So I’m always on the lookout for restaurants that are open for breakfast at a real early breakfast hour. In my household we’re all up at 5am, so waiting any longer than about 8am for breakfast is crazy. With a 2 year old who eats lunch at 11am, our hours are vastly different than the majority of the population.

This morning, however, I decided to have a nice early breakfast at De Dutch Pannekoek house on 3rd Street. It’s in a crazy strange location down near the Chevron at the 5 way (at Marine Drive, where Marine and 3rd Meet Keith Rd and Bewicke), and it looks like a dive, but if you’re a North Van local you know this place is always packed for breakfast. Plus, it’s only about 3 blocks from Lonsdale, so easily within walking distance.

A little word about De Dutch Pannekoek House from their own website:

De Dutch Pannekoek House specializes in breakfast, brunch and lunch, offering our customers a unique blend of European ethnicity in our menu items.

Luckily for us it’s not packed at 8am; that’s precisely what makes it a good time to go with a toddler. So we had our choice of tables and selected one in the farthest corner from the door, right beside the fireplace – that was a nice touch on such a rainy November morning.

I really liked that the servers seemed to understand the challenges of dining with a toddler (that, or they were anxious to get us fed and back out the door); we were offered drinks as we were being seated and brought crayons and a colouring sheet immediately thereafter.

One of the servers was back to take our order long before I’d had a chance to really look at the menu, but didn’t seem at all bothered when I asked for more time. I ended up ordering the Turkey Bacon & Egg breakfast, which came with two eggs, two slices of toast, hash browns, 5 strips of turkey bacon and a garden salad.

I’m not entirely sure what I think of having received a garden salad with my breakfast. I’m not really a big fan of salad at such an early hour of the morning, but then I don’t love it most of the time anyway. I was going to request tomato slices instead, but completely forgot to do so. I didn’t end up eating it, though I tried it and it was fine… I couldn’t rave about it.

The food was fine and there was lots of it. Some people seem rave about it, but I thought it was just good. Perhaps I ordered the wrong thing and really should have gone with one of their signature Pannekoeken:

pan_ne_koek (pãn-ne-kõõk), n. genuine Dutch pancake, tasting similar to the traditional North American pancake and is slightly thicker than a crepe. It has a circumference of 37″, a diameter of 12″ and if you cut it into square inch pieces you will enjoy 113 bites. Simply delightful any way you like, but the customary way is to roll it up and cut off bite-size pieces.

The Pannekoek is our signature dish that draws loyal customers to our restaurant and entices new customers every day. Served in over 50 combinations of both sweet and savoury mouthwatering ingredients, Pannekoeken are guaranteed to de light and satisfy every type of craving!

These Pannekoeken range from about $12-$16 and come with just about anything on them. Their list of Pannekoeken options included items such as the Rio Grande, which includes onion and green peppers inside with melted cheddar on top (Served with salsa & sour cream), or The Canadian, topped with bacon, tomato, 2 eggs and a jug of genuine Maple Syrup. Next time maybe…

They also serve Eggs Benny, Dutch Scrambles, Omelettes and French Toast. I was a little curious about their breakfast “snack” which is basically a bowl of hashbrowns with hollandaise sauce on it for $5.50. Interesting.

Breakfast prices range from about $9.50 to $16 and the serving sizes are big. There’s a fair bit of parking for the size of the restaurant, and while I didn’t confirm it, the De Dutch website claims free WiFi at all their restaurants. De Dutch also serves only fresh squeezed orange juice, which is a nice touch.