The Original Pancake Kitchen — Restaurant in Adelaide

Like most South Australians I've been coming here, on and off, for years. Every time I leave I tell myself the same thing, we'll, I don't need to come back here again for another five years. The Original Pancake Kitchen always seem to miss the mark, and they do this every time. Firstly, their online menu was down. This meant I couldn't pre-choose my order, or get excited about their menu items. Anyway, we arrived and quickly noticed the update in decor - this is a refreshing change (maybe it's been longer than 5 years since I've been?) We were greeted by an enthusiastic fellow who told us to take a menu from the rack behind us and sit anywhere we liked, there were no menus in the rack. We sat out the back at the world's stickiest table, and peeled off a sticky menu from a neighbouring sticky table. The menu was like an old kindergarten book, heavily lacquered with years of drool and sloughing stickiness of wayward, overlooked kinder. Unappealing. We asked to have our table cleaned, as did another couple, but that service never arrived as promised. I ordered at the counter and spoke with a lovely lady behind the register, but her english wasn't great. I asked for a side plate, but I had to explain what it was. She understood, but I didn't believe her and asked if I could take it straight away, she refused. I hate having to be pedantic, but just give me the bloody plate, I'm not asking for a lung! It was early on a Sunday morning, and whilst we were waiting for our food, the music they were playing was not sympathetic to the time of the day, and was that loud, crazy jazz. It's quite possible that this was done on purpose, to get the overnight dregs out? Our food came (less the side plate) and I insisted on it being brought straight away, which they did. I ordered The Farmers Feast with a side order of hollandaise sauce. The pancakes were good, the meal was generous and the hollandaise sauce was thick and creamy. One egg was cooked reasonably well, the other, was 'joke shop' rubbery. I also ordered a child's size Swiss Shake with malt and a cappuccino with an extra shot - it was just ok.

At least I don't need to come back here for another five years.

The food here is generally good. Portion size and price is fair, so why don't I like it here?

Pancake Kitchen Adelaide, please, PLEASE try harder. Do a secret shopper or something. Get a friend of the family to rate their experience and give...

Sticky tables, sky-high prices, and zero clue — The Original Pancake Kitchen has officially earned the title of my worst dining experience ever.

Let’s set the scene. It’s Mother’s Day. We’re seated promptly — at the stickiest table I’ve ever encountered. We take a moment to settle in and then head up to the counter to order. That’s when everything unravels.

I ordered the original 3-stack of pancakes and a regular iced mocha. Simple, right? Apparently not. The staff looked completely lost, like they were making it all up as they went. Then came the charges. A 15% surcharge for card payments? Fine. Annoying, but fine. But then they tried to add a surcharge for cash. Yes — cash. That’s not just annoying, it’s illegal.

They rang up a bill over $50 for one basic meal and drink. My friend stepped in to question it, and while they did issue a refund, they refunded too much in cash. She’s not mad about that, but it definitely didn’t inspire confidence.

So we finally get our overpriced drinks (mine came while I was distracted trying to transfer money because of the mystery charges). And here’s the kicker: they cannot mix drinks. I don’t know what I was served, but it wasn’t mocha.

At this point, my four friends had all received their food. Me? Still waiting. I gave them 20 more minutes before asking where my pancakes were. To their credit, they brought them out quickly after that. But I’d been sitting there for 45 minutes — hangry and confused — waiting for three pancakes that somehow cost $28, even though the menu said $14.

I honestly can’t tell if it was incompetence or daylight robbery, but either way; I...

i’m not usually one to write reviews but i had the worst experience here this afternoon. i honestly have no idea how the woman with the short blue hair at the front counter still has a job. i have never been to a restaurant and received such bad customer service. the chef bought out a meal which we told him we hadn’t ordered. he asked the woman who took our order what was going on, she told him ‘i definitely didn’t put that order through’ in a very rude tone leaving us feeling bad for the poor chef. she then realised she did infact put it through and came to our table saying that the right meal was coming, leaving us all eating except for one person.

at this time, i asked if my drink was coming too as i was the only one who didn’t have my drink, she said she’d make it now. 20 minutes later i approached the counter politely asking if my drink was still coming as i’d nearly finished my meal. the woman replied ‘oh, yeah it’s blended i just forgot about it’. the attitude was appalling, she could not care less. the restaurant was not busy at all and we watched her and the chef stand around talking and the checking her phone instead of tending to orders, very unprofessional. finally my drink arrived to which i got no apology, just the drink slammed on the table in front of me.

i am so disappointed in the experience i had, i will not be returning or recommending this pancake kitchen to anyone....