International House of Pancakes

I'd have to say, my husband and I generally like IHOP and in the Houston area they are like Starbucks - one on every corner! Unfortunately, my IHOP store #1435 experience can be summed up with 3 words "worst-IHOP-ever". Since it's useless to complain without giving specifics, here's the laundry list. First off, "smoking or non-smoking?" asked in a bar-less eating facility is probably a bad (bad) sign in itself, but as we followed our server to our "non-smoking" table we could smell that there was no differentiation. It may as well have been "all-smoking" as everthing wreaked of cigarette smoke. The facility looked a bit old and worn with staining on the ceiling - not ideal for consuming food. The table and chairs weren't sticky (which can be an issue where syrup is served)and the service wasn't particularly bad - (no overt rudeness) but the servers generally looked unhappy. All things considered, they were nice enough. The pancakes however, were just shy of warm (wouldn't melt butter) - like they had been sitting around waiting for someone. My husband said his omelet was "not good" which means he was trying to give his eggs the benefit of the doubt. The syrup was warm however, allowing me to at least sample the pancakes which didn't taste nearly as bad as they looked. There are just too many IHOP's in the area to go to a gross one so this one is definitely off my list and I'd caution others to keep driving. It won't be long until you happen upon another little blue-roof that will probably delight. Hated to waste pancakes, but I couldn't eat but a few regrettable bites in this restaurant. Lesson learned - an IHOP that isn't jam-packed at noon on a Sunday is probably an IHOP from which everyone else already knows to stay away.