Man, worst Pancake Day ever.
First, we sit down... and wait. And wait. And wait. They weren't crowded at all. But we waited ten minutes before we even ordered. The waitress was a complete bitch. In fact, I think I only saw her twice, and both times she was totally attitudinal. My dad orders something and a free small stack, I order only a free small stack, my sister gets some chicken sandwich, and her boyfriend gets chicken tenders.
Then we wait some more. We finally get our food, and, for some reason, one stack of pancakes is slightly larger than the other. Well, no biggie, since they're all free, right? Wrong.
I have no idea how this happened since I left before everyone else was finished, but my dad ended up having to pay for one of the short stacks. The justification was you apparently can only get a free small stack WITH the purchase of something else. I always leave a tip, but since the waitress sucked, I just left a dollar and donated a few more. My dad left a couple bucks and donated a few as well, and since the service sucked, he also said he donated my tip dollar instead of leaving it for the sucky chick. Apparently, she decided to include gratuity in the bill, even though we were a small party and gave her zero trouble. He also claims that they must have overcharged somewhere else because it was five or six bucks more than it should have been.
So, all in all, I don't think I'll ever eat at an IHOP again, free pancakes or not. Sorry little kids dying with cancer who want to see Mickey before you die.