Thursday, January 24, 2013

Pannekoeken Huis – Minneapolis, MN

Trash wanted to meet me for lunch to discuss some work things, and what she really wanted was breakfast-type food. She hadn’t been to Pannekoeken Huis in some time and it had been maybe 5 years since I had been there. Sure, why not?

For those not familiar, Pannekoeken Huis is Dutch for pancake house. Yes, they do specialize in these sweet pastry-like pancakes called Pannekoeken, but it’s sort of a Dutch version of Denny’s. I think there’s only one left in the Twin City area, but I might be mistaken about that.

Trash ordered a mushroom and cheese omelet with hasbrowns, which comes with toast or a cinnamon roll. She went with the cinnamon roll. Then she tried to talk me into getting a Pannekoeken, but I wasn’t feeling it. I got an avocado chicken wrap instead with some home fries.

The cinnamon roll arrived quickly and looked pretty good.

It was oooooozing sugary frosting. I’m not sure from where, but you can see in this video, it is quite definitely oozing out of the roll onto the plate near the giant scoop of butter. It was a little intimidating.

Trash offered me a bite, but I wasn’t really in the mood for something that sickeningly sweet. Neither was she. She gave up after two or three bites – it was too sugary. I tried a bite of it and agreed 100%. Waaay too much sugar, and I’m not even sure the sugar was mixed in well with the frosting since it actually had a crystalline feel to it. Not my thing, to be honest.

The meals came out a short while later. Trash’s omelet was pretty straight forward. Nothing flashy, not even any salt or pepper – just sort of bland (especially since mushrooms are flavorless). I had a bite of hers just to see, and yup, it was bland and boring. Large, but bland and boring. Even the cheese didn’t help that much The hashbrowns looked plenty crispy on top (like I like them) and had serious cheese melted on top of them, but again, they weren’t seasoned with anything at all. We didn’t have any salt and pepper on our table, or we might have been able to dress these up enough to make it through them. Trash ended up finishing maybe half of her omelet and half of her hashbrowns.

My wrap looked just fine. I had a couple of bites before I realized I didn’t have any avocado in the wrap at all. Lots of olives and chicken and lettuce, but not any avocados. I was a little disappointed with this, especially the lack of flavor in the chicken. Again, no seasoning that I noticed. I only ate half of my wrap – which, if you read this blog at all, you know is unusual. The home fries were basically baked potatoes with some Lawry’s salt (see, I know they had SOME seasoning back in the kitchen), cut up into bite-sized cubes. I ate less than half of those, as well.

Overall, we were pretty disappointed with the meal there. It seemed like it was made for old people who live in Minnesota – nothing too hot or seasoned. The waitress was really nice, so there’s no complaints about service, but I don’t think I’d bring anyone here under the age of 70. Trash commented that we lowered the median age of the customers there by half when we walked through the door.

Top 5 things about Pannekoeken Huis
1. Staff
2. Pretty expansive menu, especially for breakfast foods
3. They yell “Pannekoeken!!!” when they bring one of those things out of the kitchen
4. Inexpensive
5. Really fast service

Bottom 5 things
1. Lack of seasonings
2. Sickeningly sweet cinnamon roll
3. House fries were dry
4. Fake and dusty flowers on the table
5. Close at 4pm, so breakfast and lunch only

www.pannekoeken-mn.com

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