Chicago: Bongo Room

I promised my sister some red velvet pancakes before she left Chicago, so the morning of her flight back to Baltimore (and also the morning our friend was to return to North Chicago), we went to Bongo Room:

I had it all planned out from when she first booked her tickets for Thanksgiving break. The Bongo Room in South Loop is located right next to the orange line Roosevelt stop, which conveniently runs straight to Midway Airport. My brilliant plan: eat breakfast, hop on the L, make it to the airport in time for her early afternoon flight. Easy.

Of course we ordered the red velvet pancakes:

Moist red velvet pancakes topped with warm vanilla creme and toasted walnuts....mm mm good.

At first we were thinking of splitting a savory dish, but we got distracted by the white chocolate and caramel covered pretzel pancakes smothered in white chocolate and caramel and sprinkled with crushed pretzels:



A full order comes with 4 pancakes. We went with the half order. Definitely the right choice, given how we couldn't finish everything in the end.

Both the pancakes were FABULOUS. These would be the divas of the pancake world. Moist and decadent...but surprisingly not overpoweringly sweet. Most of the sweetness came from the toppings and not from the pancakes themselves. I actually ended up enjoying the pretzel pancake more because of its salty pretzel bits.

Our friend, being the good Chinese kid that he is, ordered the cheapest thing off the menu, the two eggs with hash browns and toast:

For shame! I gave him a hard time about that, which I suppose semi-justifies what he did next. Actually, I take that back. NOTHING can justify what that little bugger did. I was telling him about my tragic yolk story when he suddenly took his knife and out of nowhere stabbed it into the yolk of his one remaining egg. I think I yelped.

My entire family just gaped at him for a good 2 minutes. Who the hell does that?! He then proceeded to push down on the egg with his fork to tease out the precious yolk:

A moment of silence is in order. As is revenge. That boy will get what's coming to him. Mark my words.

Oh, and here's a bonus piece of advice. Finish your pancakes. They taste nowhere as good after you re-heat them.

Bongo Room

1152 S Wabash Ave

Chicago, IL 60605

(312) 291-0100

http://www.thebongoroom.com/