The Pan - Lomita — Restaurant in Lomita

Food Order: CHLOE'S BLUEBERRY PANCAKES (3 buttermilk pancakes, blueberry puree, lemon-vanilla butter, powered sugar) CRISPY CHICKEN CLUB SANDWICH (bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, cilantro jalapeño aioli, croissant)

Service/Vibe: service is a bit iffy, host/ess stand is infrequently vacant/this location tends to be loud (due to the high ceilings?). Parking: private lot behind the restaurant. Restrooms: located opposite of the bar (yes, there's a bar at the Lomita site), clean & well-stocked.

It's so nice having The Pan in Lomita because Gardena is smaller & often jammed packed; however, this location only serves breakfast & lunch. This new location is larger, more spacious, & brighter. The Pan is one of my fav restaurants because who doesn't love breakfast being served all day, & their pancakes are out of this world yummylicious!

Our 1st attempt was slightly after they opened to celebrate my son's birthday dinner in October 2019; however, there was an electrical issue & several businesses were closed. :-( We went back on CNY (01/25/20) for a late lunch... Rodolfo, originally from Gardena, relocated because Lomita is closer to home; I was wondering why he looked familiar. :-) Been back several times since but haven't seen him. =( On this most recent visit, M just started class at South Bay Chinese School in addition to regular 2nd grade, & I wanted to treat him for his efforts.

M has tried every flavor of specialty pancakes except for tiramisu (has coffee) & Guava N Cream (not sure why). He returned to his 1st fav: blueberry. Instead of breakfast, I decided on the crispy chicken club sandwich.

Smell the sweetness off these fluffy clouds of deliciousness — lemon-vanilla butter is soooooo addictive! Yum!!! M couldn't wait to dig into it, & was super impatient as I cut the pancake into bite-size pieces. This little guy always test my poor knife skills when he's craving something... a sad reminder that he missed their pancakes on his birthday a few years ago since he said, "I didn't get blueberry pancakes on my birthday, Mommy." :-*( My sandwich was a bit messy from all the flaky croissant's crumbs; it's a BLT with added chicken... quite tasty, especially with the cilantro jalapeño aioli! Nom, nom, nom!!

We may become regulars here since it's more convenient to eat here, pending if Lomita shows the consistency of Gardena; we're in Gardena for dinner because the 2 south locations doesn't open past lunch. I still love The Pan so I have high hopes for this joint, with room for improvement.

Recommended: Chloe's Blueberry Pancakes (or any of their specialty pancakes — they're all great!), Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich, The "Original" Loaded Hash Browns, N'awlins Bananas Foster French Toast, The Havana Pizza, Fried Chicken Salad, Seasoned Fries, Specialty Lemonades...

Came here for some some noon brunch and it was quite an experience. You can tell they are quite understaffed so seeing all the reviews attacking them for their wait-times and other aspects is quite disappointing. However, of course, the restaurant is still a business and you have to take that into account but being extremely critical in an adjustment for not only business owners but service workers is a little cringe. You can also use the Yelp waitlist function to lessen your wait so that can help immensely with the wait.

Lets start off with the location. The Pan sits on the famous Pacific Coast Highway, known for being extremely busy and beautiful at some points. Of course, The Pan sits in the not so pretty parts of the 1 but still not too ugly nonetheless. It isn't to hard to find but oh boy the parking get quite frustrating at times.

The wait like I mentioned before is quite long for not only for the food, but also the wait to get a table. At the time, restaurants were only at 50% capacity so I can see why the wait for the table was quite lengthy. The wait for the food was quite long as well but like I said, you can clearly see that they are a bit understaffed so once they can start getting more staff can we see some sort of difference in food wait times. The customer service was great and they were still attentive even being clearly understaffed.

I was seated outside and my party ordered drinks while waiting. They both ordered mimosas and loved it and served as a good way to pass the time waiting. The food itself was phenomenal which is honestly one of the saving graces of my trip here. I ordered the pastrami breakfast sandwich and the others in party enjoyed everything they ordered as well. The sandwich was quite heavy of course since there was bread, pastrami, hashbrowns and an egg in it but I would definitely order it again.

All-in-all, I still had to knock a star off for this review because of the wait-time but did not want it be such a critical part of the review because of

The time I went as well as the circumstances (COVID-19 capacity) Being understaffed because of the labor shortage The increasing amount of people going out now for their meals because of wanting to be outside.

I also decided to factor the parking situation into the knocking of the star as well as I can see how painful it might be since the PAN is quite popular and shares a parking lot with others in the proximity...

Hint: make reservations on line before you arrive. Its a unique place and unique in layout. Very small parking lot. When you're escorted to your seat you pass through a small door, pass a bar, pass the restroom to an large open area where square tables are strategically placed throughout the room. There are couches and I would suggest asking to sit on those because the hard metal chairs they have diners sit on are unbearable. I litterally went to my car to get a folded blanket to sit on. Our waiter was very curtious, had to come back to table to verify he got order right. I'm glad he did this instead of getting it wrong. The meals came but unfortunately two plates of the house potatoes were cold. Probably because they were trying to serve everyone at the same time. My potatoes were warm but seemed but on my spots. It added character I guess. Not sure if it is made in a huge batch but there was a few areas of the pile that was pretty salty the rest of the plate had no salt at all. Odd. Anyways, the skillet I ordered was not edible but I Never send meals back to kitchen. I just took it as a loss. I also added 2 buttermilk pancakes and those were magnificent! I highly recommend the pancakes here. Amazing. They rival IHOP. I gave the establishment a 2 star but turned it to 3 because it was a fun and different atmosphere. Not comfortable for dinning but good pancakes. I don't think I'll come back to this...