The Original Pancake House

The Original Pancake House

Food & Drink

The Original Pancake House

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When you think “Las Vegas,” you tend to think casino, nightclub, and late night events, right? So, when we did our Las Vegas Raves & Faves tour we asked, “Are there any good breakfast places in Vegas?”

Here’s the answer that came up on everyone’s lips: The Original Pancake House. With five locations in the Vegas area, it’s easy to find one, whether you want breakfast, lunch or dinner.

We recommend starting with their specialty dish, the German Pancake. It’s huge, puffy, and a great morning wake up call, whether you are starting your day or just getting off the graveyard shift. You slather it with butter, squeeze a little fresh lemon juice over it, and add powdered sugar and a handful of strawberries that have been cut fresh each morning. The edges on it come up just ever-so-slightly crispy, and its just the right balance between a crepe and a pancake.

Pair it with a glass of their fresh-squeezed-every-morning orange juice and some of the house special syrup and your day is made.

Of course, this time of year, the Pumpkin Pancakes (pictured above, with owner Kim Freudenberger) may appeal, especially if you like pumpkin pie for breakfast! That’s one of the great things about The Original Pancake House. It has enough variety to suit any taste.

While there, we sampled the Apple Pancake, a single large pancake smothered with sautéed apples and baked with cinnamon sugar. We kept sneaking back to the chocolate chip pancakes. The blueberry waffles. The strawberry crepes, the omelets, and the eggs benedict. And, we have to mention their bacon—it was created according to their specifications, and only at The Original Pancake House will you find that great flavor. As any bacon aficionado knows, there is a difference when you have really good bacon. And this is really good bacon.

The attention to that type of detail is what has made owners Kim and Stephen Freudenberger successful in Las Vegas. Freudenberger says, for example, that the bacon is “center of the center cut, thick sliced, hikory smoked, and the best bacon in town!”

We met with Kim at the Aliante Station location, which opened a year ago in the Aliente Station Casino—their first location actually in a casino. What we noticed, besides the food, was the extreme hospitality extended from all of their staff.

“Making people comfortable comes before the food,” explains Freudenberger. “We try to accommodate every request.” We heard it throughout our visit, with words such as, “We can do that,” and, “Do you need anything else?” offered at every table.

Their concern over the details also comes out in the coffee—which is ground to their specifications as well, and in that fresh-squeezed orange juice. Every staff member takes a turn at squeezing the oranges, each rotating through one hour at a time, in order to get 160 cases of oranges ready for the table every week. And, all of their batters are made from scratch.

The same attention is paid to their own staff. It takes three years to train a lead chef, and then they tend to stick around. In fact, they still have employees who started with them almost 15 years ago.

The Original Pancake House started in 1953 in Portland, Oregon, and the Freudenberger’s brought the franchise to Las Vegas in 1995. They recently added dinner entrees, due to customer demand.

They’ve also collected their share of awards over the years, including winning the James Beard award twice, and showing up on local “best of” lists each year.

“We have our own niche,” says Freudenberger. “It’s for people who are looking for a quality-made meal. It’s the people who know we use fresh ingredients; the ones who don’t want packaged mixes or bacon you can see through.”

She adds, “We don’t substitute quality. We don’t cut corners. And, we don’t compromise.”

What they do is serve one of the best breakfasts in Vegas. You can bet on it.

Hear more from The Original Pancake House here. And, see our Day 6.

Visit The Original Pancake House when you are in Las Vegas:

Aliante Station Casino
7300 Aliante Parkway
North Las Vegas, Nevada 89187
(702) 657-2500

Charleston & Decatur
4833 W. Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas Nevada 89146
(702) 259-7755

Ft. Apache & Flamingo
4170 South Ft. Apache Rd.
Las Vegas, Nevada 89147
(702) 433-5800

Green Valley Ranch Station Casino
2300 Paseo Verde Drive
Henderson, Nevada 89152
(702) 614-7200

This is a Raves & Faves Featured Restaurant. For more images from The Original Pancake House, visit iraves.

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