Sara's Pancake House

Raadhuisstraat 45
Amsterdam

I had decided late last night that I was going to give pancakes another shot. I've hated them since I was young, and try to stay away from them at all costs. But, I read on some travel website that you have to get them once in Holland, and so we picked Sara's as our first shot.

Service was terrible, but what I will say is that it seemed to be a staff of one taking care of the entire place. She seemed far too frazzled and a mysterious man would surface occasionally from the basement, wiping tables and giving people menus with a glaze over his expression.

I could tell pretty quickly that the woman was overwhelmed and knew it would be a bit. However, I didn't expect to feel as though I had ruined her entire day by paying her our patronage. She threw her hands up and complained loudly, scolding the skulky dude on the regular.

First we watched our coffee go to the table next to us, and when denied was dumped out. Finally the waitress/cook/floor manager came over and asked what the problem was. I told her there was no problm, we just hadn't been offered them. We then received espressos in their place and one too many orange juice. Bad start, but forgivable to a degree.

I started to get more uncomfortable when people were up and leaving after not being acknowledged for 10 - 15 minutes. At another point, the waitress barked at some customers coming in that she was closed, when she obviously was not. Just tell them it's a long wait, don't boot out a paying customer.

Harry's food arrived, the Canadian pancake, and it looked awesome. Mine arrived but wasn't what I had ordered. After some arguing with the girl, I finally agreed to eat what she had prepared and insisted I had ordered. This is when she took the food away from me and said "No, only a minute for another one."

Harry's was delicious and like a thicker, savoury crepe. Not what I expected from a pancake house. Mine was small, and I was pretty hungry soon after but tasty.

Not sure how Harry felt overall but I think he enjoyed the meal. I'm going to give it a 3 / 10 simply because the atmosphere and resentful service took away from what should have been a fail-proof meal.

Overall Price: Jesus Christ, 25 Euro!