2 S 505 Route 59
Warrenville, IL 60555
January 30 and February 10, 2007
I stumbled upon the Warrenville Restaurant & Pancake House purely by chance, and later lost my bearings completely when we returned to check it out. I was looking up and down Route 59 on the complete wrong side of the road, but that's due to my own lack of direction. That said, the WPH&R doesn't do much to stand out from the rest of Route 59. Nothing more than an incredibly nondescript sign and some window clings identify it, and sitting almost 100 yards off the road, it's easy to pass up without noticing.
This unpromising facade hides a much bigger room than expected. Nothing too fancy or ornate, but they make good use of the space they have. As expected, our Tuesday afternoon visit found the room almost empty, save for two or three other customers. Saturday mornings are a different story, with a packed house at noon. On both visits we were seated in booths and brought a breadbasket overflowing with rolls, croissants, and muffins. This is the kind of thing that you're lucky to be offered even half of the time when dining out for dinner in most restaurants; at the WPH&R, they brought it out before even taking our orders (for breakfast!), no questions asked.
This generosity doesn't stop with the appetizers. Prices at the WPH&R are a steal. My platter of four pumpkin pancakes was just $6.05. A stack of five blueberry pancakes? Just $4.95. Both of these were more than I could handle in one sitting, and I just couldn't finish them. As seen above, the WPH&R can and will smother your pancakes in as much whipped cream as possible, and while that's great the first few bites, it becomes very filling very fast. I took the rest of my blueberry pancakes -- listed in the menu as "OLD FASHIONED PANCAKES with Cherry or Strawberry or Blueberry or Blackberry or Cinnamon Apple or Banana or Pecans or Raisin Walnuts, Topping" -- home in a container, where half a day in the refrigerator turned the blueberry topping and whipped cream into a strange purple paste that rendered my leftovers inedible. I didn't even bother asking for a box for my pumpkin pancakes, as the whipped cream and cream cheese toppings had already begun to congeal into a strange heterogeneous mix. I should have learned my lesson from before and turned down the offer for whipped cream on them, but I went with it anyway and paid the price. The pancakes themselves were great, though.
The WPH&R seems like a great place to bring your family, but there were a few solo diners there as well. Whoever you go visit with, be sure to come hungry, or to practice some self-discipline in turning down dinner rolls and whipped cream. Succeed where I failed. Good luck.
Oh, and here's John's Special, the combination platter that Ayinsan ordered. What I tasted of the eggs and bacon were okay. A good value for under $6, at least. I'm guessing that John is the owner or something, and I'm pretty sure that he rang us up at the cash register each time we visited. It must be quite a feeling to know that even after you die, your name will live on as a timeless special on a breakfast menu.
