IHOP is a sit-down pancake house chain found across most of the United States. Its menu runs from stacked buttermilk pancakes to steakburgers and platters. Dine Brands Global owns the chain today, alongside Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar.
Blue A-frame rooflines marked its restaurants for decades and still appear on some of the chain’s older buildings. IHOP’s history, ownership and the shape of its US estate follow below.
IHOP History
Al and Jerry Lapin opened the first International House of Pancakes on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, on July 7, 1958. The brothers built the concept around a sit-down room serving stacked pancakes rather than a diner counter. The idea targeted families rather than a quick coffee stop. The name advertised an international range of pancake styles from one kitchen. Franchising began almost right away. Fifty California locations followed within four years.
The company shortened its public name to IHOP in 1973, trimming the full International House of Pancakes down to the acronym diners already used. Blue A-frame rooflines became the chain’s signature through this period. They marked a restaurant from the road before a sign came into view. IHOP grew through franchising for the next three decades. Expansion spread east from its California base into most of the continental United States.
IHOP Corp. bought Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar in 2007. The deal led to a renaming as DineEquity, later Dine Brands Global, to hold both chains under one parent. The company briefly rebranded as IHOb in 2018, swapping its own name for International House of Burgers. The stunt promoted a new steakburger line before reverting weeks later. IHOP now trades from more than 1,600 restaurants across the United States. Almost all of them operate under franchise agreements rather than as company-owned stores.
IHOP Menus & Details
The sections below split the IHOP menu into four separate guides. Each one carries its own tables, running from the full price list to the allergen declarations item by item.
IHOP Menu Prices
Every section of the printed board, from pancakes and omelettes to steakburgers and the 55+ Menu, lists a calorie figure beside each item. IHOP Menu Prices runs section by section in the same order as the in-restaurant board.
IHOP Secret Menu
Off-menu builds mix items already on the board into combinations the printed menu does not list by name. Regulars order them by name. IHOP Secret Menu covers the builds worth asking for and what goes into each one.
IHOP Fall Menu
Seasonal pancakes, coffees and limited-time items rotate onto the board for a few months each year. IHOP Fall Menu covers what is currently running and how it differs from the year-round board.
IHOP Allergen Menu
IHOP’s own Allergen Information handout lists what each item on the menu declares, from milk and gluten to the rarer fish and shellfish. IHOP Allergen Menu turns that handout into one item-by-item table.