This Breakfast Chain Is Now Offering Bottomless Pancakes (But There's A Catch)

What's better than bottomless pancakes? How about free bottomless pancakes? IHOP has brought back a limited-time-only promotion for free stacks of infinite pancakes, though there is one significant catch among the usual fine print. The pancakes are only free with the purchase of any one of six breakfast combos. Additionally, this offer is only available for dine-in customers at participating locations and cannot be combined with any other promotions, sales, or offers, including reward point redemptions and kids” or senior menus. The deal only applies to IHOP's original buttermilk pancakes, but you will have your choice of syrup. The syrup caddies are also back, with the classic IHOP variety of old-fashioned syrup, strawberry, blueberry, and butter pecan.

Diners seeking to cash in on the offer will have to buy either the breakfast sampler, the Split Decision Breakfast (pancakes, sausage, bacon, and French toast), or chicken & pancakes. And steak fans rejoice, because the deal also covers sirloin tips & eggs, country-fried steak & eggs, and the T-bone steak & eggs. Get one of these, and your free pancakes will be served two at a time until you don't want any more.

Some might be disappointed that IHOP's free bottomless pancakes only apply to plain old buttermilk. But when we made the ultimate ranking of IHOP pancakes, we actually found that the plain ones were the chain's best. They were well-cooked, perfectly complemented the syrup variety, and could easily be made to fit certain dietary restrictions.

Others, however, have disagreed. According to some, one of the things you'll probably want to avoid at IHOP is actually those same buttermilk pancakes. Some are disappointed by their small size (though the bottomless part somewhat erases this complaint), but others have griped about undercooked flapjacks, which are a bigger problem. 

Whether or not you have good buttermilk pancakes at IHOP will likely come down to the individual restaurant and the employee making your meal. Whatever the case, although they are surprisingly high in sodium, at least they're not the unhealthiest IHOP pancakes. The New York Cheesecake version is a stack of four covered in glazed strawberries and whipped cream for 880 calories and 94% of a day's worth of sodium. But just three plates of the original variety will put you in a similar spot, plus whatever else is in the syrup and breakfast combo, so enjoy responsibly.