GF Review: Original Pancake House

Within 90 minutes of landing at the Long Beach airport today, we were seated and enjoying a delicious breakfast consisting of crispy thick sliced bacon, ham/swiss/pineapple omelette (all kinds of yum there), and… gasp… gluten-free pancakes. All this at a breakfast joint that’s been around longer than I have.

While waiting to board this morning, it was my task to find somewhere to get a delicious brunch once we landed. I don’t like to eat before I fly, especially on short flights where I know I won’t starve to death, because it’s always in the back of my mind — what if I get glutened and end up locked in the tiny airplane bathroom for hours. The horror. So today was no different. I munched on a Snickers bar and drank some cranberry juice while I surfed for a gluten-free breakfast in the general Anaheim area.

I was expecting to just find a standard joint that didn’t have a gluten-free menu but would be able to safely serve me a standard egg breakfast. I certainly never expected to find that a chain would be serving gluten-free pancakes!

So with much excitement, I called and spoke to the mgr and was told that yes, they were one of the locations that had these available. Plans were made between hubby and I and I sat on the edge of my seat the remainder of the wait time and the entire flight. Gluten-free pancakes. Swoon!

Immediately upon landing, hubby sarcastically asked what I wanted to do. Duh! GF pancake time, dude! We arrived 25 minutes later to find a nice long line out the door. The anticipation was killing me but I managed to sit quietly on one of the benches until our name was called – 30 minutes later.

Somewhere along the line, we discovered how utterly amazing an omelette consisting of ham, swiss, and pineapple can be so we ordered this. It conveniently came with a side of 3 pancakes. I requested these to be gluten-free and was given the option of whole milk or soy milk. I’m not sure what we ended up with as I told her I didn’t really care – either would do. Quick note – they did not charge extra for these to be made gluten-free. That was quite the bonus and totally unexpected.

When the meal came out, I immediately tried a bite of the pancakes. They are made with buckwheat flour and were surprisingly good. A bit on the rubbery side but with some butter and syrup, they were quite delicious.

I am one who knows within 10 minutes if I’ve been glutened or cross-contaminated. Thankfully this wasn’t the case here. This was 5 hours ago and I’m still feeling fine. (Apart from wanting more pancakes, of course!)

The servers are *very* friendly and polite and our own waitress shared my joy at being able to order a bread product for breakfast. Next time (oh yes, we’ll be back before we leave next Sunday – you can count on that!) we’ll be ordering the pancakes with blueberries. Mmmm… that sounds so good right about now.

I would give both the service and the food a 5 out of 5. I ordered an ice tea and it was refilled so often, I thought I would just float out of the restaurant. Hubby ordered a hot cocoa and he received 2 free refills. Unheard of.

Apparently all locations will eventually offer gluten-free pancakes so phone your local restaurant to see if they are offering them yet. The one in Seattle that we go to every-so-often is in the process of adding them so I’m looking forward to taking a day trip and enjoying pancakes like a normal person.

Tomorrow — gluten-free pizza in Disneyland. Oh yeah!

website: originalpancakehouse.com
address: 1418 East Lincoln Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92805
additional locations across the US
phone: 714-535-9815