Rise and shine: IHOP opens in BGC

MANILA, Philippines - Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So while one out of 100 Pinoys regularly skip their breakfast, one global authority in morning grub hops on to make the most important meal available all day, just to make sure you’d never want to miss it again.

The International House of Pancakes, best known as IHOP, has been around for 55 years in the United States as the main stop for the best buttermilk pancakes and “never empty” coffee, and this time around, they decided to spread the happiness here in the Philippines. Opening shop at the Bonifacio Global City through its parent company Global Restaurant Concepts, Inc. — famed for the best international dining brands to reach our shores — IHOP Restaurant makes its staples of omelets, pancakes, crepes, and French toast a must for Filipino family meals. The question is, are we ready to trade our pan de sals for pancakes?

“It’s an iconic brand in the US, people know it, people love it,” explains Global Restaurant Concepts’ president and CEO Archie Rodriguez. “There’s an emotional experience when you dine here, and so we felt it was appropriate to bring it to the Philippine market and let people try and experience IHOP in the Philippines.”

Sweet serendipity: The best of breakfast meets the best of dessert in IHOP’s New York Cheesecake Pancakes, a stack of buttermilk pancakes with cheesecake pieces and strawberries, powdered sugar and whipped topping.

What Rodriguez and the four-man board of Global Restaurant Concepts Inc. (which includes Jean Henri Lhuillier, Manuel Zubiri, Griffith Go, and Richard Santos) has brought to the country is responsible for churning out over 500 million pancakes annually, giving a new definition to the phrase “selling like hotcakes.” Good business, it seems, is the magic formula of offering breakfast 24/7.

“Breakfast food worldwide is basically comfort food, and comfort food is something you’d want to have all day long,” explains Rodriguez, perhaps inspired by the steady increase of call center employees as well as young, urban professionals in the area who haven’t outgrown their penchant for sweet beginnings … heavy on the whipped butter and syrup. “It allows for us to offer all-day dining; in some locations, we might be able to open for 24 hours, seven days a week. It has a very strong breakfast menu, a lot of comfort food, and yet you could still have your hamburgers, your fried chicken, your steak, your salads, your soups. The menu has over 170 items on it, so there really is something for everyone, any time of the day.”

With so many IHOP items to choose from, one can’t help but ask for insider tips when ordering. “I’d say the Steak Omelette, because it has steak, veggies, and eggs, so I feel like I have a full meal within the omelet,” suggests IHOP’s director for international marketing, Anna Hernandez. “The side salsa just gives it a little kick and you can put it to your taste. We put it on the side so you can add as much or as little as you want. And all of our omelets are served with a side of pancakes, so you kind of have a dessert. So, really, it’s a full meal.”

Archie Rodriguez, on the other hand, has more of a sweet tooth. “Every time I try something new (in IHOP) it tends to become my favorite. But I particularly enjoy the Stuffed French Toast. I’ve been dreaming of it since I had it,” he says of the combo that includes cinnamon raisin French toast with cream filling, fruit topping, two eggs, hash browns, and a choice of bacon or sausage — indeed, what food fantasies are made of.

But, it is IHOP’s pancakes, above all, that take the cake. With a special buttermilk batter that ends up rising to pancake perfection, the restaurant’s array of special syrups — the Old Fashioned Maple, Strawberry, Blueberry, and unforgettably rustic Better Pecan — makes even its plain pancakes a cause for extreme joy. So much that you’d want to take the recipe home and make some for yourself, so I tried to coax Anna Hernandez to spill the secret of their world-renowned batter for domestic consumption. “It’s the secret ingredient of IHOP,” she replied. “I wish I knew, but it’s definitely in the flour and the buttermilk batter that makes our pancakes unique and tasty.” Well, at least I tried.

Yet, in this decade of Atkins and calorie-consciousness, it is easy to equate the flavorful with the fattening, or the sweet with the sinful. Is there a light at the end of the yummy yet calorie-heavy IHOP tunnel? “We have a Simple & Fit Menu, and it’s basically a menu with lower-cal items on it,” reveals Rodriguez. “There’s the Spinach and Mushroom Omelette, whole-wheat pancakes, we have the Harvest Grain and Nut Pancake as well. So there are a lot of healthy choices on the menu.” I let out a relieved sigh.

Global Restaurant Concepts Inc. plans to open 50 IHOP outlets around the Philippines in the next five years, with Alabang, Ortigas, and Quezon City as the next stops. They also acquired the license to distribute the IHOP brand to the rest of Asia — Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam — with the Philippines being the springboard for the brand’s Eastern domination. And what better way to get to the Asian heart than through its main staple? “One of the things we will be offering, uniquely to the Philippines, is rice,” Hernandez says. “This is the only IHOP restaurant so far that offers rice, and we’d want to give the opportunity to those who enjoy rice with their meals to enjoy the IHOP experience for themselves.”

The strategy is to take the “International” in International House of Pancakes into account by adjusting IHOP’s menu according to its geographical and socio-cultural setting.   

“We believe in the brand, we believe in the quality of the food, and hopefully we get to execute based on the standards that IHOP has come to be known for,” enthuses Rodriguez.

With a fully loaded menu that is heavy on the happiness quotient, IHOP Philippines can only spell sweet success.

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IHOP is located at the W Global Center, 30th corner 9th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. For reservations, call the mobile hotline, 0916-459-3391. IHOP is open from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and 24 hours every Friday and Saturday.