Panclog

Panclog #21: Mom’s Kitchen!

Mom’s Magic Meal
February 9th, 2016 – 7:07 A.M.

Mom’s Kitchen is a locally owned diner.  It is located in near downtown Olathe at 530 E Santa Fe. They do not have a website. But you can check out their Facebook. They are open from 7 AM-2 PM on Sundays and 6 AM- 2 PM every other day of the week.

Location/Environment: The restaurant itself is a simple whole-in-the-wall type of place pretty close to the Olathe, KS courthouse. If you are one of the lucky few on jury duty, I would recommend walking over to this place for a quick and easy lunch.

Please read that last sentence without a thought of sarcasm, you should be excited about fulfilling your civic duty. While we are on the subject of civic duty, get out and vote!

I would not describe Mom’s as a greasy diner.  I would describe it as a diner that has aged well.

Service: The service was wonderful. Coffees stayed full. You could tell that Mom’s Kitchen was the type of place that servers are happy to learn names and to swap stories of what’s good in their lives.

Wait time for food: 10 minutes

Menu/Selection: Mom’s Kitchen is full of the standard breakfast foods and also the extended diner menu.  If you can find it at a diner, Mom’s will take care of you.

Food: Below you may read some pancake topping blasphemy.  Please take up all disappointed and offended feelings with Brent’s Twitter. You have been forewarned.

Pancakes with Bacon, Eggs, and Hash Browns (Brentley)
Mom’s kitchen is a straight up diner from years past. At least that is the feeling they seem to be going for. It a restaurant I, and my family, like a lot and one we should probably go to more often. It helps that we are friends with one of the staff who is a terrific person.

Mom’s kitchen offers the standard breakfast fare you’d expect from a diner. I was tempted to go for the chicken fried steak and eggs, or the pork chops, but instead I ordered pancakes with bacon, eggs, and hash browns. I was quite pleased with them. My guess is that the full menu of items is available throughout the day as I saw another patron order a cheeseburger. One of these days I am going to have to get over my cultural mores and order a French Dip sandwich for breakfast.

The pancakes were light and fluffy, the bacon was cooked just right, the hash browns met expectations, and the eggs were decent. Overall, it was a very satisfying breakfast.

The coffee was great too. Some of the other places we’ve visited should do themselves a favor and hop on over to Mom’s to see what they are brewing. Mom’s coffee is full flavored without a burned, or over-roasted, quality. Mom’s Kitchen isn’t trying to find some interesting twist on the burned flavor that the Seattle based organization seems to love.

You may have noticed a lack of syrup on the pancakes in the picture. For good or ill, I am not a fan of maple syrup on pancakes. Actually, with rare exception, I am not a fan of other syrups on pancakes either. Part of the issue is that maple syrup doesn’t taste good in my opinion. The other is a texture thing. Syrup has a tendency to turn pancakes into soup. A pancake is a glorious food item. Pancake soup, not so much.

For those fretting over the fact that these pancakes look incompletely adorned rest assured I added more to them than just butter. Although plain buttered pancakes are quite tasty in their own right. You see, when it comes to pancakes, I am a jelly man. Adding some straight up plain grape jelly on pancakes makes them magnificent. And let’s keep it to plain grape jelly. If you bring Concord grape jelly, well, you can fly that plane straight back to France. Or back to Concord, Massachusetts, as that is where Concord Grapes were originally developed.

To whom do we owe for this amazing culinary secret, Mrs. Martin, my kindergarten teacher. She made pancakes for our class one morning and offered jelly as the spread and I have followed the nobler jelly path from that day forth. Just once I recommend that you set the syrup aside and go the jelly route. I am certain you won’t look back.

2 Eggs, Pancakes, Bacon, & Hash browns – $7.99 on special

Blueberry French Toast  (Jared)

Mom’s Kitchen is such nice name.  It makes me think of such great breakfasts that my mother has made me in the past such as Dutch Babies, Cinnamon Rolls, and of course pancakes.  So yeah, these are good memories. If you do not know what Dutch Babies are, then you are truly missing out.

Mom’s did not disappoint.  When I walked in I saw a chalkboard sign that informed me of the specials then told me to ask about their Blueberry French Toast.  I try to always abide by things signs tell me to do.  I asked our waitress of their blueberry french toast and she kindly told me that it was french toast made with actual blueberry bread made by them.  I was truly intrigued. It never had a chance against me.  One of my greatest enjoyments of being married to a chef is some incredible banana bread.  And when that banana bread starts to almost become stale, we french toast the crap out of it.  So freaking good.  I am a huge fan of delicious flavored bread being turned into even more delicious breakfast treats.

I was expecting a blueberry quick bread type of flavor. Meaning overly sweet and intensely blueberry-y.    But Mom went against my expectation and created a simple blueberry hint to the french toast.  It was just the perfect hint of blueberry in every bite.  I can not say anything negative about these French toast slices, except that I should have ordered something savory to counteract the sweetness of the syrup and powdered sugar.

The coffee was in the top 3 of coffee I have had during my Panclog career.  Seriously, they do it so well.  Also I enjoy that the coffee mugs were of a thicker variety. This keeps the coffee warm!!! MAGIC!

The 2 slices of Blueberry French Toast were $5.49

Overall: Mom’s Kitchen is a lovely bruncherie that makes you feel at home if you are a regular.  It can be slightly daunting when you see a waitress treat some guests like family and others like one-time guests.  The interior feels dated but it makes the food taste that much better.  Check it out with your friends on New Years Day or any other day. 

Grade: 

Jared: B+

Brent: A-

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You can follow Jared and Brent on Twitter.