The Original Pancake House

The Original Pancake House
6605 Dykes Road
Pembroke Pines, FL

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, one of the disadvantages of flying from Vancouver, specially if you are flying to the east of the US or Canada is that your flight will most likely arrive late night (local time). There is sort of an opposite issue as well, though: there might no be late flights in the case you want to fly back that evening and some flights leave relatively early (as early as 7:00 a.m.). Of course, that means you will end up at an early time in Vancouver (as early as noon). On my way back from Miramar, I chose to fly “late” as I was able to find a flight via Pearson in Toronto leaving around noon (local time). Why? Hey, breakfast time! And, for breakfast, for no particular reason, I chose to go to The Original Pancake House (hereby referred to as OPHS).

Yes, it was cloudy when I was there but, similar to Atlantic Canada, you can just wait five minutes and, chances are, the weather will change…

As soon as I walked in, it was quite evident that OPHS is a family restaurant. You could see kids around and, most importantly, drawings like the ones below.

Caveat Emptor, picture taken with my cell phone…

Since I was on my own, rather than asking for a table (in the middle of the dining room, open for everybody to “stare” at me!), I sat on a stool by myself on the “bar” (for the lack of a better word). Fortunately, nobody cared much I had my DSLR out; in fact, the staff was amused I was taking pictures of the food. And, talking about food, I first started with my drink: tea.

Call it wacky expectations, call it unfamiliar with local customs: When I was asked for my drink, I just said tea. It seems they default to orange pekoe. OK, let me take that back: it defaults to orange pekoe even here in Canada; however, I have been asked several times which one I want (which usually ends up being Earl Grey). Oh, well… At least I wasn’t served iced tea… And, now, my breakfast:

Wow! What is this? This is called Apple Baby, a variant of another dish called Dutch Baby, which OPHS is known for. There you go, I went for their “signature” dish! As for the chicken, I ordered something savoury to balance the sweet dish. Yes, the Apple Baby is sweet, extremely sweet… And I am not talking about sweetness from the apples, I am talking about the caramel created by the sugar they used, plus the sugar in the batter itself. In fact, if it wasn’t for the chicken which, again, provided some savoury, I might have had a sugar shock! Yes, it was that sweet…

Aside from the sweet side, what about the texture? The best way to describe it would be something on the lines of a custard. Hmmmm…. Actually, if I said a softer, oilier version of a clafoutis, it would be more accurate. But, unlike the clafoutis where the cherry gave it a both sweet and slightly bitter, the apple and sugar was just sweet. Did I mention sweet? Again, that was manageable thanks to the savoury-ness of the chicken (which, otherwise, was a dry piece of meat).

Now, similar to all the meals I had on this trip, the portion size was ridiculous. I barely managed to eat half of it and I had to throw in the towel. It was so bad that, when I asked for the bill, the waiter looked at me with a face of “are you *really* done? You just made a dent to it!”. I think that, in addition to the “it takes 30 minutes to prepare” note for this dish (it only took 15, though), they should have added a note on the lines of “this is for two people”…

Overall, I have the odd hunch OPHS caters the same public White Spot caters in Western Canada (as in a family restaurant), though, in this case, it would emphasis mostly on breakfast. As for myself, it falls into the category of “been there, done that” but without any willingness to go back. It is just that the food was a bit uni-dimensional (did I say “sweet”?); however, given their long menu, I am sure there is something for everybody.

Tagged under: Breakfast • Miami