sort it out as quickly as possible.
Either that or having the manager at a big burger chain literally THROW my food out the window at me while yelling at an employee over his shoulder…
Debra says
The best thing about Cracker Barrel, besides the food, is that the restrooms are always off the country store part of the building, so if you really need to go, you can dash in there before going into the restaurant. Or, if you don’t want to eat, you can just use the restroom and then browse the store for a bit. I almost always find something in the store I have to buy!
Susan says
I’m a Cracker Barrel fan, too! I’ve stopped at them all over this country and they are consistently good for both food and service.
AnnieO says
Good heavens, that is terrible! Any employees shouting across the restaurant would make me leave too. My sister refuses to eat in the entire state of OK when she is traveling, lol!
Linnie says
I love Cracker Barrel restaurants … service is good, food is very tasty and prices are reasonable … 5 Stars in my opinion!