Clinton Street Baking Company is a very popular and well known destination for breakfast for decades. Word of mouth has mentioned that their pancakes and breakfast items have been delightful to eat. My party woke up early to park in line before the restaurant opening at 9 AM on a Saturday morning. It was definitely a struggle for me and my partner to arrive here from where we live, considering how annoying the subway schedules are on weekends. Right when they open, we were about the 6th small party in line, so we were able to be seated pretty easily.
Ambiance & Service
The interior of the restaurant has a pseudo diner feel to it. There are multiple tables inside as well as counter seats for solos or very small parties.
The service was OK. Once you order, the food and drinks come out real fast as if they were already prepared. Outside of that, the mantra generally was to turn over tables fast.
Food
The Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice ($7) came in this small cup. It wasn’t sour, and it was pretty good. But for the price, it’s difficult to not consider this to be pretty expensive for the amount of juice they give.
The Pancakes with Warm Maple Butter ($18) came with maine blueberry. The blueberries were in the batter, and the pancake batter was reasonably fluffy. I will say I was a bit underwhelmed by the batter itself compared to other places like Bubby’s. This pancake was noticeably dryer and denser than expected, and on occasion reminded me of Denny’s flapjack. That’s not a terrible thing, but I was expecting much more unfortunately. The warm maple butter was pretty good, but not something that made me crave for it again.
The Grilled Chicken Sandwich ($18) came with avocado, bacon, chipotle mayo, romaine, and beefsteak tomato on a grilled sourdough with hand-cut fries and house slaw. The sandwich tasted pretty good surprisingly. The chicken was a little dry, but the sandwich had a nice mix of layers and flavor. The fries were definitely very starchy for some reason, so definitely not my favorite. The house slaw was very wet, and could’ve used less sauce. Nonetheless, everything here was decent.
The Country Breakfast ($18) came with three over-easy eggs, heritage maple cured ham, hash browns, and a buttermilk biscuit. The eggs came slightly underdone for me, but that’s fine. The ham unfortunately was very dry, so it had a bit of a chew to it. The hash browns had notes of butter seasoning to it, and the top layer had a decent crisp. I wished the hash browns had more crisp all over. The biscuit was probably the least tasty of it all. It was extremely dry, and it crumbled into little micro pieces very easily. I think the biscuit was baked for too long, and I really wished I had some jam to it or something.
The Brioche French Toast ($18) came with caramelized bananas, roasted pecans, and served with warm maple butter. Unlike the pancakes, the French toast turned out less dry, and it was fairly decent. Again, it was unfortunately not something super memorable.
Final Verdict
Clinton St. Baking Company probably is a consistent breakfast/brunch restaurant on most days, and maybe we just happened to come on an off day. Based on this day alone, this was a very unmemorable experience that I can’t really recommend waiting in line for. However if insist in trying fad breakfast places, then definitely park yourself in line before it opens, so that you don’t have to fight for reservations online.
Yelp Jabs
One of the best pancakes I’ve ever had mostly thanks to their rich, decadent maple syrup.
I think this Elitist really meant to say they have one of the best maple syrups. If they had to give gratitude to the syrup, then perhaps they were implying that the pancakes were underwhelming.
I totally understood the charms of Clinton Street’s pancakes – moist, fluffy, and with crispy edges. If you want a taste of the iconic American style pancakes, GO TO CLINTON ST Y’ALL.
If you go on a day like when I went, it’s decent, but you can get a taste of “American style pancakes” in many other places. In my case from the picture alone, you can see that we have a crispy edge and a crispy top. The crispy top might have been too hot, which caused everything inner to come out dry. The pancakes were decent, but definitely did not match the reputation that Yelpers and this Elitist are proclaiming.
Revisions
- Apr 14, 2024 - Initial revision.