The Original Pancake House — Restaurant in Maple Valley

The Biscuits and Gravy are to die for. OPH is one of the very few restaurants that does not over-salt the dish.

I also agree with every word of their (world-class) men’s room graffiti.

“Pricey but worth every cent,” and “The food here is amazing! My compliments to the chef!

10/10 stars

Would recommend —Thanks : )”

Update April 10th, 2024: Concerning our last three OPH visits in Four Corners.

OPH's service and food seemed to have taken a hit over the last several months. Dishes, or parts there of (the country-style hash and toast in particular), are sometimes served lukewarm or at room temperature. One morning, my entire platter of biscuits and gravy, including a side of toast, were all room temperature. I had the waiter take the plate back to the kitchen. When he returned, the same dish was reheated and warmer, but it was also scorched and dry. Back it went again and after a considerable delay, a fresh but lukewarm meal arrived in its place. The waiter explained that hot food will cool, and I should learn to enjoy. I calmly moved the new plates in front of me to my left while he watched, and I simply said, "bill, please."

I forwarded a couple reason for the lack of tip written on the merchant copy of the receipt. My lady friend and I concluded it was a one-off experience and not likely to be repeated.

Next time, we chose to arrive early and wait for OPH to open. Aside from one single, we were the first to be seated. We nursed our coffee and watched four or five other groups of various sizes trail in and be seated. These people were all served their breakfast before us. After waiting some 40-ish minutes for our food to arrive, and without a single coffee refill, I finally left my seat and found somebody.

When our food did arrive, it was all room temperature.

To OPH's credit, someone addressed our concerns and while it didn't change what happened, they did make a solid effort. Yet we weren't planning to return.

Seeing the owner's comment on my initial review precipitated this morning's visit, and today's edit.

I chose to avoid the biscuits and gravy today. A ham & mild cheddar omelet sounded good. The country-style hash was lukewarm, and ham was lightly scattered throughout the omelet, but with a denser pocket in the center. Both of us were finished about halfway through our respective meals. I can't say today's selections were satisfying for either of us, but we'd both tried something different, so there's that.

I will say the service was both pleasant and attentive, the mens room was cleaner and in better condition than I remember, and the coffee...

I am usually very forgiving of restaurants and mistakes that can happen, but this restaurant committed three strikes including the ultimate inexcusable mistake.

First strike: lack of attentiveness by wait staff. It was a busy Saturday morning and our waitress was training a new employee. So even though there were two people available to help us, we never got coffee or drink refills. Worst yet, no one even asked how our food was (which is related to strike 3)

Second strike: lack of kitchen and wait staff communication. My wife ordered crepes with fresh strawberries. I understand that there are ingredients that can be depleted in a kitchen, but running out of strawberries should not be communicated to a customer when everyone else is getting their food. At 8:30am in a Saturday, they ran out of strawberries and the waitress didn’t bother telling my wife until my kids and I received our food. So my wife was asked to reorder, without a menu, while all of us had hot food sitting in front of us. She then got her food when my three kids were already done eating. How does that kind of communication break down happen?

Third strike: lack of food quality control. This is by far the biggest mistake made and the most troubling. This place is called a pancake house. Well, whoever made the pancake mix put WAY too much baking powder in the mix. It left a nasty bite on the tongue when I tried it. That means the kitchen staff is unaware of what they are cooking and that is how people get sick from food. The waitress never bothered to ask how the food was so I had to tell her after I got the check.

So to recap. The waitress served my wife food after everyone was done. She never refilled my coffee, and she never bothered to ask how the food was. The kitchen is also blindly mixing ingredients and no one is making sure quality is being controlled in the kitchen. On top of that, after knowing the food was subpar and the service was dismal, there wasn’t even an offer to discount the ticket or even a manager visit with an apology.

This place charges way too much for such rookie restaurant mistakes on a busy day. I honestly think...

I walked in and looked at the menu and decided that $16 for pancakes, pretax and pre-tip is an extremely delusional price. I chose not to eat here.

Quality: From what I could see at the tables that had ordered, the food is diner quality. Diner food is great but not at ‘Cheesecake Factory’ prices.

Environment: Slightly better than your typical Chinese takeout interior. Nothing special. Definitely not fancy dining as the food pricing would have you expect.

Staff: Friendly as always, forced smile (I hate that they’re expected to force out a smile for customers so customers can remain ignorant of their misery as they pray for tips to survive) & dead, pained eyes. They seem worked to death. Skeleton crew. If you have a working brain, you can tell that their job (their pay, boss, and working conditions) makes them miserable. And believing “just get another job” is a privilege for the privileged and oblivious who don’t understand that the grass isn’t greener on the other side all the time.

Food Prices: $$$$. Way too high for what you get. I wondered if their staff sees any of this markup so, curiously, I looked up their job description as they are always hiring and the staff do not seem to get hazard pay, do not receive extra sick days from getting Covid from their customers, do not receive health insurance, do not receive wages that allow the staff to live within an hour of the business (you know, ethical stuff).

I’m not sure what the high prices are supporting 🤷🏻‍♀️ but my best guess is your money goes straight up the ladder to profit the owner and mgmt pockets [at the expense of you and the unionized staff] under the guise of “rising Covid expenses” that never seem to have a transparent dollar amount or honesty as to where or how much.

TLDR: Non-ethical company that seems more than happy to play customers for fools and staff for slave wages while sucking your wallet and other’s paychecks dry.

If your contribution to the world is exploitative greed and creating suffering in your community, that sure as hell is what you’re going to get returned...