Review: International House of Pancakes (IHOP) Stuffed French Toast
Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Food Reviews, Location: Fishers, IN
International House of Pancakes
9750 North by Northeast Boulevard
Fishers, Indiana 46037
http://www.ihop.com/
Over the years, I’ve seen a ton of IHOP commercials but have not been to one often (maybe not ever) because the nearest IHOP location to me was at least a twenty minute drive away. With Denny’s, Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel all within five minutes of my house, I really didn’t have the motivation to drive that far for a similar chain breakfast. When this IHOP location opened five minutes from my house within the past month, I knew it was time to finally break the seal.
What I Got: Stuffed French Toast Combo; $7.49.
Since I’m too lazy to type out the description, I’ll just ”borrow” the text from IHOP’s menu page: “Cinnamon raisin French toast with a sweet cream filling, crowned with your choice of cool strawberry topping, warm blueberry or cinnamon apple compote and whipped topping. Served with two eggs, hash browns, two bacon strips or two pork sausage links.” For my purposes, I chose the cinnamon apple compote and the two pork sausage links.
First, let’s go with what I’m going to call the “accoutroments” (i.e. the basic breakfast stuff) in the eggs, hash browns and sausage links. I got my eggs scrambled and they were pretty much what you’d expect. It was the same with the hash browns and the sausage links. There was nothing special or memorable about them and that’s why I didn’t bother to include them in my picture.
The real main attraction of the dish was the Stuffed French Toast. I’ve had French Toast countless times in my life, but never stuffed French Toast. I’ve seen countless food programs where they make stuffed french toast and I’ve always wanted to eat my television while watching, so I was pretty excited for this one. When it was delivered to my table, I thought that while it looked good, I was less than impressed with the size. It was two small pieces of toast with filling and toppings. I would have expected two monster pieces of toast when you are trying to make something the star of the show. Not off to a good start here.
As far as taste was concerned, I would rate it as slightly above average. The toast was well cooked/toasted and it did taste pretty solid. It was a little dry for my liking, but that could be fixed with one of IHOP’s five syrup options, which inlude Original, Sugar Free, Blueberry, Strawberry and Butter Pecan. Perhaps I’m a rube (I am), but I had no idea they offered multiple syrup options. I tried every single one of them and chose the Butter Pecan because it was weird, yet appealing. It really did save the dryness of the toast for me. The sweet cream filling was tasty, but very runny. I was expecting something a little more solid to hold the toast together. Still, it wasn’t horrible. The only true negative in this entire order was the cinnamon apple compote. I LOVE cinnamon and I especially love cinnamon apple compote, but this did not taste fresh, nor was it warmed up at all. It was cold and tasted like it had been spooned straight out of the can. Frankly, it went from me sort of liking this stuffed French Toast to deciding that it was just “blah.”
Would I Buy It Again? Stuffed French Toast…not from here. IHOP…yes. Heck, it’s breakfast and there are a million options, why not go there? There’s got to be something decent on the menu, right? For next time, I’ve got my eyes on the breakfast funnel cakes, assuming they still have them when I go.
In terms of IHOP though, it’s pretty much the exact same as Denny’s. You can get a decent meal for a semi-decent price, but don’t expect any culinary masterpieces…that definitely includes this Stuffed French Toast. I guess I’ll just have to go back to the drawing board to find another place that does this incredibly appealing dish right.
-IndianapolisEater
Tags: apples, Breakfast, cinnamon, denny's, eggs, Food, french toast, hash browns, ihop, international house of pancakes, sausage, syrup
What happened to their Boysenberry syrup? I’m glad to see they added the Sugar-Free option, but the one reason I kept going back to the IHOP on 56th St (and the one on 82nd before it closed) was for the Boysenberry syrup. Boo on you, IHOP!!!!
@Josh: Maybe they still have it, but I could have just missed it.
You have to try the pancakes next time! I think all of the IHOPs have a million flavors to choose from…I love the Harvest Nut n Grain pancakes (I get them topped with fruit). They are really flavorful and yummy, and actually go great with the butter pecan syrup. Also don’t know if they have this flavor anymore, but they had strawberry cheesecake pancakes that had strawberries and sweet cream cheese in them, those rocked!
They still have boysenberry… They tend to mix up the bottles so depending on what table you are at you get a slightly different variety. If you ask they would have grabbed you one from another table. Personally I’m not a huge Ihop fan as Dennys always has great coupons and is a lot cheaper for about the same quality but I LOVE their cinn-a-stack pancakes. If you like cinnamon rolls you should try this on the next time!
@Linda: I’m very curious to try the Cinn-a-stack pancakes. Actually, it was between those and the stuffed french toast on my most recent visit. I chose the toast and obviously chose the wrong one.
@Kayleigh: All of the pancake options were making my mouth water and I’ll definitely be going that way for future visits.
My problem with IHOP has always been the small size of their pancakes and that it is relatively expensive compared to other breakfast places or diners
My mom raves about IHOP’s multigrain pancakes, so if you’re into that sort of thing that might be an item to try.
@Brent: I can totally see that. I was helped by the fact that I had a coupon that entitled me to a free breakfast because I signed up for their e-mail list. That certainly eased the pain.
Just noticed how deceptive the picture of the french toast is. It looks huge so some people might think you’re crazy when you talk about the portion size, but that’s only because the plate is smaller than it actually appears. I think IHOP tends to take advantage of that in their commercials as well.
Definitely go for the cinna-stack pancakes next time, they’re very tasty. I’m just disappointed they don’t have the banana nut pancakes anymore, they used to be my favorite. The chocolate pancakes are pretty good as well.
So here’s a question. If you’ve drooled over stuffed pancakes for years but never had them, what made you chose a mediocre-at-best chain restaurant for your first experience? I’d think if you decided “I’m gonna try X today”, you’d look for the best representation of it you could find……at least I would.
I think $7.50ish is getting a little pricy for breakfast, especially when you factor in a tip. The wife and I were on vacation and decided to hit up Waffle House twice. This was the first time I had been to the current Waffle House set-up: Small footprint restaurant, food cooked in view (mostly), etc.. My brother said they were good, so we opted to try them. After tip, it was around an $18ish breakfast. I know some folks think that for breakfast service, leaving $2 is plenty. I consider the meal the same as dinner, and since I get full service, I tip the customary 18-20%. To me, this is just too much for breakfast. About two months ago I hit up a Denny’s and their similar meal was a few dollars cheaper. Not only that, Denny’s sends me coupons, as does Steak ‘N Shake.