International House of Pancakes on Lombard Street in San Francisco, California: A Review

San Francisco has a fair share of diners that are open 24 hours, but frankly, most of them suck and are way overpriced. Now, at three in the morning I generally expect crappy food and can deal with that end of it. But don't have the temerity to charge me $15-20 for it just because we're in a Big Name City, you know? In New York you can find all kinds of late night diners with fair pricing and okay food, I don't know what San Francisco's trip is.

Anyway, the one I relied on in a pinch was always the International House of Pancakes on Lombard Street, conveniently located right next to a 91 Owl bus stop so you could get there from pretty much anywhere in the city without having to deal with a taxi. It was the same generally blah IHOP food you'd expect anywhere else, but that was the thing - you could at least get mediocre food at three in the morning, and what's more, IHOP doesn't price-gouge as much as Denny's and certain other diners do just because they are in San Francisco.

This diner even had a great night crew on the late shift. I'm sure much of the food was still microwaved, given how fast it came out, but the servers who were usually on staff were these two guys who were there for years, and were incredibly polite and attentive given the amount of drunk Marina douches they must have had to deal with every night of their working lives. They even kept the bathroom in decent shape and unlocked. Imagine that!

All of this is now something of a memory. They are still open fairly late, and still open 24 hours on Friday and Saturday night, but apparently due to the recession woes they now close up at 3:00 a.m. every other night of the week. They open back up at 6:00 a.m., so it's really barely closed at all, but that little three hour block of time is the period where it really sucks to be hungry and not have access to cooking facilities in the city.

They are still a touch pricier as compared to other IHOPs out there, but the food is at least passably decent, and they do honor the special deals and budget meals that all the other IHOPs do (such as the free pancake morning they usually have once or twice a year.) The service seems to be pretty decent during the day as well, but of course, during the day you have a lot more dining options available to you. Oh well - if you get desperate on a Friday or Saturday night, it's still here for you.