Pancake Pantry — Restaurant in Gatlinburg

Whole experience was terrible. I’m not sure if they just have untrained staff that aren’t capable of working in fast paced, busy environments or they were just having a bad day but whatever it may be, I would never come back here and I’m truly surprised they have good reviews. The waiting/seating staff is where the first issue rose. When it’s busy (a Saturday morning at 9am) they use a ticket/number system which when they hand you a number they say “we will call out your number when your table is ready”. After waiting for 40 minutes outside, our number still hadn’t been called when every number before us had been (and at this point they were on number 162 we were number 155). Upon this discovery, we asked the seating girl why we haven’t been seated or called and she responded with “yeah we did, a long time ago”. We said “you absolutely did not, we’ve been sitting right here the entire time waiting and heard you call every other number that was around us but never ours”. At this point we should have left but we figured we waited this long already. That was our mistake, we desperately should have left because it went down hill fast once finally seated. We got sat, waitress comes to table, we both already know what we are going to order because we had an hour to look at the menu while waiting outside. When my boyfriend orders the waitress responses with “we can’t do that” when he asks to pay extra for a certain kind of pancake (like an upgrade) instead of the buttermilk ones that come with the meals. As we are already frustrated with the restaurant because of the terrible seating/and clearly flawed ticketing system, my boyfriend decided he just isn’t going to get anything (because why is that a hard concept to be able to accommodate?) but I still placed my order. The waitress was clearly not interested after this interaction and avoided our table. The food runner brought out my food and I began to pour syrup on the pancakes which came out like water. Literally tasted like sugar water with no flavor. Next I went to try the hash browns, I asked for ketchup so I was brought ketchup. I grabbed the ketchup to shake up a bit before using and as I did that the lid flew off and ketchup went literally everywhere. All over my face, my purse, my clothes, the floor, the nice guy sitting next to me at the following table. Who brings an unscrewed bottle of ketchup to a table? Our waitress saw this all happen as she was taking the order of the table next to us and she said nothing, didn’t ask if we needed extra napkins, absolutely nada. It started to feel like this was all purposeful by the staff. This was the third strike and after having two bites of pancakes and covered in ketchup we decided to leave. We did not pay as we didn’t even get to eat the meal and we walked out. This place is an atrocity. But hopefully it was just a one off experience, I would avoid regardless. They “know” that they’ll have business regardless because it’s a tourist town so they don’t care how your...

I’ve loved Pancake Pantry for 17-18 years, eating there nearly yearly in the last but less often after my kid grew up and moved away. It has so many fond memories for my family, and I love that nothing inside the restaurant has changed.

I’ve always ordered the pecan pancakes. I LOVED them…until May 11.

The pecans were all piled only into the middle of the pancakes, which isn’t how I remember their being before…I remember the pecans being spread throughout the large pancakes. The waitress finally came back around when I had two pancakes left (I tried to eat slowly), and I brought up my disappointment to her. She was sweet and said different cooks cook them differently. Surprisingly, though, she didn’t offer a remake or a substitution (maybe it’s your policy to not offer that if the customer is unhappy, though—seems odd, but I guess that can be costly). I asked her to ask them to remake the last two, hoping for them to be different. She obliged, which I appreciated.

They came back exactly the same.

Being a diabetic and not liking plain pancakes (if I am going to send my blood sugar high, I’d rather it be tasty)…I ate the middle with the pecans and gave my husband the rest. And was just plain disappointed and sad.

I mentioned this to the cashier (she did ask if it was good) and let her know the remake was done, but still was not good or how I remembered them. She said that she was sorry but also something similar to “You’re probably not remembering it correctly” when I said that things had changed from the past.

I already was thinking I would not be back since my husband isn’t a big fan, anyway, but being told that my disappointment wasn’t based on a valid reason and that my fond memory was wrong seemed rude. I’m sure she didn’t mean to be rude, but a simple “I am sorry” ( which she did state) would have been far better than telling me that my memory was wrong.

And, I still don’t think my memory was wrong. Most of the pancake was so plain, and I have never been a fan of plain pancakes. But, since the cashier is sure that they were made just as they always have been…I will not be back. Maybe she is right….and, the pancakes weren’t as good as I thought. I’d prefer to think they were as wonderful as I used to think, though. Such delicious and...

When I was in Gatlinburg a couple of weeks ago I was told I needed to try out the pancake houses they had out here and man did they have a lot! You guys recommended so many I literally had to look up and research all of them and settle on one. Ultimately at the end we chose Pancake Pantry. Simply because I could get a waffle and the bacon looked better.

When we got here the line was down the street but we ended up getting in fairly quickly. The workers were quick and very nice. We got seated right next to the kitchen and I enjoyed watching everyone cook like a well oiled machine! As you can see I ordered sausage, a waffle, and eggs.

Honestly I was shocked I ended up getting three sausage patties. Most places only give you the standard two and sometimes even only just one. The sausage had great flavor but was a bit dry. I think they use a leaner meat. I do also wish it had a bit more color to it. I like my sausage slightly burnt. But still good easy 7/10

The waffle was really good it may look flat but it was actually decently fluffy. It had a sweetness to it where you didn't need syrup. I will say I'm glad I had water because this thing sucked all the moisture out of my mouth. But it was worth it. 8/10

The eggs were awful. Idk if they were fresh eggs or not but it didn't taste like it. It tasted like those liquid bag eggs. I couldn't eat it after one bite. Texture was off and everything. 1/10

All in all this place was good and I would definitely go back without question. If you're ever in Gatlinburg, TN check this place out!

Oh and if you get the chance to see it. They keep this huge bowl of whipped butter like a freaking mountain just sitting out. It was crazy looking but honestly the butter had little to no...