IHOP Takes A Page Out Of Taco Bell's Book With Pancake Tacos
Turning everything into a taco shell — be it Doritos, waffles, or fried chicken — is usually Taco Bell's area of expertise, but now IHOP has entered the conversation with its new Pancake Tacos. The breakfast item is essentially what it sounds like: pancakes folded up and filled with different breakfast-y flavor combinations, ready to be eaten by hand, taco-style.
The new Pancake Tacos come in four flavors (two sweet and two savory), each using folded silver dollar pancakes as their taco shell. In a press release, IHOP's VP of Culinary, Chef Arthur Carl II, described the breakfast tacos as a crucial expansion of IHOP's all-day breakfast arsenal that aims to balance sweet and savory.
The Pancake Tacos will be available on Wednesday, July 5 until July 30 at IHOP locations nationwide. As a promotional perk, those who order Pancake Tacos have the opportunity to win three times the normal amount of IHOP's International Bank of Pancakes rewards currency — PanCoins — between July 21 and 30. Prices start at $6 for three tacos of the same flavor, but customers also have the option to add the tacos to a combo that comes with eggs, hash browns, and a breakfast meat.
Pancake Tacos are inspired by the hit Choco-Pancake
The national rollout of Pancake Tacos follows the success of last summer's Choco-Pancake, which was only available at one Texas IHOP location for exactly one day. Created in honor of the Choco-Taco, the pancake chain's homage to the discontinued frozen treat was loaded with vanilla ice cream and drizzled in chocolate sauce.
Though there's no ice cream involved, the new Pancake Taco flavor options sound similarly dessert-inspired. The Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake Pancake Tacos are filled with sliced strawberries and cheesecake mousse. The Caramel Banana tacos also include cheesecake mousse, plus two sauces — vanilla and dulce de leche caramel — and sliced bananas. Both sweet Pancake Taco options can be topped with chocolate chips. As for savory options, there's a Country Chicken and Gravy taco with chicken, hash browns, cheese, gravy, and an optional pickle topping. Lastly, there's the classic Breakfast Pancake Taco, which is filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, shredded cheese, cheese sauce, and salsa to finish it all off.
IHOP's massive menu overhaul this spring saw the return of several beloved items like the Cinn-A-Stack pancakes, and the addition of new salads, burgers, and beverages. While the menu is still not as large as it was pre-pandemic, a mix of returning favorites and fresh ideas aims to bring life back to the chain-briefly-known-as-IHOB. While the Pancake Tacos are only making an appearance during part of July, if customer demand is high enough, they may very well find a permanent home on the chain's shifting menu.