The Original Pancake House Ladue — Restaurant in Ladue

We waited almost 40 minutes for a table. Our bad. We didn't know you needed to join the list from home. Lesson learned. They told us 40 to 50 minute wait. We had driven 30 minutes to get there so we decided to wait. It turned out to be about 30 minutes. So that was a plus.

However, the service really didn't improve when we got a table. In fact, if a manager hadn't noticed that we had been sitting there for 15 minutes and hadn't even gotten a cup of water or a menu.... Who knows if the server would ever show up?

We finally got water and menus. It had now been 20 minutes since we arrived at the table and they set another couple in the table next to us. Within 10 minutes the people in the table next to us had food, coffee, etc. We were still waiting. We had now been at the table for 30 minutes. I don't care how patient you are, that's annoying. Even if you don't say anything, it's annoying.

The restaurant has a kind of diner feel. Without the cleanliness. Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying the kitchen is filthy or anything like that. I don't know. I wasn't in the kitchen. It was just kind of messy and slovenly in the eating area. It was quite clear that no one who worked there had any pride in what they were doing. You can always tell by the way people care for their establishment. What I mean by this, is when we sat down, the table hadn't been wiped down and I got strawberry syrup on the sleeve of my shirt. By the way, they claim this strawberry syrup is homemade in house. They would have to prove that to me. It tasted like watered down strawberry jelly. Nothing more. Nothing less. You could get a bottle of strawberry syrup at Walmart and it would have been better. But that's my only negative comment about the food.

I'm not going to name the server because I've worked in a restaurant and I know it's possible for a very good waitress to be overloaded with new tables by the hostess and it might not really have been her fault. So that I blame that on the restaurant, not the waitress.

The waitress was pleasant but obviously tired and ready to go home. She delivered her food, came back and asked us if we wanted a refill on her coffee. Left the check and we never saw her again. I guess we didn't really need our coffee refilled again. Actually I did. That was the first coffee in a diner type restaurant I've had in a long time. That was actually incredibly good! I am a coffee snob and I will not drink bad coffee. I could have had them set the pot on my table. It was really very good.

So the service isn't much and the atmosphere isn't much. But I have to say as we watched everyone else getting their food. We were both commenting on how everything really looked good. It did! You know how it is when you're hungry and everyone else is getting food and you're not. You're just ready to start chewing on someone's leg bone. Well that's the kind of hungry I was by the time the food got to the table. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and I had not eaten since about 5:00 p.m. The day before so I was hungry. Thankfully it actually did taste as good as it looked. Hence the three stars overall. It would have been a lot lower based on just service and atmosphere.

I had the dutch baby with the fruit on top. I love a Dutch baby and I make them at home. Was it is good is mama makes? No. But it was pretty close. It was good. My only complaint is that they seem to have soaked to the bananas in sugar or something? Maybe that is the traditional way to eat fruit on a Dutch baby? It wasn't to my taste personally, but there was nothing wrong with the fruit. It was very fresh. I could have just done without the extra sugar, but that's me. I gave havia taste and he loved the sugar on them. So to each his own! My husband got some kind of hash over hash browns and bacon. My husband was over. The moon was his food. I did not taste it because I believe there are onions in it and I detest onions. But he cleaned his plate and I have to say the bacon was thick, cooked till it was nice and crispy and it couldn't have...

On January 4, 2024, my family and I went to this location to eat breakfast. I’ve been here several times before however this time was the worse. Upon sitting down prior to ordering I noticed my glass was cracked and broken right before taking a drink,m. I notified my server and she apologized and replaced it with a new glass.. A few minutes later my younger daughter noticed she had some type of food on the rim and side of her glass. At that point we notified the server and she quickly apologized and replaced it for another.

Now after receiving our food I began to eat my main entrée while waiting for the French toast. After receiving my complete meal and continuing to eat it I noticed some hair with a little fuzz ball connected to it. I notified the waitress and she apologized, again, and took my food to the back to notify whomever needed to be notified. Now while the rest of my party continued to eat a man eventually comes out with a plate that had on it what the waiters took back except he started it was fresh and remade. When in asked him if I could expect any compensation for the inconvenience, from the time we sat down to broken drinking glasses. I was told that even tho one glass was broken and one was dirty they gave me replacement ones. He also started the food that had hair and fuzz in it was remade. I told him I did not want that meal because at that point my family is done eating and they would have to wait in me and shouldn’t have to. He told me he wasn’t taking it off my bill because he remade it. Even tho I expressed I wasn’t going to eat it and actually gave it back to him. He continued with regardless of the inconveniences I had they fix them all therefore that meal wild b left on the bill. In politely told him I’m not going to pay for a meal I didn’t eat. He walked away and b in asked them waited for her manager and at that point I find out he was the manager and she stated he just doesn’t know how to talk to people sometimes (which was clear in my eyes). The waitress apologized again stating he told her not to take it off the bill. When paying for my bill I have her all the monies for exciting except for my meal that I didn’t eat. At that point the manager came back with the bill and said “so you took it off yourself.” And I responded with “yes, I explained to you I’m not going to pay for a meal you all messed up and that I didn’t eat.. at that point he said he would take it off the bill and also shoes me and my family to not rerun to the restaurant..

Asking me and my family to not return to the restaurant because of the inconvenience they created and the unsanitary food I was served was crazy to me.

Waitress was wonderful and I did give her 20% tip of the original bill. But the manager is horribly rude and...

I’ve had breakfast here three times in the past three months. During my March visit, I sat at the bar next to a young woman who ordered one of the thicker egg dishes. It was undercooked—runny in the middle—so she sent it back to be cooked properly. When the dish was returned, I could tell right away it wasn’t the same plate, based on how she had originally cut into it. I mentioned it to her, and she realized I was right. She let the server know, and it turned out someone nearby had ordered a similar dish.

Because of the mix-up and the fact that her original meal had been undercooked, the young woman no longer wanted the food. The server communicated this to the manager, but what happened next took us all by surprise. The manager refused to issue a refund and told her she could take the food home and recook it herself. The woman and I—and another customer nearby—were stunned. That customer even spoke with the manager privately, but he still wouldn’t budge. She ended up paying for the young woman’s meal, and my husband and I, in turn, paid for that customer and her husband's meals.

Fast forward to this past Saturday. My sister was in town and wanted to eat there again. I was running late due to the rain and told her to go ahead and get seated with her family. However, the same manager refused to seat them. He may have thought I would show up anyway and ask to be seated with them. My sister described the man to me, and sure enough, it was the same manager. She considered going elsewhere but ended up waiting for me. Eventually, we did dine there, but I can honestly say I won’t be returning.

To be fair, the food has always been tasty, and I’ve never had a problem with my own orders. But good customer service matters to me. The manager would really benefit from showing more compassion and treating customers with respect, rather than assuming they’re trying to take advantage.

Note: The low service score is based on the manager’s behavior during my past two visits. The servers I had...