Recommended to me by: Charlotte Magazine, Voters Choice
Original Pancake House: Best Breakfast (Voters Choice)
I have been meaning to go to the OPH for YEARS, but good lord, who gets up early enough to drive an hour to go have breakfast in Charlotte? It just so happened that I had an early appointment with my surgeon, and my mom and I decided we needed breakfast after that painful experience. OrthoCarolina Foot and Ankle Institute happens to be right around the corner from this joint, so it was a no brainer.
When we walked in, I noticed immediately the high ceilings. It makes me feel like I have plenty of space around me, even in a crowded restaurant. We were seated immediately at a booth and a waitress came by quickly to take our drink order and drop off the menus. They also sat down crayons for my little one, for which I was grateful.
The menu had so many things I wanted to try, namely that Dutch Baby everyone talks about, but I just broke right down and got the mushroom omelet with a side of pancakes. I must tell you that they were both just pretty average. Breakfast is not that big of a deal to fix, but the sherry/mushroom sauce that accompanied my omelet was just wrong on top of that omelet. The omelet itself was enormous and very fluffy and actually cooked well. So there’s that.
The pancakes were just alright. Nothing special, and I had the buttermilk pancakes with the plain old maple syrup, nothing fancy. Sometimes going with the basic dish is a beautiful thing, an unspoiled classic; this was not so with my pancakes. They lacked flavor and the syrup was just..there. I would go for that Dutch baby next time, or maybe even a blintz if I was feeling really crazy.
OK, so I’m being a little snobby. The fact is my mother and little girl loved their food. Mom got a sausage omelet with the pancakes and loved them. My little one got a grilled chicken sandwich and hashbrowns, and gobbled it all up! I stabbed one of the potatoes, which turned out to be more like homefries than the shredded hashbrowns she is used to, and sprinkled with Cajun seasoning. They were tender and delicious!
I will return. We had fantastic service and weirdly enough, the Coke was fab..really strong. Burn your nose kind of strong. I adored it. Next time, however, you know..the Dutch Baby. I’m beating a Dutch Horse, aren’t I?
barenakedchefsaidso.com 