Pancake City — Restaurant in Kirksville

This was by far the worst experience of my life at a restaurant, My company arrived with several individuals with Developmental disabilities, we were immediately made to feel like we were not wanted in the place.We had called ahead and informed them that we would be arriving in about two hours with a large group yet they were still unprepared for us, we had to wait by the door for about 10 minutes while they located a spot for us.I ordered a tuna melt and onions rings...my food was delivered and my onion rings were burnt, my waitress informed me that they were burnt and then proceeded to ask me if that was ok, why no it's not ok, so she goes and orders me another order of Onion rings which took another 15 minutes to arrive, and guess what??? They were burnt again. now they didn't just do this with my onions rings but someone that was with me also ,so we both change our orders to tator tots...In the mean time ,I had already consumed my Tuna melt..which was not a Tuna melt it was grilled bread with a slice of cold cheese and cold tuna put on it, but I ate it anyway,meanwhile another person with me ordered vegetable soup and a sandwich..Her soup was literally cold to the touch..which by Health department regs, is suppose to be a certain temp...so the waitress who was rude from the start took it back and returned the soup another 15 minutes later so hot that she couldn't eat it.the waitress never refilled our drinks and since we were a party of 9 we sat at two separate tables..the ones at the other table had thier food delivered and then the waitress never return except for when she dropped off the ticket while walking past to another table.I work in Social service, but before that I spent more than 25 years in the restaurant industry, Had that been my restaurant there would be 2 waitresses and a cook looking for new jobs now.as we were leaving one of our party left a note for the waitress letting her know she had missed out on a $20 + tip and why ...as I was checking out,( because regardless I was going to pay for my food) the manager approached me and informed me that the note was unnecessary..I quickly informed him that I did not write the note but that our substandard food and service was also unnecessary...rather than ask what happened and trying to clarify the situation ,he huffed at me and walked off, The waitress that had waited on the other table with us then proceeded to walk by and roll her eyes at me...So absolutely no stars what so ever from me the only reason they got 1 star is because google would not accept my review without at least one star, nor will I ever return to this place, and they now have 9 people that will tell everyone they know...

We went to college at Truman and have been back to PC since. We knew what to expect going in. Still, this was a disappointment. First, the good news: service is great - fast, friendly, attentive, hard-working.

We were three people for lunch. I got the Philly cheese steak and rings, one got chocolate chip pancakes, one got biscuits and gravy. We ordered garlic cheese curds to share. My Philly was the best of the bunch and it was quite middling. Not terrible, but actually a bit bland. I wanted more char on the steak, more cheese, and way more green pepper. The rings were standard diner rings. A bit greasier than ideal, but passable.

The garlic cheese curds were okay, if scant. Obviously frozen (as expected; not an issue), but several sort of stuck together, others were smashed, and a few were empty shells of batter. Perhaps it was the bottom of the bag, but perhaps an upgrade in source material is in order.

Next, the pancakes were not burnt, but getting close, and would have been dry but for the globs of chocolate chips and the butter and syrup we added.

The biscuits and gravy were perhaps most telling. The gravy was (almost?) entirely without sausage. To be fair, I think it said "old fashioned gravy" and not "sausage gravy," but a clearer "milk gravy" would have been better. However, one of the biscuits was fine and fresh, the other was hard and crusty, as if it were old and had been microwaved.

The atmosphere was very diner-y, but decrepit, with water stains all over the ceiling, dingy menus, etc....

Here's a good rule of thumb: When you visit a breakfast diner in a small town with very limited options and it's mostly empty on a Saturday morning at 9am, don't set your expectations too high. It's dirty and dingy. Everything looks cheap like Waffle House's bastard step-child that no one wants. The staff try real hard to pull off a "hey honey/sweetie/sugar" diner waitress routine like they've seen on tv, but they fail pretty hard. If you don't eat or want meat, they'll gladly leave off the sausage/bacon/ham, but won't let you substitute any other side items in their place and still charge the same amount. It seems like a place that has spent years perfecting its "y'all ain't from 'round here are you" slack-jawed hillbilly stare that they reserve for every person unfortunate enough to be lured into what passes for a breakfast diner in a town where everyone seems ok with doing just enough to keep the lights on. Skip it. We had the free breakfast at the Holiday Inn the next day and it was way better. They...