Pearl #27: Gluten-free at The Original Pancake House, Ladue

Before a hot, grueling and awesome day at LouFest in August, a big group of us went to The Original Pancake House in Ladue for brunch. I’d been dying to check it out, as the St. Louis locations of Original Pancake House serve gluten-free pancakes made from Andrea’s gluten-free pancake mix.

If you love pancakes, this is your jam. (Hence, the name.) The gluten-free pancake options were marked as such on the menu with a little “no wheat” symbol. Many of Original Pancake House’s pancakes are gluten-free, so prepare to eat your heart out. You’ll have to ask your server about everything else (omelets, eggs, meats, etc), as those were not marked as GF. I ordered gluten-free blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and hash browns – all confirmed by our server to be gluten-free. Carb-loading, am I right?

To avoid any confusion, the gluten-free pancakes come out on a bright red plate. The blueberry pancakes were fluffy and soft though slightly dense, sprinkled with powdered sugar and packed with juicy blueberries. I’m talking really juicy – I cut into a pancake and had a tragic-near miss, as a blueberry shot out and exploded all over my napkin-covered lap. No clothing casualties, luckily. The best part about these pancakes may be the blueberry syrup – packed with tiny blueberries and not overly sweet. But sorry, folks – there’s no mixing and matching of different pancake flavors. They come in stacks of three, so you’re going to have to pick a pancake horse and ride it.

Next time, I’ll try something a bit more exciting than scrambled eggs and turkey sausage – but I was feeling classic. They had some great looking omelets, though. Ken got the spinach omelet (also gluten-free), filled with spinach, feta cheese, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Since Ken was there, I made him split some hash browns with me. It’s a little bit more acceptable to get pancakes plus hash browns if I don’t feel compelled to dominate them on my own. They were the perfect hash browns – just crispy enough on the outside, yet still soft enough on the inside, and perfectly salted.

Coincidentally, I had just visited an Original Pancake House for the first time when I was in Minneapolis for vacation just a few weeks prior. They use regular Pamela’s gluten-free pancake mix, which was equally as delicious as the St. Louis location Andrea’s mix. I also got the ham and egg scramble – which was awesome. See below. I highly recommend getting your gluten-free self to an Original Pancake House soon!