With Adelaide being the small town that it is, there’s definitely a lack of places serving food at 2:30am on a Sunday morning. After a big night of drinking, and in desperate need for sustenance, a group of us decided to visit the Pancake Kitchen.

Located in a side street just off Hindley Street, the Pancake Kitchen is a former inn with its many rooms converted into dining spaces. It’s also one of the few places in Adelaide that never closes. The place has been around for decades and this is reflected in the original decor.

I have big thing for cleanliness, particularly at places where I put food in my mouth. This place is a cesspool of filth. The seating and tables are sticky and I’m wondering when everything was last properly cleaned. A close inspection of the table surface reveals areas of sticky residue. I think it may have been safer for me to eat my pancakes standing up.

The service here is a bit poor. I detected a lot of attitude from the waiting staff as well as the cook. I’m guessing people get grumpy when they’re working in the early hours of a Sunday morning. The waiting staff are also a bit careless. I saw a scoop of ice cream nearly fly off a customers plate due to the way it was handled. The ordering is very similar to what you do in a cafe, whereby you pay for your meal first. One would assume they’ve had problems with people paying for their meals over the years.

I wasn’t feeling that hungry at that time of the morning so I just ordered their original pancakes with ice cream. The pancakes arrived 20 minutes after ordering and all dishes came at the same time. The pancakes were freshly cooked, soft, fluffy and well presented. When eaten by themselves, the pancakes were unusually salty, so the ice cream in this instance, was the saviour.

At this particular time of morning, the place is full of drunks. Having said that, the venue wasn’t too noisy. The pricing, I felt, was a bit expensive, particularly for what tasted like supermarket pancake mix. I’d really have second thoughts about returning here. I’m pretty sure I can find better gourmet pancakes elsewhere.

WHERE: 13 Gilbert Pl, Adelaide