The Pancake Chef

Today was an example of how the entire experience just seemed to scream "Write a blog entry about me!"  I give you... The Pancake Chef

Restaurant name: The Pancake Chef
Food type:  Diner/Dive
Category:  First timers
Location:  Burien, WA
Reason for dining out:  Last stop on our anniversary weekend
Bonus features:  People watching!  Also we were able to share some food with a neighboring table... mostly because the table was that close that they could smell our food an ask what we ordered
Food ordered:  Corn Fritters, German pancake, bacon, coffee
Items of inspiration: I need my mom's recipe for the Dutch baby, as she calls them...
Chance of repeat visit:  Still looking for that perfect breakfast spot, other than The Original Pancake House.

When walking into this place it was a bit like stepping back into 1977, not that I really remember what things were like back then.  The formica table tops, the "swivel" brown chairs which don't really swivel, the grey dishes with brown flecks which match the brown coffee mugs (filled with coffee which tastes like the grounds haven't been cleaned out since 1977)... do NOT expect to order something like poached eggs on brioche in a place like this.  In fact I think it can best be categoriezed by looking at their "light breakfast" options, which included biscuits and gravy, corn beef hash, and "ground beef" (which most people know as a hamburger patty).  Light options because they only came with one egg and a slice of bacon instead of two, I think.They also list "healthy options" and, of course, item number one is a scoop of cottage cheese.  Anything becomes a diet plate as soon as you add, cottage cheese, right?




 It's just really not our scene... quite comical actually.  I asked the waitress what was popular and she looked at me like I asked if she had a third eye.  The descriptions didn't really leave your mouth watering either... the special of the day was the "high fiber banana pancake".  And I danced around the creamer bowl for half-and-half as opposed to the "aseptic non dairy creamer".  Probably funniest was how, above the typical warning about undercooked eggs/meat contributing to the chance of getting a food born illness, was the disclaimer that "We're sorry that we are no longer allowed to serve our meat rare or medium rare" which just begged the question of "Why no longer??".  But we never asked.

Corn fritters and bacon

The place lost immediate credibility with The Critic when they didn't have chocolate chip pancakes on the menu.  Yes, 38 years old and this is important to him.  With whipped cream.  Just don't give him a marachino cherry nose on a clown face (the rest of the face is ok).  But they did have corn fritters, which was ultimately what made him decide we needed to head in this direction.  The corn fritters were ok, but a small order would have been more than enough.  And they needed honey.  We have been conditioned by those nuggets of goodness from the Puyallup Fair.  Sadly I'm finding there is nothing like them on the planet.  And the German pancake, also fine.  I tried mine with some lemon squeezed on it for the first time.  They always seem to be served that way and I've never understood why.  Now I've tasted it... just still don't understand why.  It's a bit like drinking fresh squeezed lemonade on a pancake.  My mom always puts strawberries on hers which is DE-LISH! 

German Pancake

Ultimately, it's not our scene.  At least not today.  We probably would have loved it in 1977.