Kelly the Culinarian: Food find: Dining at Clarke's is no walk in the park

Monday, June 11, 2007

Food find: Dining at Clarke's is no walk in the park

The other day, I was feeling self-indulgent because I was sad to move from Evanston. I left my graduate apartment Sunday at Engelhart Hall to take an internship in Tucson. The apartment was nothing too special, but I'm still sad to leave Evanston. It's a beautiful city that I've packed a lot of memories into for nine months.

So my sister and I went to Clarke's in Evanston for what I thought would be one nice final breakfast in my city of departure. The last time I went, my friend ordered the baked blueberry pancake. It took 30 minutes to make and it was burned on the edges -- overall a poor dining experience.

So I had hopes this would be a better time around. First off, I couldn't find a waiter for the first 10 minutes. No one greeted us, brought us water or anything. And I was hungry.

As, soon as our waiter showed up, my sister and I ordered just the food. Who knows how long it would take for drinks to come, then food. Katie got the silver dollar pancakes, I got the chocolate chip pancakes. I was feeling sad, I wanted something chocolately. Food is love.


When the pancakes came, I couldn't see the chocolate. The chips were on the underside of the pancake, baked into it. But my guess is they made these pancakes by mixing chocolate chips in with buttermilk pancakes. The problem is the chips sunk to the bottom, becoming overcooked on the griddle while the rest of the pancake continued to cook. The chips were crunchy, not chocolatey.


Then the pancakes were dry. I had to add butter and I felt the need for syrup to make them more edible. That led to sickly-sweet breakfast food. I'm sure I consumed more sugar in that meal than I usually get in a week.
Additionally, no one ever refilled our drinks, came to check and see if the meal was OK or anything. Our waiter didn't even bring out the food. I saw him when we ordered and when he brought the check. I'm sure we got crappy service because we were two young chicks. At least Katie like her pancakes, but I know I won't miss this place.

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