Vegan at Restaurants Part 1: IHOP

By: Megan

   In this series, I will be discussing vegan options at popular restaurants and will be trying them and giving my thoughts on them. I have always loved IHOP. I was randomly wanting IHOP and told my friend we had to go to IHOP; it was non-negotiable really. IHOP really is not the best place for vegan options. They do not have any vegan waffles or pancakes which is a bummer. I ended up getting a serving of Hashbrowns, potato pancakes, and sourdough toast. I would not say this was the most filling meal, but with not a lot of vegan options in the area, it was a nice change. This meal was very carb-filled and I could have easily gotten a fruit cup instead of one of the potato options, but who doesn't love a whole plate of potatoes? 

    I will start off with the hashbrowns. They were very good. I mean they are hashbrowns, so they are self-explanatory. Luckily, their hashbrowns are naturally vegan, so I did not have to do any specifications for the order. I decided to douse my order of hashbrowns in ketchup, but they would be good on their own as well. I think it would also be good if I got a side order of peppers and onions and mixed them in. The hashbrowns were $2.49 where I live. 

    The next thing I tried was the potato pancakes. Potato pancakes are basically just a fried circular mound of hashbrowns. They were very good, and in traditional fashion, I had to eat them with syrup. All of the syrup at IHOP is vegan except the butter pecan, so feel free to get creative with the syrup flavors. I liked using syrup instead of ketchup because it changed up the flavor profile of the meal. The potato pancakes were $3.29 for two pancakes that were probably about three inches in diameter. 

    Finally, I got sourdough toast. The toast itself is naturally vegan, but they put butter on it, so I had to ask for it "dry." Now call me weird I really do not care, I put syrup all over that toast. It was kinda like my own version of French Toast. It was surprisingly very good. I loved everything about the dish and it was one of my favorite things. I would suggest bringing your own butter which is legal as long as you do not get caught. I am only slightly joking about that. Restaurants do not like it when you bring your own food, but if they will not supply the vegan option, I do not see a problem with it. Just do not get caught. The toast was $2.39 which is a bit much for toasted bread, but it is what it is. 

     Overall, this was a good meal. Another good suggestion is to get sliced avocado for the bread or on top of the hashbrowns. It would have added a little fat and kept me fuller longer. This whole meal was around $10 which is not bad at all for a restaurant. I do know that there has been a lot of recent talk about IHOP possibly making vegan pancakes because a petition from years ago reached a certain number of signatures. My fingers are crossed and I am very hopeful that that is in the near future.

Make sure to subscribe, follow, comment, and share!