Josh K.
Yelp
In my never ending quest to find amazing pancakes, my journey took me to Zumbro Cafe to try their cornmeal pancakes.
The place is over in the Linden Hills area, which for me was a bit of a pain to get to thanks to construction around and on 100, but, anything for pancakes! Their parking lot is under construction, so expect to park on the street or in the hardware store's parking lot (if you get their really early, the risk of getting towed is minimal).
Very, very cozy place to stroll into. Welcomed as soon as I walked in and seen the specials right away on the board - quite literally as I walked in, their on the wall right in front of you. Chose to take up residence on the patio because Saturday morning was beautiful.
Then opt for a cup of house coffee, a bacon-gouda frittata and those cornmeal cakes.
Very short wait, and my coffee cup was never empty before it was getting refilled.
Food arrives, and it looks amazing (see picture). Dig in!
The frittata... smoked bacon and gouda, if there is a symphony of flavors that would be blessed by the gods, it's bacon and gouda. Throw those together with light, fluffy eggs and we've got a recipe for delicious. Very copious amount of bacon meant no bite was devoid of my tasty pig, and the cheese was perfectly melted throughout to give each bite that amazing flavor. I thought about using hot sauce on this, then the little angel guy on my shoulder told me I'd better not, this is a divine creation not to be F'ed with. Throw a scoop on the multigrain toast that comes with the meal, perfection through and through.
To compliment the fittata you're given these house roasted potatoes. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly drizzled in olive oil and the perfect compliment to that frittata. In all honesty, the potats are enough for the trip alone, they're that good.
Drum roll.... pancake time! Truth be told, I had no clue what to expect with a cornmeal pancake. Would it be grainy, gritty, corny, need syrup, fall apart? The best way I can describe it, is a take a corn muffin, flatten it out, and mix in some maple syrup. Which, let me tell you, tastes a-freaking-mazing. Texture was a bit gritty like a muffin, but not over powering at all. It does require a topping, syrup or in my case I also opted for the house strawberry preserve (didn't need it for the toast, so went to the pancake). Either way, syrup or preserve, this pancake was incredible. The soakability (that's a great made up word) of the syrup was on point and made each bite a bliss of maple-corn muffin joy.
I couldn't have been anymore happy or satisfied with my visit here. Great service, great staff, great food and a great setting. Get here early on the weekends, it's small and it will fill up fast.