The Original Pancake House — Restaurant in Town of Orchard Park

This place is terrible. The only reason why I went here is because my Grandmother kept saying this place is amazing. "We had it last year and it was great!" I googled some pictures online, I see the place looks run down, and you can tell the place is old. I was like ehhh lets just go iHop instead, but then its my gram, so we went (I wanted to make it her happy).

The first thing I noticed is the grass is not cut at all in the front, the plants are not even cut evenly, who knows if they keep up with their lawn maintenance. Already I'm getting bad vibes to this place.

I walk in... and its dead at like I think it was 9am. I said, its okay, its covid, I guess its possible. Mind you, I been to other restaurants recently, and they are not dead. I am talking about iHop at about 9am.

I get my orange juice, the waiter doesn't give me a straw, so I had to ask for one. Already I have bad vibes going in, and now I don't have a straw. Cmon, with covid and what not, how is a straw forgotten. I even drank from the glass and felt gross when I realized what I did.

My gram and I got scramble eggs, home fries, and Canada bacon. I never leave reviews mainly because google wants to see your full name, I don't like that so I made a random name. But man, the food at this place is T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.

I understand places have their good and bad days, but man the Canada bacon was rock solid (we didn't ask for well done either). It was SOOO dry. It tasted like rubber, as in, it was so hard to bite into, I had to keep chewing on the first piece to get it down my throat. It was disgusting. Like who in the right mind would think that would taste good?

Now onto the home fries. I thought it was very weird how the blonde server told me that onions comes with it, and we can't take them out, but you can pick them out. That cross my mind as if the food is frozen, and just microwaved.

As soon as I took a bite of the home fries, they felt very soft. But not like stiff at all or somewhat crunchy meaning, it didn't seem like it was cook over a stove. It tasted like it was frozen, then microwaved. It was nasty.

Okay, so two of the foods I ordered are terrible so far, and this place is mainly breakfast. I am pure disgusted at this time, and just want to leave.

I was so uncomfortable because how bad the food tasted and looked, I rushed my grandmother out of the restaurant. It was like disrespectful that the cooks, and the workers, etc thought it was okay to hand me that food.

Lastly, I wanted to go over the food portions. I felt like they are very small at this place. I cannot explain how unsatisfying it feels when you can see A LOT of the plate, and less food. Granted, for $30.00 for two people, I guess it is expected? (My suggestion, if your going to use small portions then use smaller plates.) I'm not sure because I go to restaurants and for two people I would say $40.00 is the usually, then add tip, about $50.00 it would be. But everything seemed like I didn't get enough for my money. The home fries were in a small bowl, I never went to a breakfast place that gives you a SMALL amount of home fries, usually there is so much home fries on a plate at other restaurants that they fall off. A good example is Louie's (Notice how I don't use iHop here, I'm really being fair here). The scramble eggs, it looked like they used two eggs maybe? I don't remember if the menu said that, but I felt like there wasn't enough food on my plate.

Well, I really hope this place gets their stuff together because I can easily see this place closing soon. It doesn't surprise me that the experience...

The dining experience is markedly inconsistent. Food is sometimes served to diners seated at the same table at different time intervals. On my last visit 3 weeks ago to the NF Blvd location in Amherst, I saw that a customer's bagel was burnt to a crisp, but her friend's 49er Flapjacks were perfectly cooked. Some tables only have regular sugar, and some have none. In all cases, creamer and artificial sugar must be requested and brought to the table. The flatware sometimes does not seem to be particularly clean. The bathrooms are usually dirty. When I have been seated near the kitchen, I have heard some unpleasant conversations between management, the cooks, and the servers. I also am curious as to why there is a sign posted at the door stating that outside drinks cannot be brought into the restaurant, considering that the water brought to the table is in a tiny glass. FYI, when a family member insists on choosing TOPH, I always have bottled water with me. I also cannot believe that on Fridays, Fish Fry is served. Fish and breakfast foods with syrup at the same table/restaurant do not pair well. I do not find that the wait staff is particularly friendly (most friendly is Orchard Park, which is also the cleanest and most consistent). I also think it is strange that customers who are eating standard lunch/dinner foods are just presented with the check. The servers never ask if anyone wants coffee, dessert, etc. Since the server's income is based on sales, it would make sense to try to get the customers to order more. I do realize that the majority of people will probably disagree with my position on The Original Pancake House. Many of my family...

My son and I decided to stop for breakfast after a doctor's appointment. I have not been there in over a decade. I'll try to keep it simple and not run off.

*Atmosphere: very spread out and not cozy, cute or welcoming. The backs of booths were loose and the gentleman sitting behind my son kept pushing back, heaving my son forward over the table. Of course the gentleman had the right to shift himself, however the back should not flex with him.

*Service: Our waitress was less than thrilled to approach the table or was just not having a good day. When my son asked if they had mustard, for his ham and cheese sandwich, she said " I'm not sure". Never went to check until my son asked again, at which time she came back with a giant bottle. She put it on the table, said nothing and never came back to see if we needed anything else/how the food was. We had to ask another waitress for Togo boxes and our check ! Poor show.

*Food: Okay. First of all, the PRICES ! $2.20 to add cheese to your omelet!!!!. Substitutions or add ons were ridiculous ! We came there because our usual place (at Southgate Plaza) was packed and we were unable to wait. There I would get the Hearty Mans Breakfast $12.99- three eggs, sausage(2), bacon (2), home fries with onions, toast and 2 huge pancakes . Delicious !!!! Western Omelet $10.99 - 3 egg omelet (cheese included!), home fries and toast. Again, Delicious ! Needless to say, we will not be going back or recommending...