The Original Pancake House Review

You will wait on weekends, and especially holidays.

It's crazy expensive for breakfast.

But, it is the home of the Dutch Baby, the coffee is really good, I like seeing the uniforms the servers have to wear (think 50's style), and 49'er flapjacks are my fave.

Another Portland institution you need to take visitors to.

Always a wonderful treat. Whether you go once a week or once a year, the food is always the same - delicious. We are never disappointed.

Make sure you bring cash only and prepared to wait a while before being seating. However, these are minor inconveniences compared to the payoff. Best Breakfast in Portland. EASILY!!!

I will start out with saying that the food is really good. Nebraska corn cakes were awesome. My main issue here is table placement and staff. I was seated at a table right in front of the cash register. I had people always standing over me or the table. This is just a poor choice on their part. One guy coughed right over me and I felt it on the back of my neck. Another person sneezed in the direction of our table. Most of the staff seemed nice but our waitress talked to the table next to us for a long time and took about 10 min. to get our coffee and drinks. If we do go again I hope to have a better experience.

The pancakes are good but that's the only thing. Poor service, terribly over priced, undercooked food. I wouldn't recommend at all.

Stellar! Friendly, great service, and good food!

Beware of the omelette, it's huge and filled with calories! Tastes good.

Quaint place. Had a plateful of pumpkin pancakes which were light and fluffy! Coffee is great as well. Staff made sure we had everything we needed.

Very good food. Plenty. Great service. Coffee stayed full.

It was great that they have a gluten free option, however, they seem to be stuck in the 20th century in terms of dairy free food. My family is lactose allergic and lactose intolerant but the wait staff was able to make it work with limited options. Who ever heard of cooking bacon in butter??

Meh, good, don't know if 2 hour wait good. Cash only..

The food is great and the place is lovely.
I got the blueberry waffle and loved it! The blueberry syrup that came with it wasn't too sweet and complemented the dish perfectly.
My husband got the Swedish pancakes with lingonberries. They were light and tasty. (The lingonberries are really good on toast, too).
The quantity of food was just right for us as we masterfully cleaned our plates from the delicious food that once laid upon them.
The service made it a very pleasant experience.
We shall return for more!

*Remember to bring cash, like the good old days.

I have not been here for a few years as it is hard to park when it is busy. Not disappointed good pancakes and a huge omelette!! Old fashioned service and very clean and bright!!

Food is good, but it is definitely a place for those stuck in the 'old days'. No credit cards accepted, servers must dress in ridiculous short polyester pink skirt/dress, while men get to wear khakis and polo.

My favorite breakfast place in Portland! I really enjoy the vintage cozy wooden ambiance where your cup of coffee is never left dry. And the food is so unique in taste, never tried such delicious pancakes and omelette that melt in your mouth! Yumm! The best! If I could change one thing, it would be the fact that they only take cash/personal checks!

Great food and great staff! It is like stepping back in time.

Only limiting factor is it's all cash only. Tremendous breakfast variety. Huge portions. Quality home-cooked food. Can be very busy at peak times. Just regular busy all the time! Great coffee.

Overpriced. Service was 50/50. Cash only and no soda. Mostly just obnoxious.

Our Happy Place - great food, coffee and atmosphere!

Great atmosphere and excellent food! Great place to go after a night of dancing

My dad and I went and it was one of the best places ever. The pancakes were nice, and not burnt. The food service was really quick. I highly recommend this!

This place is a breakfast institution! The ambiance, friendly staff and above all the food are what made this place famous. Go for the bacon waffle or pancakes. Some of the best out there.

Nice place good reputation delicious pancakes. Don't forget to carry cash the only drawback. Else service place and food was nice hot fresh and delicious. I like the place service and the food. It was really amazing. It was a great experience of having pancake here and I truly recommend this place for pancake to everyone.

Really wonderful food and atmosphere! Be aware that on the weekends it is very popular and you'll be in for a long wait. I recommend going as soon as it opens at 7:00.

If you are the type of person that loves breakfast for any other meals... then go here!!! So many good breakfast plates!!!

Fast service, friendly and helpful waitress. Very much enjoyed to have my coffee served in a nice fancy mug with a saucer under it. They do not serve the coffee like this at any of the Southern California locations where we live. Thank you!!

What a cluster****! Dangerously crowded, painfully loud, dirty silverware, sticky table, overwhelmed staff, overpriced and unremarkable pancakes. Find out on the way out that they don't take cards. Never again.

Delicious food and friendly staff. Even on the weekends at prime time the wait doesn't usually exceed 30 minutes.

If you've been to one of the franchises someplace else in the country, this one is totally different. Tiny dining room. Tables are on top of each other, and tiny. No modern amenities like call ahead seating. And they do not accept credit / debit cards. Cash or check (really?) only! There is an ATM machine in the waiting area ($2 fee). There is no Air Conditioning in the waiting area, so it can get pretty warm in the summer. Menu is different, but portion sizes are substantial. They absolutely nailed the Dutch Baby, which can have spotty quality at licensees. My wife proclaimed it the best ever! Service was adequate, but was certainly nothing memorable or distinctive. (The waitresses do wear a pink and white throw back uniform and apron...which looked funny with ultra modern Nike iridescent orange running shoes!)
Overall, a mixed experience. If you love knotty pine, you'll love the decor. Probably worth checking out, just because it is the "Original" OPH, but probably not your weekly Sunday Morning breakfast spot.

+1 great quality food
+1 great service, albeit when they pay attention to you it's prompt.
*Takes some work to get waiter's attention.
+1 great family vibe
- 1 super packed environment with hardly elbow room. Obviously the only care to dining experience is to make maximum profit.
-1 so hard to get waiter's attention

They said it would be a 35 minute wait for breakfast, ended up being over an hour. They had my number, some update would have been nice. Also their corned beef hash is dry.

I took friends here from out of town. They were quite impressed. Great food, fun historic atmosphere, friendly, caring staff and you could never go hungry with the generous portions they provide.

This place has a really nice family vibe to it. Their food comes in abundance and is absolutely delicious. The best part is their Gluten free option is SO GOOD! Light fluffy pancakes. Light fluffy eggs.

The GF pancake batter is cooked on the same grill as the regular pancakes so it's something to be aware of if you are sensitive to cross contamination.

Also be aware this is a cash only place! They do have an ATM by the door for those who don't come prepared.

You gotta be patient, but the food is amazing.
Corned beef hash omelet. Do it.
Bacon pancakes. Do it.
Fresh squeezed oj. Do it.

A bit spendy for breakfast, but its clean, the food is good and plentiful. The service is friendly and helpful.

OMG!!! That's all I can say! So delicious. Best breakfast place I have ever been to.....and most definitely worth the wait. There is always a wait line so be patient! Its worth every bite.

I have been coming here for 18 years and it is the same, lovable place that it always has been. The staff is wonderful and the food is amazing. It can get very busy so the staff can be very scattered, but it is for a reason. I would highly recommend it. It is something that I look forward to every time I come back to Oregon.

The restaurant itself was clean and homey, wait staff was very friendly but it was pretty expensive and the corned beef hash, I'll just say don't order it.

The portions are huge and filling. Everything tastes great. I have picky eaters in my family and this place never disappoints.

I went there for breakfast this morning and ordered scrambled eggs and hash browns. The food had no seasoning! I asked for well done scrambled eggs, but they were under cooked. And the food came overfilled in two tiny tiny plates!

Overpriced. It's just pancakes. And they don't serve hashbrowns! How does a breakfast joint not serve hashbrowns?!

Delicious food. Good service. Excellent staff. I pass by when I was going to L A CA. They were open early. Coffee was delicious.

Good food and excellent service. I love the Dutch Baby pancakes.

I like it here, good old restaurant, that nostalgia feeling, specially that they only take cash and check.

Cash only (they have an ATM at the entrance). Dutch baby was delicious, and pancakes are the fluffiness I've ever had!

A classic! Huge portions and expect to wait. It's worth it!

Excellent food, generous portions and friendly staff. Be sure to bring cash as no debit or credit accepted, although they do have an ATM on site.

Best breakfast in town, great fresh food and the staff is the best. We like coming here early afternoon on a Sunday. It makes for a lazy afternoon.

Great breakfast selections. Be cognizant of cash only policy. Huge portions.

Excellent service and, as usual, excellent pancakes. Love this place

Legendary. Unchanged since I first went there in 1968.

I thought this place was rather good. Kind of vanilla but in a good sort of way with an extensive menu based on pancake. The food I ordered was very delicious and served quickly. The interaction I had with the staff was pleasant and she was very nice.

Love the house salad with shrimp and cashews, one of the best coconut prawns around. Definitely try the halibut as well.

Consistently the best food and service year after year. I love this place and FYI the coffee is fantastic!

Nice, but a little noisey. The service is good and the food is quite tastey.

Make sure to bring cash, as the ATM has a $2 service charge and they don't take cards.

$10 plates of pancakes with a hour long wait in a old house. Awesome atmosphere, overpriced but decent food. Runny scrambled eggs

We may have gone on a bad day cuz everything sucked! The service the menu the food. Not going back.

The food was great but the service was lacking. We continually had to wave our server down to get something which was disappointing since the service was outstanding the first time we went here

Excellent, as usual!! This particular Restaurant was on the outskirts of Portland. I believe it is the absolute 1st original restaurant for the Original Pancake House. It has charming ambience, clean, the food is always high quality, and the servers are sweet and polite. They observed social distancing with sanitizer & masks at the door, & seated people with plenty of distance between. I would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner here if I could! :)

The omelets are beyond generous and everything is always delicious.

1st time making it in. Small. I really didn't have anything that made me think... oh man I want to wait an hour and half to eat the pancakes.
Service was good. Place is small . Good is ok

Not handicapped/stroller accessible, although they do have handicapped parking spaces. Very tight quarters, especially bathrooms. Cash only (and sign stating this is hardly noticeable).

Rating based off of this and not the food. It was a huge struggle to get into the place due to accessibility and once I got there, struggled my way to the bathroom while waiting our turn (they do have a decent waiting area and the wait time wasn't bad). Unfortunately wasn't able to eat there due to the cash only (and thank goodness I happen to notice their tiny, blended in cash only sign), which was a shame because I hear it's really good.

Great selection, all the pancakes I tasted were very good. Pro-tip: order one plate of pancakes for 2 or 3 people and get some side dishes. The pancakes don't come with any sides, and they're very large portions.

Such a cute establishment, amazing food and great service. A unique breakfast / brunch experience.

Pancakes are outstanding and everything is made from scratch (they say). Omelette was okay, but not a huge fan of the corned beef hash (too salty and mushy for my taste, but may be okay for others). Coffee was killer and REAL cream and honey was a plus. Basically- go there for the pancakes. I don t even like pancakes, but I would go there again for a pancake!

Amazing pancakes! And the cherry crepes are to die for. The waffles are just ok, I'd get them somewhere else. But, the pancakes are the best in pdx.

The Apple Pancake is just as good as 30+ years ago.