The IHOP is dead to me...dead!

The wife and I woke up this morning nostalgic for a breakfast at the table of the multi-flavored syrup caddy of the International House of Pancakes (IHOP). We had some errands to run - Home Depot, Joanne Fabrics, and Jungle Jim's - and headed out toward the Cincinnati Mills area for a stack of flapjacks.

Here's the problem, however...apparently, you can never go home again. Instead of the slightly dingy blue roof that we remember from childhoods around the country (mine in Clarksville, IN - hers all over the country), we found a nice, new, spiffy IHOP - no A-frame, no syrup caddies on the tables. We might've well been sitting at a Bob Evans with blue awnings. The hostess offered us a trio of specials - funnel cakes, instead of pancakes - which the waitress began to go through again until she saw the disinterest on our faces. She paused, and we asked her whether the funnel cakes were actually any good. Instead of a quick reassurance, she gave us a report on her diabetes and her surprisingly high sugar level last night. I'm not so much good with the chatterbox waitress concepts.

Then the food came. The sausage was fine, as were the eggs. The hash browns were nicely done, too - just like a good Waffle House order. And my cinnamon-roll french toast was tasty. Karlen's food was pretty much the same - except that she went for the big, fluffy pancakes - nasty if you ask me. I'm clearly more in favor of thin, crisp pancakes instead of the big, doughy pancakes that most restaurants sell. For me, if the batter doesn't pour from the spoon, then it's way too thick.

But the place was like the moon - no atmosphere at all. Instead of a place that we both remembered fondly, this was a restaurant anywhere in the US with nothing special at all. Could've been a Bob Evans, a Denny's, a Perkin's or just about any of a dozen other chain restaurants. Blech...

We won't be going back.

Call me a Waffle House man any day of the week...and twice at three in the morning...

PS - an interesting aside, it turns out that the IHOP chain has been going through a major redesign, trying to tie back into the nostalgia that apparently Karlen and I aren't the only ones with. Here's an article discussing the fact that Cincy is supposed to have been a part of this new roll out. Our store this morning didn't have any sort of A-frame, however.

And it appears that the folks in Deerfield Township look to not be adding an IHOP to their breakfast options any time soon.

And not everybody disliked their IHOP experience. This couple in Oakley gave it a fair rave.