It is always fun to look for a new restaurants when you are traveling. One place that popped up on our radar was Elmer’s with unique breakfast offerings. It seems that they have several locations, and they have been in business for 50 years, impressive!
We heard that they will be some wait, as they are very popular. We got there and they had lots of people waiting inside and outside… but we were ready and willing for the wait. We just hoped that the wait would be worth it.
We were excited when they finally called our name! The inside was packed, even though they had a good amount of seating. We saw lots of happy families, group of friends, and other customers. It seemed like they had both visitors like us, and lots of loyal locals.
We started with their Northwest Lodge Blend Coffee ($2.79). This coffee is from Portland, Oregon, using 100% Arabica coffee beans, harvested from the best growing regions. Portland is where Elmer’s restaurant started, so that makes sense. It was a good cup of coffee, and yes, they come with free refills.
For the first breakfast item, we chose Country Cousin Skillet ($10.99). It is made with traditional chicken-fried steak over grilled Northwest Hash Browns with peppers and onion. Topped with creamy country gravy and Tillamook Cheddar cheese-scrambled eggs. It also came with a biscuit.
The skillet itself was not that big, but was piled pretty high. The fluffy egg and cheese was cuddling chicken-fried steak, which was on a bed of flavorful hash brown and veggies. It was a perfect comfy food, great breakfast item when you want something solid and satisfying. It had a good amount of seasoning that you didn’t need anything else, especially when you are getting gravy in it. The veggies were cooked nicely, without looking its crispness. Hash brown added extra texture that was softer than veggies, but firmer than eggs. Chicken was pretty good too, juicy and went great with the gravy. The biscuit was good too, I could tell they are home-made. A solid dish.
But I did mention a unique breakfast item here, and that is what we wanted. They have German Pancake, which is a sweet popover, also called Dutch baby pancake. We went with the German Pancake Combo ($12.49). it comes with lemon wedges, whipped butter and powdered sugar.
There was an option to add fruit topping of your choice for additional $1, so we added cinnamon apple. The combo comes with two farm-fresh eggs and your choice of bacon, honey-cured ham, sausage patty, country pork sausage links or chicken apple sausage links. We chose bacon, and asked for the eggs to be over-easy.
The first and most impressive thing about this German Pancake is its size…it is HUGE! You can see how big it really is from this photo below. Yes, bigger than my face!
You might wonder how in a world people eat this huge pancake? Well, even though they do “pop” up while baked, but then falls shortly after it comes out of the oven. So, it is quite thin, like a crape. Because of that, it was not that much when it came to the portion as a whole.
We wrapped the fruit topping in it like a crepe and ate it that way. It was the easiest way to eat it, while getting a full flavor effect of everything. The pancake had a nice sweetness to it, soft and fluffy. The cinnamon apple topping was very sweet, it was more like cinnamon apple caramel. The sugar part of it was pretty thick, and as it cooled down, it got even thicker. It had really nice cinnamon flavor though, and went great with the pancake. It was a cool item, I am glad we got to try it!
Our bill came with a pen that had a rose taped on the top. A cute little touch. It almost feels like you are getting a flower at the end of your meal, even though you don’t get to keep the flower.
Their bathroom was nice and spacious, bright and clean. It is good to have a good size bathroom to be able to accommodate many patrons.
The service was good, everyone moved very quickly to keep up with the crowed. We had a good breakfast here, tasty, affordable with welcoming staffs. I am glad we got to visit Elmer’s, we see the reason why they are so popular. If you get to go visit one of their locations, try their German Pancake if you never had one. It is a fun item to eat!
Elmer’s Restaurant – 1030 E Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92264