8 Changes I Wish Waffle House Would Make

As someone who spent most of their childhood in the Atlanta area, I've naturally been to Waffle House more times than I can count. I stopped there in the mornings before beach vacations with my parents, and it's the restaurant my friends and I would somehow always find ourselves at after a high school football game. It was the place to go for late-night study fuel in college, and, naturally, I've eaten there after one too many drinks at the bar. Now that I live in the Northeast, it's one of the Southern food staples I miss most, and I make it a point to stop in to order a waffle almost every time I'm back home to visit family.

When you're as well-acquainted with a restaurant chain as I am with Waffle House, though, you can find more than a few things to complain about. It's not that I'm criticizing my beloved WaHo — I just want it to be the restaurant I know it can be. That's why I'm listing out a few of the changes I wish Waffle House would make from this point forward. I personally think that these changes could take the diner chain to new heights, but unfortunately, I'm not a Waffle House exec (yet). But maybe, just maybe, WaHo will hear my cries. And to get the best Waffle House experience possible, make sure you're not making these common mistakes.

One of the rules of eating at Waffle House you need to know before you go there is that you shouldn't sit at your table at the end of your meal waiting for your server to come back so you can pay. Even though they bring you your check to the table right after you order, you actually have to take that check to the cash register to pay — it's not possible to make a payment directly at the table. Admittedly, it's not the biggest problem the restaurant has, and once you're in the know, it's kind of nice to not have to wait around to be able to pay. But let's be honest: It's a strange system, and it leads to a lot of confusion for new diners who don't know the setup.

This is why I think Waffle House should introduce a more convenient payment option. Maybe the chain could allow servers to take payment directly at the table like most sit-down restaurants. Or perhaps it could even introduce an option that would allow guests to pay on a screen directly at their table. After all, you can find Ziosks, or pay-at-the-table tablets, at many restaurant chains now. Introducing one of these options could make payment at Waffle House a lot more streamlined. Until that point, though, I'll enjoy the nostalgia of paying at the register.

When you go to a restaurant that's literally called "Waffle House," you'll probably want to actually order a waffle. But surprisingly, Waffle House doesn't have that many waffle flavors to choose from. There are only four flavors listed on the restaurant's website, while we reviewed five varieties for our ranking of Waffle House waffle flavors. And sometimes, you get the random seasonal waffle popping up at the diner, like the Cinnamon Crunch flavor for fall. Overall, though, you're not getting a long list of different flavors to try at the chain, and that feels like a missed opportunity.

Think of a place like IHOP, for example. It has a ton of pancake flavors on its menu, thus offering customers much more variety. I believe that Waffle House should do the same thing ... and I'm not even asking for anything fancy like a waffle served with charred rhubarb. Why not offer the opportunity to add banana to a peanut butter chip waffle? Why are there no mini marshmallows offered to pair with the chocolate chip variety? And why, why is there no sort of strawberry syrup or any other interesting moist fruit topping to add some more interest to an otherwise plain waffle? Yes, it's true that the flavors Waffle House does offer are pretty solid. But some extra novelty certainly wouldn't hurt, either.

Look, I'm well aware that Waffle House isn't exactly fine dining. It's not a place that you should expect to be particularly well-appointed or even, for that matter, particularly clean. I know what to expect when walking into a Waffle House bathroom, and I'm not even going to be mad when I see toast crumbs pushed into the dingy corners of the dining room. But if there's one thing that really bothers me cleanliness-wise about Waffle House, it's the fact that the tables are quite often sticky.

Resting my arms on the table only to have them stick to an invisible mess below automatically puts me in a bad mood and ruins my appetite. Not knowing what caused the stickiness in question starts to make me queasy. Is that from spilled Coke? Okay — I can handle that. But at Waffle House, you really never know what could cause that kind of sticky mess, so it makes me feel unclean and like I can't really relax in the space. Even if a server comes and cleans the table off again at our request, I still won't be able to get that sticky memory out of my head. I don't know why I seemingly manage to get a sticky, dirty table at WaHo every other time I go there, but I really wish it's something the chain could figure out.

Unfortunately, it seems like restaurant prices are rising just about everywhere, from small, upscale, locally owned eateries to the fast casual places you frequent on your lunch break from work. But Waffle House is raising its prices more than most, with huge price increases that have really made eating there feel like less of a deal. Are there better places to find waffles and other diner favorites? Absolutely. But the reason I and so many other people have historically loved Waffle House is the fact that it's a cheaper option than most, offering an affordable meal for students, struggling families, and even those in crisis. When rising prices mean that these types of people can no longer afford to eat there regularly, WaHo starts to lose a huge part of its appeal.

As inflation continues to push consumers to the brink of their monthly budgets, it would be nice to have a few standby casual restaurants where people can still go, sit, and enjoy a meal together. But unfortunately, Waffle House is losing its status as that kind of spot with these rising costs. I understand that many restaurants are struggling right now, but I can't feel that bad for a chain like Waffle House compared to the mom-and-pop spots that are actually struggling to make ends meet for their businesses. In these times, I'm not very inclined to support a (now more expensive) chain if I have the extra cash to spend.

It's no secret that working in the service industry isn't always an easy endeavor. But at some restaurants, you really get compensated for your hard work, with servers and bartenders taking home some serious cash after accounting for tips. But since the prices at Waffle House are so low compared to other sit-down restaurants, we can assume that most employees aren't making as much as they probably should be. One website estimates that Waffle House employees make about $14 an hour. While that figure probably varies a lot between positions and locations, it's still not a lot of cash to be taking home in today's economy.

That's why I wish Waffle House would pay its employees more. They should be making more than the tipped minimum wage when you consider how little they're likely to be tipped on the small bills people pay for at the restaurant. And since WaHo features open kitchens, it's easy to see how hard the cooks there are working. Factor in rude and rowdy customers, and it's clear why employees at this diner chain should be making more money. Not only would a pay increase make their lives better, but it would probably mean better, more efficient service for customers as well.

It's no secret that Waffle House can sometimes get a bit ... rowdy at night. If a certain kind of individual or group walks into WaHo in the middle of the night (since most Waffle House locations are open 24/7, 365 days a year), it's unfortunately not unheard of for them to cause a scene. Personally, I feel like the best time to eat at Waffle House is super late, like middle-of-the-night late. But when you don't know whether people who are too intoxicated are going to come in and start being exceptionally belligerent, it can make going on a late-night Waffle House run feel like a bit of a gamble.

Unfortunately, I've been at Waffle House locations multiple times when a particularly loud group of people came in, and they were served anyway, even after being rude to patrons and/or employees. I'm sure that some locations refuse to serve these kinds of people, but I think that should be a policy across the board. Sure, this chain might be known as a place to visit after a night of drinking, but rude, loud, and unkind behavior should never be accepted, regardless of the restaurant or specific situation.

Have you ever decided to order takeout instead of sitting down at a restaurant simply because you didn't want to pay for the tip? I've been there before, and it's one of many reasons I might consider placing a takeout order at Waffle House. But these days, you're not actually going to save any money on that takeout order, since the chain is now charging 20% for all to-go orders. Technically, that charge is apparently split between 10%, which goes to the server who actually prepared your meal, and 10% as an added fee to order takeout instead of dine-in.

First of all, this is a ridiculous change. Why should you have to pay that extra money if you're not even sitting at the restaurant in the first place? But even if I have to pay that extra money at a restaurant, I'd at least prefer it going to the server who had to do extra work to prepare the food for me to pick it up. As it stands, it just seems like you're paying 10% to make things more convenient for the restaurant, since you're not taking up space at a booth where other people could be sitting, and nobody has to clean up after you.

Before I moved to the Northeast, I didn't realize how lucky I was to have so many Waffle House locations at my disposal anytime I went out. This is because I lived in Georgia, which just happens to be the state with the most Waffle House locations in the entire country — more than 400 different stores at the time of writing. Beyond Georgia, Waffle House is spread across a decent portion of the country, stretching as far north as Pennsylvania and as far west as Arizona. But if you're on the West Coast, the Northeast, or throughout most of the Rockies? You're out of luck on the Waffle House front.

Of course, I could be greedy and just request that Waffle House stretch into New England, offering all of the Dunkin' fans in my area an alternative to their favorite breakfast spot. But I'm looking out for all of the WaHo lovers and former Southerners who have moved to different regions of the country out there. I want Waffle House locations stretching from the waters of Southern California all the way up to the northernmost inlets of Maine, offering every state a chance to experience the pure joy of a Waffle House run. That might be a big ask, but I can dream.