Country Pancake House Nabs Spot on TV’s 'Chowdown Countdown'

This month millions of Americans discovered what Ridgewood residents have known for years: Country Pancake House and Restaurant means BIG breakfast.

Yes, the secret's out, thanks to the Travel Channel's 101 Tastiest Places to Chowdown countdown, a five-part program highlighting "a coast-to-coast, mouthwatering tour of the 101 absolute best places to get your grub on in the country." Country Pancake House squeaked into the top 50, nabbing the 49th spot on the Travel Channel's list, as well as a coveted feature on its "Extreme Pig Outs" show.

Both the East Ridgewood Avenue eatery and its twin in Bradenton, Fla., are no strangers to local publicity though, having received numerous media coverage over the years from Fox and NBC news, Zagat Survey, New Jersey Monthly, and The Herald Tribune. In fact an entire wall of the Jersey restaurant is covered with press photos and clippings collected over the last 18 years of business.

Just what is all the fuss about? Enormous portions. If you walk out of the place still hungry, it's nobody's fault but your own. Owner Milan Pavlovic and his family make sure of that by serving up BIG breakfasts, the likes of which I daresay not even Supersize Me's Morgan Spurlock can handle.

Pancakes come in two portion options: four 7-inch "mediums" or two 13-inch "oversized." And there are over 100 different pancakes varieties to choose from, including granola, fruit, sweet potato, corn, nut, chocolate chip, peanut butter, pumpkin, and even bacon bits and grits ($5.95-$10.50).

Country Pancake House also has an impressive roster of 25 French toast dishes ($6.50-$9.50), 50 different Belgian waffles ($6.50-$8.95), frittatas ($8.95-$9.50), and a jumbo concoction known as a "country waffle frittata" ($9.95), which is a baked, frittata-topped waffle stuffed with a choice of over a dozen ingredients including chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, caviar, and corned beef. Egg platters and nine-egg omelets ($4.95-$9.95) are served with two medium pancakes and home fries. Oh, and if that's not enough food, every dish comes with a basket of cornbread. They don't call it "Home of the Hearty" for nothing.

Another over-the-top item is Country Pancake House's popular fruit and vegetable juice bar. Its all-day menu includes over 37 fruit juice combinations—mixing anything and everything from pear to cantaloupe to papaya to blueberry ($1.95-$4.50). Fruit juices are blended with ice cream to create frosty fruit frappes ($4.95).

Wait times to snag a breakfast table can be as long as an hour—especially on the weekends—and often one must fight the crowds just to get in the door and put your name on the list. It's not unusual to see hungry patrons killing time walking around town or parked cars along East Ridgewood Avenue full of people sitting it out in their vehicles.

The crowd subsides quite a bit during lunch and dinner, when much of the ordering switches to salads ($5.50-$12.50), over-stuffed sandwiches ($5.50-$9.95), half-pound burgers ($6.95-$8.50), as well as an assortment of pastas, chicken, seafood, steaks, and chops ($8.95-$15.95).

While there's no debating that the portions are ginormous and Country Pancake hands-down qualifies as one of the best bangs for your buck in the tri-state area, is the wait worth it?

In my opinion, the answer is a mixed bag. The cornbread can be a bit dry at times, and while the pizza-sized pancakes do come in so many wonderful flavor combinations, bigger is not necessarily better. Country Pancake House's "medium" flapjacks were much tastier, through and through. Likewise, the very large potato pancakes were fluffy in the middle but had burnt-tasting, greasy edges. And while the eggs in the lump crabmeat eggs benedict were perfectly poached, the crab had tinny undertones and the Hollandaise sauce wasn't as rich as it might have been.

On the plus side, the kitchen's home fried potatoes are chunky, rustic, and offered a nice distraction from the seemingly never-ending main events. The juice bar also definitely deserves all the kudos it receives, both in sheer number of varieties and in taste. The drinks are so delicious that it's hard to believe they're actually good for you.

Finally, I can't commend Country Pancake House enough for its warm, attentive service, overall feel-good vibe, and price structure. Like the thousands who flock every year to see the world's biggest rubber band ball, there is a definite novelty attraction to seeking out Ridgewood, a place where one can say they ate not one, but two pancakes the size of manhole covers... at just $5.95!

Though it might not be the best breakfast I've ever eaten, all in all, I find I must agree with the Travel Channel. Country Pancake House has earned its notoriety—if nothing else but for the sheer fact that every breakfast experience there can't help but feel like an once-in-a-lifetime party.

If you go: Country Pancake House and Restaurant

140 East Ridgewood Avenue

201-444-8395

Hours of Operation: Sunday through Saturday, 6:30 am-9 pm

Children's menu and take-out available. Cash only.