Original Steve’s Diner

Always enjoy nine-sevenths of your giant pancake.

At 7 a.m., Steve’s is just like any diner. By 8 a.m., it’s more populated than the high street of Marrakesh on bazaar day. People wait for tables. People squeeze past one another. And there are lots of chickens. Seriously, chickens! There was a scary-looking chicken/rooster perched above our table, ready to pounce if we ordered improperly or ate too slowly.

Aaron, Val, Asher, and Nora joined Bo and Dave this morn. Nora rudely slept through the entire breakfast. Asher, fresh off of reading a neat and terrifying picture book on great white sharks, eventually leaped forward, attacking his food with his mouth only (not pictured. Too fast and too surprising. Just like real sharks!). He also ate like in a regular way.

Bo ordered a western breakfast sandwich on a ciabatta roll, for a slight upcharge (they were out of pretzel rolls). Dave ordered a steak n’ egg sandwich. Val ordered like a million things: eggs (over medium), sausage, home fries, and wheat toast. And Aaron was unsure whether to order his own food, or to have only what we ordered for the table: a giant chocolate chip pancake.

Dave’s steak n’ egg sandwich was decent, though the steak was a little dry. The ciabatta roll was worth the $1.00 upcharge. It’s worth noting that there were no sides with the sandwich – those are extra too.

Aaron thought that he would need a bit more than 1/4 of the pancake. “I’ll have 2/7,” he assured us.

They have real maple syrup. For an upcharge. Not a small upcharge. A regular upcharge. You’ll get a little saucer of syrup, but don’t be fooled! The volume of the container is much larger than it would initially appear from exterior observation!

The food:

Steve’s Diner did some bomber basics! Val’s eggs were just this side of runny (which is how she likes them), and the potatoes had a solid crispy crust from their time in the skillet. Bo snagged a couple of Val’s potatoes and remarked at the complex mixture of spices that greeted his tongue, like an old friend with a new haircut. Val goes, “I love that they’re not just cubes!” And she was right. These were real breakfast potatoes. Eat ’em.

The pancake was everything we expected: it was a giant pancake. The chocolate chips were plentiful and the real maple syrup was more than enough for all of us. Bo did not need to resort to his hidden syrup bottle. There were plenty of other pancake options too, from the bizarre (the baklava) to the we-have-to-come-back-in-the-fall (pumpkin).

The coffee was coffee. It was diner coffee. We drank it and it caffeinated us.

Aaron apologized, “Guy’s I’m sorry. I had more like 9/12 of that pancake.”

Dave snapped back, “You should have had 9/7.”

Steve’s is a diner with really big pancakes. With 10 as a must-eat, this eating experience rates a 9.

Don’t Miss: The giant pancake. Seriously, we all know that’s why you’re here.

Pro Tip: Don’t spend like 5 minutes looking through the menu for the pancake section; the pancakes are on a separate, one-page menu over near your Ketchup caddie.