What to order · Updated September 2026
What to Order at IHOP: Every Item, Judged
IHOP is a pancake company that spent twenty years convincing itself it was a diner. The pancakes are still the best thing it makes and still the cheapest plate it sells, which is an unusual position for a restaurant to be in and one it keeps trying to escape. Everything else on the page is an attempt to sell you a sixteen-dollar plate of eggs.
Two numbers explain most of this guide. A plain full stack runs $9.69. A specialty stack — same pancakes, plus compote and a rosette of whipped topping — runs $12.49. That $2.80 gap is the entire business model, and it is almost never worth paying. The other number is sodium: five of IHOP's combo plates clear 2,600mg, and the Country Fried Steak & Eggs hits 2,960mg on its own.
Sourcing, because it matters. Calories below are IHOP's own published figures, current to 2026, and pancake counts exclude syrup — each pour adds another 110. Prices come from a September 2026 snapshot of IHOP's online ordering menu at a single benchmark location. IHOP is franchised and prices move a dollar or two by market, so read these as a ranking of what costs what rather than a promise about your receipt.
Every item, judgedThe verdicts
Original Buttermilk Pancakes (full stack)
Order itThe dish the chain is named for, and the one it still does best. Under ten dollars puts you below every combo on the menu, and 520 calories leaves room to actually use the butter pecan syrup instead of rationing it. Each pour adds 110. Order these plain and buy a side with the difference.
Big Steak Omelette
Order itSixty-five grams of protein, steak, and hash browns folded inside the eggs — and the hash browns come out better here than they do on a plate. Sixteen-fifty is a lot to pay for eggs, but this is the only omelette that earns it.
Thick 'N Fluffy Classic French Toast
Order itIHOP rebuilt this around thick-cut bread and it is the rare chain remake that made the dish better. Reviewers keep landing on the word thick because that's the whole trick: the middle stays custardy instead of going to sponge. Nine hundred calories is not a rounding error, so split it or make it the day's event.
Veggie Egg White Omelette
Order itUnder 500 calories and enough spinach, mushrooms, tomato, and peppers that it doesn't eat like a punishment. Fourteen-thirty is steep for egg whites; nothing else on the omelette page is thinking this clearly.
Breakfast Sampler
DecentTwo eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, pancakes. Reviewers consistently land on satisfied rather than impressed, which is the right read — the meat doesn't taste frozen, but nothing on the plate is the best version of itself. A hangover order, not an argument for the kitchen.
Spicy Poblano Omelette
DecentDiners single this out more than any other egg dish here, and the poblano heat is present rather than implied. Seventy-seven grams of fat is the admission fee. It loses to the Big Steak Omelette on every number that matters and still wins at the table.
Chicken Florentine Crepes
DecentSavory crepes at a pancake house sounds like a mistake. It isn't — 54g of protein, chicken and spinach, and a plate that doesn't require a nap afterward. What keeps it out of the order column is 2,420mg of sodium, a full day's allowance before you've had lunch.
Strawberry Banana Pancakes
DecentThe fruit here is actually fruit. The Double Blueberry can't say that. Still $2.90 over the plain stack for glazed strawberries and a sliced banana you could have carried in your coat pocket.
Double Blueberry Pancakes
Skip itThe complaint is remarkably consistent: the blueberries are few and far between. That's a problem when the word double is in the name and you've paid $2.80 over the plain stack for it. Order the buttermilk stack and ask for blueberry syrup, which costs 110 calories and nothing else.
Fresh Berry Crepes
Skip itOne diner's account of what arrived: four folded crepes and sliced strawberries. No filling. No sauce. Fourteen dollars. The Cinnamon Bun Crepes cost the same and at least have the decency to admit they're dessert.
Colorado Omelette
Skip itNinety-nine grams of fat, the highest number on the omelette page and one of the highest anywhere in this chain. Bacon, shredded beef, sausage and ham inside an egg — that's a dare, not a breakfast. The Big Steak Omelette costs the identical $16.49 with 220 fewer calories and 31 fewer grams of fat.
Country Fried Steak & Eggs
Skip itThe largest calorie count on IHOP's breakfast menu, plus 2,960mg of sodium — a day and a quarter's worth in one sitting. It lands on every dietitian's worst-of list for a reason. If the craving is fried steak and gravy, the Country Fried Steak dinner delivers the same idea at 710 calories.
Frequently askedFAQ
What is the best thing to order at IHOP?
The plain Original Buttermilk full stack at $9.69. Nothing costs less, nothing is executed better, and every specialty pancake is that same pancake with about three dollars of topping added. If you want a full savory plate instead, the Big Steak Omelette at $16.49 is the only omelette worth its price.
Should I order IHOP's hash browns?
Not as a side. Hash browns are the most-complained-about item at IHOP, and the recurring theme isn't that they're bad but that they're unpredictable. One visit they're crisp; the next they're dry and tasting of whatever was on the grill before them. Ordered inside an omelette, where they steam rather than sit, they're consistently better.
Do IHOP's pancake calorie counts include syrup?
No. Published pancake numbers cover the stack and its standard toppings only; syrup is listed separately at 110 calories per serving, whether it's old-fashioned maple, butter pecan, blueberry or strawberry. A 520-calorie plain stack with two pours of syrup is really a 740-calorie plate.