Restaurant Review: Yiayia’s House of Pancakes

You know the magic that happened whenever you went into your grandmother’s kitchen and told her you were hungry? Before your very eyes, Grandma morphed into a short-order cook, ready to take your order and make your belly full.

This seems to be the vibe Yiayia’s House of Pancakes is going for. I’m not just saying that because “yiayia” is Greek for “grandmother,” although it does support my theory. The atmosphere at Yiayia’s is homey, welcoming and warm, just like Grandma’s kitchen.

Yiayia’s is only open for breakfast and lunch, but the menu is extensive. Breakfast options range from traditional, like eggs and bacon, to the more unique, such as the Fruity Omelette, which includes strawberries, bananas, pineapple, walnuts and honey. A selection of skillets, frittatas, pancakes, waffles, French toast, crepes, blintzes and more were available in many variations. Even something usually simple, like a pancake, can become a culinary masterpiece at Yiayia’s with the addition of granola, homemade yogurt, several kinds of fruit or other toppings. The breakfast menu also offers a taste of Greece — with the Greek Omelette that includes gyro meat, onion, tomato and feta cheese — and Mexico, with the Chorizo Sausage Omelette that comes with chorizo, onion, tomato and jalapenos.

The lunch menu includes every kind of salad, sandwich, wrap, melt, Panini and burger you could think of, plus some other heartier selections like spaghetti with homemade meatballs, liver and onions, center-cut pork chops, catfish fillets and more.

I will hardly ever turn down breakfast food if given the option, so I was able to rule out at least half of the menu. I settled on the Biscuit Platter, which included a split biscuit covered in sausage gravy, two eggs any style and shredded hash browns. My husband chose the same thing. I asked for my eggs over-medium, while he opted for over-easy.

The food came out quickly and was hot and fresh. After trying to figure out which plate had which eggs, we determined the consistency of the egg yolks were basically the same, so it didn’t matter who got which plate; I’m not sure if they were cooked wrong, or if my expectation of over-medium is off base.

My husband thought the biscuit was “too dense,” but a thick, dense biscuit is exactly what I wanted. After further discussion about various types of bread, we decided maybe my husband just doesn’t like biscuits at all.

The gravy was so good. It was served pretty bland (which I assume was intentional, so people can season to their liking), but I added some pepper to mine and it was perfect. The real star of the meal for me was the hash browns. They were cooked perfectly crunchy and weren’t too greasy, so when I smothered them with ketchup they still held together on the fork.

We got out of there with a bill of about $20, plus tip. Most importantly — and I think Grandma would agree — we were full.