It really pisses me off when reviewers complain about things like the staff not smiling and not saying hello here. Mr Pancake House is an affordable Western diner in CHINA and for what you’re paying, you can’t expect 5-star service. This isn’t the States where wait staff work for tips, so get over it. I’m more pissed off at bad service at nicer Western restaurants where I’m paying a lot more, such as oh I’d don’t know, Mr Willis?? Yep, had a super rude and snobby waitress serve us there last Saturday together with a clueless waitress who barely understood our orders. Not to mention a squabble & punches thrown between a wait staff and customer… all that incredible service for a RMB300 meal. Yay.

I admit we had a bad experience at the new Mr Pancake on Julu Lu before CNY – waited half an hour for a table, then over an hour for our food as the place was packed to the brim. But if we can get there early enough (i.e. before 10:30am), it’d still be our go-to breakfast place because it’s hard to find a place that has unpretentious Western breakfast that’s good value for money and serves bottomless brewed coffee.

Mr Pancake House, we love you and if you want to survive you need to:

(1) Say goodbye to Sherpa’s delivery orders – Your kitchen can’t handle both delivery orders and a full restaurant. Is it really worth making the extra money in delivery orders but pissing off customers at the restaurant because they had to wait over an hour for their food??

(2) Hint at customers to leave when there’s a queue outside. In China, offering bottomless coffee can be a little risky because some customers will literally drink you dry and sit for hours despite the long queue outside. What you need to do is be more efficient at clearing dishes when customers are finished, and then slip them the receipt – a subtle way to say, ‘We’d like you to leave now, thank you.’ If they still don’t leave, then wait staff need to keep going back to the table asking them if they’d like to order anything else.

Mr Pancake House has its misgivings but we have faith that they'll work things out!!

Maybe it was because I was just in America and I was reminded what service is really like or maybe because it was just after Chinese New Year and everyone is still rubbing the dew out of their eyes but my last visit to Mr. Pancake House on Julu lu was anything less than stellar. You know when you have that moment during a dining experience when you say to yourself or out loud, “I am so writing a bad review on SmartShanghai about this place!” Well here I am, writing that review.

Despite being the only ones in the entire restaurant, it took the staff approximately 21 minutes to serve us out 1 cup of coffee and 1 cup of tea (urge to kill rising..) but I did like the large pained windows and comfy red couches (urge to kill fading, fading…). However, when my Mr. Banana Pancakes arrived 47 minutes after we got our coffee, one was burnt, one was raw and one was barely holding up the name sake. To not top it all off, they gave me a thimble’s worth of syrup (urge to kill RISING!).

Here’s the part of the bad review when you say to the reader, “Ignore the hype people! Mr. Pancake is just hiding behind it’s real persona; Mr. I-Don’t-Have-My-Shit-Together...House. Do yourself a favor and make your own damn pancakes at your own damn house.”

I live near by, 5 minutes walking distance, i used to go there quite often with friends for dinner or brunch.but i decided to not go there anymore.

First.bad service,waitress took so much time to even bring a menu where she clearly saw us coming in, no hello,no smile,no nothing. we had to move to the kitchen to ask for the menu.

Second, took ages to come to take order where there were only two tables beside us. with no hello,no smile,no nothing.

Third, brunch was reasonable ok, just ok. but went for dinner the other day. we ordered a big salad which came out was very small for the price we pay. for a burger we had to wait for 20 minutes while my friend nearly finished his dish. still no sorry no nothing.

With such bad service, i think their owner does not realise it and maybe just does not care. so kindly suggest think twice before going there. especially on sunday brunch. you will be pissed to get your food in the last while the people who arrived before you got their food.

What happened to this place? Last year, I loved to go and now I don't want to go there any more.

Did they change owner?

I am not a person who expects every waiter in town to speak English, still, in such a western-targeted venue I can not believe that I had to translate in Chinese my girlfriend's order. Do not expect to be welcome by "hello" or any synonym available,when you arrive you feel like you annoy the staff. Pancake is perfect after a hangover, but waiters keep on shouting and running so you can not relax at all.

The value for money is quite satisfactory,in term of quantity not quality. Still, they over charge extras, 10rmb for better or banana, this is not what I call "cheap". Then, talking about quality, pancakes are not good, except if you're a craving for some baker powder because this is what they taste.

I went to the place three times recently before writing this review, I just wanted to be sure that it wasn't bad luck. I'm not American so my mum never taught me how to make pancakes so I decided to check online and learned how to make pancakes. Now I make super Saturday morning feasts with my roommates.

So my advice, don't go there, just make pancakes by yourself.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Hannahs-Pancakes-231584

The good:
They have decent prices and are very friendly. They served my two thirsty dogs water and were not bothered by them.

The Bad:
Hair in the omelets and the tea. French fries for hash browns. They "replaced" the omelet in about 5 seconds, They just re rolled the same omelete and gave it back. No offer of a discount or anything.

Ordered my bacon Extra Crispy X5, and they served it barely cooked. I sent it back and they simply microwaved it.

This place could be great, but they miss the obvious.

In most Chinatowns in the Western world (London, New York, San Francisco) there's usually a Chinese restaurant whose service is so bad that it makes the restaurant infamous and tremendously popular. Think Nazi Soup Kitchen featured on Seinfeld, but with spicy pepper beef.

Well, finally I've found Shanghais western food equivalent!

I had to wait 20min in queue - which in most eyes is considered a sign of a fine establishment. Not this one.

First, the "manager", who must have been trained to serve customers by the Japanese in Binyinhe 731, tried to force us to share a table for 4 with another couple. At least he said "Thank you" when he did it. No, Thank you.

Second, despite being the first to order our coffees, we were the last to receive them. I won't go into the fact that my dish arrived 20min after my companions despite us basically ordering the same thing. Admittedly one was the Mr Pancake Breakfast combo, and the other the Breakfast Combo - but you'd be hard pressed to find the difference between the two that warranted the 3rmb price differential.

Thirdly, the food was not worth the money. Despite it being one of the cheaper breakfasts I've seen in the city, the flourcakes were bland, the bacon stringy, and the eggs runny. For 45rmb, I'd rather get the full price breakfast down at Wagas down the road.

Oh Pancake gods!! why have you forsaken us?! Surely for having sent the plagues of pollution, bad traffic, and unruly queues you could send us a sign that you indeed exist!