The Original Pancake House

831 Route 10 East Whippany, New Jersey 07981

http://www.originalpancakehouse.com/

The Original Pancake House was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1953 by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke. Drawing upon their many years of experience in the culinary field. They now have over one hundred franchises from coast to coast, which have won local and national acclaim.

Steve's Review:

It's a little hard for me to review a place based upon what I ordered, I had the “Scrambled Eggs and Homefries” which came with 3 buttermilk pancakes on the side. The Scrambled eggs were fine, it's a little hard to mess up scrambled eggs. The home fries were dry, and the buttermilk pancakes were mediocre at best.

Being that I played it safe with my order and got a relatively simple dish, I did make sure I tried some dishes that the other people in my group ordered, One of those said dishes was the Apple Pancake, which is also one of their signature specialty items. It was tasty, it was almost like a big, warm, baked Granny Smith Apple donut, with cinnamon and sugar all over it.

The other was the Santa Fe Omlette, which I didn't like at all, and I'll tell you why, Their omlettes are “souffle omelettes”, which are oven-baked, puffy omelettes. When you oven-bake and omelette, it forms a dry, leathery skin on the outside which gives it a slightly over-cooked, burnt taste, in my opinion. I prefer a nice yellow, fluffy, silky omelette cooked in the traditional manner with a skillet on the stove top. The portion sizes for most of the food we saw in this place looked pretty large. However, I wasn't overly impressed. I didn't hate it and I would go back again, although next time, I would order the Apple Pancake or the Dutch Baby, which looked interesting.

 Sc00tz'S Review:

The Original Pancake House offers a mediocre breakfast with little atmosphere and not a whole lot of value. Unless you are really into large quantities of food, I dont find a whole lot to recommend at this place. Food was on the whole forgettable. The omelettes are baked and although they are big the browning of the outside gives them a odd taste and they are also on the dry side. If you find yourself here then I would recommend getting one of the specials that they are known for such as the apple pancake(which is flavorful) and avoiding the baked omelettes. I was disappointed and there is no reason for me to become a repeat customer here.

Biggie B's Review:

We decided to try The Original Pancake House (TOPH) based on a recommendation from a family member who lives in the area whom has frequently eaten there. TOPH is located in a strip mall right on Rt. 46 East in Whippany. Upon entering the restaurant we noticed the place was hopping and is pretty busy. We gave our name to the host, to get on the seating list, and she hands us a remote control buzzer to alert us when our seat is ready.

I guess we can wander off and still be alerted, unfortunately it’s like 2 degrees outside so we stand there, 5 feet from her, and wait about what seems to be 5 mins and the buzzer goes off. Waiting for the buzzer, I notice the meals coming out to their customers.  I see very large omelettes and some kind of huge brown pancakes going by. We are seated and the waiter is prompt in asking our food order.  A bit overwhelmed from the selection we ask for more time. I am having trouble deciding on Eggs Benedict, Strawberry Crepes or their signature dish Apple Pancake.  

I must say, seeing the Eggs Benedict passing by, going to other customer’s, looked awesome.  I managed to see the Strawberry Crepes go by and I was not impressed.  I decided to “take one for the team” and I ordered up their signature dish the “Apple Pancake”.

As we sit there waiting for our food I noticed they were not coming around to re-fill our drinks.  I actually had to hail the waiter for new coffee a couple times.  He also forgot to bring me a glass of water after asking him a couple times but hey, they’re busy right?  Also, we were about 30 feet from the front door but every time it was opened I felt cold wind come our way; almost had to eat with my jacket on.  After a while it seemed like a long time for our meals, and then the waiter came and informed us that what we ordered takes a longer time to cook because they have to bake them.  Made sense, but having him inform us was a nice touch and it’s eased our anticipatience of waiting longer. Our meals arrived and mine was a sight to behold.  My baked Apple Pancake filled the entire plate and was plenty of food for any human to consume. 
Upon my first bites it was nice and hot, sweet and absolutely yummy. I tasted the baked caramelized Granny Smith Apples, Cinnamon and the lovely pancake underneath the fruit; worth the wait.  The edges of the pancake were slightly burned but in a good way; it provided a nice crusty texture to the meal and was a bit caramelized adding to the flavor.  I was so surprised by mine that I offered a taste to one of my NJ Breakfast Tour colleagues and he apparently also liked it and wished he had also ordered it because his meal was very basic and boring.  I didn’t think I would be able to finish it but I could not stop eating it and there was nothing left on my plate.  I am glad I did not order one of their HUGE omelettes; they looked brown and brown omelettes usually have a funky taste and the funk was confirmed by Scootz, my other Breakfast Tour colleague.

In summary, TOPH has some unique dishes and worth a try. Make sure you come with an empty stomach because their portion size, for a lot of the dishes, is pretty big. If you order pancakes, be sure to ask for the 100% Maple Syrup; a nice option available for those not wishing to ingest High Fructose Corn Syrup.