Midtown Lunch

I have always overlooked IHOP for several reasons: my late night go to meal is always 13th St Pizza rather than hashbrowns, I am more of a dinner and lunch person rather than breakfast, and I can’t bring myself to frequent chain restaurants when great local spots are plentiful. But I was singing a different tune when I walked by and saw the sign advertising a Chicken and Waffles as a limited time offering.  I had to do it.

First, off the regular menu, a grilled chicken club was spruced up with a sun dried tomato pesto. It was actually decent.

The main event of the day, IHOP’s Chicken and Waffles ($9.99) is a loose interpretation of a decadent comfort food dish. What I was expecting was a  low brow but tasty version, and that’s truly what we got. It makes sense that IHOP would offer this, they have waffles and chicken on the menu, it’s about time they put them together. Rather than pieces of fried chicken breast, we got chicken tenders. I guess it is kind of a cop out, but what more can you expect. Luckily, these were the perfect version of diner style crunchy chicken tenders that you can’t help but love. Seriously, who doesn’t love chicken tenders?  They made me feel so nostalgic for the time when I could order without a care that I had to fight urges to get crayons and color on the table. I liked having the option of dipping them in honey mustard and IHOP syrup. The waffles were alright; they didn’t have much flavor and they could have have been crunchier on the outside and softer on the inside.  But the waffles serve as a nice backbone to place your chicken on, becoming a delightful, cohesive, lowbrow bite once covered in syrup.  Since IHOP displays the calorie count of each menu item, you know how bad you are being. 1000+ calories bad. And enough sodium that I could probably float in water. Thankfully,  a single slice of lettuce is there to balance out your meal.

I was glad to see that the place was kept really clean and the service was excellent. The chicken and waffles is a limited time thing, I was told it may be around for 2 more weeks, so if you are in the mood to be really bad, get to IHOP and indulge while you can.

IHOP, 1320 Walnut St, 215 732 1726