Hannam-dong Brunch: Pancake Original Story
I've loved pancakes since I was a kid, so I naturally love places that sell brunch. Of course, being a typical Korean guy, if I have to pay tens of thousands of won for pancakes, my mind immediately goes to pork belly with soju or spicy fish stew with two bowls of rice. But if we take price out of the equation? I'd much rather have a pancake brunch. When I was young, I used to beg my parents to take us on a family trip to the Shilla Hotel just so I could eat the pancakes at their breakfast buffet—that says it all.
Because of this love for pancakes, I've visited many famous brunch spots in Seoul to try various kinds, but most fell short of my expectations. I stopped thinking about pancakes for a while, until I found a place where I just bury my face in the plate and inhale them, completely ignoring whether my girlfriend is sitting right in front of me. That place is "Pancake Original Story" at the Hannam Intersection (in central Seoul).
The restaurant is really small, with maybe seven or eight tables packed so tightly it's hard to move around. In a way, it has the most uncomfortable chairs and layout for dining. But regardless of the weather—whether the sun is beating down or it's so cold your nose turns red like Rudolph's—it's already such a popular spot in Hannam-dong that waiting 30 minutes is a given if you arrive even slightly past opening time.
Another unique thing about this place is that a lot of foreigners visit. Hannam-dong has a lot of embassies, so there are many expats around, but I've never seen them eating at Hannam Bugeotguk (a local dried pollack soup restaurant). Here, I often see families who look like they're from Western Europe, like the UK or France, as well as families from the Arab world.
The food is generally incredibly high in calories. This is just my personal thought, but I think the reason so many families come is because their signature menu item, "A Camel's Day," is basically a collection of everything kids love. It's the ultimate "kid-friendly taste" dish, so maybe exhausted moms come here on Sunday mornings looking for an oasis after struggling to feed their children.
Pancakes are a dish where the flavor of the pancake itself and the maple syrup you spread on it are both important. Put differently, even if they're poorly made, as long as you buy good Canadian maple syrup and pour it on like a river, you can eat them without any complaints. However, when distinguishing between a true "pancake hotspot" and just an average place, the standards get stricter. Among those elevated standards, the most important thing is the texture of the pancake. Places with subpar taste usually make their pancakes like bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes), giving them a dry and dense feel. But at Pancake Original Story, the pancakes feel wonderfully moist when you eat them.
The items we ordered today were "A Camel's Day," which belongs to my favorite American brunch category, and the "Pancake with Baked Apple and Banana" that my girlfriend ordered.
There are two things to keep in mind when visiting this restaurant. First, as I mentioned earlier, you can't bring strollers inside, so you have to leave them outside (bicycles must also be parked on the street). Second, they close at 3 PM on weekends. It's best to visit with the mindset of having a true brunch.
+ 20190518
I've been visiting consistently, but I never thought to update this post. I suddenly remembered and uploaded some new photos, and the difference in image quality is huge. The photo quality has changed, and the people I come with have changed, but the taste remains exactly the same.
+ 20200921
