BabyStacks — Restaurant in Las Vegas

11-23-22 Babystacks Café Review

Review for Babystacks Café, 2400 N Buffalo Dr #145, Las Vegas, NV 89128, on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, approximately 12n-1pm.

The chain franchises for breakfast/lunch only, that usually close by 2-3pm, are mostly small businesses with limited seating, so when they get busy it can be quite a wait to eat. Babystacks Café is one of these type of chain franchises. The room is quite small and tables are very close together to squeeze in as much seating as possible. This makes service a little difficult for the servers squeezing between tables and around customers as they run food out. Silverware was napkin rolled and on the table but all we had was the one flimsy wrapped napkin. The food was served after about 30 minutes, but extra napkins had to be chased down. Service was so-so.

We had ordered coffee and cranberry juice to drink, and I had a Sunshine Breakfast, eggs over medium with sour dough toast; hubby had Kalbi Beef Ribs & Eggs with eggs over easy, and rice and pancakes as the sides, and our son had a Mexican Omelet with chicken and sides of toast and pancakes. My breakfast was good and made correct, fresh pepper, nice crispy toast – and not hard to get right. My son enjoyed his Mexican eggs recipe but had to forgo the raw pancakes even though he eats pancake sides like a dessert to his meal. My hubby’s meal was a beautiful presentation of a just awful main course. The meal looked and smelled great, was topped with eggs and dop of sour cream. My husband broke the yolk on the eggs and stirred it all together. He tried the garlic rice first, and said it was very good. But then his meal ended on a sour, hard, beyond chewy note also followed by raw pancakes. The ribs were so tough you could not cut them or pull them off the small bones with your teeth. The flavor was really good which just made it that much worse because you could not chew them at all. It made you feel like a starving cat licking sauce off leftovers because the meat had dried up to leather. The ribs were not dried up though, just severely undercooked and tough. We each tried one small rib, which was inedible and did not touch the rest. Since it was the main course, my hubby sufficed on a breakfast of just garlic rice and coffee. He was eager to dig into the pancakes as a filler, but they were raw in the center.

Raw or badly cooked foods happen a lot during rush hour in these small chain franchises. These small restaurants with small kitchens get overwhelmed and trying to get food out fast – becomes too fast – raw and undercooked or badly cooked and most people will not wait for it to be recooked because the rest of their party is done eating. And you lose customers who could be regular breakfast guests.

So, stars are going to be weak for this location. One star for quick seating, one star for a place to sit down and wait to be called even though they requested we wait outside, and ½ a star for half an order of edible food, zero stars for service, zero stars for inedible food, zero stars for being made to ask for napkins. I have to round the stars up or down for most reviews which only allow full stars, and I’m choosing to round this down. Two stars is all I can muster! I do believe it may have better if our timing had been before or after rush hour. However, it needs to be consistent without regard to the number of customers seated, so we will...

We normally love Babystacks, however coming to this specific location yesterday was a first for us. Let me start with the good- the food really was very tasty. I ordered the Portuguese fried rice. I noticed that there were jalapeños in it and my rice was also very dark and saucy. Very different than all other locations and not what I was expecting at all, but it was still delicious. Spanish music was playing overhead and all the workers were speaking Spanish so I think they are adding their own flare to the menu. As good as it is, I went there for to eat my fried rice the way it's made at all other Babystacks. The pancakes were alittle overcooked and dry, but still tasty. I still enjoyed the taste of my food, just would have preferred the recipes not to differ so much. Now to the bad- It is extremely hot in there. The place is very tiny, the smallest Babystacks I've been too and the kitchen is exposed and right there where you can see them cooking your food, so because of those two things I think that's why it was so hot. It felt like there was no air conditioning, that's how hot it was. With the set up there tho, I'm not sure how that can be helped or not, but it was uncomfortably hot. Worst for last- Our server was extremely passive aggressive. He was a young, short Mexican guy. He gave off a vibe of and a tone in his voice to be very cocky. I asked him to add cheese to my fried rice since it comes omelet stye wrapped in eggs and he acted like I made such a weird request. The way he told us to move things around on the way too small table was rude. Everyone at our table noticed without saying a word to eachother about it til we were done with our food and out of the restaurant. He especially seemed to pick on one person in our party, the only male, who was my young teen son. He left there feeling extremely angry, so much so that if the server had made one more cocky or demeaning comment or gesture toward him he was actually going to say something and ask him what his problem was with him. I don't know why the server felt the need to come at us with such an attitude and especially to aim it toward a young boy for no reason, but he came across as a very dominating and self entitled person who gets pleasure from "passively" making people he does not know and is supposed to be serving feel like garbage. At the end of our meal, he brought us the check and the card machine and asked my mom to hold the card machine for him by saying, "Hold this for me." and just walked away. Needless to say, we will never be back to...

FOOD: 5 stars RECOMMENDATIONS: Red Velvet Pancakes, Cookies 'n Creme Pancakes, Lolo's Chicken Adobo Fried Rice.

I have been to 5 out of 6 Babystacks locations and started going to them when there were only 2 locations in 2012 and I don't live in Nevada. I am in town often and Babystacks is always a stop on the trip! One time, my husband and I drove straight from Phoenix to Henderson's Babystacks.

THE STACKS: the stacks are delicious and I literally HATE pancakes! Absolutely indulgent. My favorite part is they are slightly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, like a fluffy cake with an outer crust. If you don't want it THAT sweet I've had friends order the toppings on the side as well. Always check the board too for their seasonal stacks! During COVID, I had them To Go and they were still pretty good. I've never actually tried to reheat them or take them home

LOLO'S CHICKEN ADOBO FRIED RICE: I add cholula on mine, for an amazing added flavor. It also reheats VERY well and is quite large, so I usually order this with an upgrade to whichever flavored stack I'd like and eat mostly the stack and save this for the next day! I will say there is a bit of inconsistency with the amount of meat:rice ratio - it's been MUCH better with my most recent stays

THE UPGRADES: Overall, I am impressed with their pricing on adding on any of their Babystacks to an entree. However, if you get carried away on your order, you may not notice how many extra upgrades were added

OTHERS: Other's that my friends have enjoyed and eat regular: Kalua Pork Benedict, Loco Moco, German Chocolate Pancakes

This is definitely a nice off-strip stop...