The Original Pancake House — Restaurant in Bethesda

Always a sure thing in terms of food quality and, usually, service, though it was Father's Day and super busy. Been coming to the Bethesda Original Pancake House ("OPH") for 2 decades.

Enjoyed the meal and atmosphere and the very accommodating and pleasant wait staff, despite the stress they must have been under with a full house for hours. Did have to ask for silverware and napkins as well as creamer after having received our coffee (nothing to stir in or stir with) -- silverware and napkins should have already been on the table upon seating. Being greeted with a smile each time our server came over to check on us and to refill our coffee -- just when needed without having to ask -- made my party's experience less stressful. Former fine-dining, highly-trained, tuxedo-wearing, live lobster tray-offering service professional from a hundred years ago in NJ, so, I notice the little things that matter for a totally enjoyable experience. ★Attention all wait staff everywhere: do frequent "fly bys" without disturbing patrons to ensure dirty plates don't sit long in front of folks, nearly empty beverages are refreshed or new ones offered, and provide extra napkins immediately after seating parties with young children and babies...scores better service and tip points.

Menu has numerous breakfast and lunch offerings and nearly every pancake you can imagine. Sides like a large fresh fruit platter also available, which my visiting bestie from college three+ decades ago and I shared...though, since such an enormously popular restaurant and large crowd that only strawberries (the yummy extra large size) and banana slices remained available out of the additional honeydew, cantaloupe, and blueberries by our 11:45 a.m. order timing. Particularly on a "restaurant holiday" like Father's Day, need to ensure enough of everything in stock for a massive clientele (could have re-stocked at the Giant supermarket or Harris Teeter a few blocks away if any fault by a supplier?). My eggs over easy and toast were, as always, cooked to perfection, and my friend's crab dish was scrumptious. Highly recommend this restaurant, but it can also get very busy on weekends, even when not a holiday.

NOTE that during weekdays you cannot park in the County public lot diagonally across Woodmont Avenue because of a deal the MoCo County Council made with Marriott having built their headquarters directly across from that well-lit, above-ground garage -- only Marriott staff (and guest parking, I believe) allowed during weekday business hours... thanks for nothing County Council!! You can still park weekdays in the underground lot underneath the OPH on Woodmont and take the elevator up to the restaurant entrance courtyard and get parking ticket validation at the restaurant for a free hour or two, but my preference has always been the way larger, lighter, above-ground lot across the street. And, recently announced by the County Council in all its wisdom (not), as of July 8, 2023 all Montgomery County public parking lots -- which have always been FREE on Saturdays -- will begin charging for parking on Saturdays in order to allegedly fund increased lot security with enhanced security measures, including cameras. Sundays, for now, County lots are still free.

★★USEFUL TIP★★ -- Yelp now has a "waiting list" for area restaurants: approximately 15-20 minutes before arrival during the weekend, depending on the size of your party, select your restaurant under the "Restaurants" icon, input the number of your party, any special requests, and your cell number to receive seating status update texts. I reserved my space on the wait list 15 minutes in advance and upon arrival received notification that my reservation had just been called...my party was seated immediately while roughly 15 people were still waiting outside and in the front desk area to be seated. (Note that your entire party must be present in order to be seated... otherwise, you have to wait until every last person at your table has physically arrived.) Keep this secret just...

Title: Decent food, Terrible Service (Long review but tl;dr at end)

Disclaimer: I have been worked in dining restaurants for many years in positions such as manager, waiter, bartender, and busboy.

Food: The food was pretty decent to be honest. Nothing extraordinary. We had strawberry pancakes, nutella crepes, Dutch baby, eggs benedict, florentine benedict, and eggs royale. My only real gripe with the food would be that the Dutch baby was a bit too soggy for my liking.

Service: The waitress we had was honestly one of the worst I have had in a long time, and I dine out just about every weekend with friends. We had just been seated and did not have enough time to read the menu, so we asked for more time. She returned and we began ordering our food after she showed that she was impatient. My friend asked her if he could order 2 meals and she told him that he couldn't. Before we were able to tell her our complete order, she proceeded to say to us verbatim, "I have another table." I understand you have other tables, but we were not taking long to order and you began pushing us to order before we were completely ready. There is an order to waiting tables and if you have another table waiting, the waiter/waitress should address them on the way and let them know you'll be with them shortly. Also, we asked to hold onto a menu in case we wished to order desserts or anything later. She tried to take away the menu regardless, and I was forced to tell her, "We are holding onto one menu in case we want dessert." When we asked for coffee, she didn't even acknowledge it at first, so we needed to ask the busser for coffee. The busser was very kind and helpful to us and displayed better teamwork than the waitress in meeting customer expectations. As we finished our meals and cleared our plates, she never came around to pre-bus tables to make room for more food for customers or help keep the amount of work and time minimal for cleaning and food traffic. When we asked her if she could take some of our plates away, she seemed offended and then just passed them to a busser nearby instead. She came back with a new set of silverware and set them down very roughly on our table immediately. The entire time she kept showing us attitude and being rude. Finally, when the check came, I asked politely if she could split the check itemized in three because of differing prices of dishes. She refused and told us to do it as one, and went further to tell us to just give the money to the person paying later. Our food could be itemized very simply as each person had a coffee and two different dishes. When the bill came, I asked my friends what we should tip, and they said to not tip anything. She stood right next to us wanting to watch us leave a tip for her and see how much we would leave. We respectfully told her we would like her to come back and pick up the check later. It is very bad etiquette and rude to wait and watch customers sign the amount the are giving to you. I will always leave a tip and usually anywhere from 15-30% depending on service. This time, I left about 15-20% based on the cost of my order alone. When we left the restaurant, she walked out of the restaurant and chased after us. We ignored her and moved on to better things.

Tl;dr: Food was decent. Rude and disrespectful waitress made the entire...

This is my second time visiting the Original Pancake House.

The first time the service wasn't the greatest, and we were outside.

The weather is a bit more chilly now, so when trying it this time we made sure we stayed inside.

Walking in, my friends and I were greeted immediately and were seated. The inside was much like a laid-back diner. Our server, Alem came and was the sweetest.

My friends started with tea and I got orange juice. I just want to say this orange juice is freshly squeezed and it was sooooo good. I also want to pre-warn you all that there isn't any champagne here for mimosas.

Onto the food, I ordered the special Apple oven-baked pancakes in the regular portion. Now, before I ordered them, Alem did warn me that they weren't typical pancakes. I was willing to try something new.

When they came I was like wow. It was a big portion, and I mean BIG. It was very warm and the dish looked like a dessert. The apples were very good and as warm as they looked (maybe even warmer). You have to dig to get to the pancake portion, and my first time, It did taste different, a bit softer than I'm used to, but then I felt like I was going to like it. I was wrong. It has an acquired taste and it's very sweet. The portion is definitely made for two people. My side of bacon helped balance out the sweetness. Alem asked for my feedback and was very apologetic when I told her I didn't like it.

Overall the original pancake house is good for a non-brunch-like party environment. It's good for children as well. If you go, ask for Alem her service was great! It did help since the service last time wasn't that great. The pricing was pretty cheap as well, as for the 4 of us, it was about $22 Per person, in which there was an inflation few there.

Thank you...