If you are traveling through Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the greater Great Smoky Mountain area, you no doubt will come across a pancake house. Now, I’m not just talking about the national chains like IHOP or Waffle House, but some true locally owned pancake houses most of which are open from about 8 am to 1 pm so they are true breakfast diners. Being a sucker for pancakes that I and especially my daughter are, we decided to try a couple of the many “pancake houses” that we saw in the area. Our first stop, and the one that got a video review was Smoky’s Pancake Cabin.
The Video Review
At Smoky’s Pancake Cabin, we went for the Big Dave’s Breakfast (picture up top) which included pancakes, and a Veggie Omelet since Happy Healthy Wife loves eggs stacked with vegetables. Tried all the meats and the best meat on the plate had to be the ham. That is the one that I liked the most. The sausage patty was interesting in that it wasn’t very greasy but still had the standard sausage patty flavor. The grilled smoked sausage reminded me of Hillshire Farm’s polska kielbasa, which I quite liked. The bacon was your standard bacon and the eggs were your standard eggs as well.
But as I got to the pancakes, well, they seemed a bit dry when compared to other styles of pancakes I’ve had. Truly not the best pancakes I’ve had and actually quite a disappointment when you arrive at a place called Smoky’s Pancake Cabin and you would expect their pancakes to be their pride and joy.
Also included in our meal was a hashbrown casserole which basically seemed like hashbrowns with cheese mixed in and a cheese coating on top. If you like cheese with your hashbrowns, then you may appreciate this side dish, but it was not my general cup of tea. The regular hashbrowns I also received were good enough that I didn’t feel that I needed the hashbrown casserole.
I also tried Happy Healthy Wife’s veggie omelet and was not terribly impressed. The cheese was largely left unmelted and the eggs were your standard run of the mill eggs.
Now for the secret reason we wanted to try a pancake house. In this specific trip with just the wife and myself, my wife has always thought she liked biscuits and gravy. So I tried to google a search for the best biscuits and gravy place in the Great Smoky Mountains area and found out that any pancake house restaurant would have biscuits and gravy. Apparently, biscuits and gravy are so ubiquitous in the South, that trying to find the best biscuits and gravy is like going to Texas and trying to find the best steak. Biscuits and gravy is such a common dish in the south that it’s often looked at as just another side like macaroni salad or collard greens.
Anyway, we got the biscuits and grave and while the biscuits were good, flaky and crispy, the gravy wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. The gravy was fine, but not anything special. We did end up ordering a second biscuit because we wanted more and we came to find out that it’s not the gravy that happy healthy wife likes, but it’s the biscuits. Whew. So no longer will I need to search or make gravy for my wife, I just need to bake the biscuits that she loves.
Now on to our second encounter with a pancake house in the Great Smoky Mountains area, this time we found a place near where we were staying in downtown Gatlinburg. Just walk out of our hotel and right next door was a place called Flapjack’s Pancake Cabin. We wanted to eat here because happy healthy daughter loves pancakes, and since we seem to be in the pancake capital of the world, we thought we’d give another place a go and see if it was any better.
Well we’re glad we tried this place as the food was much better. The cheese on the veggie omelet was nicely melted and the flavors worked well together. The Flapjacks were of excellent quality and they even made a beautiful design on the junior pancakes having different sized pancakes and with the chocolate syrup looking like a bear which is very appropriate considering just how many time we saw a bear in the Great Smoky Mountains.
The berry pancakes and the French toast were also quite a delight for a mid morning meal. And the one location in Gatlinburg isn’t the only dining spot for Flapjack’s Pancake Cabin. They have become so popular that there are 4 other locations open in the Great Smoky Mountains area. But be sure to get there early as they close at 1 pm.
