Pannenkoeken

We went to breakfast at Pannenkoeken Cafe located at 4757 North Western Ave in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago. Pannenkoeken are large, thin Dutch pancakes topped with either sweet or savory ingredients.  In addition to these unique pancakes Pannenkoeken Cafe also has other breakfast offerings including eggs, omelets, regular pancakes and french toast.

We chose to order their namesake and ordered both a sweet and a savory pannenkoeken.  Nick ordered a chocolate and banana pannenkoeken and Natalie ordered a sausage, mushroom and Havarti cheese one.  Despite being very thin the pannenkoeken are surprisingly filling.  Both the sweet and savory combinations are quite tasty.  It was great to have a bite of the pancake and topping all at once - it was a burst of flavor.  The savory one would have been a great brunch or lunch option. The sweet one was similar in flavors to a dessert crepe.

We went to Pannenkoeken right when they opened on a Saturday morning (8am). We did this because we read reviews that it is a very small space and that waits can get long.  The reviews were right about the space being small; there was only enough space for up to 20 space to sit (4 - 2 person tables and 3 - 4 person tables).  Nick was practically sitting in a doorway.  By the time we left it still wasn't completely full yet and we were kind of happy about that because it would have been super tight if all of the tables were full.


Nick also ordered a hot chocolate and because of the small size of the restaurant we were able to see it being made (which was kind of fun).  We also saw that they serve freshly squeezed orange juice made from a funky automated orange "squeezing machine".

This is how close our server was to us .
The green machine in the corner is the juicer.

Final thoughts on Pannenkoeken Cafe:
Food - tasty and different breakfast offerings.
Service - good, but if it were busy it could get hectic really quick.  With the tiny size of the restaurant a server is never too far away though...

Atmosphere - Dutch decor with a modern twist.  This is the first time we discovered Lincoln Square and we noticed a lot of German influence in the neighborhood's other shops and restaurants. Definitely a neighborhood to check out in the summer.  But it is far out of our way so it is kind of difficult to justify driving for just breakfast - maybe we will go back if we are already in the neighborhood.