Golden Nugget Pancake House, Chicago (Lincoln Park)

Golden Nugget Pancake House
2720 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614

January 23, 2008



We hadn't planned on visiting the Golden Nugget in Lincoln Park, but we were short on time and slightly famished, and finding street parking near any other restaurant that looked promising was proving to be much more difficult than we expected. The Golden Nugget offered the most tempting of amenities that made dining there an easy choice for us: free parking in their adjacent lot.

This is the second Golden Nugget franchise we've visited, but it's really on another level compared to the location on Irving Park Road: bigger, cleaner, and with better service. Even the sprawling, colorful, glossy menu outclassed the one we'd last read at the other Golden Nugget. Or maybe all their restaurants have these new ones now? The stained glass windows might not be on loan from the Smith Museum or anything, but I resent Centerstage's dismissal of them as "faux stained glass." Do you really want to offer up the real thing within arm's length to the drunken stragglers and hyper kids that probably come stumbling in at 2 a.m.?



I ordered the all fruit waffle. "Fresh and fruity. Covered with strawberries, blueberries, and apple compote. Topped with bananas and whipped cream." Sure, the toppings look delicious, but what you're really witnessing is a fruit flood bursting through the whipped cream levee that was built around it as a last resort. Was this disaster brought on by natural causes, or was it an intentional act of destruction? No, I don't have proof, but someone has to pay.

Amanda here. Joe pretty much said it all. Finding this restaurant was a pleasant surprise...and it's a nice, cozy place to eat on a snowy night. I got the strawberry waffle, which was pretty much like Joe's waffle, but without the massive orgy of fruit on top. Just plain strawberries...the ooey gooey kind (yum!) surrounded by a whipped cream wall. Can't beat a good strawberry waffle.