Grandma's Pancake House — Restaurant in Shelbyville

We have been eating here for years and had very few issues. Recently some of the staff has been not as good as they used to be and the food is not as good either. Today we ordered our lunches after a 10 minute wait which was fine. Our waitress was fantastic, but sadly the only one actually waiting tables we ordered the flaming cheese like we always do. It came up but no one brought it out. It finally arrived 20 minutes after ordering without the pita bread that comes with it. My husband asked for vinegar and oil with his salad. The oil bottle was coated in rancid oil and empty on top of that. The vinegar was cloudy and disgusting. Getting a replacement took another 10 minutes. I ordered the chicken salad stuffed tomato with cottage cheese and melon. The melon was the only good thing on there. The chicken salad wasn't shredded, it had no flavor and wasn't even cold. The cottage cheese wasn't cold either and tasted sour. My husband ordered the seafood combo with rice. The rice was over cooked and the cocktail sauce was just crushed tomato with a little horseradish. The tartar sauce was pretty much all mayo with a touch of relish. Both were awful. On the plus side his combo was very good but with no decent sauces he couldn't finish it. Our waitress was swamped so we couldn't ask to return it or anything or speak to the manager. The part that upset us the most was the 17-20 year old waitress who just stood there and watch her coworker do all the dirty work. At one point she was asked to run food and she actually sighed and rolled her eyes. She came back afterwards and just started talking with a friend instead of doing her job. We finally decided to forget it. I went to pay and the girl doing nothing came to take my money. She actually tried to pull my bill from my hand! Our waitress came up to help us and this girl told our waitress who was easily in her 30s to go do something for her. Our waitress couldn't believe it and neither could I. I finally asked if she was a waitress and she replied yes. I asked why she wasn't helping out and was ignoring customers and co-workers to talk to friends. She wasn't pleased but said nothing. I told her our food was horrible and the experience was worse. $31 for a meal we couldn't begin to finish because it was so bad and there was no one to talk to about it. We will never be back and if this us an indicator of Grandmas Cow Palace, I'm not sure we will go...

On 2 previous occasions, we had a great experience here. This last visit, however, assures me I won't be going back. When the owner is on site, this is an awesome place to eat! I understand that owners need time off too. But boy this place has gone downhill. The young crowd runs the show, new waitresses giggle with staff, while customers have no water to drink, tables are dirty, and have to flag down staff to put in an order. After a hot day of working in the yard, my husband and I decided to go to Grandma's pancake house for some delicious fried chicken. We were seated, by Brandie, at a dirty table with no menus. A young waitress came over to wipe it, and swirled the food and hairs around a bit, and left it sopping wet. She brought our menus, we asked for an appetizer which she had no idea what it was, and asked another server for help. We got that appetizer, and then never saw her again. I actually flagged her down, from her giggling with the staff, to take our chicken order, since it takes 20 minutes for chicken. After taking our order, her "helper" again approached us and asked if we ordered the chicken, and again reminded us she was a new girl and she was helping her. That's fine, but when I was a server, and my daughters were servers, we were taught to study the menu before working the floor. Maybe she was embarrassed, but she never approached our table again. NO ONE DID! We never got our salads. We never got refills on water. This was not even a busy night. We were one of 5 tables, and there were 2 other servers. After 20 minutes we stood up to leave and pay for our appetizer. Brandie, who is also the manager, came to the register. We told her we were very disappointed by the bad service and were going to pay for that app and leave. She stared at us silently, walked back to the kitchen window, and yelled to the cook not to prepare our chicken, because we "weren't taking it". No apology, no attempt to make things right. She simply totaled our $7 bill and asked us to sign. She then said "sorry, she must be having a bad day, because she's usually on top of things". Maybe Brandie was new too? It's sad, because bad service (and poor managing) can really break your night. We ended up at the grocery store, bought some cold chicken, and went back home. Normally, I would highly recommend this place....but maybe you should peek in the window and see if the owner is...

I'm in my car with my hangry child, my meal and his left on the table with our friends. Both meals barely eaten. Does that sum up my experience? While we had no wait for our party of eight to be seated, we waited over an hour for our food. Having fed my kids a light breakfast anticipating we would be eating by 1200, it was past 100 pm by the time our food came out. We had arrived at the restaurant at 1145 (after 1030 mass at St. Joseph).

And then not all of it. We were still missing a wrap and chocolate chip pancakes. Having worked in food service, this is a problem in the kitchen. Had our waitress come and checked on us to refill my husband's coffee or refill waters or let us know our food was coming, I might be more forgiving, but the last straw was when my Florentine Eggs Benedict came to our table cold with a broken sauce. I scarfed down the two eggs, as my 5 yo really started to lose it, and told my husband not to pay for my meal.

This place came HIGHLY recommended by friends. So we are incredibly disappointed. The food going out to the tables looked good. The problem is that food wasn't coming out of the kitchen fast enough. Knowing how to make Hollandaise (I own a bakery), I know that it needs to be served asap. It cannot sit under heat lamps. The sauce broke. The reason I'm writing this is bc the server & manager - yes, manager - tried to tell my husband that their Hollandaise always looked like it has an oil slick over top yellow curds. Hollandaise should be a lucious sauce that coats the top of the poached eggs. They didn't know that. Really? Admit your kitchen is in the weeds. Tell people the wait is going to be longer than expected. Refill waters and coffee. Give customer service. It's not rocket science. If your food is that good that people will wait, that's a good thing. But don't let your customers down by giving bad customer service, especially, to a mom who just walked out of there with a screaming 5 yo in her arms bc his chocolate chip waffle took over an hour to make - when I know it takes less than 3 minutes in a commercial...