Chace's Pancake Corral

"Yee Haw!" Round up the children and mosey on down to the Pancake Corral, Chace's to be exact. Where the heck are we? No, not Texas. If you can believe it, in Bellevue. Yup, in this bustling, ever-changing, modern suburb of Seatte, we are kickin' it ol' skool. Driving down Bellevue Way, away from the Downtown core of trendy shops and restaurants, we find a lil' ol' shack of sorts in the middle of a residential area. You see, this place has been around for a very long time. Long before all of the other development that has occurred 10 blocks North. It is almost as if time has stood still. The place looks uniquely un-modern, the interior is much of the same. The real plus? Service that you can rarely find elsewhere these days.

Now what else would one order at this place? Well, pancakes of course! My son took one look at the menu and zeroed in on the Chocolate Chip Pancakes (yes, he is only 5 and can read easily, we are so proud...). Now if you are wondering where are the chocolate chips, they are actually on the underside of the pancake. The ones on top are only for show. I wouldn't say these pancakes blew us away; yet they were fluffy and did do the namesake justice. The really over-done-looking sausage link was much better than it looked by-the-way. My daughter ended up with the French Toast and if you were wondering what's with the pancake batter on it, you are not alone. I was a bit perplexed as well; but it worked in some strange way. Mind you, the other side did have the typical egg. As for the scrambled egg, just on looks alone, you can tell it was done properly. It was fluffy and buttery.

Viv ended up with the Strawberry Pancakes which ended up to be more crepe-like than anything. Rolled and topped with strawberry sauce and whipped cream, these were pretty standard. Mind you, I would take these over IHOP any day. For myself, I didn't go the pancake route and went for the Corned Beef Hash. When it arrived, it looked more like a hockey puck than a hash. Maybe it was merely foreshadowing the absence of hockey for the 4 days I would be away from Vancouver. Anyways, once I played around with the "puck", it was a typical corned beef hash consisting of small diced potatoes and canned corned beef. Nothing particularly interesting about this dish other than the nice crispy exterior on both sides. They did poach the accompanying eggs perfectly though and it went well with the toast. However, the toast was a bit soggy. So as you can clearly see, the food ain't spectacular; but it is indeed solid. Prices are good and the service we got was reminiscent of yesteryear. Hey, especially with the kiddies in tow, works for me.

The Good:
- Homey place, homey service
- Inexpensive
- Food does the job

The Bad:
- Place is small, I can see a wait on weekends
- Food won't set the culinary world on fire and it isn't intended to either