Went out to Pannekoeken Huis in Savage, MN right off of CR-42 in the same strip as Spectator’s Bar and Grille.
We had seen this restaurant while eating at Spectator’s and Kim said she wanted to try it. Tonight was the night.
We were two of six people in the place including the waitress and the cook. The service was friendly and fast ;)
I ordered their Rotterdam Pannekoeken which was a traditonal Dutch Pannekoeken (Dutch Pancake) topped with gouda cheese, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and I chose mettwurst for the meat. The dish is topped with fresh tomatoes and hollandaise sauce. The dinner came with a salad which was fresh and crisp.
Kim went with something that sounded a lot more like dessert than dinner… She ordered their Carmel Apple Pannekoeken which comes filled with carmel, apples, and peanuts.
Our orders were delivered shortly after the only other couple in the place left. After thanking the waitress she and the cook disappered leaving Kim and I in a completely empty room. Eerie feeling.
The food was quite good, better than any number of other restaurants we’ve tried that charge more, have shitty service, and yet seem to attract more guests.
Kim actually was sad that someone’s dream was failing before our eyes while plenty of other surbanish restaurants succeed by name recognition alone.
If you are looking for something a bit different and quite affordable you might want to give Pannekoeken Huis a try.
See all the pictures from today here.
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February 23rd, 2006 at 11:04 pm
I was excited to see the review of Pannekoeken on your site! I agree about the comment that Kim made. We have four locations now and the Savage one is the least visited. Try us during the day on the weekend as we usually are hoppin’!
August 11th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I have no idea where to get help at Pannekoeken. Everyone I have talked to takes the attitude “not our fault, just don’t come back if you don’t like it”.
I visited your Maplewood restaurant , using a Metro Dining card. My bill, that I signed was for $12.02.
I checked the balance on the Norton/Symantec cash rebate card, and you charged me $17.03. I went back to the restaurant and was told”we charged you $12.02, and that I should call the card people. I did and was told that Pannekoeken entered a charge of $14.42 and a tip was added, bringing the total to $17.30.The reference was from Savage so I called there.
There I was told that is is the card problem. When I suggested that I was not happy with the treatment and did not think I should come back. Both locations told me that was fine with them.
Is this normal customer help?
August 12th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Hey Gayle,
I’m not sure why you’re posting this to Bill’s blog but it looks to me like you are complaining about a non-issue.
The first thing you have to understand is how credit card/debit card authorizations work at restaurants, hotels and pay-at-the-pump gas stations. In each of these places you give them a card to PRE-AUTHORIZE your purchase. Then you use the service and the final bill is settled.
Because, in these scenarios, the final amount standardly includes a gratuity, the amount the software pre-authorizes equals the initial amount PLUS AN ASSUMED GRATUITY/VARIANCE. It’s built into the processing system (the “cash register” so to speak).
Take your restaurant experience. Your bill was $12.02. It looks to me like you added a roughly 20% tip of $2.40 ($14.42). Theoretically, this is the amount that should be deducted from your bank account or charged on your credit card bill.
In reality, when you handed the card to the waiter/waitress, they keyed in $12.02 and handed you your card back BEFORE you added a tip. The software is setup to PRE-AUTHORIZES that amount PLUS an automatic overage to “plan” for the customer adding a tip. The machine wants to know that your account balance is sufficient to cover the charge AND enough for an assumed gratuity.
If you do the math, $17.03 is 30% over the original $12.02. You can deduce that the credit/debit card software is set to pre-authorize bills for the amount plus 30%.
This does NOT mean they actually took $17.03 out of your bank (or charged your credit card company $17.03. You do not actually pay this amount, nor do you get charged interest on the extra amount for a couple of days. It is simply a placeholder line item that exists for 1-2 days on your account. After the actual amount is entered by the restaurant, the system reconciles and your financial institution adjusts the line item.
People generally discover this when they view their bank statements online very soon after they make a transaction. Many times the manager on duty at a restaurant isn’t familiar with this aspect of their credit card processing system. Most restaurants have an accountant or owner who worked with the credit card system vendor to get everything set up.
So when you call the restaurant to complain about the “overcharge”, they often have no idea what’s going on until the issue is escalated to an owner. In an ideal world, all restaurant staff would be trained to explain the situation.
Bottom line: If you’re vigilant about checking your statements, whenever you use a credit card/debit card, wait a few days for all of the transactions to finalize before taking action on “mistakes”.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I’ll admit, I didn’t think these were still around. I thought they all closed back in the mid-90’s when the chain went under.
The link just goes to a placeholder page, though; I couldn’t find a current site.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
We used to go to Pannekoeken Huis all the time when I was little, it was our favorite family restaurant. We make Pannekoeken at home but they’re never as wonderful and fluffy as the ones at Pannekoeken Huis. I recently saw the one in Savage and had to take my husband (who had never heard of Pannekoeken) there for lunch one day. To my utter joy they had Rhubarb for the variety of the day. Rhubarb anything is a must-try for me! It was delicious and I was so happy to find a remnant of my childhood still alive, and near my house, in Savage!