This Chain Restaurant Has The Best Breakfast Food, According To 27% Of People

There's nothing better on a leisurely day than going out for breakfast. And by "going out," we don't mean a quick swing through a drive-thru. No, a nice sit-down meal is the best, complete with an endless pot of coffee and all the cute lil' creamer cups your heart desires. So why is breakfast such a great meal to have in a restaurant? Well, in many cases, breakfast dishes do tend to be cheaper than lunch and dinner ones. And although you'd think that eggs, bacon, and pancakes would be super-simple to cook for yourself, the fact is, they're also super simple to screw up.

Breakfast chains are frying and flipping all day long, so they have plenty of practice to make things perfect. When it comes to breakfast, chain restaurants all seem to offer fairly similar menus, so how do you know which one is best? You take a vote, of course. Or rather, you leave it up to Mashed to round up 655 people and grill them about who's got the best breakfast. The top four candidates (all big names) scored fairly well, but there was a pretty sharp drop-off when it came to the bottom three. There was one clear winner, however: a chain that's best known by its acronym.

IHOP came out on top

While the International House of Pancakes may be America's favorite pancake house — or at least favored by nearly 28 percent of our survey respondents — the "international" part of their name isn't pure hyperbole. According to Statista, IHOP has a handful of locations throughout North, South, and Central America, plus some in Asia. The second-most popular breakfast chain, Cracker Barrel (favored by almost 24 percent) prefers to keep things domestic, with their website listing locations in 45 American states, but none on foreign soil. The (almost) always-open Waffle House was favored by 18 percent, while only 14.5 percent thought Denny's Grand Slams were knocking it out of the park.

Bob Evans, a chain practically unknown west of the Mississippi was a distant fourth with 7.48 percent –- no knock on Bob, since you can't win votes from states where you have no presence (via Scrapehero). Perkins, however, is found in 32 states, so it should have done better than six percent. As a consolation prize, they can take solace in knowing that they were one of Macho Man Randy Savage's favorite restaurants (as opposed to Waffle House, a chain he had a few issues with). In dead last was Le Peep, favored by not quite 2.5 percent of respondents. No need for them to have egg all over their face, though, since their website notes they've yet to crack the market in 36 states.