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Frequently travelling for business across Canada (mostly West) and the U.S. (periodically), we are privileged with eating in various cities, experiencing the life of the city and through the magic of food, different cultures.

The reason for starting this site was because we can't tell you the number of times we would look on other sites to find reviews of restaurants by the general public, only to come away scratching our heads. Yes, that likely will make us sound like snobs, but hey...there really is no accounting for some people's taste.

Unlike most "reviewers", we never, ever tell the restaurant who we are, or what we are doing. This ensures that we receive no special treatment, and that the establishments aren't on their "best behavior" just because we're there. So you'll hear about the worst of the worst, the best of the best and everything from fast food to luxurious restuarants in our travels, as that is the range and diversity of our palates. Please join us on what has been one hell of a food ride thus far, as we finally unveil, without prejudice, what we really think of the food and let you decide where to eat your next meal.





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The Original Pancake House : Winnipeg Manitoba

When we entered the Pancake House we were seated right away...rare for this place on a weekend morning, even at 11:30 when we arrived. The atmosphere of the place is similar to any pancake house or generic chain restaurant...wide open and unimpressive. Shortly after having looked at the menu, a waitress came by to ask if we knew what we wanted for drinks. English obviously being her second language, she had some difficulty answering our questions on whether they had milkshakes and or smoothies, so we decided to look at the menu and order from it rather than query her further. Several minutes later we were approached by another waitress who was much more familiar with their menu. She took our drink menu stating she didn't know what one of the drinks listed was, and that they were no longer providing Fruitopia. We ordered our drinks, orange juice, coke, and two hot drinks.

Our drinks arrived promptly and we were ready to order. Not being a breakfast person, I decided on a turkey club on rye with a tossed salad and Italian dressing. Stuart chose French Toast with cream cheese and strawberries.When our orders arrived we were shocked by the sheer size of the food on the plates. My turkey club, was rather filling and I probably ate ¾ of it and a few bites of salad. The salad seemed fresh, no limp leaves or bad taste for the few bites I had. The club had ample mayo, which is not the norm for most places serving clubs, fresh lettuce, well cooked (almost crisp) bacon and fresh tomatoes .I had no complaints about the taste of this Turkey club, I would say it's marginally better than most I have tasted thus far.

Stuart's French Toast, of which he also ate ¾ of, was supposed to come with cream cheese and strawberries, but instead showed up with some sort of runny cream cheese icing and canned strawberry pie filling. This is not to say that it didn`t taste ok, just that the description in the menu surely outdid the reality of the meal.

I would highly recommend this place offer half sizes, because the plates, although reasonably affordable, are more than the average person can eat. In my opinion a tad wasteful. It seems to be patterned after the US philosophy of whereby if you can`t wow them with the quality of the food, make up for it in sheer quantity instead. Service was reasonable, and we were checked on a few times during our brunch.

For a pancake/breakfast place, I would say the overall experience was average. I do not have anything exceptional to say, nor bad. The service average, the meals better than average, but way too big, but then again, for some that's a great thing...I on the other hand would prefer to enjoy a smaller but better quality serving, than to throw away half of my plate after I`m full or bored of eating with the bland taste.


Location Visited: The Pancake House: Polo Park in the Clarion Hotel


Ratings:

Ambiance: Casual
Presentation: Good
Price: $12/serving
Service: Good
Value: Good

Original Pancake House on Urbanspoon

The Meal Truth - Undercover food critics
Posted by SC

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 11, 2010 at 2:29 PM

    Just putting it out there, there are half order available for the pancakes and french toast. Also how would you have a half order of a sandwich?

    ReplyDelete
  2. SJDecember 12, 2010 at 7:58 AM

    Well...what they could do is take a single slice of bread, cut it diagonally, then make half a sandwich. Regardless, the point was that they seem to have adopted the American restaurant way, which is to say that they are more concerned with perceptions around quantity, than smaller higher quality portions.
    Not a criticism, just an observation.
    Thanks for your comment :)

    ReplyDelete

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