IHOP is flipping out breakfast lovers with its newly relaunched $5 all-you-can-eat pancake deal. Whether you’re a longtime fan of the restaurant chain’s classic buttermilk pancakes or eager to try its iconic breakfast offering for the first time, this deal lets you savor endless stacks of fluffy hotcakes at an affordable price. But before you head over to your nearest IHOP, here’s everything you need to know about the promotion and how you can take full advantage of this sweet deal.
Dine-In Only
The $5 All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Deal is available exclusively to dine-in customers at participating IHOP locations across the United States.
In an interview with CNN, David Henkes, a senior principal at Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm, said that this dine-in-only deal is meant to draw inflation-weary customers back to stores.
“The first step is to get people in the restaurant, and that’s what a lot of these value meals are meant to do,” he said. “As a restaurateur, you hope that they’re not just taking advantage of the deal, they’re buying extras, they’re adding on sausages or some other breakfast meat.”
What do you get?
Customers who opt for the $5 All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Deal will receive a full stack of five buttermilk pancakes to start, followed by additional hotcakes served two at a time upon request.
Limited-Time Offer
IHOP’s $5 All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Deal is not a permanent offering. Aimed at attracting budget-conscious diners during the back-to-school season, the limited-time deal only runs from July 29 to September 15, 2024.
It’s unclear when IHOP first offered its All-You-Can-Eat Pancake, but previous online reports reveal that the deal has been in and out of the restaurant’s menu as early as 2010. The deal has been brought back multiple times over the years, including a recent promotion in the summer of 2023 as part of IHOP’s 65th anniversary.
The Single-Digit Dollar Deals Trend
IHOP’s $5 All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Deal is the latest restaurant promotion to join the list of single-digit value meals introduced or relaunched this year. Previous entries to the list include McDonald’s $5 Meal Deal, Taco Bell’s Cravings Value Menu, Wendy’s $5 Biggie Bag, Burger King’s $5 Your Way Meal, and Starbucks’ Pairings Menu, among many others.
In fact, just this Tuesday, family dining chain Denny’s announced that it would offer meal options for as low as $2 as part of its returning $2-$4-$6-$8 value menu. The promotion, which was last offered in 2020 for Denny’s 10th anniversary, was described by the restaurant executives as a “consumer-friendly traffic-driving platform” in a June earnings call.
More restaurants and fast-food chains are expected to jump into the trend as consumers continue to be picky about where to spend their hard-earned dollars with inflation still running higher than normal. These promotions are also one of the primary efforts of businesses to improve their earnings, especially after McDonald’s and Starbucks saw a decline in their sales in the last quarter of the year.
“The industry is really in a state right now where consumers have pulled back pretty significantly because prices have just gone up so far, so fast,” Henkes told CNN. “This is just part and parcel of what the restaurant industry is trying to do to win back consumers and to enhance their value perception.”