IHOP Says Opening at Siam Paragon on April 16

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

20 hours ago, tutsiwarrior said:

but no chorizo and scrambled with rice, beans and corn tortillas and fresh salsa???

 

sheddd....and before 11am no beer to go with it???

 

 

And why would you expect any of that at an IHOP restaurant in Thailand?

 

Or, just being typically curmudgeonly??? 

 

PS - if you look at the omelet/omelette section of the menu I posted above, you'll see they will in fact offer a chicken fajitas omelet.  Of course, this IHOP hasn't actually opened yet and thus I haven't tried and can't recommend it. But it's at least a bit (pleasantly) surprising to see on an IHOP menu in Thailand.

 

Just be thankful that they actually have/offer real hash browns.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BTW, another key indicator to me of what to make of the coming Siam Paragon full menu branch of IHOP will be what kind of bacon they serve -- real U.S. style bacon strips, or the horrible, tasteless, soggy stuff that some of the big fast food outlets here use on their "bacon" hamburgers.

 

Thus far, the IHOP branch with the limited menu in the basement of Paragon has been a mix of good and not so good:

 

the good-- prices are reasonable for an import brand, pancakes are reasonably authentic, they have the standard IHOP selection of flavored pancake syrups on the tables, some of the serving staff speak decent English, and they actually don't charge a mandatory 10% service charge unlike most restaurants in BKK. And they have reasonably authentic U.S. style hash browns.

 

the not so good-- no fresh OJ, only the watery non-refrigerated cartoned Thai stuff, a tendency to use some kind of fake cheese sauce on their omelets instead of actual/real melted cheese, no flavored hot teas available, just plain black Lipton only, and they only recently seem to have gotten actual IHOP style hot coffee/tea pitchers.

 

For me, call me a sucker, I'd go there just to have their hash browns. But for a breakfast food focused place, the lack of any fresh fruit juices and any decent hot tea (I'm not including black Lipton under the category of decent) are disappointments that could be easily remedied by management with relatively little trouble.

 

[tutsiwarrior]

23 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

And why would you expect any of that at an IHOP restaurant in Thailand?

 

Or, just being typically curmudgeonly??? 

 

PS - if you look at the omelet/omelette section of the menu I posted above, you'll see they will in fact offer a chicken fajitas omelet.  Of course, this IHOP hasn't actually opened yet and thus I haven't tried and can't recommend it. But it's at least a bit (pleasantly) surprising to see on an IHOP menu in Thailand.

 

Just be thankful that they actually have/offer real hash browns.

 

Thailand? I thought that those little brown skinned folks outside were mexicans...oh, well...

 

real hash browns sounds nice...I'd pay a visit for those alone...

 

 

[tutsiwarrior]

pachuco grill man with pompadour and shades at work at the breakfast place in Venice, CA late 70s...he's got 10 orders on the go and is in control with no wasted motion...one side of the grill is all hash browns, occasionally douse with melted butter then flip with an effortless spatula to expose the golden fried promise of delight...

 

oh, man...

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Passed by the 4th floor Siam Paragon IHOP restaurant this afternoon and they were actually cooking and serving there -- but just doing training and not open to the public yet.

 

The staff there told me the 4th floor restaurant will open to the public this coming Friday, Feb. 16.

[reenatinnakor]

Like with everything else they try and bring here from abroad... It will taste absolutely nothing like the original. The Sizzlers and McDonald's here are a joke.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, reenatinnakor said:

Like with everything else they try and bring here from abroad... It will taste absolutely nothing like the original. The Sizzlers and McDonald's here are a joke.

 

Have you actually eaten at the current IHOP cafe in the basement of Siam Paragon that's already been open for months already?

 

There certainly are some differences between the basement IHOP and the typical U.S. IHOP. But overall, as someone who eats a lot at IHOP when back in the U.S., the Thai version thus far is doing pretty decent.

 

The pancakes and french toast themselves are pretty authentic for IHOP. But some real weaknesses are cartoned shelf Thai OJ with ice cubes instead of fresh cold OJ, lack of any herbal or flavored hot teas, some kind of fake cheese sauce on their omelets instead of/in addition to simple melted real shredded cheese.

 

It'll be possible to make a better overall judgment starting this Friday when the 4th floor full menu restaurant opens for the first time... as opposed to the basement limited menu pancake focused cafe.

 

[balo]

300 baht for pancakes ? No thanks....

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

8 hours ago, balo said:

300 baht for pancakes ? No thanks....

 

That's not the price for their range of pancake entrees. They start under 200 baht and typically top out in the low 200s, depending on which variety you choose.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The full menu IHOP on the 4th floor of Siam Paragon opened on Friday with absolutely no fanfare or even any public announcement that I could find. But the wife and I went there for brunch, and had a pleasant although not quite perfect meal, at pretty reasonable prices.

 

 

The new IHOP is kind of at the far back end of the mall in the section called Food Passage. Kind of oddly, unlike the downstairs mostly pancake focused IHOP cafe in the basement, the 4th floor full-menu IHOP seems to have opted for an odd assortment of tables -- some tall like you'd find in a bar (as shown in the foreground in the above photo), and quite a few others very short, almost children's height (as shown in the background above). Not sure what's going on with that.

 

But at any rate, the food was pretty good and relatively consistent with what you'd expect from an IHOP restaurant in the U.S.  Also unlike the basement version, the 4th floor full menu restaurant seems to have populated their serving staff with a fair number of Filipino guys, including the manager. So it's not hard to get an English speaking staff there, although they also have a lot of Thai young women staff as well.

 

They also have made some improvements along the way. Whereas the basement cafe originally had bleehh black Lipton's as their only hot tea choice, the 4th floor restaurant has expanded that to include English Breakfast, Earl Grey and Jasmine Green Tea as available options. But still no fresh orange juice, or any fresh fruit juice on the menu at this point, which strikes me as very odd for any breakfast venue, much less an IHOP.

 

As for the food, here's what we had:

 

I took advantage of the main advantage of the 4th floor restaurant over the basement version, in that they can fix menu items with fried eggs and meats, etc. So I ordered their 295b Create Your Best Combo (CYBC) breakfast that includes your choice of any two flavored pancakes, two eggs, two bacon or sausage, and a side of hash browns. I also ordered an extra side of hash browns for 50b more.

 

 

 

One other piece of good news about the new 4th floor venue is not only are they serving bacon, but they're serving pretty good American style bacon -- unlike the limp tasteless alleged bacon some of the burger places around here use. The bacon at IHOP isn't crispy or firm, but it does have a nice flavor to it. So kudos to IHOP for paying attention to those kinds of details.

 

The wife had their standard chocolate chip pancakes for 185b, which is an order of two pancakes, which is their standard serving portion regardless of which flavor you pick. Neither of us want fake whipped cream on our pancakes, so we always ask them to skip it. But if we hadn't, both of these pancake photos here would have come with the spritz of fake whipped cream on the top. And they'll also add a scoop of ice cream for an extra charge if you're into that kind of thing on your pancakes.

 

 

Like downstairs in the basement, the 4th floor tables come with the standard assortment of flavored IHOP pancake syrups and a bottle of Tabasco sauce for your eggs, if requested.

 

 

The only downside of our entire meal was both of my original hash brown orders came out of the kitchen not at all hot, cooked, but almost cool temperature. So I called the wait staff explained the problem, and they quickly took away the initial two slabs of hash browns and returned a few minutes later with a new, different pair of hash brown slabs, both piping hot. So I suspect, the chefs in the kitchen are still learning their new duties.

 

All in all, breakfast for the wife and I, with plenty of food, came to 663 baht. IHOP charges VAT but no service charge, and accepts standard bank cards for payment.

 

 

I posted photos of the menu for the 4th floor IHOP in a prior post in this thread.

 

 

 

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Everything on that menu looks dreadful.

 

Must be murican thing that I don't get.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Everything on that menu looks dreadful.

 

Must be murican thing that I don't get.

no baked beans and grilled tomatoes on the menu, sorry. Gotta look elsewhere for those delicacies.

[Ulysses G.]

2 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Everything on that menu looks dreadful.

 

Must be murican thing that I don't get.

Lots of good stuff on there. I also like British breakfasts though.

[balo]

Still 295 baht + VAT for an American breakfast incl. pancakes.  When you know the local prices of eggs , flour etc here. But you pay for the location , if it tastes great then good for you. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

26 minutes ago, balo said:

Still 295 baht + VAT for an American breakfast incl. pancakes.  When you know the local prices of eggs , flour etc here. But you pay for the location , if it tastes great then good for you. 

 

FWIW, you could pay virtually the same price (about $10) for the same breakfast at any IHOP in the States, if you were ordering off their regular menu as opposed to one of their recurring promotions.

 

Or for that matter, look around Bangkok for any restaurant that serves any kind of comparable western breakfast with similar/comparable elements, and see what the prices are going to be. It's not out of range for a good western breakfast here.

 

 

 

[tutsiwarrior]

I'd say: hold the eggs, pancakes and the bacon and substitute everything with hash browns...and coffee, please...

 

when I first got to the UK the then wife said: 'scrambled eggs??? hmmm...' and then she fumbled about with a pot...and I said to stand clear and used the frying pan like most civilized folks do...and she said: 'that's an omelet, not scrambled eggs!...' and then she was wantin' tomatoes, beans, black pudding and etc...and I endured some years of her ignorance and then ended up in the middle east with labneh, pickles and arabic bread fer brekkie...which isn't half bad...presently a bowl of pork mama noodles will do me...

 

until I get down to the IHOP and get me some of them hash browns...

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 hours ago, tutsiwarrior said:

until I get down to the IHOP and get me some of them hash browns...

 

At 50 baht per order, it's an indulgence you (and I) can easily enjoy.

 

BTW, from talking to the staff at the basement limited menu IHOP, it appears that they're also going to continue to offer hash browns as a 50 baht side order, even though it's not currently listed on their menu (which is of course different than the 4th floor full menu location).

 

But of course, the basement location doesn't have many of the things offered on the 4th floor, including bacon, sausage, the same range of omelets and various other stuff.

 

 

 

[Rhys]

...  set up for major disappointment.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

19 hours ago, Rhys said:

...  set up for major disappointment.

Why?

 

[balo]

They are hoping a lot of tourists will drop by , can't be cheap rent in one of the busiest malls in Bangkok. But I wish them good luck. Maybe hi-so Thais want to experience something new.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

42 minutes ago, balo said:

They are hoping a lot of tourists will drop by , can't be cheap rent in one of the busiest malls in Bangkok. But I wish them good luck. Maybe hi-so Thais want to experience something new.

 

Can't speak to the new 4th floor venue since it's just opened, except to say that its prices are comparable to those for the same menu items in the basement partial menu IHOP cafe.

 

But as for the basement IHOP that's been open for months and has an established track record, I will say every time I've been there, I've mostly been the only westerner there at the time, and most of the other patrons have been ordinary Thais, usually younger, just having a meal at the mall. Nothing hi-so about the patrons there that I've seen on repeated visits.

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just a bit of an update on the IHOPs at Siam Paragon and a new IHOP branch coming soon to Mega Bangna.

 

The ground floor IHOP at Paragon is plugging along, and usually is pretty busy anytime I stop by, not with farangs, but with Thais and tourist Asians. The ground floor outlet is the one with the limited menu focusing on pancakes, waffles, omelets and a few other things.

 

The 4th floor full-menu IHOP restaurant is still there as well, but usually isn't very busy any time I stop by, and the few customers I ever see there in contrast often seem to be Caucasian tourists or expats.  I had fallen off using the 4th floor IHOP for a fair period when they were unable to maintain their supply of hash browns, which is one of my favorite things there. But they seem to have solved that problem now (importing their hash browns from the U.S.), and so I had a nice lunch there today of a pretty good 220b steak and salsa omelet with two side orders of hash browns, which are a steal at 50 baht per order.

 

BTW, the 4th floor IHOP at Paragon continues to be one of the few places in Bangkok (actually the ONLY place I know of in BKK) that serves authentic U.S. coffee shop style hash browns. So that earns them credits in my book.

 

Meanwhile, the staff there informed me that they're now planning to open their third locale, a new full-menu branch at Mega Bangna in the next few months if all goes as planned. Sounded like the construction work is almost completed on the restaurant out in the front restaurants walk area of Mega Bangna. And, (and this should be interesting), it may well open with some regular (non-pancakey) Thai food dishes on the menu.

 

BTW - a tip on ordering pancakes from either of the two Paragon IHOPs. If their standard order of two pancakes per dish isn't enough for your farang appetite, you don't need to order a second two-pancake entree. Instead, they have a pretty much unadvertised deal where you can get an extra 2 pancakes of whatever you ordered for just 50 baht per pancake extra, or 100 baht extra for 2 added pancakes. Which is about half off the price of ordering a separate second pancake dish.

 

 

[up-country_sinclair]

Will be headed down to Bangkok soon and IHOP is definitely on the agenda. 

 

Any updates on the 4th floor location and the menu?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, up-country_sinclair said:

Will be headed down to Bangkok soon and IHOP is definitely on the agenda. 

 

Any updates on the 4th floor location and the menu?

 

Still there and running fine. Not usually too busy. Menu pretty much unchanged, though they've added some steak dishes along the way, which isn't what I go to IHOP for.

 

Are you inquiring about anything in particular?

 

[up-country_sinclair]

Thanks for your reply.

Was just hoping that it's still open and offering the same items as detailed earlier in the thread.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Truth be told, I'm a bit worried about the 4th floor venue.

 

The food there is pretty consistent, and the service is very attentive. So those aren't the issues. But rather, every time I'm there, the customer base is pretty sparse, and I wonder if it's enough to make it with Paragon rents.  Sometimes busier than others. Dunno, maybe I'm not catching them at their peak times, as I'm a late riser typically.

 

But more to the point for this audience -- When I've been there, I don't think I've ever seen another farang or farang family sitting there eating at the same time as me. It's always Thai families or other Asians and goodly share of Thai students. I've seen no sign at all that the local American contingent is supporting the place particularly.

 

I know, these days, I make it a habit to try to go at least once a week for a proper U.S. style breakfast, even if it's the middle of the afternoon.   Just to show my support, and have my weekly dose of hash browns and whatever else I'm deciding to have with it that day, usually a breakfast combo of bacon and eggs, one of the pancake combos, or their steak omelette with salsa topping that I like quite a lot.

 

Just hope those who appreciate the food choice in BKK turn out to support them.

 

PS - Last time I talked to them there, there also were on the verge of supposedly opening a new full-service branch at the Mega Bangna Mall.  But I haven't spoken with my IHOP contact lately, so I'm not sure what the status of that venue is at present.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

One other tip/quirk I've noticed lately re their pancakes, which come from mix imported from the U.S. by the way:

 

When my wife and I go there together, she likes their chocolate chip pancakes, and so I've seen a lot of orders of those. And at times, I've ordered some of their flavored pancakes, strawberry topping or cinnamon sugar or similar like that.  And, those come two pancakes per order, and the pancakes are full sized, but not especially big or thick.

 

So on a recent visit, I noticed someone at an adjoining table was having a dish that had IHOP's plain/regular pancakes, and by comparison, those two seemed HUGE!  Much thicker and I think (though can't guarantee) larger in diameter.  I was pretty sure that wasn't a one-off mistake, so on a subsequent visit, I ordered my pancakes plain also, and sure enough, got the same much thicker, much more substantial pair of pancakes.

 

So, I began eating the plain pancakes preparing to be not especially impressed (after all, no flavorings or toppings and such), but so my surprise, they were really tasty. Perfectly cooked, good flavor, moist not dry or starchy, very enjoyable. I put just a bit of strawberry pancake syrup on top, but they almost didn't need any addition. Thus, I'm here to say, even if you like all the fancy flavored pancakes, give their regular/plain pancakes a try. You might be pleasantly surprised, especially for those with big appetites!

[tutsiwarrior]

I think that fer most 'muricans pancakes are what's available at yer local greasy spoon cafe, short or tall stack with marge or butter and a maple flavored syrup followed by ham an' eggs, hash browns and coffee...then wipe yer mouth with the sleeve of yer shirt and get back in yer pickup and go off to a day of honest labor...

 

but it is nice to know that IHOP is there with their variety even if ye never eat there...

 

I noted that at makro the other day they had packaged pancake flour and I was tempted to try some out on the granddaughter but then a spectre emerged: 'tussi, tussi, pancakes, pancakes...' and her mother in the background growling resentfully: 'don't eat that falang shit, it ain't good fer ye...'

 

culture wars in the rice paddies of Suphanburi...

 

 

 

 

[Nyezhov]

34 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

I think that fer most 'muricans pancakes are what's available at yer local greasy spoon cafe, short or tall stack with marge or butter and a maple flavored syrup followed by ham an' eggs, hash browns and coffee...then wipe yer mouth with the sleeve of yer shirt and get back in yer pickup and go off to a day of honest labor...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hell yeah dude! Down here it the South ya got ham steaks, grits, bottomless coffee from an ancient urn, scrapple, bacon, livermush.....

 

dont forget to spit after ya wipe your mouth, and light up a Marlboro. F-150 too. With a tool box and a gun rack.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

45 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

I noted that at makro the other day they had packaged pancake flour

 

Actually, Makro's here in BKK regularly stock pretty decent 800g boxes of their own ARO brand waffle and pancake mix that produce pretty good results. The box is cheap, about 60 or 70 baht per, if memory serves. And at least according to the ingredients label, it's not overflowing with sugar like some other brands.

 

The box recipies are slightly different depending on whether you want to make waffles or pancakes. I use their mix to make waffles at home with an electric waffle maker, and they turn out quite nicely.  Restaurant waffles were pretty hard to find up until a couple years ago when IHOP and a few other breakfast cafe, waffle-serving places surfaced in BKK.