Sophia's House of Pancakes

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  I'm not a breakfast connoisseur, but I know average when I see it (or taste it?).  Sophia's is exactly that:  Average.
   
  I ended up getting a corned beef hash skillet with eggs over-medium and pancakes.  Corned beef hash?  Delicious.  Pancakes?  Pretty good.  The rest?  Meh.  The skillet was supposed to be over "home fries" but it was really on top of sliced potatoes, the eggs were over-easy and slimy (blech, I hate slimy eggs), and the coffee is weak and forgettable (I AM picky about my coffee though).  My husband got some regular egg breakfast with bacon and french toast and seemed to like everything but the bacon (too thin and under cooked).  Service was excellent (considering the other reviews, I'd say we got lucky here) but the food is nothing special.        
  
  Bottom line:  Go to Bob Evans' (Evan's?) down the street and get some real home fries.  And some biscuits and gravy.  You'll thank me.

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  Posted on 10.28.12 Nichole K.

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  I really enjoyed Sophia's - it was like an up-class IHOP (which just happened to be right across the street).  
  They have the usually breakfast fare - pancakes, omelets, crepes, etc.- but I was really impressed by the omelet options.  I was torn between avocado and cheese or artichokes and cheese, but I went with the artichoke.. and it was a great choice.  
  My meal also came with delicious hashbrowns and 2 pancakes.  The hashbrowns as I said were delicious, but the pancakes were the only thing I was a little 'meh' about.  They were a little dense and dry for me, but still edible.  
  Add all this to tasty coffee, a sweet waitress, and a good price, and I was a happy camper!

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  Posted on 10.28.12 Maren B.

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  I have been to this restaurant twice and I can guarantee there will NOT be a third time! The first time the food was ok and the biscuits were heavenly but our waitress was not pleasant at all! Everyone can have a bad though, right? Right! So, I wasn't going to give the restaurant a bad review based on one waitress! However, visit number 2. My friends and I went on a Sunday morning so of course we were expecting it to be busy! Busy however is not an excuse for the service we received. We only waited about ten minutes for a table for four, which wasn't bad at all but since we waited, shouldn't our table be clean when we get to it? There were still glasses from the previous patrons and well as food on the floor. A guy came to do a little sweeping and clear the table. No biggie right? Our waitress comes up pretty quickly, brings (only) two glasses of water and asked if we wanted anything to drink. She's not as pleasant as I would have liked but she was a young girl and for some reason I don't expect too much better from younger people. Anyway, we order drinks. Two orange juice, one water and one tea. The waitress lets us know, it's cheaper just to do a pitcher of orange juice instead of two separates so we go with that. After about 10 minutes, the waitress comes back with our drinks and asked if we wanted straws (duh?). My friend gets a tea bag of black tea (that I am almost 100% sure came from Aldi) and a pitcher of hot water. My friend says to the waitress, "Oh I'm sorry, I thought there would be different flavors to choose from. Do you have any flavors other than black?" The waitress huffs and says, "We have a few randoms laying around back. Do you want me to bring those out and you can choose?" My friend declines and just requested orange juice instead.  While waiting to order our food we sip our drinks and notice our orange juice is warm. We bring it to our waitress attention and she says with an attitude, "It's fresh squeezed!" So that means it has to be warm? Ok, whatever. She brings my friend her Orange juice and asked if we were ready to order. Yes we are after waiting a good 30 minutes so we place our orders. Pretty simple too. Friend A orders French toast, bacon and fruit, Friend B orders pancakes, bacon and fruit, Friend C orders eggs with onions and hash brown and I ordered eggs with onions, grits and ham. She asked if A and B wanted powder sugar, they do. So she scribbles that down and removed the menus. My friend sipped her orange juice and guess what? Her orange was cold. Hmmmmmmm. So we wait. And wait. And WAIT. AND WAIT! A group that came in about ten minutes after us got their food and we're still waiting! So we stopped our waitress and asked for an estimated time and also questioned why the other group got there food first. She tells us, "I don't know, that's not my table!" Five or so minutes later, we got our food! Great! It looks absolutely delicious...BUT the bacon is cold for Friend A, the onions are not cooked in the eggs for either order, the grits were able to be turned upside down WITHOUT dripping for my order, AND there is no powdered sugar for the pancakes. Friend C asked friend B, "Didn't you order powdered sugar?" The waitress says, "I didn't know if you wanted it or not." Really? Didn't she ASK for it? Didn't you write it down? But you didn't know if she wanted it? At this time, I wanted a manager.  Ten minutes later, I get one. I told him about the service thus far. His responses? We're busy today, the orange juice is freshly squeezed which is why the orange juice is warm (even though one wasn't), and he'd have her bring more bacon. The bacon she brings back is warm but has some thick white pasty looking substance in it that I was able to dig out with a knife. I bring it to the waitress' attention and she informs us it's just bacon grease! Friend A just sits it to side and doesn't eat it, Friend B eats parts of all of her food since she was only missing powdered sugar/ Friend C and I refuse to eat anymore of ours since we have uncooked onions with our eggs!  So when the waitress comes by to see if we wanted to-go containers, my friend informed her that she wouldn't feed the food to her dog! The waitress storms off and comes back with the manager who scolded us for giving his waitress are hard time! Wow! A hard time? No apologies about the problems? Nothing? We ended up having to get the police involved because the restaurant wanted us to pay for food we didn't eat! Of course they threw out our plates while we were outside waiting for the police and claimed we ate it all. This restaurant experience was terrible! I, nor anyone I know, will ever go back to this place again!!!!! Sorry for the long rant but I want everyone to know how horrible of a time we had here!

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  Posted on 10.08.12 J A.

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  Try the avocado omelet!!  Other then that this place might as well be a Bob Evans.

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  Posted on 10.02.12 Emily M.

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  Hearty MidWest Breakfast with a side of Family.....
  
  Everything about Sophia's House of Pancakes screams Mid-West.  The comfortably dated decor, friendly waitresses, and large portions remind you that people in the MidWest are nice, and sometimes, a little jollier than their coastal counterparts.
  
  I stopped in with a large, loud group of friends on the way up to New Buffalo for a day of beach fun.  Is it a midwest thing to stuff your face with pancakes and bacon before running around in a bathing suit?  If it isn't, it is now.
  
  I ordered a stack of buttermilk pancakes with scrambled eggs, bacon, and an orange juice.  The pancakes were fluffy and cakey, and soaked up the syrup like a lovely breakfast sponge.  The eggs and bacon were on point as well.  
  
  For a true taste of the midwest, Sophia's hits the taste buds.

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  Posted on 09.17.12 Steve W.

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  This place has very good food, reasonably priced, and attentive, friendly staff. I am a self proclaimed "picky person" and I usually either love/hate! A couple other reviews were surprising, and based on the wording....seems like some people are waaay pickier than me...I mean really, insulting the decor?!

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  Posted on 08.16.12 Lyn B.

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  My most favorite breakfast joint in the area.  The omelets are huge and fluffy and full of whatever you like!  They definitely don't skimp on ingredients here!  Whatever I order, it comes out just as I ask (and I can be picky) and fresh!

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  Posted on 03.14.12 Amanda F.

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  It is a typical sit down breakfast/americana.  I will say that the staff is a bit to chatty and border on intrusive.

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  Posted on 12.04.11 Tobin B.

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  This place is way overpriced for what you get. $6 bucks for pancakes is the going rate if they are standard size. Not the one's I got. And they came out in under 2 minutes, but they were barely warm. How do you do that? The 80's seafoam green and dusty rose are quite annoying. But not as much as being seated with a full view of the portrait of some kid in a tiara that is so old and faded she must be out of college by now. The ant walking across my table was a nice touch. I should have looked at the bill to see if the floor show was extra.

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  Posted on 07.21.11 Steven M.

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  I visited at about 2pm on a Friday.  They weren't busy but there were several tables sat.  Our server, Pam, was AWESOME!!!!  She was the best server I have had in a LONG WHILE, so I shall say her name a couple more times, Pam, Pam, Pam!!!  I hope the next time I go out to eat I get another Pam.  I read the previous reviews and they didn't like the service.  Ask for Pam.   I got the Ruben and my mother got the Eggs Benedict.  Hers was good and comparative to just good Eggs Benedict.  So was my Ruben.  But, the Ruben came with choice of soup (bowl), fries, a very small cup of cole slaw and the sandwich.  Add some S&P to the slaw and it's fine.  Sandwich, good, flip it so it doesn't get soggy on the bottom, ask for the hash browns extra crispy if you like some crunch to them.  The soup choices were beef veggie and cream of spinach.  I do not like spinach so I opted for the beef veggie.  Pam said she didn't like spinach either but liked the soup.  She brought the big bowl (didn't expect it to be a bowl) of veggie beef soup and also a taste size of the spinach soup.  Both soups were very good.  Neither one of them tasted like they came out of a bag from corporate office.  Great soups!  The people were also really nice.  I will return if I'm in the area and the place is still open.  They close at 3PM.

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  Posted on 05.21.11 Chantelle O.

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  Pancakes!  Best cakes I have ever had, except for mom's. Great place to get pancakes. Nice atmosphere and friendly service. Generous portion. Sausage or bacon on the side. Reasonable price.Close 3 pm.

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  Posted on 01.19.11 Hal E.

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  The food alone would rate five stars... the service, not so much. That said, I usually won't go back to a place where I have experienced bad customer service. The food is good enough here that I'm willing to make an exception. That says a lot.
  
  The breakfast menu is so extensive that it is really difficult to decide on just one thing -- and everything is fantastic! If I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with the Sophia's Crepes which are very similar to cheese blintzes, but even better. All of the omelettes are huge, made with 5 eggs, and the pancakes are plate-sized. They have lots of unique types of pancakes, crepes, blintzes, omelettes, and skillets to make your breakfast experience memorable. Oh, and the fresh-squeezed orange juice is not to be missed! It is a bit sweeter than most and my daughter thinks the "secret" ingredient is banana -- whatever's in it, it's totally delicious!
  
  Now for the bad news. Most of the servers seem to be on their first or last serving job. When it gets busy, the host staff is very disorganized and the servers tend to ignore you for an unacceptable amount of time when you are first seated. On a recent busy Sunday, my daughter and I visited and were added to the list. After 10 minutes or so my name was called and the hostess asked us to follow the gentleman who was seating people. As it turns out, he seated the wrong people and we had to wait longer. Apparently there were people just standing by the hostess stand and when our name was called, he assumed they were the ones to be seated (they had just walked in to the restaurant and effectively jumped the line in front of all the people who were waiting). He turned around and gave us a blank stare and I told him that the hostess had told us to follow him. He apologized, said he made an error, and we would have to wait for the next available table. OK, mistakes happen. We had to wait an additional five minutes or so, and once we were seated, we had to wait another five minutes or so for the server to acknowledge our presence and offer drinks. The service was extremely slow throughout our meal. It turned out that we were there for almost two hours total and my daughter had to go to work. As I was paying at the register, the manager (I assume) asked if everything was satisfactory. Since he asked, I relayed our experience. As he handed me my change, he said, and I quote, "I'm sorry you're having a bad day." Excuse me? Wow. Why ask if you really don't care? And why would you ever act like it's the customer's fault when they receive bad service? I didn't complain throughout the meal, I tipped more than what was deserved, I was friendly to the server. I was polite and tactful when relating my experience. Normally that would be my last visit. But the food is just too good to stay away. The bottom line -- when you go, allow plenty of time.

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  Posted on 04.09.10 Corinne G.

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  This is the best place in Michigan City for a good breakfast.  My family and I eat here often and love it.  The prices are very reasonable for the amount of food you get and you may want to share unless you're really really hungry.  They have a delicious apple pancake but you may want to order this as soon as you are seated because it does take some time to cook but well worth it.   Even the traditional pancakes are better then most other restaurants.  
  
  The owner is also really nice. He's always giving us free soup and  he gave my parents a $10 gift card the week of Christmas.  The only thing that bothers me a little is some of the wait staff.  A few of the servers have a bit too much attitude.
  
  This is a great place to take the family for breakfast or lunch but remember they are only opened till 3pm.

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  Posted on 12.26.09 Marnie H.

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