Monday, November 8, 2010

IHOP coming to Edmonton!

My mom and I take the usual way to work which is down the good ol' Gateway Boulevard north. I took notice of the new JYSK that had just opened this past Saturday in the South Park shopping area. Unfortunately, I was still sick in bed that morning so I couldn't take advantage of the fantastic deals. What I also noticed was an "Opening Soon..." sign that caught my eye immediately. IHOP is coming to town! Our very first one. IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes. They are from the States and offer an extensive menu of pancakes and other unique breakfast items. The first IHOP I saw was when I was in Santa Monica 3 years ago. I never tried it though, but soon, i'll (we'll) have our chance to!

23 comments:

  1. Absolutely incredible food for an incredible price. Friends and I make a point to stop every time we visit Seattle. Great "themed" items that change frequently. (Their Superbowl Menu is fantastic and hopefully they'll have a similar version for Canada!)

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  2. Wow, that's great! I look foward in trying it.

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  3. Every time we go the the US I always make sure we know where all the IHOP'S are in that city. Thier pancakes are the best. They have a great menu and all resonably priced. I can not wait until they open here in just 14 more days supposedly.

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  4. I already have a group of friends who are planning on coming with me on their grand opening. I've heard dates ranging from December 9-15, but we're on standby, waiting. :)

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  5. I drove by again today and saw IHOP almost ready to go-sign up, lights were all on. If I happen to drive by it, i'll take a closer look-or if someone happens to drive by it,let us know! Can't wait to try it!

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  6. Was driving home from wings and beer last night (a regular adventure for me is to find new places for that!) and stopped past the IHOP. They have signs in the window now saying they'll be opening December 20. Almost there!

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  7. Just realized that sounded bad! A friend was the one driving, and I convinced him to stop so I could read the sign. :)

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  8. Awesome. Thanks for the update thallanor :-)

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  9. I woke up early to be there for opening, but there are signs apologizing that they are not open, but will be shortly. I stopped later in the afternoon to confirm that it was not just that the signs were not taken down yet, and they were still there. I'll keep checking every day or two. Sisko was unloading food behind the restaurant, and judging from the Help Wanted signs everywhere, that might be the culprit behind the delay. I'm certain they're hoping to open prior to Christmas, so I hope it works out.

    Tomorrow is all you can eat sushi with friends, so I'll stop by IHOP again on the way home and see if there are any updates.

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  10. Thanks for the update thallanor-I drove by today but I forgot to look.

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  11. IHOP is now open. :)

    Sort of.

    Me and about one dozen people are sitting in the lobby while the staff are working to get the hood vents working. Apparently, they're frozen outside. No one's fault but nature's. :)

    Hopefully they can get going soon.

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  12. 7:30 AM and a technician just arrived. Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed. :)

    BTW, their normal hours are 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM until they have more staff. Normal IHOP hours are 6:00 AM - 11:00 PM at other IHOPs so I imagine they'll eventually get there. Some are 24 hours - that would be a nice alternative to the usual late night fare in Edmonton.

    Their sign says they're closed for Christmas but open other days.

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  13. Management apologized and informed everyone it might take one to two hours to get another technician to fix the problem. Everyone but me and five others left. Then two minutes later, the manager came out and told us they got it to work. Sucks for the others who left. :D

    Another ten to fifteen while things fire up, we're told.

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  14. Thanks for the update again-I'll have to try it one day, when all this Christmas and New Year's binging dies down...

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  15. All the familly went yesterday, the food was really bad , old and lots of people complain and we inform the manager and she didn't care, it is croweded.
    Don't go there if you want to enjoy a good meal and services

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  16. That is weird. I have gone to IHOP in Edmonton on two occasions and have had really good experiences.

    When I first went, they had issues with the range hoods in the kitchen, but once they were cleared up, the food was very good. The coffee was too strong, but offset with cream, and the toast needed more butter, which they provided to me, but the rest of the meal was fantastic. I ordered eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and cinnamon pancakes. The sausage looked rather unappealing, but tasted absolutely incredible. They do not use a casing, and sometimes sausages like that will look more like something the neighbour's dog left on the lawn, but that is generally what they look like. It's just rare to see a restaurant serving them, in my experience. The eggs were done to my liking, the hashbrowns were good and flavourful, and the pancakes were perfection, drizzled with a cinnamon sauce, then drizzled with a cream cheese icing sauce, and then topped with whipped cream.

    By the time I had completed my meal, the crowd filled the lobby and was stretched out the door. You cannot fault a business for being popular. This was not unexpected and has been predicted for over a month prior to their opening. To their credit, when I have been there, I have counted no less than seven greeters and twenty servers. It took four minutes for my waitress to find me, because it was their second day and she had table numbers confused, and she apologized profusely. Just two days ago, I waited over ten minutes at a Boston Pizza location for a server to arrive, and finally left. And this was at a location I have traditionally had excellent service at. My point is that things happen, and based on my experiences, and the experiences of others who have gone, IHOP is doing a lot more right than they are doing wrong.

    I am curious though, that with them being that busy, how you somehow managed to get old food served to you? I would think the kitchen would be cooking as fast as they can and firing orders out to clear the queue.

    Just my two cents.

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  17. I re-read your comment and have a quick item to note. You mentioned that you spoke to the manager and she didn't care.

    I am pretty certain that the manager and the owner are male. They interviewed both of them two weeks ago, and I spoke to him when he apologized to the crowd about the kitchen not opening because of the range hoods.

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  18. We ate at IHOP in Edmonton on Jan 2 and honestly it was the worst experience I have ever had. We expected it to be crazy busy so we were prepared to wait and we did for over an hour but were sitting down so we were fine. However the food was a disaster!!! The portions were very small not like the restaurants in the states at all. My order was wrong three times, my daughters pancakes looked like they had been cooked three hours earlier and warmed up in a microwave. We sent them back to the kitchen by they were never replaced. The only good part of our meal was a young biased by the name of Usoma he made up for our incredibly overwhelmed and under trained server. He seemed to be the only one on the ball in our section. From what we were able to hear from
    other patrons around us was no one minded
    the wait, but once there food was delivered the substandard food that looks nothing like there menu pictures they all seemed
    to be greatly disapointed. When one orders strawberry banana pancakes and there are no banana to be found anywhere on the plate you have to wonder if the kitchen stafff is familiar with the menu items. We might try it again
    six months from now and see if they have worked the kinks out but till
    then we will not be back!

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  19. Next time I go to IHOP, I need to go with a group of you people, to either show that the food can be good, or to show me that it can be bad, either way. :)

    I went again yesterday, and by coincidence, also ordered the strawberry banana pancakes with my meal. Not only were there bananas and strawberries on the pancakes, but bananas were cooked into the batter too.

    The only downside yesterday was that we kept running out of cream and coffee, but after the second time, our server brought a huge bowl full of creamers.

    Maybe I'll wait until I can go with a larger group of foodies. :)

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  20. I wish we had your experience! I will be honest my husband ordered the cinnastack pancakes and they are very good, it is the one thing that will bring us back in six months.

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  21. Looks like everyone has had different experiences here. I have yet to go (I just love cooking too much!)

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  22. Hopefully your experience is good. It's also important to remember the cost. Yes, there are smaller restaurants with good food and lower prices, but in general, compared to Denny's and other similar restaurants (hurk, Humptys, huuurk) it's very comparable.

    I love cooking, but I finished The Biggest Loser at work and had a backlog of restaurants to check out. :) Usually make Turducken for Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, but made prime rib with a mushroom Rosemary gravy this year. :)

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  23. Me and my husband and 2 kids (5 and 2) went to IHOP on boxing day. Yes it was busy but we were able to get in within a half an hour and we did order different types of food and all of our food came out within a half an hour and it was Hot and the portions were really good(i couldn't finish mine i had the bacon temptation omelet) my kids were well entertained and yes there were times that they wanted to run and thankfully IHOP had the space for them to do that where they were not in the way. over all we had a really good meal and a really good experience there and we are going again for our eldest son's birthday because he likes waffles and pancakes

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