Wildberry Pancakes and Café
Bottomless Drip Coffee from Intelligentsia and $2 pure maple syrup (and a giant plate of syrup and butter)
Red Velvet French Toast with Vanilla Anglaise and Fresh Strawberries
Banana Bread French Toast with Cut Banana
Signature Berry Bliss Pancakes – Vanilla Anglaise, Blackberry Coulis, Berry Mascarpone, Fresh Berries
Awakening early on the last day of my trip to take a long run along Lakeshore Drive it was with nearly twelve miles under my feet that I showered, packed my bags, and gathered my mother and aunt for breakfast at Wildberry Pancakes and Café, a regional brunchery with two locations in the ‘burbs and one within city limits. Ever the target of tourists thanks to prime real estate just steps from Millennium Park, and already sporting a 45 minute wait as the clock approached eight, it was largely an effect of convenience that led us to stay at a restaurant from which I did not particularly expect much and with seats eventually found in the center of a bustling dining room my suspicions were immediately confirmed – the service overburdened and perfunctory while food was pleasant without being memorable at all. Expectedly high priced for clever interpretations of diner classics including pancakes, bennies, and everything in between it was a total of three sweets plus rarely-replenished coffee that our meal progressed – the kitchen undoubted rushing to turn tables and serving a short-stack in place of a requested full stack. Arriving no less than 15 minutes after ordering, along with enough artificial maple syrup to smother more than twice as many plates, it was with dyed-red bread that dining began and topped with supplemental syrup from Vermont for $2 the texture was fine, the taste not particularly cocoa though pleasant with berries and cream. Faring better than my selection, both my aunt’s fluffy pancakes and mother’s griddled quick bread were well prepared with plenty of natural sweetness and although neither were ‘rave worthy’ or even ‘worth the wait,’ neither was particularly a poor choice –even if our server seemed to be rushing us out the door just thirty-five minutes after we had sat down.
RECOMMENDED: The pancakes trumped both styles of French Toast and featuring a light, fluffy crumb topped with quite a few berries easily represented the best ‘deal’ of our breakfast.
AVOID: Red Velvet French Toast seems like a bit of an upsell for an item that tasted mostly like white bread with a hint of cocoa. Clever, sure, but not particularly well executed considering the increase in price from ‘standard.’
TIP: Obviously prone to tourist traffic an early, off hours, or weekday visit is probably a safer bet than Sunday at 8am, though if our walk the prior week to YumCha was any indication the place is never particularly ‘dead.’
http://www.wildberrycafe.com/
