El Greco Diner: Pancakes Deluxe – The Bite

Welcome back to The Bite, Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

THE BITE: One can often forget “the institutions” that help make Sheepshead Bay “The Bay,” when carousing around the food scene. Oh, sure, it’s great to check out the latest Turkish joint, or the hookah bar, or dessert place – but what about the ol’ standbys. How are they doing?

Today, we check in at El Greco Diner (1821 Emmons Avenue) to take a bite out of The Pancakes Deluxe.

For $8.75 the pancakes deluxe includes three buttermilk pancakes, two pork sausages, three slices of bacon and two slices of grilled ham. Now that’s a hearty breakfast. This is served with “syrup,” butter and assorted jellies and jams. The pancakes had a nice dark golden brown appearance and were light, fluffy and flavorful. The bacon crisp and the sausages juicy. The ham was burned on one side of a slice and the other barely grilled. It’s called flipping, folks. This meal filled my belly… but it was just adequate.

The only truly objectionable part of the meal was the “syrup” and its overwhelming chemical taste. I know real maple syrup is significantly more expensive, but give me the option for maple syrup. I’d gladly pay a buck or two more for the real thing. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the meal, but there was nothing memorable about it. Again, the meal was adequate; nothing more.

Which brings me to a bigger topic. Where do our readers go for the best sit-down breakfast in Sheepshead Bay?

Now, they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. They also say that it’s one of the most skipped. I certainly fall into the later category. Breakfast at home, if it happens, usually consists of toast with peanut butter. Going out for breakfast is usually saved for when I’m traveling. When I’m home and I go out to a sit down breakfast, I usually wait for brunch or lunch. (We’ll talk about breakfast-on-the go at another time.)

Looking for breakfast in Sheepshead Bay is a daunting task. The almighty internet isn’t much help; Yelp, lists two restaurants, City Search lists seven, UrbanSpoon lists none. Google, the reigning god supreme of search engines, lists one. C’mon, we have to do better than this, don’t we?

So readers, you tell us – what’s your favorite sit-down breakfast restaurant here in Sheepshead Bay?

El Greco Diner, 1821 Emmons Avenue, (718) 934-1288.