Mr. Pancake House
877 Wuding Lu,
Jing An
near Jiaozhou Lu
武定路877号
近胶州路
6255-1648
Open 7:30am-10:30pm
Price Less than Y99 per couple
- City Weekend
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Inspired by the stereotypical American diner, this quaint pancake joint exudes a family atmosphere with only ten tables and comfortable banquette seating. They have a decent selection of coffee drinks. Try the smoked beef and tuna sandwich for lunch and their big, fluffy pancakes all day long.
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cityweekend
Most Recent Reviews
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Don't know what took me to MPH. It's a cheap place. So you should not expect a lot from it. The food was not great, but I have to admit it is pretty decent value-for-money. Considering the prices of other restaurants in Shanghai, MPH gives you more than what you pay for. That's why I give it 4 stars.
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love this place! went here for breakfast several times and im very satisfied each visit. food selection is good with affordable prices. highly recommended for pancake lovers!
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I had dinner at Mr. Pancake House last night and was surprised at the quality of food but unfortunately not in a good way. The pancakes were ok but the smoked sausage tasted like the weiners wrapped in red plastic you buy at Family Mart, Seven Eleven or any store. The eggs were a bit cold and runny and the coffee was bitter. Unlike other reviews the service was quick and friendly. I will try Munchies next time.
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If this impresses you I feel sorry for you poor jaded folk. You are slumming it.
Pancakes are not that difficult! Sure its nice to think there's an IHOP or Waffle House style place around but it takes more than passable pancakes.
When the butter, syrup, and apple cinnamon topping are all refrigerator-cold; when the bacon has inedible pieces of cartilaginous rind, when the over-easy eggs rupture into a cool yellow flood as soon as the plate hits the table... you start wondering if anyone in the crowd of people waiting to come in and dine are repeat customers who are just too timid to stand up to their friends and the trendmongers and say "I had better when City Diner was open."
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I read some of the reviews here and almost didn't order but I'm glad I did. Delivery was fast (I ordered straight from the restaurant, not from Sherpa). Its not the same breakfast I'd get in the middle of Vermont, but the food was good. Pancakes were the highlight - both plain and banana-walnut were tasty. The big breakfast was as described. Minor complaints: sunny side eggs were a little unevenly cooked, bacon (the asian kind, not american variety) left something to be desired, potatoes needed some seasoning. But these are minor problems with what was a really solid breakfast, especially considering the price and the fact that this is Shanghai. I'll order from them again anytime.
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Absolutely the worst experience ordering from this place through Sherpa's! If you are reading this men and women of Sherpa's I would drop this restaurant as they are giving you a very bad name and forcing you to deliver coupons.
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I remember 9 months ago when I heard about a glorious little place that served a good breakfast that was good bang for your buck. Indeed, Mr. Pancake House was actually quite a good bargain back then, BUT like many a Shanghai institution, the service got worse, food got less edible...but prices stayed the same.
As every other reviewer has said, the service in this branch is atrocious. The queue system is so disorganized and haphazard that I can not think anything else other than the management wants to start a mass riot in front of their establishment. Once you sit down, you are welcomed with a scowl and grunt, which is typical, so no big deal there. My problem with the service is that nothing comes out even close to around the same time, so one person finishes when another person starts. Asking for anything other than your order gets you a dirty look and a grunt....but nothing in the end.
Still, the service and crowded nature of the place could be forgiven if not for the drastic drop in their food quality. The store namesake dish, the pancake, has gone from fluffy, light, and good, to doughy, chewy, and inedible. After my last horrible experience, I gave up and chalked Mr. Pancake House as another victim of the Shanghai restaurant curse. Now when I want breakfast, I prepared to be gouged and go to Element Fresh since I will get consistency, quiet, and a pleasant smile.
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Hungover? Mr. Pancake House is your cure. Free coffee or tea with a big breakfast that includes a perfect combination of fried potatoes, the best pancakes with syrup AND butter, eggs and some bacon. All for about 38 RMB. Boom! (There might be a line, but it’s worth the wait.)
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As a lot of people say on the board here, this place could be good indeed. I find it amusing that there are still so many people checking the place out. I think that this is really a sign that Shanghai lacks a good place to eat pancakes or have an american styke denny's...
Anyway to the review: The service is awful, if you like to be treated like an annoyance rather than a customer you can have lots of fun here. We had to remind the service to take our order 3 times, instead of bringing everything in one swing I got my bacon, my eggs, my pancakes, my juice. In a regular interval of 10 minutes. After, both of our "pressed" juices were obviously to 50% made of water, and we really kindly asked to replace it with a variant containing "less" water (we didn't even say: "no water"), the waitress told me that if I don't believe her I should go around the counter and watch her do it. WHAT!? I just wanted to kill that f*cking arrogant kid.
To the food: I am sorry to say that, but except the pancakes, nothing was good. The coffee tasted like black water I couldn't even finish it, but didn't say anything since the juice thing. The eggs weren't well made (how hard is it to make scrambled eggs?) they should have stayed like 3 minutes more in the pan, and the bacon was overcooked.
It's a shame because for the price and the demand from the clientele this could be a good working thing. But which such a service I will never ever go into that place again.
So if you are the owner of Mr. Pancake House: please standardize your cooking procedures, put more than one gram of coffee powder in your coffee machine, fire all your waitresses except the guy standing at the door who was rather polite and forthcoming. If not, I foresee that within weeks time the hype around your restaurant is gone.
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Good to have this place when you really need American style Denny's food. Went with 2 friends and 2 dogs.
The good: They have decent prices and are very friendly. They served my two thirsty dogs water and were not bothered by them.
The Bad: It came complete with hair in the omelets, hair in the tea, and french fries for the hash browns. After pointing it out, they "replaced it" in about 5 seconds, which convinces me they just re rolled the same omelete and gave it back. No offer of a discount or anything.
I ordered my bacon extra (X5) crispy, and it came out hardly cooked. After asking them to cook it more, they simply microwaved it. This place could be great, but they miss the obvious.
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don't bother calling these people, they wont answer the phone
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I rarely write reviews, but this, I had to say. My friend told me about this wonderful, magical, enchanted wonderland selling pancakes, waffles and just about every imagineable breakfast item. It was a rainy Shanghai summer day and we waited outside to sit. No problem, it
s packed and its a cozy little place. After our turn came up (with people cutting in front of us, even though we were assigned numbers), we sat down to order. It was packed, so of course the waitresses would be busy, but after calling them 3 times and getting adeng yi xia, a friendly local sitting next to us demanded the waitress to take our order. Let`s list the problems starting now since this one paragraph is getting monotonous:- coffee and tea arrive, my friend recieves a saucer with half milk and half syrup
- waitress ignores us, spits in our faces and gives us 40 lashes less 1 with a sheep-bone whip
- after 20 minutes, finally takes our order, 5 minutes later, takes the next table`s order
- table next to us receives their four dishes while the two of us are still waiting
- more time goes by and more dishes brought out that do not belong to us
- kind local lady at next table reprimands the waitress for not bringing our food after we repeatedly remind the waitress and guy at computer
- after 1.5 hours of not eating, we take our complimentary tea and coffee and head to a place with real service, Munchies.
Final conclusion: Mr Pancake House had an extremely terrible day. The only reason go back to that street would be to ride by on my bike and spit on the door.
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In most Chinatowns in the Western world (London, New York, San Francisco) there's usually a Chinese restaurant whose service is so bad that it makes the restaurant infamous and tremendously popular. Think Nazi Soup Kitchen featured on Seinfeld, but with spicy pepper beef.
Well, finally I've found Shanghais western food equivalent!
I had to wait 20min in queue - which in most eyes is considered a sign of a fine establishment. Not this one.
First, the "manager", who must have been trained to serve customers by the Japanese in Binyinhe 731, tried to force us to share a table for 4 with another couple. At least he said "Thank you" when he did it. No, Thank you.
Second, despite being the first to order our coffees, we were the last to receive them. I won't go into the fact that my dish arrived 20min after my companions despite us basically ordering the same thing. Admittedly one was the Mr Pancake Breakfast combo, and the other the Breakfast Combo - but you'd be hard pressed to find the difference between the two that warranted the 3rmb price differential.
Thirdly, the food was not worth the money. Despite it being one of the cheaper breakfasts I've seen in the city, the flourcakes were bland, the bacon stringy, and the eggs runny. For 45rmb, I'd rather get the full price breakfast down at Wagas down the road.
Oh Pancake gods!! why have you forsaken us?! Surely for having sent the plagues of pollution, bad traffic, and unruly queues you could send us a sign that you indeed exist!
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The restaurant's system of handing out numbers is flawed. We received a number and a few minutes later the host came over and changed our number because of she made a mistake at handing out the numbers.
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It's one of those places you wish was in your neighbourhood and nobody else knew about it. Shanghai is starved for neighbourhood places. It seems silly to go across town for pancakes in a little roadside place with the bathroom in the alley and people hovering for a table. But it's hard to find a place that can do a simple thing relatively well.
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I don't care about what all the jaded people say, but this is one of the best American breakfast places in SH, especially for it's price. I would really suggest sticking with the pancakes and omelets. I really like their pancake combo, it has everything bacon/sausage, homefries, pancake, two eggs, coffee/tea only for 45RMB. I mean, come on now. Only bad thing is that this place is tiny, and if you don't come early, you're gonna have to wait. And the tables are quite close, sometimes it gets really loud. Definitely satisfies the homesickness!
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The food is great and reasonably priced. Now if only they had enough tables and service staff to deal with the orders, then it would be wonderful.
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More like 3 1/2 stars. This place isn't perfect but I find it a relaxing spot to spend a weekend morning. The food is good, relatively faithful to American diner food, and well priced. If you don't want to break the bank but are craving American style breakfast treats, you should check out Mr. Pancake House.
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I hope this restaurant is not owned by an American.
It gets one start for bringing food to my table, and another for the food not killing me.
Ordered blueberry pancakes. Got plain pancakes with a "blueberry topping" that was a lot of blueberry juice with only 3 (literally) blueberries that tasted like crap. They didn't have home fries today (first day back after CNY), so got a salad on the side instead. Turns out salad = coleslaw.
Regardless of the miscommunication (blueberry pancakes actually have blueberries in the pancake batter...), the food was still blah. I could make better pancakes at home.
In addition, the omelet I had was runny. The French Toast was, perhaps, the best thing. But being a huge fan of French Toast, I was left disappointed.
Don't see a reason to go here again.
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This place has so much potential, but if you're going to be a breakfast place, you need to learn how to cook eggs! My friend had scrambled and they were overcooked and I had overeasy and there was no yoke, purely fried. I also want more syrup to drown my pancakes in and the one little cup they give you isn't sufficient. I know you guys can do better than this, please!
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Does anyone else find the name of this place amusing? Surely it should be either Mr. Pancake, or Pancake House.
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pancakes are great, ONLY if you order them separately. if you order the combo, you get different pancakes--they are flatter and much smaller in size. plus the coffee is smaller so the combo is really not worth ordering. service is SO slow. horrible really. 35mins to get our coffee. my friend got his pancakes after 40 min, and i got my pancakes ten minutes later. seriously, get another waiter. one for the whole place is just ridiculous!
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The meal option here is great because you don't have to choose pancakes or a meal - as is often the case back in The States. The pork sausage is top notch, and I highly recommend that menu set to anyone who wants a hearty stack of pancakes and some delicious sides. The coffee is not great, but that is exactly what I'd expect at most breakfast spots back home.
That said, the space really isn't that comfortable. The dinners tend to be my fellow loud and overly-opinionated Americans who think everyone should hear what they think about subjects ranging from theology to the people at the bar last night - not really the right environment to nurse a hangover in.
Worst of all, the service is terrible. There is always a line out the door and nobody is taking a name list, so you're stuck just standing around getting crammed tighter and tighter in the door - and if you're eating outside everyone hovers about hoping that the newest arrivals note that they are not next in line. The wait staff has no idea how to refill a coffee and must be hailed, usually by you standing up and walking over to them as they don't move in and out of the spaces except to set down a plate and leave quickly. They often mix up the bill as well, charging for the complimentary coffee just because you got it before you ordered the meal.
People often say that Americans are rude, but our service is not, and our restaurants usually don't have you sitting in the lap of the stranger next to you - It makes it a toss up when I could make pancakes and coffee at home without the commute and the long wait in line.
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I don't know about being inspired by the American style diner — it is way more quaint and cozy than what I see in America — but the pancakes are a good way to start off the morning. I just wish the restaurant and the menu were bigger.
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Meh. I think it's overrated. Better pancakes can easily be made at home. Also you can save your money and put it towards buying some real maple syrup for your pancakes.
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The best value for money in Shanghai! A real american BIG breakfast. I recommend the classic Mr. Pancake House plate with 2 eggs any style, 2 bacon slices, fried delicious potatoes and 2 pancakes with syrup! Crazy. Then my friend choose the pancakes with banana and walnut, this the biggest sweet thing I 've never seen for only 28 rmb... 3 huge pancakes. He ate only 1 third! I recommend but always need to queue so go late afternoon if you don't want to wait an hour.
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These are some solid pancakes served up in a cottage-like space. A real deal at RMB28 for the stack of 3 banana walnut. Could do with a more generous side of maple syrup and an offer of butter perhaps, but it comes with whipped cream and powdered sugar and that's about enough. It's even got two very nice little tables on the sidewalk for some al fresco dining.
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I had high hopes when we walked in because of the well priced stable american breakfast and lunch items on the menu and an enjoyable american decor. However, execution was poor. The fried eggs were cooked literally to death, the pancakes were very fluffy and would have been good if they had provided more than a thimble full of syrup. When asked for more, they happily obliged and brought half the amount that was served. The banana and walnut buttermilk pancakes were well made and moist. However, there was no walnut inside, only sprinkled on the top.
The restaurant didn't have a bathroom either. The only bathroom was outside. I didn't go to it, but that's never a good sign for me.
At this point, this place has a lot of potential, but it's not living up to it.
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I must declare, their banana and walnut buttermilk pancakes is AMAZING. Best on the menu. It comes in a stack of 3 fluffy pancakes with bananas cooked into them, as well as placed on top as garnishing. Totally sublime.
Note that the 2 small pancakes that come with their Omelette meal is not the same - they're smaller and thinner and chewier.
For a big eater, I would recommend one of the Omelette meals, chuck out the 2 pancakes that come with it, and order the banana and walnut buttermilk pancakes for dessert. Perfection!
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Mr. Pancake House, you're incredible. Went yesterday and got one order of the plain pancakes (RMB22), banana walnut pancakes (RMB28) with chocolate syrup (RMB10) and two cups of coffee. The pancakes were delicious. Fluffy warm, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with maple syrup on the side, they were as classically American as you can get in SH.
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One of my favourite American-style breakfasts, apart from waffles, are PANCAKES. Luscious, fluffy, buttermilk pancakes, to be precise. So it was with great interest and high hopes when I visited Mr Pancake House, which is in the Jingan area. Set up to look a bit like an American diner or cafe, it's clean and quiet inside, with 2 little tables outside to enjoy el fresco dining. We sat inside since it was a hot day, but enjoyed the sunlight streaming in through the big glass windows.
The staff were polite, and really efficient. I was surprised at how quickly the food came out, not just for us, but for other tables as well. One look at the menu and we were so surprised - their prices are EXCELLENT. Shanghai has this ridiculous notion that if a restaurant serves non-Chinese food, the prices are often exorbitantly marked up. I've witnessed many a restaurant charging in excess of 100元 (around US$15.00) for some pancakes, and we all know how cheap they are to make - especially considering the few ingredients are China made and cost about 1/50th of the price. However, at Mr Pancake House, a "stack of buttermilk pancakes" cost a mere 25元 or so - a total bargain!!!!
I opted for the Spanish omelette with homecooked fries and buttermilk pancakes which, if I remember correctly, was 38元. It was impressive. 3 eggs making a creamy omelette with mushrooms dotted through, and topped with a healthy scoop of salsa. The "homecooked fries" are actually just roasted potatoes, but they were sliced small and very tasty, albeit a little on the oily side. And of course, the buttermilk pancakes. I really enjoyed them. I wouldn't say they're the best buttermilk pancakes I've ever eaten in my life, but they were still delicious, considering we're in China. They were dense but still fluffy, moist, and had a beautiful buttery flavour to them. Dusted with icing sugar, slathered in butter, and topped up with maple syrup, they were a real treat. I assume the maple syrup provided isn't REAL maple syrup, and wished they'd give 100% pure Canadian maple syrup. But for the price of the set, I can't really complain.
The Hot chocolate was creamy and satisfying, though nowhere near the standard of Downstairs by David Laris. The Latte came out hilariously a cappuccino.. I think the staff had no idea what a latte was and what the difference was. Still, it was nice, no complaints there.
Mr Pancake House makes for a great, casual brunch. They also serve a selection of sandwiches and salads for those so inclined, but I wasn't interested. When I go back, I'm just getting the 3-stack of buttermilk pancakes with bananas, and smothered in lashings of butter and maple syrup. Now THAT'S a way to start a weekend! :)
Photos here: http://beverly.livejournal.com/836480.html
[HTML_REMOVED][HTML_REMOVED]American | Mr. Pancake House[HTML_REMOVED] [HTML_REMOVED][HTML_REMOVED]August 2010[HTML_REMOVED] [HTML_REMOVED]Shanghai’s not a very good American breakfast town so we were excited to see Mr. Pancake House. It’s a little uneven right now, but in time it could really fill a niche. The small eatery is instantly welcoming, with attentive service and dark wood all over. On the menu, they’ve got a range of all-day breakfast meals, including a fair selection of pancake (¥22-28) and waffle (¥25-32) options, plus some sandwiches (¥28-48) and salads (¥35-45) for those not so into early morning fare. We settled in with a stack of nine-inch banana walnut pancakes (¥28) and we weren’t disappointed. Fluffy but not overly buttery, they came topped with fresh banana slices and a generous sprinkling of nuts. Our Western omelet (¥38), featuring the usual bell peppers, ham, onions and cheese, came with home fries and a two smaller, five-inch flapjacks. The meal is, true to the restaurant, homey–just a step better than most make it at home. We finished sweet with some waffles topped with chocolate sauce (¥28) and a scoop of ice cream (an extra ¥10), but we wouldn’t recommend it. The waffles are too thin and Eggo-y for our liking. All in all, it’s a solid effort and a cheap, welcome option to the more generic weekend fare from spots like Element Fresh. [HTML_REMOVED]■ Geoff Ng