Pannenkoeken Cafe: User Reviews

Just like Amsterdam!
By Leisurehound from Lincoln Square, November 21, 2009

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What a great small spot. Arrive early on weekends otherwise the wait will be long. As good as any we had in Amsterdam, It was also comforting to know they did not have a resident cat, as it seems all the Amsterdam pannenkoeken cafes have a full time 'mouser' due to the 400 year old buildings they are in...

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Fantatic thin swedish pancakes
By bmike2000 from lakeview, June 16, 2009

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get the one with sausge mushroom and havarti cheese. its fantastic. good coffee. fresh squeezed OJ. but go on the weekdays its less crowded

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loved the food
By love the dutch from small town, November 19, 2008

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This little restaurant brings out the best pannekoeken in the US. We had the apple pannekoeken and asked for the dutch syrup. Yum!!!!
Yes, you have to wait some time for a table, because they have only 22 seats at all in this little restaurant. It is too bad that one can not be seated at a table for four when only 2 guests sit there.
Service was very good, too. Fast and friendly.
We will return!

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What a great find
By S from Rogers Park, June 30, 2008

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If you go a bit later in the day then you'll miss the breakfast and brunch crowd and won't have to wait too long for a table. The pancakes are very authentic and better than the pancakes we've had in Amsterdam. Prices are very reasonable and worth every cent. If you know good food and are well traveled you'll recognize the value of this hidden gem.

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Dissapointment
By ktmcc from Logon Square, March 17, 2008

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I had a very bad experience at this restaurant in terms of service for a specific situation that went wrong and was handles poorly
. Unfortunately there is nowhere to wait, the place is so teeny tiny. Foruntately, they take down a phone number so you can go around and shop and they call you when they're ready. Due to some misunderstanding on the part of the staff, we were called in but they had forgotten about a reservation party, so they told us it would be about 10 minutes. We waited. and waited. and waited. Nothing. The 10 minute wait ended up being 30 more minutes..The staff continued to call our phone number to update us on the situation even though we were clearly and quite obviously the only people waiting outside. No one would actually physically come up to us and talk to us, offer us water, offer aplogies, something. It felt like the staff was avoiding us.Then 2 people entered the restaurant, and they sat them right away, instead of combining 2 tables together to seat us, a party of four. When we were finally seated, the host offered a very nonchalant apology...When we asked to speak to a manager, the manager didn't seem too concerned - it's clear that it's probably overwhelming to seat people in this place. As it turned out when she was calling us this whole time, she thought she was "calling another party". How that makes sense I couldn't really say. But needless to say, there was no jesture made to make up for the bad experience ( an hour and a half wait total and starving), no comp-ed cups of coffee or dish - nothing. The only thing she said, was " Oh..I'm sorry about that. Thanks for telling us; we'll be sure not to do that next time".
Sorry, but there really isn't gunna be a next time for me.
The food was nice ( in fact probably the tastiest food I've ever had given I was so hungry), I had a delicious savory sweet panckae with bacon, muchroom and cheese yum! But overall, certainly not worth the experience or service ( although our server was awsome, p.s.) It was clear that this a popular spot for brunch, so make sure to be the party that makes a reservation. I might come again if I make this step, but I probably won't. Everyone understands that mistakes happen, but honestly, it was how the situation was handled that will make me not return.

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great
By ndub from lincoln square, March 1, 2008

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i have walked by this place many times, but never really went in mainly because of the area that it is in. The western lawrence intersection isn't to interesting. if it was in lincoln sqaure i probably would have gone there earlier. They have amazing food, and even better music playing. the Waiter told us it was a satellite radio playing New Lounge and NuJazz. The atmosphere was awesome and i felt like i was in europe. Im going to be spending a lot of time there now

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Love this place!
By milesd from uptown, February 17, 2008

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We had breakfast here this weekend it was fantastic. Not a ton of ambience but the food is very good. Top notch ingredients and impressive service for such a tiny restaurant. Best to get there early!

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Good pancake but stressful dining
By Eater11 from North Side, November 23, 2007

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Tried the choclocate and banana pancake. It was definitely very tasty and just the right size. Was served quickly. But it was stressful having people stare you down waiting for tables (and this was a Monday morning.) Go there to try the pancake, but not if you're in the mood for a nice long leisurely breakfast.

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Hope they work out the kinks
By chigirl60625 from Lincoln Square, September 27, 2007

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I SO wanted to like this place... after waiting forever for it to open it's cute little doors, and especially after waiting over 70 minutes to get a table for breakfast last Saturday. Well, as we and several others stared through the windows waiting our turn, we were staring at 3 empty tables, which had been sitting empty for about 20 minutes, waiting to be bused. Now here's the weird part: They have 3 servers for 7 tables... with 3 dirty tables for over 20 minutes!!! I think the problem is each of the 3 servers figured the others would clean the tables, yet no one did. Ok... fine, 70 minutes later, we sit and wait... and wait... ugh. All in all, I now understand what the wait is about. It's not that they have 7 tables and a ton of people trying to get in, it's the servers don't know how to handle the tables. I really hope this is just opening jitters, and they fix this. I would never order the omelets again, they really just weren't good. The apple pancake was ok. I'll go back, if there is no wait, but what a disappointment : (

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Pannenkoeken Cafe
By TheWindyCity from Chicago, September 17, 2007

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My wife and I visited the Pannekoeken Cafe on Sunday, Sept 9th. We were so glad it finally opened after much anticipation. The restaurant was well staffed, and the service was excellent. My wife ordered the Chocolate and Banana Pannekoeken. It came with sliced ripe bananas, toasted hazelnuts, fresh whipped cream, and was then drizzled with Dutch chocolate sauce ($7.75). What I liked about it was that it wasn't overly sweet. The toppings complimented the thick, crepe-like pancake. I ordered the Belgium Waffle ($6.75). it came with fresh strawberries and blueberries, then topped with fresh whipped cream. ( I was glad they used fresh fruit, and not frozen). I also ordered a side of sausage ($2.50). The sausage was larger than normal, of the quality you'd find in a downtown hotel. Very juicy and cooked just right...not over done and dry. The coffee is what really got my attention. Excellent! A 16 oz. cup served with cream (not the little plastic containers) $1.50 Total bill was about $20. Can't wait to return to try something else. I eyed up some other dishes going past. The bacon and cheese pannenkoeken looked pretty good, and so did the French toast.

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