The Dutch Pancake Cafe: Not Worth It.

The night before...

As you know, we recently went on an adventure to Stowe, VT and had a wonderful time -- except for an absolutely horrendous dining experience at The Dutch Pancake Cafe on Saturday morning.  The night before, we ate at their dinner restaurant, The Pub at the Grey Fox Inn, which was a good experience overall (delicious burgers and GREAT service), so we figured we had nothing to lose, right?  WRONG.

Here's what went wrong at The Dutch Pancake Cafe on a Saturday morning in August:

• No greeting from a host when we walked in.  Had no idea who to see to put our name down.  We finally found a server, who took our name.  However, people who came in after us managed to get on the list before us because of major disorganization.  
• A LONG wait (30 mins) standing in a hallway with nowhere to sit.
• Finally seated at a 4 top with our family of 5 (not to mention, no buckle on the dirty high chair)
• Kids' milks served in very tall glasses (no lids, no kiddie cups) with no straws which of course spilled.
• Our kids were starving.  So, we put their order in as soon as the server came, hoping for the best with three hungry kids.
• Kids' pancakes never arrived until just before the rest of our order.  UNBELIEVABLE.
• We waited 45 mins for our pancakes.  Yes, that's right.  These are crepe style pancakes.  Server was nowhere to be found, no reasoning behind the long wait, no one checking in to see what the hold up was.  No refill on the coffee.  Just GOD-awful with a screaming child.  I had to get up and walk around with my poor, starving baby and still, no one batted an eyelash to check on us or our order. Still no food when I came back.  Daddy took a turn outside with the baby and STILL NO FOOD WHEN HE CAME BACK!  MINUS, MINUS, MINUS.  I really thought they went to the Netherlands to get the frying pans to make our pancakes.
• After all the talk we'd heard about this place, it was a MAJOR let down.  Mostly due to the extremely poor service and out-of-this-world prices for fancy crepes.  I think our bill was over $80.00 for breakfast!!!!!  (coffee, 2 OJ's, 2 milks, 2 kid pancakes, 2 adult pancakes)
• Worst part of all, was that we missed our carriage ride at the Trapp Family Lodge by just 15 minutes because breakfast at The Dutch Pancake Cafe took 2 hours!  I was so disappointed and so were my kids. Breakfast should certainly not be this stressful.  Don't worry, I made it up to them, like any good mom would.

The kids in a meadow at Trapp Family Lodge