Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe
World’s Worst Coffee
Buttermilk Biscuit
Pecan Waffle
M&M Pancakes
Considered to be a Chapel Hill institution, particularly on days before the Tar Heels take the court, it was around 8:30am that we located parking in front of Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe and entering to find a ‘thirty minute or so…’ line snaked along the left wall it was with high expectations that we stood, the smiles of several co-eds and alumni portending good things…or at least so it seemed.
Unabashedly crowded, the sort of place that would seem busy even if it were only half-full due to the shotgun narrow space set alongside the kitchen, waffle irons, griddle, dish washers and it was unfortunately the later that assaulted our nostrils as we approached the front of the line, and frankly becoming nauseated from the smell of Cascade and chlorine as we waited it almost enough to make me leave – any seat juxtaposing the area absolutely unacceptable, though we would thankfully soon be sat in the back-room where a questionably competent young server attempted to man far more tables than should have been allotted to one person.
Thankfully expedited in prep, the line cooks clearly well attuned to the need for turning tables, it was less than ten minutes after ordering that plates were delivered and having already given up on luke-warm, acrid coffee that rivals the worst found anywhere our attention turned to the food, the biscuits seemingly cut out of a tube from Pillsbury, while two batters fared only slightly superior, the ‘whipped spread’ and Log Cabin doing little to raise the stakes.
Truly a disappointment, one part the effect of hype and the other a simple lack of quality product, suffice it to say that the Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe’s eponymous item was a ‘best available’ sort of experience though opting for the pecan upcharge was insulting at best, the pieces supposedly within the batter but entirely imperceptible while the candy in the pancakes was par for the course – a touch color and cocoa added to the doughy, bland base.
http://www.yeoldewaffleshoppe.com/
