Pancake lovers, meet your heaven. Clinton St. Baking Company is a small little nook of a restaurant, hidden under a bright red awning just a few steps away from Houston street. Luckily for me, I came to this restaurant prepared, knowing two very important things: one, that is was cash only, and two, that I was guaranteed a wait time of at least 30 minutes (no matter what time it was), and that my chance of waiting, I assumed, would greatly decrease the smaller my party was. With these facts in mind, I headed to the restaurant at 2pm on a Wednesday ready to solo-dine. I waited a mere 20 minutes before my table by the window became available. (Not to mention the process was regulated by an app and text, which was highly efficient).

Before I get into the meal, I’m going digress a little on the topic of solo-dining, which, I’m finding, is a kind of an art, where some restaurants are much better suited for it than others, and you don’t really get a sense for that until you eat there. Luckily for me, my table with a view directly to the window made my experience infinitely better than sitting in a booth awkwardly looking around at other diners, eavesdropping on conversations, and playing candy crush on my phone. Ok, rant over. Now onto the good stuff.

My meal started with a hot apple cider. Sprinkled with a layer of cinnamon on the top, this beverage was generous, and perfectly tasty. The offering of numerous milkshakes, however made me doubt whether this was the right choice. As I didn’t try one, I can’t deliberate further on the matter…sorry for being of absolutely no help in the beverage department!

Although I’m no pancake aficionado, I van vouch for good tastes and textures when I eat them – and these chocolate chunk pancakes were no exception. (I was told when you go here, pancakes are the dish to order, although not going to lie, there are quite a few other dishes that caught my attention on their way out of kitchen. I love dessert, but sweet meals have never really done it for me). Nonetheless, fluffy, sweet, and hot, these pancakes were delicious and at the top of their game. Although my Canadian identify was slightly offended when they were served with maple butter instead of syrup, a substitute that was denser and slightly less sweet, it turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for the pancakes. Lastly, although the chocolate chunks weren’t cooked into the pancake itself, they were placed between the layers of pancakes, they eventually melted into the pancakes and created a decadent combination.

If you have the opportunity to go here on an off time, by all means do it. But these days I’m finding it difficult to justify waiting upwards of 2 hours for a seat at a popular place, simply because it’s currently trending on Yelp and Instagram. Let me make a reservation and wait for a great meal, yes – but waiting in lines isn’t my thing, and it often seems that after 2 hours of my life have slipped by in preparation for this meal, nothing I eat can even come close to my expectations. Yes, they were great pancakes, and yes, I’d love to try more on the menu if I get a chance. But no way will I be waiting in line for more than 30 minutes to give any of that a try.

3.5/5 stars.