Pancake Cafe

Is the food the worst there is? No.
Is the food worth nearly $ 10 a plate? NOOOOO.
For the money I spent there I could have gotten so many better meals across the city that would have been much much more worth it.
In the end it’s not worth the price for the food you get, if they were $ 5 plates, it would be a different story.

I can’t remember the food because I was so appalled by the sheer awfulness of the interior.
If the proprietors were aiming to let you experience the look and feel of a contractor’s office in a double-​wide trailer, they’ve succeeded. It’s an interior that says «I did it myself.»
I’d rather stay home and eat in the garage.
That all said, the food is not bad. But we will not set foot in that horror show again.

The layout of this building is strange. You enter through the door, and you kinda have to make your way around to get to the table where you stand there awkwardly until someone realizes that you’re there to eat. I ordered a Very Berry crêpe dish. It was out within a few minutes (which I thought was very, very strange considering crepes usually take quite a while to make) and it was a soggy mess with powdered sugar which looked like someone just quickly threw it on the crepes, and berry juice all over the bottom of the plate. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Before I even ate the crepes, it looked unappetizing. And the maple syrup: it had absolutely no flavor to it and I felt like I was just eating a soggy mess.
I left very unsatisfied. Even Denny’s is better than this place. For any day except Sunday, I’m just going to stick with Yola’s Café. I don’t know what it is about this area, but this place and the burrito place in the same strip mall have the worst food that I’ve ever had in Madison.

I ordered the huevos rancheros. The eggs were cooked perfectly and the corn tortillas added nice flavor. However I asked for light amount of cheese and they were coated with cheese. Also the hashbrowns that came with it were not cooked all the way.
Of all the places in Madison that I’ve been, our service here was the worst. She was not attentive, friendly, or efficient. We had to repeat our order to her because she didn’t write it down. We asked for refills on drinks and she said she would be right back but bussed off all of her tables first even though we were the only ones in the place. We had to wait twenty minutes after we finished our meal just to be asked for the check.

Looks like I made another mistake by trying this place out again. This establishment is absolutely one of the worst in all of Madison.
I arrived with a party of 4 at 10.15 am, the restaurant was practically empty, yet after 45 min we had not yet been served and every dish was eggs of one sort or another. The waitress explained when I asked to talk to a manager that he was working at a different location and they only had 1 cook on duty and they were going as fast as they can. She then proceeded to bring out 2 of the 4 orders, then a few minutes later the 3^rd of the 4^th order, and then NOTHING! When she finally arrived with my order, I refused it as everyone else were almost done with their breakfasts. The quality of the 3 orders that were delivered, were sub par, to say the least. None of the eggs were cut as ordered.
This restaurant is a prime example of a restaurant owner who cares nothing about his customers, the service, or the quality of the food that he serves. I’m sure that cleanliness of the back of the house most be disastrous as well.
Nobody that was working in this restaurant today gave one wit about what they threw out on the table. Pancake Café is a must miss, don’t waste your money, they should shut it down, its a disgrace!

This place deserves a five star review because the food was awesome and the waitress was very friendly. What more do you need really? In our table for two, we both ordered the Country Fried Steak, eggs, potatoes, and pancakes. A huge breakfast and all 4 parts of it were perfect. They offered this monstrous meal for only $ 9.99.
Also, I love when diners do this, they left the big pot of coffee on the table for us to refill ourselves. Very convenient. If I find myself in this neighborhood around breakfast again, I will be sure to pop in.

I really enjoyed this place. The eggs were honestly the fluffiest egg whites I have ever had. I loved that they had such a large selection of breakfast items to choose from. For brunch eaters, this is a great place.
I wasn’t impressed the layout and they were a little pricey. The service was excellent though!

The atmosphere is very cute. The hostess appeared to be preoccupied so we had to emphasize we wanted a both and show her an open one. The menu is extensive but I wanted a waffle meal and it had to be ordered a la cart which equalled over $ 15 because of the $ 5.99 3 pieces of bacon! Booooo! The bacon was good but greasy. My pecan waffle tasted very good until I put the house made watery maple syrup. Then it became a soggy cake with pecans. :-(A staff member who appeared to be manager, because she did not introduce herself, asked how the food was. She has started to walk away before I was able to finish saying the food was «disappointing.» She then came back and I told why I was disappointed and she apologized very nicely. But did not offer any compensation. I do need to add my her food thought her food was better. Overall I would recommend this place unless you did not have any place else to go. If you eat here I suggest ordering a combo instead of a la cart and getting food that does not require syrup. This place has been voted «Best in Madison» for years, o honestly wonder why but maybe I came on a bad day?

As a disclaimer, I’ve only ever had their omelets (low-​carb eater here) and they just aren’t amazing for the price.
Friends who’ve come with me order a variety of things and while the consensus was that the food was good, it wasn’t out of this world and not really any better than other breakfast joints around.
Go to the Curve if you want a killer omelet. Go just about anywhere else for more bang for your buck.

I meet friends here about once a month and the food quality and staff seems to have good times and bad times. Some of the staff are knowledgable and very friendly. They are on top of refills and always checking back to make sure the food is good. There are other staff that don’t know the menu and aren’t sure what ingredients are in the food.
One of the individuals in our group is gluten and dairy free. As the menu is large, she’s always able to mix and match things to accommodate what she can and can’t eat.

Was super excited for pancakes, but had a horrible experience. All the servers we interacted with seemed out of it or just like they didn’t care much. Our order came quite late, but I’m going to assume that’s because we ordered an oven baked pancake. I wish they would have told us it’d take an hour though.
The bacon is good, I’ll say that. Thick and juicy. But their pecan baked pancake had unmelted sugar, which made it grainy, and the pecans were raw, not baked or carmelized. For a 10 dollar pancake this was so dissappointing.
Our server did not tell us refills on milk and orange juice charged another 3 something dollars, and offered us more like it was free. That was really frustrating. We could have gotten another dish with that money.
We tried the place despite some other bad reviews. Super dissappointed. :/

I’ve been here a few times, always for breakfast, and usually with a team of coworkers (as part of a morning meeting). Most recent visit was this morning, after I braved the snow/​wind/​roads so that I could hit the gym (I have a problem), and found myself starving after the workout.
+ Several hosts/​hostesses/​cashiers available; no wait to be seated
+ Good for groups; there are several distinct seating sections, including a back room
— Very spartan interior, but I don’t care too much about how a café/​casual restaurant looks when I’m there to get my eats on
+ Friendly server
+ Nice selection of items on the menu — sure to be something for everyone
+ Big water glasses (20+ oz) — very welcomed
+ Coffee was decent (better than Manna’s medium and light roasts)
+ Carafe of coffee was left on the table for DIY refills — very nice
— Cream separated in coffee for some reason (fake cream? Not sure)
+ Eggs with spinach, bacon, and naan. Two perfectly scrambled eggs, combined with some lightly sautéed spinach with a touch of garlic truffle oil, set on top of two thick, nicely roasted slabs of bacon, with a flatbread underneath. The flatbread was a bit of a miss, but I wasn’t there for the carbs, so it was all A-​OK.
+ My friend had the veggie omelette and it was: (a) massive, (b) very fluffy and perfectly cooked, © filled with a ton of well-​cooked vegetables (I think I saw broccoli, tomato, onion, and mushrooms), (d) we were able to substitute the hash browns and toast options for fruit, which was nice.
— A bit «proud» in terms of price. Most of the omelettes hover in the $ 9-​$ 9.50 range; and a side of bacon rings-​up at $ 5 (although it’s a good-​sized plate of thick cut bacon).
So… if you’re expecting a Michelin 3-​star type venue, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a no-​nonsense breakfast/​lunch place, this Pancake Café should fit the bill. Stick with the staples (eggs, bacon, sausage) and you’ll be golden.

So my sister prefaced our visit with a, «so when we get inside, it’s going to look really weird and dumpy, but the food is really good». I’d say it was a super accurate description. The interior tries to be nice and bright with some yellow paint on the walls. They got into the holiday spirit with a tree and pictures wrapped like presents on the wall but it still just didn’t feel like it was tied together.
Our server was super soft spoken to the point where we actually wondered if she said anything. We still received decent service it was just more the silent type.
Food was great. Their pancakes are fantastic and accompany the omelettes if you choose to order that. I ordered a bacon cheese omelette and was pleased with it. The environment and lack of verbal communication causes this review to lose a couple stars, but the food is good.

This place was exactly what it was supposed to be. Basic breakfast food-​omelettes, pancakes, eggs, and all of the usual. The corned beef was surprisingly awesome! Actually tasted like corned beef which is not always the case. Apparently they make it fresh in house every day. The rest… take it or leave it. The service was good and it’s definitely a good place for families!

Good:
1. Service. My waitress was very friendly and attentive. She boosted this rating by a star.
2. Coffee. Nice and strong. Probably maxwell house, but not weak at all.
3. Atmosphere. Nice and open.
4. Food served fast… too fast (see below)
Not so great:
1. Food. I got the eggs Benedict. The poached eggs were overdone (hard yolks). The Canadian bacon was fine. The fruit was ripe. The English muffin was not toasted at all. The hollandaise sauce was acceptable but not enough acidity. The real killer was that the hash browns were cold and raw in the center and barely brown on the top.
I have visited this place when it was pc kitchen and it also had «issues» with raw cold hash browns. You just can’t rush them and expect them to taste good.
I might try this place one more time before writing them off for good… maybe.

They have GLUTEN FREE PANCAKES! !! Need I say more? Absolutely delicious. I love this place :)

Pancake café has just about the best omelettes I’ve ever had. Light & fluffy, with very flavorful vegetables and the right balance of cheese. I also tried the sausage patty and it was delicious. Fresh squeezed OJ, good ambience all around. I’m a fan!

Ugh. Just, ugh.
Avoid eating here.
We stood for 4 minutes in an empty restaurant waiting to be sat. Ok, fine, whatever.
Got sat, ordered food. I got eggs Benedict he got a teriyaki chicken sandwich.
Let’s start with him. His sandwich was butchered grilled chicken. Like, the most mangled piece of chicken I’ve ever seen. I can only assume the «chef» kept cutting into it to make sure it was cooked. Teriyaki was bland and the sandwich itself came with basically nothing on it. Best part, it was on a bun that McDonalds wouldn’t even claim as their own.
Mine. I could not eat this thing. It was an abortion of eggs and hollandaise. The eggs were sour, like rotten sour. I got all of one bite in before I couldn’t even. I’m sure that one bite is going to make me suffer later too.
Service was good all things considered, but dear god, why would you eat here?

Talk about amazingly large portions. I probably could have used 3 hours to try and finished the food. And when we ordered coffee we got full mugs and the thermos.
The table placement could be rearranged a little to be more cozy and less open space but overall it is a great place to eat a large breakfast with friends.

Visited this morning on a whim, after hearing mixed reviews. However, after eating here, i believe those reviews to be slightly in error. Granted, the décor is quite bland and could use a definitely remodel. The food however, was pretty good. Three out of the four of us got breakfast omelets, and everyone seemed to enjoy their food. Omelets were big and fluffy, with plenty of ingredients. Sides were good, and the bacon was super thick and tasty. Additionally, our waiter was quite friendly, attentive, and professional.
I was pretty surprised to see a Chicago Style Italian Beef on the menu, and as a self declared italian beef connoisseur, had to give it a shot. Was actually pretty decent, albeit a little skimpy on the meat.
I probably wouldn’t go out of my way for this place, but would eat here again if in the area and looking for good food at a good price.