Hotcakes Pancake Emporium

Hotcakes Emporium Pancake House & Restaurant
8555 Ditch Road
Indianapolis, IN 46260
http://www.hotcakesemporium.net

I have eaten at Hotcakes Pancake Emporium a few times since it has opened. I am torn between whether or not I like or love this restaurant. This is solely because the quality of food differs every time I go. The thing is, every time I go, I tell myself that I want to try something new. But every time, I keep going back to the same dish. I'll elaborate more later. Also, the service is different every time, but the one constant is that there is usually a wait. They do not take reservations, which was kind of a downfall for us a couple weeks ago, when 8 people were trying to eat. I assumed since we were going later on in the morning, we would be able to get in there pretty quickly. We were promised a table in 15 minutes, but it ended up being closer to 30. There was a group of 12 women celebrating a birthday in front of us. We, ourselves were out celebrating RWG's bachelor party. I think it is a blessing that I can actually remember this bachelor party, as compared to the last one we threw for BWL. Let's just say, this go round was infinitely more tame than the last one. Ask any of the 16 guys involved, and they will attest that was one of the wildest weekends ever. I swear I lost about 2 years off my life that weekend. I wish I could go into detail, but by law, we are not allowed to talk about that weekend.

As I mentioned before, I have been here about a handful times and have ordered the same dish. It is the Mediterranean Skillet. It consists of 2 eggs cooked to your style, gyro meat, green bell peppers, onions, feta cheese, and has browns. You also get your choice of bread (Toast, English Muffin, or Pancakes). As you can see I have opted for an English Muffin and Pancakes. Before I delve into the skillet, I should talk about the pancakes. For a place called "Hotcakes Pancake Emporium", the pancakes are pretty average. Granted, I have only gotten the plain pancakes with butter. My mom has had the fruit pancakes and was satisfied, which says a lot because she is VERY picky. The skillet is quite a conundrum for me. The first time I ordered this dish, everything was cooked perfectly, but it was under-seasoned. I had to add a fair amount of salt and pepper to bring it to my taste preference. Also, I do not put a lot of salt on my food, so for me to think it needs salt says something. I used to always order my eggs cooked over medium. I like the yolks to be somewhat runny, but also cooked a little bit. More often than not, the eggs usually come out over easy, so pretty runny. So now, I order them over hard hoping they err on the side of cooking them over medium. It has worked out pretty well. The next two times, I ordered the skillet, everything was flawless. There were ample amounts of meat, hash browns, veggies, and feta cheese. Each bite had everything and the seasoning was great. The last time I went, the hash browns were over cooked, leaning on burnt. There wasn't a lot of feta, and my over hard eggs were over cooked. The edges of the eggs were pretty crispy and un-appetizing. My history with this dish is comparable to a haircut. When its good, its good and it makes you happy. When its bad, it leaves you disheartened, but you know that the day will come where you have to go back to try again, knowing that there is potential for it to be amazing.

Previously I said we were there for a bachelor party breakfast. Our waitress felt it necessary to tell us that the other waitresses were jealous because she go the table of hot guys. First of all, Duh. Secondly, yes in comparison to the rest of the middle aged men and families there, we were the only table of guys there. RFS brought that to my attention on the ride home. For the lady readers out there, please translate what this meant when the chesty hostess said the following to RFS, "Wanna here something messed up? I wrecked my Audi last week." WJB came up with the following: She said she wrecked her Audi for two reasons. 1. To impress him in saying that she had an Audi and 2. She needs him to pick her up. What are your thoughts?

"What good are fans? You can't EAt applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it." - Bob Dylan