The Pancake House

Horrible food with absolutely no flavor or taste at all. $ 10 for French toast thatwas soggy and looked like wonder bread. Country gravy that had zero flavor to it besides the flour. Could tell the wait staff hates there job. Owner screaming in the kitchen like he’s a king. Will not return.

Great spot if you are looking for a classic diner. Chipped coffee mugs, stained booths, crusted coffee pots, gunky S&P caddies, servers with the personality of the aunts from the Simpsons. Hearty portion sizes, low prices, fast service, giant menu, ambience of a nursing home.
I will definitely be back and will use it for what it is. I always find it humorous when people try and rate every restaurant with the same expectations. No, this is not Addison, lol, but it serves it’s purpose and I will go back before I go to a Denny’s any day.

Amazing food, and amazing service! This restaurant definitely deserves more than three stars! It probably took less than five minutes after my order for the food to come out. The only reason I didn’t give this place 5 stars is because the coffee was old and thick, but besides that, everything was great! Thank you for a great time!

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to write my review of The Pancake House. First, !! Me and my boyfriend go here for breakfast almost every weekend. Why? It’s simple! We love the people and the food is great. If you like the feeling of home cooked food this is it. I feel like I’m eating breakfast in my grandmothers kitchen — the pancakes are the best! Not to mention the Owner Carol is the sweetest lady ever. She always gives us a hug and talks to us. The waitress remembers our drink orders and usually knows what I want because I seldom change. If you want a family feeling, with good home style food, this is it!

The food is not well prepared and we have been waiting over 20 minutes for our check. Service during the meal was nonexistent, no one checked on us or offered refills. Will not be back.

This place if ok, but be warned… the waffles are $ 8 and are pretty much flat as a pancake. Not a Belgian waffle at all. And check your mugs and silverware – dirty and dingy.
They could really use a facelift. :-/

I enjoyed this place very much, it is an old school looking Diner which I personally enjoyed. Outdated obviously but that is what makes it unique to me. Many of the customers were older and I am going to assume regulars, as the lady at the check out greeted most of them by name. I grew up in a small town of SD county (Potrero) so being here reminded me of going to our local café after church. I had the biscuits and gravy, they were okay not anything to rave about but not bad, the service was great and food came out hot and quickly. I will be back for sure!

We always try to get Amanda when we come here. She is amazing! There are 2 hostesses that we wish could waitress. There also wonderful. The ONE star is ALL because Lori… She is just terrible! She keeps your bill on a clip board and walks around coughing on it. She coughed on the slip for the cook then stuck it in his window. I seen him touch it, read it then serve a plate to the window. Lori walks around scratching her head and other places. She definitely doesn’t have a food handlers card from the etiquette she shows. Lori is extremely unhelpful and likes to talk badly about customers to the other waitresses. When asked to cook the corn beef hash longer she got irritated and upset. Before she brought the plate back she was itching her head and was asked to wash her hands before serving the plate… To which she replies «if you don’t like it leave!» I’m sad to write this because Carol at the counter is amazing and wonderful.

Food was mediocre at best. Coffee was cold and the service was slow. I understand that they work on tips also, but slow service and chatty about their long hours and rude customers don’t inspire big tips. I had to get my own sweetener from another table. I had to get my own creamer from the counter and we had to ask twice for salsa for my wife’s omelet. My not go there again. I read another review that said they offer a military discount, but I asked and showed my I.D. When I gave her my credit card to pay, but did not receive it. WOW, now I’m sure I won’t be going back. I’m looking at my bill now as I’m writing this and there is NO discounts!

We’ve been here twice… once for breakfast and once for lunch. For breakfast I got the carne asada omelet and she got a beef patty with eggs… both were great! For lunch we all got burgers and they all 3 SUCKED!!! Will return for breakfast but not lunch and won’t gamble the dinner menu either. Service was friendly but disorganized. Prices were o.k.

Why has it taken me so long to actually stop here to eat?
Simply put, great food, great place.
It’s NOT gourmet. But if you’re a fan of old fashioned traditional «coffee shop» type restaurants, The Pancake House is a MUST EAT place.
Owned by the same people for 50 years, GREAT FOOD, reasonable prices.
My new regular place to eat.

Save your money. I was really not impressed with anything this restaurant had to offer at home. The first thing our waitress said was «see those menus over there, pass em out at your table». That’s when I knew this wasn’t going to be good! Then I saw the coffee mugs were all upside on a semi– clean table. The food was bland as ever and my moms eggs were greasy than ever. My biscuits and gravy were bland and sausage was soaked in grease. Memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Quick reliable breakfast, great waitresses. I love the German crepes with 2 eggs over easy and bacon

The food was okay. Nothing special but not bad. I ordered lunch though, so maybe there breakfast food is better. Our server was great though and it was on a busy Sunday!

This place is by far the worst place I have ever been to. I’m usually not one to complain or write a bad review but this place was just absolutely ridiculous.
To start the place just looks very outdated and everything is old. Maybe it was ok way back in the 1800’s
The food by the worst part of everything. I ordered a Belgium waffle combo and the waffle was still raw dough. I tried being as polite as possible and some whack ass lady got mad at me for complaining and couldn’t even come back to fix my order or apologize. I didn’t want anything after that and they wanted to just take off the waffle and charge me for the eggs and bacon which was practically the same price.
My girlfriend tried to get something cheap because she wasn’t too hungry and they told us what she was getting was only going to be $ 5.99 and ended up being almost $ 11.
The drinks were so small and expensive. I regret ever going there and honestly I prefer going to Denny’s because price is pretty much the same or better, people there are nice, and food is halfway decent.
The only reason I see this place being above 2 stars is because they have regulars who always dine in there and give them 5 stars.
Just save yourself a headache and a bad day by not going there. I wouldn’t be surprised if this place goes out of business in the next few months.

I am very excited to write about this place. Not only was the food great, the service was even better. I walked in with a friend and noticed they were very busy but somehow was seated within 2 minutes of walking in. The lady at the front was very nice and funny and even flirted with me and my friend…(great way to get men to come back), and we decided to sit over at the bar. We were helped right away, and kept getting checked on to make sure we did not need anything else. Debbie was our waitress and she did an amazing job. Our food came out hot and quickly, and it was definitely a quality, filling, and enjoyable meal. Also, there are a couple of classic authentic photos of El Cajon’s early days on their wall, which really makes me interested since I was born and raised here my whole life.
The reason I do not give it 5 stars is, well, they simply are not a five star restaurant. The décor is very outdated, the parking lot is old, and it seems as if I walked into a better Denny’s. Other than this, I really enjoyed my experience here the past couple times I have come in.

This place is not even close to being anything better than a 3-​star. I think some of the 5-​stars are fake, to be honest. 99% of the people who come here are regulars. Those regulars are also the kind that are… «dying off».
They might have been something back in the day when Lakeside /​El Cajon weren’t such dumps that attracted the worst in life, but they are nothing, and I mean NOTHING close to being a 5-​star reviewed place. You must have no standards, taste buds, or sense of money if you think this place is worth it. I’d rather get a frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast bowl and microwave it. Tastes the same, if not better.
I’ll say that despite the fact the waitresses will almost always mess up an order, they will try to correct it. The owner is also a nice lady and I’m sure that’s the only reason my wife’s family still comes here.
However, the food is never cooked well, it’s frozen like stuff, the lettuce they used for my wife’s aunt’s salad was brown and wilting, the bacon tasted microwaved and was tiny thin, the pancakes taste meh, eggs overcooked… I mean, the list goes on. NO clue why my wife’s family comes here. Mind you I’ve been here 3 times with my wife’s family, she’s been plenty more, and they absolutely always complain about the food. They are the kind of family that don’t break tradition, however, so until this place closes, they will continue to come and be disappointed.
If you think this place is any better than 2 or 3 stars, you have not had a good breakfast. Be honest, this place isn’t worth it.

We went there because we had a coupon. Just wanted breakfast for dinner. Thought it would be fun. The place looks like it has never been remodeled to keep up with the times or to repair rips in the seats, etc. The food was ok. Nothing special. I don’t understand why there are all types of bland restaurants around here. Why aren’t they making something special or unique to their establishment? Have a special pancake for crying out loud. You’re called the pancake house. The bacon was perfect. I’ll give them that. And the lady that helped us was sweet. It appears that there were a lot of locals eating there that night.

When we arrived, we got seated pretty quickly. 5min is NOT a long time to wait for a seat. The portions are huge. Enough for 2 or even 3 people per plate. The waiters were all over the place we even had 2 waitress at one point.
The only downfall would be that there was this older lady, assuming she was the boss, yelling across the room for the waitress. I felt that was a little inappropriate, they need to update their bill system all paper and alot of running around. Also, make sure you check the cup for cleanliness.

I decided to try this place because I have coupon from the entertainment book. Buy one get one free, the coupon didn’t say dine in only. I even called and asked if I can use the coupon with a pick up order the girl on the phone put me hold and had to ask someone and she said yes. I called back an hour later and placed my order.
I arrive to pick it up on my lunch break and the owner was friendly until I handed her my coupon. She said «Ow no we don’t except coupons on to go orders» I said well I called and asked if you did before I made my order. I also pointed out it does not say dine in only on the coupon. she then accused me of ripping out the part where it supposedly says dine in only. I even asked can I pay more or tip just to use the coupon? She said no and was extremely rude! I’m here to pick up the food, try a new place, and I’m in my work uniform. The owner should have just took care of the customer and accepted a coupon instead of making a big deal and accusing me of lying. I don’t mind paying extra money but how I was treated it left me not even wanting the food or giving this place my business. That being said they lost a future customer and I told my co workers about what happen.
I attached a pic of the coupon she accused me of ripping out the dine in only.
Unreal!
One star for the owner.