IHOP or International House of Pancakes is one of those places that I am surprised by; surprised that they’re still in business.
Unless you live in an area that has limited or no food options other than IHOP, I cannot think of a reason to ever go there. Unfortunately I have been to their restaurants plenty of times from Washington to Florida, but I am always disappointed over the food and feel robbed on the prices for what you get.
Kari signed me up for their birthday club and so I received a free meal voucher. Kari had breakfast food in which the pancakes were blah in a pancake house, the bacon was greasy and underdone, and the eggs seemed to be powdered. In fact the only thing good with Kari’s meal was the French toast and flavored syrups.
I had chicken strips and fries. The chicken was so overcooked and dry that it was almost impossible to eat. I asked the waitress if this was normal, and requested new strips. She returned a few minutes later with perfectly cooked chicken strips. They were golden and juicy, but tasted terrible and way over seasoned. The point being, where are the standards? Why did they not create perfectly cooked food the first time (not including the seasoning issues)? Do people not complain and so the restaurant has no standards, or is that one expects from IHOP?
This place sucks, and if you are looking for a place like this go to Denny’s, because the food is better and you get more for your money.
The “Know Your Neighbor”
section of Chris Allred Design has reached into the heart of Germany and found
a winner. Nenad Lucic is a talented actor and animal activist. You may
recognize him as the person who saved Academy Award winner Dame Helen Mirren’s
life in “The Last Station”.
Please follow this link to
the Chris Allred Design website to learn more about one of our neighbors in
Germany: http://chrisallreddesign.com/menu-styles/know-your-neighbor/273-know-your-neighbor-nenad-lucic
As you may recall, there is a new
section on chrisallreddesign.com called “Know Your Neighbor” where we ask the same
10 questions to different people from around the world. I thought that it would
be fitting that I share first.
- Name and short biography that you want people to know about you? My name is Chris Allred and I am the founder and owner of Chris Allred Design. One of the reasons that I started my company was because I want to reach out and touch the lives of people, to make a positive difference in their lives, and give people an advantage in life by teaching them to help themselves. I grew up in a poor area, and understand that nothing in life is free. Chris Allred Design is not about hand-outs, but giving a helping hand to help make your life whatever you want it to be. Years ago I was fortunate enough to work with high school students; the first time that I actually truly reached a student, I saw that student’s life change in a moment and their family’s future was brighter than ever before. I have also been fortunate enough to reach adults who had given up on their education and dreams years ago. It is never too late to make your life your own. If I wanted to share anything it was that, and that is what Chris Allred Design is all about.
- Where did you grow up? Wapato, WA
- What is one of your fears? Failing as a parent.
- What is one of your goals in life? To be able to give my wife whatever she wants.
- What do you like best about being you? Why? It is a toss-up between being positive and being creative. I honestly and sadly believe that being negative is human nature, and that naturally being positive is rare. I am not saying that I am always in a good mood, but I try and look at the brighter side of a situation and try to put myself in someone else’s shoes. I believe that my gift in life is creativity. I am not talking about creating art, but being able to see things differently and being able to think outside of the box.
- What is one thing that you would change about you? Why? Time management! One of the drawbacks to being creative is that I constantly have ideas going through my mind; too many for me to accomplish in a lifetime. I always say that I am great at starting projects…
- What is your favorite snack or dessert? That’s a tough one for me because I love food so much, but the answer is, and will always be, French fries.
- What is your favorite movie? Why? I actually have two, but for different reasons. The first being “Hoodwinked”. I love to watch movies from the point of view of the writers, and if the idea was good regardless if the movie was good or not; I still claim it as a win because it’s not the writer’s fault the movie bombed (in most cases). Movies that tell the same story from different perspectives has been numerous times, but I really like how it came together in “Hoodwinked”. My other favorite movie is “Eurotrip”, but don’t ask me why because there is absolutely no reasonable explanation for anybody to like this movie (at one point we owned three copies of it).
- If you could have dinner with 3 people (dead or alive), who would they be? Of course I would say my wife, but that is against the rules. I would also love to say Jamie Oliver, Chuck Hughes, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall because they are huge inspirations to me, but I won’t. My actual answer is (see how I did that to get more than one answer) Charles Luciano, Ronald Reagan, and Mark Twain. All these men are great for different reasons, lived during different times (Twain and Luciano cross over a bit), and helped make our world what it is today.
- What is the last gift or present you gave to somebody? I believe the last actual “gift” gift were lunchboxes filled with travel snacks for our nieces. We spent hours looking for the right lunchboxes, and after resorting to Plan B we found a suitable alternate and filled them with snacks. All that mattered was that they were happy.
My friends over at Restorz-It have this great product for restoring wood finish; in fact it “is the only finish that has been developed to be applied over any existing finish”. They’re a little mom-and-pop business, and so I am helping spread the word because I know how hard it is for a small business to compete in today’s economy.
Check them out at: www.restorzit.com/?rep=2&src=5
Check this out…
I have teamed up with my
closest and greatest of friends, Kevin McFate, who has this historical
and Biblical timeline created by his Great-Grandfather, Ammon McFate
(pictured). But to tell you more, here are the words of my great friend Kevin, taken directly from his site: www.mybibletimeline.com/?rep=2&src=5
“Hello, My name is Kevin McFate, I am the Great-Grandson of Ammon M.
McFate, who was the visionary Historian that brought to us this very
unique Bible Timeline Chart. This timeless masterpiece has been handed
down from father to son for four generations. It is very important to
protect and preserve the integrity of this one of a kind work.
My
Great-Grandfather first conceived the idea of this chart around 1900.
Most of the rest of his life was devoted to developing the chart. He
painstakingly researched and collected information from many sources
throughout the 1920's, 30's, 40's, and finally began marketing the chart
in the 1950's. He found there was great public interest in this unique
tool that provided such an easy educational approach to history. Ammon
M. McFate passed away in 1962. The world truly lost a brilliant mind and
a great historian.
The McFate Family has been marketing the Bible
History Timeline for many years. However, I personally became interested
and intrigued with the Chart a few years ago. I decided to bring it up
to date, add more information and with the technology now available,
improve the aesthetics of the Chart. The updated font is much clearer
and easier to read. The revised graphics and colors of the new Timeline
enhance any home or office decor. It was quite an ambitious project, but
the results have made the painstaking and tedious work well worth the
effort.”
Like I have said in past reviews and to everyone that knows me, Red Robin has been my favorite go to joint for years and years, until today.
There is this question that has been floating around forever that asks, “Can one person really make a difference?” The answer is yes, and in this case that is not a good thing because that one person ruined a perfectly delicious relationship.
Kari and I went to Red Robin in the Vancouver Mall area to have lunch and celebrate my birthday. Our waitress seemed to be a terrible person, not to mention a bad hostess. I like to look at the bright side of things and tried to put myself in her shoes as in she may have be having a bad day, which is never an excuse in a customer service setting. Nevertheless, I did not pay too much attention to the bad attitude. The annoying part for me was the fact that she kept forgetting things and I had to ask for the same items 2 or 3 times; once or twice is ok, but after that there is a level of not caring on her part and annoyance on mine.
Our waitress made Kari cry. We have been eating at Red Robin for 20 years, and as dumb as it sounds when we were looking to areas to move before settling here, restaurants like Red Robin were part of the decision making factor. Kari likes to order their crispy chicken salad with tortilla strips, which it doesn’t normally come with. She has been ordering this salad for as long as I can remember, and at lots of different locations. Never once has it been an issue until today. Our waitress informed Kari that the salad doesn’t come with tortilla strips but she would add them on. Perfect! However, the rudeness and forgetfulness continued through our meal, but we survived.
Kari asked for more tortilla strips, and the waitress said that she couldn’t do that without reprinting our ticket, which we did not have yet. What? The waitress explained that she just transferred from the Mill Plain location and that this location does a lot of things wrong (I do not want to be a captive audience while you trash your employer to complete strangers while at work). If we wanted more tortilla strips she would have to put an order in, redo our ticket, and charge us $0.75. Kari, who was shaken but surprisingly calm, explained that she has been ordering this same salad for years and at no point was she ever hassled or charged for tortilla strips. The waitress said that wasn’t her problem and explained that things done wrong in the past do not need to continue in the future.
Kari started to cry as she was lectured, and I was speechless as to what was happening. I was pissed, but I did not yell or get into a confrontation with the waitress because that would not have helped anything at that point. Instead, I asked for boxes to go; actually I asked 3 times in total because her memory did not get any better with this ordeal.
When our waitress came back she brought a large to go container filled with tortilla strips, as in she was trying to prove a point. Kari refused them because she did not want to pay for them and at that point Kari just wanted to leave. Our server said that even though it was against the rules we could have these at no charge because she was “just going to throw them away anyway”, and she would not charge us for the original tortilla strips per her manager.
My burger was free, because it is my birthday. I wasted my free burger because I did not get to enjoy the experience of my favorite restaurant with my perfect date. Plus I did not get my free birthday ice cream because we did not to be there anymore. Total waste…bad service, bad atmosphere, bad experience!
Was this experience enough to make me hate Red Robin? Yes! Will I feel like that forever? I don’t know; we have 20 years together. Maybe if we do go back it will be to the Mill Plain location because I know that waitress is not there (I know because she told us while bad mouthing her current employer).
To cure a cough, take a hair from the coughing person’s
head, put it between two slices of buttered bread, feed it to a dog and say, “Eat
well you hound, may you be sick and I be sound”.
