Annie's Pancake House

From: Bagels: New York Bagel and Bialy

Dave148 wrote:I've never had the skirt steak. I'll give it a try sometime.

Recently had skirt steak and eggs at Annie's and was surprised at the quality. I expected a diner style low to med quality cow cut and instead received a respectable and delectable quality skirt steak. Eggs were perfectly cooked and hash browns wonderfully crisp, as requested.

Annie's Pancake House



An impromptu steak sauce taste off seemed in order, not that the skirt steak needed it, Heinz 57 a clear winner in flavor, mouthfeel and overall enjoyability.

Skirt steak, over easy eggs (3) and crisp hash browns



Midweek lunch at Annie's is a pleasant experience, friendly, efficient, reasonably priced and comfortable well spaced seating. It also seemed to be take your grandparent/great grandparent to lunch day, there were at least three tables of such enjoying a meal and conversation.

Enjoy,
Gary

Annie's Pancake House
4900 W. Oakton St.
Skokie, IL
847-675-7562

Annie's is a family favorite - our go-to weekend diner pre-LTH; the waitresses are always friendly with kids, and they offer a nice, standard breakfast of staggering proportions. Sparky loves both the Mouse-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named pancake and the silver dollar pancakes (to the point that all pancakes at home must now be silver dollar sized,) they always accomodate the 'spouse's request for an off-menu spinach and cream cheese omelet, the eggs benedict is a fairly good diner version - and I really love the hash browns. It's also fairly roomy inside, (though always crowded on weekends) and nice enough to take the dive-intolerant. I assumed it had been written up here years ago.

GWiv's point about good ingredients is true there across the board: fresh fruit, fresh-squeezed orange juice, etc. Thanks for reminding me, G!

I have driven past this place and thought it looked good. The next time I'm not driving past.

This place is also one of my favorites...usually for breakfast items. Last Passover on a whim I ordered their matzoh brei (more out of curiosity than expectations of something really good). Their version with salami was actually one of the better restaurant versions I have ever had.

We have good friends who we meet at Annie's for Sunday brunch on a fairly regular basis (seems to be the only time we can get together.) Always great service, good food and a crowd of people waiting for tables by the cash register which always makes us feel moderately guilty about that third cup of coffee.
>>Brent

I'm a big fan of Annie's food. I love the greek salad, and since I most often eat vegetarian, they will add hard-boiled eggs to the mix for my protein kick. They also have very good fluffy omelets in the Lou Mitchell's vein (not as huge, but tasty).

I love the owner and her daughter who run the register, and most of the wait staff are pretty good. A few of the waitresses are flaky and get orders wrong all the time (at least they are consistent...at being wrong!). mr. franabanana refuses to go here because he insists they always screw at least one thing up on the order. I am more forgiving because I prefer a local place to the IHOP on Skokie.

I really cannot abide by the love for Annie's. I've been eating here for years, as it's a favorite of both my grandmother and mother-in-law.

Besides the fruit and tomatoes (which taste like they came out of the deep-freeze), I don't think anything in their kitchen is freshly cut.

The hash browns and fries are of the frozen style, the corned beef hash tastes like Hormel, and the potato salad and cole slaw taste like they're from foodservice tubs. The soups are sub-standard. The bread simply stinks. If they've ever sliced an actual potato in that kitchen, I'll eat my hat.

My grandmother, the world's biggest Annie's apologist, swears that the chicken soup is made from scratch. I think she's nuts. Today over lunch, I asked her what happened to all the chickens that made the soup. She couldn't show me anything on the menu that would use anything beyond a boneless breast. I think I finally put a shred of doubt in her head about it.

After years and years of eating there, I'm still hoping to find one thing on the menu that would make me say "sure, I'll order that again".

The place is clean and the staff is great. I suppose if you want eggs, pancakes, or a waffle, Annie's is ok. But I've never in my life recommended Annie's to anyone.

Well, never having had food at Annie's that didn't include eggs, waffles, or pancakes, I can hardly disagree - but I wouldn't automatically assume lunch is good just because the breakfast is OK.

eatchicago wrote:the corned beef hash tastes like Hormel

Michael,

I'll give you that, Annie's corned beef hash is an abomination. The following picture is, believe it or not, after the very nice waitress took it back for 'crisping' at her own accord.

Annie's Corned Beef Hash



I disagree on the hash browns, standard hash browns are tasty, shown here with a couple of perfect poached eggs.



But I suggest asking for hash browns with grilled onions.



Skirt steak, as mentioned upthread, is terrific for breakfast, lunch or dinner, though an order of Salisbury Steak (not my order) proved a mistake.

Salisbury Steak



I like Annie's, though, at least for now, I'm sticking to breakfast foods and skirt steak.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:Skirt steak, as mentioned upthread, is terrific for breakfast, lunch or dinner, though an order of Salisbury Steak (not my order) proved a mistake.

Frozen veggies. What a surprise.

I wish I could feed you the hashbrowns I had today. I would dare you to call them tasty.

I wrote:This place is also one of my favorites...usually for breakfast items. Last Passover on a whim I ordered their matzoh brei (more out of curiosity than expectations of something really good). Their version with salami was actually one of the better restaurant versions I have ever had.

Remembering my experience last year, G Wiv and I visited Annie's this afternoon to see if the matzoh brei last year was a fluke. To start, they didn't bat an eye when we asked for matzoh instead of bread, and brought us a plate of what tasted like Manishevitz matzoh's.

Annie's Pancake House Matzoh Service


I ordered the matzoh brei with onions and salami. What they brought was a respectable restaurant version that lived up to my memories of last year. Next time I order it, I'm going to ask for it extra crispy and I might even ask the cook to add a chopped jalapeno. The plate came with three slices of melon that somehow were mid-summer ripe and sweet.

Annie's Pancake House Matzoh Brei


Gary ordered a chopped julienne salad, which was photogenic enough and fresh, but didn't hold a candle to the one served at Jack's (as the Jack's Salad).

Annie's Pancake House Julienne Salad


All in all, an enjoyable experience. The staff at Annie's couldn't be friendlier. My only gripe is that at nearly $10, the matzoh brei might be priced a bit high for what you get.

Annie's has added another outlet in NE Mount Prospect, in the space that was Photo's for many years, and most recently Greek Feast. They only did a partial remodel from GF, mainly hiding the previously-open kitchen.

We don't often go out for breakfast, but with a new opening in the area, one we can walk to, we decided to try it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. For only being open a couple weeks, they were pretty packed at 10AM (mask usage was good by staff, diners you just have to take it or leave it but there are plastic barriers between each booth).

Food was, overall very good, but a bit pricey, compared to our recent lunch at B Sweet's at the far end of Des Plaines. My "Stud Muffin" breakfast sandwich crammed two sausage patties and likely two eggs' worth of scrambled with cheese onto the english muffin, and came with a good serving of hash browns (I missed the note above to add onions, I'll definitely ask for that if I'm there again). SueF's french toast on the other hand was just two slices of alone on the plate for $8 (no fruit, hash browns, anything). Their daily specials would have been a better bargain, with less french toast but eggs, juice, and sausage and bacon included.

Service was very good. If we're in the neighborhood, I'll go to B Sweet's, but for a place we can walk to, Annie's will do. Competition in the area has to be pretty stiff, given Emma's on Milwaukee (Glenview), Katie's Kitchen just a half-mile south on Wolf, and others.

PSA = the Skokie branch recently reopened. Current hours are 7am-3pm. It had been closed for several months when they opened the branch out by Joel.

Dave148 wrote:PSA = the Skokie branch recently reopened. Current hours are 7am-3pm. It had been closed for several months when they opened the branch out by Joel.

Hard-pressed to go back with the far better Alexander's nearly across the street.

spinynorman99 wrote:

Dave148 wrote:PSA = the Skokie branch recently reopened. Current hours are 7am-3pm. It had been closed for several months when they opened the branch out by Joel.

Hard-pressed to go back with the far better Alexander's nearly across the street.

Spinynorman99,

You have mentioned Alexander's in passing a number of times. I do not find a post highlighting what is good to eat there. Why not start a thread, because I think others might want to love it as much as you do.

Thanks!

Regards,
CAthy2

Cathy2 wrote:I do not find a post highlighting what is good to eat there.

Ken from Evanston Lunch Group™ 5/24/2017 wrote:I thought Alexander's was very good indeed for the breakfast items, but somewhat less so for the lunch items. The spicy shrimp omelet and blueberry french toast (both daily specials), and the Tuscany skillet, were all excellent. The killer grilled cheese (their name, not mine) was also very good. But the salads were only so-so. We wanted to order the corned beef skillet and the reuben, but they were out of corned beef when we were there.

I would return again, but would concentrate on the breakfast items on the menu.