IHOP: Back to an Old Love

On one lazy Sunday afternoon, my wife and I thought of going out on a date. And for a long time, we had our eye on IHOP, a restaurant we came to love because of our penchant for breakfast food, in the upscale Ayala Fairview Terraces. This is actually of the last few restaurants to open in this mall but the wait was well worth it.

This branch mirrors its outlet in SM Mall of Asia (MOA) in terms of cleanliness and service efficiency. The former, however, is not as spacious as the latter.

We took a long hard look at the menu when it was handed to us, weighed in on what to order, and finally decided on Breakfast Sampler and Split Decision Breakfast. There were notable changes in their menu. One, their Sirloin tips with eggs are cheaper by about P100. The butter pecan syrup was also not available anymore.

My favorite bottomless drink, the Tropical Island Twist, has been taken out of their offerings. This being the case, I just got myself a Splashberry – a blend of strawberry juice, lemon-lime soda and orange juice. I would still prefer Tropical Island Twist over this one but it was also refreshing and cleansing to the palate.

My Split Decision Breakfast Plate consisted of two sunny side up eggs which you can have scrambled or a combination of both, two strips of crispy bacon, two yummy pork sausages, two triangles of aromatic French toast and two Buttermilk pancakes which we upgraded to our favorite New York Cheesecake pancake for P75.

We love sharing whatever was not available on our plates. We get to enjoy a variety of food without having to order for two. For this meal, what was really notable was the French toast. It was richly creamy and buttery with a hint of cinnamon. I like mine with a dollop of syrup. We also loved the hash brown. It was crunchy and perfectly seasoned, unlike other hash browns that taste too starchy and bland.

For dessert, we dug into our favorite New Yok Cheesecake pancake. It was creamy, fluffy pancakes with generous chunks of cheesecake in it. It was topped with strawberry syrup which provided balance to the richness of the cheesecake. As usual, I doused my pancake slices with syrup.

We were also quite lucky that evening because Visa was running a promo. If you use your Visa card for paying, you get a 20% discount. For this hugely enjoyable meal, we paid only around P800. It was definitely a steal.

IHOP is indeed happiness. This is one of the restaurants that we would love to regularly visit.

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