Best Savory Pancakes In NYC
By Jessica Allen
Like their sweet counterpart, savory pancakes offer endless options for customization. The restaurants below serve the city's best savory pancakes, from Indian to Japanese to Venezuelan. Go hungry!
Cachapas y Mas
107B Dyckman St.
New York, NY 10040
(212) 304-2224
www.cachapasymasnyc.com
Often eaten with cheese, a cachapa is a huge cornmeal pancakes. Along with arepas, they're a very popular street snack in Venezuela. The version served at Cachapas y Mas is about as big as a hubcap, and comes folded over such ingredients as roast pork, chorizo, grilled chicken, and shredded beef. (Check out the website above for a mesmerizing video of a cachapa being cooked.) We almost always get a side of yoyos too, twin slices of plantain smooshed with cheese, dipped in egg, and fried.
Chennai Garden by Tiffin Wallah
127 East 28th St.
New York, NY 10016
(212) 685-7301
www.tiffindelivery.us
The food at Chennai Garden is 100 percent vegetarian, kosher, and utterly delicious. Every time we go we attempt to order something different, but the heart wants what it wants, as the saying goes, and so we wind up yet again with a ginormous uttapam, or rice-and-lentil flour pancake. We like ours with peas, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and cilantro (the ingredients are baked into the pancake itself). It's served with sambar (a spicy soup) and coconut chutney, but we order date chutney for a little extra sweetness too.
Eight Turn Crepe
DeKalb Market Hall
445 Albee Square West
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(929) 358-7988
www.eightturncrepe.com
Forty vendors make their home inside DeKalb Market Hall, an upscale food court in downtown Brooklyn, including Eight Turn Crêpe. The fine folks here specialize in the Japanese crêpe, made from rice flour, and artfully stuffed and folded into something that's almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. The truffled egg white omelet, for example, features truffle oil, eggs, spinach, cheddar cheese, and two types of mushrooms, while the matcha stripe chocolate has crushed pistachios, matcha custard cream, and strawberries.
Otafuku x Medetai
220 East 9th St.
New York, NY 10003
(646) 998-3438
www.otafukuny.com
Named for the goddess of mirth, Otafuku x Medetai seeks to bring a little happiness into people's lives, through a type of pancake known as okonomiyaki. This beloved Japanese street food comes covered with mayo, bonito flakes, cabbage, and your choice of pork or shrimp, and it's yummy and filling, if a bit messy to eat. (Imagine an overloaded slice of pizza.) No matter, as that's why the powers that be invented napkins. Complete your meal with a taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake filled with either red bean paste or banana and hazelnut chocolate.
Shopsins
120 Essex St.
New York, NY 10002
(917) 907-4506
shopsins.com
Has Kenny Shopsin, the mad genius behind Shopsins, mellowed over the years? Maybe, as success in the form of cookbook deals, documentaries, and lines out the door can temper even the crankiest souls. Nevertheless, we wouldn't test this theory to the face of the notoriously cranky chef; instead we'd just happily and humbly order the mac-n-cheddar pancake, and revel in all that's amazing about this savory calorie bomb. The novel-long menu literally features something for every palate, from soup to sandwiches to love buns and pesto naan.