Cyndy's House of Pancakes - 02/03/08

Cyndy's House of Pancakes

10507 Aurora Ave N

Seattle, WA 98133

- Greenwood -

My alarm was set for 9:30am. I was so sleeeepy. Buzz. Snooze. Buzz. Snooze. That was the pattern for the next two hours. I had already decided the night before that I was skipping French toast.

While I was half asleep in the shower, I decided that I needed coffee (which has turned into a 7 days a week habit for me, I used to only drink it M-F, but I am proud to announce that I've tapered myself down to only 4 packets of sugar for each cup of coffee!). So I might as well have French Toast with my coffee.

So I started thinking. Where should I go? I'm by myself. Save a nicer place for when you have company...I've got it! That shacky looking place on Aurora!

I can't tell you how many time's I've driven by Cyndy's House of Pancakes. All those drive bys and why did I ever stop in? Because the place looks kinda scary on the outside. Old and dirty. So scary looking that I always that the food would SUCK*.

Boy was I surprised when I walked in. My eyebrows actually did that rising thing and a semi-smirk appeared on my lips. I spent the next hour trying to figure out how I would describe the interior of the restaurant. Here's what I came up with. It looked like what I think a house basement would look like from the 60s. Maybe 70s. The inside of the restaurant was covered in a dark wood veneer wall panels and there were funky looking flower things hanging in the back wall. And the strangest thing about the decor were the scary looking bird/lizard kites hanging up by the ceiling. Go figure. But that's enough about odd decor. To the food.

The French toast plate came with 2 eggs and 4 strips of bacon. Four strips of bacon? I asked my waitress if I could sub out 2 strips for 2 sausage links. No-can-do. Apparently I could get all bacon or all sausage, but I couldn't split the choice. Okaaaay....bacon it is then. But who on earth can eat 4 strips of bacon? I soon found out why it was 4 strips. They were paper thin! Paper thin and not crispy! Ugh. Good thing I was there for the French toast.

My toast was served with a myriad of deliciously artificial flavored syrup. Well, three different kinds to be exact. Maple, boysenberry and coconut. Coconut, you ask? Yes, I know. I questioned it too. But to my surprise, it tasted pretty darn good. All three fake syrups tasted pretty good. And it all tasted great with the 3 cups of coffee (w/ only four packets of sugar per cup I would like to remind my readers again) I chugged down.

For basic French toast, Cyndy's did a decent job. Nice, thick egg bread. Soft and fluffy with a nice chewy bite to it. The decor didn't do the toast justice.

I'm glad I didn't skip out on breakfast.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Js.

* Specially selected word choice dedicated to CWT.