Golden Brown Discs of Goodness
For some very odd reason, finding a decent place for food in Brissy after 9pm is extremely difficult. I know there are exceptions but I always get a sense of dread running over me when I realise that it’s 8:55pm and I haven’t organised anything. Countless times I’ve gone door to door asking “are you still serving?” only to wind up at the end of the street frustrated and disappointed. Where do you go if you’re like me and like to eat late?
I’d like to introduce to you my all purpose standby for such occasions… the Pancake Manor. The Pancake Manor provides a fantastic all night option with great value for money, a kick-arse location and a menu that includes much more than just dessert pancakes, something I think many people forget. Most importantly though, it means that you don’t have to settle for a mass-produced grease burger wrapped in wax paper to be consumed in somewhere resembling a garbage tip.
The Pancake Manor is located on Charlotte St, and has one of the best dining spaces in Brisbane. An old church has been converted into a restaurant and if you’ve never seen inside before, I guarantee you’ll be wow’d. The place is full of stained glass with impressive arches and there is no where else like it in Brisbane. The furniture is simple; lots of wooden tables and booths along the walls. While some new upholstery wouldn’t go astray, everything is clean and neat, and the whole place feels warm and inviting.
The menu is heavily weighted to both sweet and savoury pancakes and crepes, but has several other options including steak, salads and a full all-day breakfast menu. I’ve sampled most of it over the years with the exception of breakfast, and haven’t been disappointed yet.
We strolled in at 10:40pm on a busy Friday night and for the first time in recent memory had to wait for a booth – clearly the GFC hasn’t reached the Pancake Manor yet. After cooling our heels for 20 minutes downstairs in the Good Knight Bar, we were seated in the restaurant and our orders were promptly taken. Curiously, our drinks were not served in advance of our meals and instead we suffered a noticeable wait for a cappuccino ($3.5) and table water. I can’t ever remember this happening before and on the whole, service at the Pancake Manor is very good – the staff are polite, enthusiastic and will share a joke with you but a cappuccino still shouldn’t take 20 minutes.
Luckily the delicious pancakes distracted us and I wasted no time getting stuck into my Short Stack with cream, ice cream and special syrup ($8.5) with a side of bacon ($2.95). BACON?! I hear you say? Yes, that’s right, I like bacon with my pancakes. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it ‘eh.
The pancakes were light and fluffy; scrumptious discs of golden brown goodness. I really must remember to make these at home more often. The ice cream was good quality, the syrup plentiful and the bacon crispy without being burnt (yes I know I’m weird). By the end of it I was well and truly full.
My companions had another short stack sans-bacon, and The Ultimate – two French crepes filled with cream cheese, sultanas, lemon juice and vanilla with raspberry coulis and ice cream ($12.95). Both dishes managed to silence my friends for an extended period, which is a good way to tell whether or not a dish is up to scratch. The only comment I heard was that the crepes weren’t quite thin enough, which left them bit heavy rather than light and crisp.
It’s extraordinarily hard to fault the Pancake Manor in terms of value for money as there simply isn’t an alternative that does good quality food at this time of night. Freestyle closes before midnight and all you’re really left with is pizza and gelato (boring) or nightclub food, neither of which are particularly appealing in my book.
The Pancake Manor provides an excellent option for those whose bedtime is the other side of midnight and if you haven’t been recently I’d definitely recommend you get along. Try the bacon.
Pancakes at the Manor
18 Charlotte St
Brisbane map
(also 43 Brisbane Rd, Newtown Ipswich)
07 3221 6433
Visited: Friday, 15 May 2009
Very dissapointing. The roof leaked downstairs, the female toilet was broken, they locked the replacement toilet several times. The barstaff kept dissapearing. We rented the Knight Room as a venue and our dinner booking was bumped from 7:30 to 8:30pm. We were told we couldn’t order food for downstairs. When 9:30pm rolled around and we still hadn’t been seated they suddenly revealed we could order basic meals (wedges, etc). We were seated at 10pm. When our room booking ended at midnight we were evicted from downstairs in mintues and told our group could grab a table in the restaurant. When we did, we were told we had to leave or be charged with trespassing. I watched the same table sit empty for 45 mintues while we ate birthday cake in the street outside. The staff were rude and made it very clear that they have no interest in good service.