One of the latest US franchises to reach Philippine shores is IHOP, formerly known as International House of Pancakes.  As a food lover, I’m always open to trying out new things, and IHOP was naturally included in my “must try” list.

I’ve heard mixed reactions when it came to the lone IHOP store in the Philippines so I was out to find out for myself if it was good or it was just all publicity, but I had to wait this long before my first visit: the queue outside the store was crazy!  I had to wait until all the hype subsided and, as I expected, the long queues will eventually “normalize.”

It was just fortunate that I was in Bonifacio High Street with a buddy when hunger struck us.  Decided to try something new for a change, we figured we try out IHOP and find out if the queues were justified.  Luckily for us there were no queues, and a table was available for us without waiting.  I haven’t been exactly known to have patience to wait a long time in queues.

IHOP specializes in breakfast foods.  I’ve always believed that a good breakfast can be served any time of the day, and IHOP does just that.  They have a wide variety of breakfast items to choose from: pancakes, crepes, omelettes, waffles, toasts, etc. but they also serve main courses.  But since it’s my first time at IHOP it’s a must that I tried their pancakes.  And so I went with Big Steak Omelette (strips of steak, hash browns, fresh green peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheddar cheese, served with salsa) which comes with a serving of pancakes.  You may add ₱50 to upgrade your regular pancake to one of their special flavors, but I opted to stick to the regular one because a good pancake is good even with just butter and good old maple syrup!  My buddy got International Crepe Passport Combo (crepe served with two eggs, two bacon strips and two pork sausage links), opting for the Strawberry Banana Danish Fruit Crepe flavor.

Aside from breakfast, IHOP also serves coffee, juices, and sodas (all “bottomless” except for the juices) but what intrigued me were their “Splashers” which basically are concoctions made of sodas mixed with juice.  For my first trial, I got myself a Splashberry (strawberries, lemon-lime soda and orange juice) which is also “bottomless.”  What’s nice about IHOP’s refillable drinks is that instead of getting my empty glass to refill, they just serve me another filled glass, as it is normally done in the US.

Taste

IHOP’s food were actually pretty good.  The serving size of the Big Steak Omelette wasn’t crazy huge (from a Filipino perspective as per “standard” American serving) but is just about enough.  It comes with a serving of pancakes so together they could be quite filling.  As per IHOP’s signature pancakes, I just don’t know if it’s on purpose but their pancakes’ top and bottom part separates like a sandwich, and nothing notable about the taste (a bit too bland for me).  Fortunately, there are three syrups to choose from to enhance the taste (but I still prefer the “Old Fashioned” maple syrup though).

The Strawberry Banana Danish Fruit Crepe was really good and it was pretty heavy as International Crepe Passport Combo which comes with two pieces of eggs, bacon and pork sausage links.  Nothing out of the ordinary as per the eggs and bacon (although you could ask for your eggs to be scrambled if you prefer).  The pork sausage links though was quite a surprise as it’s probably the smallest sausage I’ve ever seen anywhere!

The Splashberry was really delightful as it comes with real strawberries, and it was “bottomless.”  I liked the fact that they gave another filled glass instead of refilling my empty glass so I always got new strawberries with my refill.  I just wish though they had more options, preferably non-soda based.

Verdict

Coming to IHOP was quite a pleasant experience for us as we were really stuffed!  The serving size is much bigger than the usual Philippine servings but stops short of becoming the crazy ones of America.  The food was quite good and there were many varieties, but it’s not something that I would fall in line for.  The price is subjective, depending on where you’re coming from, but the portions just about make the prices reasonable.  The service was pretty good when we came so I could pretty much recommend IHOP, only if you don’t have to wait. 😀

IHOP Philippines is located at W Global Center, 30th Street cor 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig