For Mother’s Day, John and Jackie took us out the restaurant of my choice.  I chose the Original Pancake House in Westerville.  And I chose to go on Saturday instead of Sunday.

The Original Pancake House is a franchise restaurant that opened in Westerville in 2021.  The first Original Pancake House was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1953 by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke.  The company is still family owned, but they have over 100 franchises in the United States.  They created a unique niche by serving authentic national and ethnic pancake recipes.   They use fresh, local ingredients and their batters and sauces are made from scratch in each restaurant’s kitchen.

I had never been in the Original Pancake House, although we drove by it frequently.  It is always busy and I expected an atmosphere similar to IHOP.  Original Pancake House is a little more upscale.  I was particularly impressed by the number of servers they had.  Most restaurants these days are understaffed, but this place had lots of people working there.  Maybe they had everybody working because of Mother’s Day.  Although the restaurant was busy, we were seated quickly and served promptly.

The Original Pancake House has a long list of pancakes, waffles, and omelets.  Many of them have unusual or ethnic toppings.  I had a hard time choosing what to order, but finally on an Apple Pancake, one of the signature dishes.

There are three signature dishes.  The Apple Pancake is described as “a single large pancake smothered with sautéed apples and cinnamon sugar baked to perfection, to create a deliciously rich cinnamon sugar glaze.”  Another signature item is the Dutch Baby, “an air filled delight oven baked to golden perfection and served with lemon, whipped butter and powdered sugar to create a mouthwatering blend.”  The third specialty is a Dutch Delight, “an oven-baked, egg-based soufflé filled with strawberries and bananas, and served with a warm strawberry syrup.”

All of the specialties sounded delicious, but I really like fluffy pancakes and waffles, so I thought the Apple Pancake sounded the best.  We saw the Dutch Baby and it looked more like a puff.  I was really tempted to get it anyway.  I had never heard of a Dutch Baby until an episode of “Bob’s Burgers” where Linda orders one in a restaurant.  The Original Pancake House was the first place I had ever seen it on a menu.  But, in the end, I went with something that I thought would be more pancake-y and less soufflé-y.

Tom and Jackie both ordered omelets.  All the omelets come with three buttermilk pancakes.  John ordered Eggs Benedict with corned beef hash.  The food came quickly, although my Apple Pancake took longer to cook.  But the waitress warned us ahead so I was prepared.

The serving sizes were huge.  Each item was enough for two people.  I was a little disappointed with my Apple Pancake because it was more egg-based than I expected.  I ate about 1/3 of it and saved the rest for another day.  Jackie let me have one of her pancakes, which was delicious.  The pancake was light and fluffy, made with buttermilk and sourdough batter.  All of us took home at least half of our food.  A server came by with a free Dutch Baby, which was tempting, but with all the other food we would have had a bite and wasted the rest.

I want to go back and order a waffle or pancakes.  There were so many options on the menu it was really hard to choose.  The crepes were also very tempting and some of the menu items are unique to the Original Pancake House.  Our server was excellent and took good care of us without making us wait for refills or the check.

After our excellent breakfast, we headed back to our house for some Mother’s Day board games and a card and gift.  My favorite present from John and Jackie is always just spending time together, so I was very happy.  I didn’t win any of the games, but I had a good time playing.  John had also given me the gift of accompanying me on my walk on Friday.  He brought Krispy Kreme glazed donuts for me because he knows how much I like them.

Between the celebration with my mom and the time with John and Jackie, it was a perfect Mother’s Day.  Not only am I blessed with great parents, I have a wonderful son and daughter-in-law.