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| - Walked into Jack Flaps with decent hopes given the cozy and vibrant atmosphere and fairly adventurous menu. Unfortunately, the food didn't meet the ambitiousness of those elements, but I think the restaurant still has a lot of potential.
My Cracker-Jackflaps featured a crunchy texture due to the corn nuts mixed into the batter and nut toppings, but the salted caramel sauce was only minimally present and, with the corn nuts really dulling the taste and drying it out, you have to drench the pancake in syrup to bring out any flavor. I also had a taste of the basic buttermilk pancakes with toppings of chocolate chips and bananas (separately). Oddly, while both are listed as "toppings" on the menu, the chocolate chips are mixed into the pancake while the banana is simply sliced and provided on the side. It would have been nice (as I've seen plenty of other breakfast spots do) to work the banana slices directly into the pancake. I had very very high hopes for the slab bacon, which comes out as some of the thickest slices of bacon I've seen in town, but the bacon could have used a little more time cooking in order to reach that perfect balance of a crunchy exterior and tender interior. You might be better off with the bacon at Katz Club Diner or Original Pancake House (though admittedly not nearly as thick). The Vietnamese-style sausage patties were pretty uninspiring--maybe a hint of Asian flavor but otherwise pretty plain.
Service was friendly, though little attention seemed to be paid to the decaf coffee which was served lukewarm and (like all coffee) in paper cups (I suppose for those longing for some kind of Starbucks aesthetic). It looked like the regular coffee was prepared/stored differently and didn't have the same temperature snafus. On the plus side, I did like the idea of "happy hour" from 1pm to 3pm, where all pancakes cost only $5. Overall, though, there are a number of similar places, even just on the near West side, where you can get a better weekend brunch.
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