Almost anyone we know has a strong opinion of how red velvet should look and taste like. For our part, our palates have bumped into the red velvet of Sonja and the Vanilla Cupcake Bakery. So we could just imagine the level of confidence of Pancake House when it decided to offer the Regal Red Velvet pancake.
No, it’s not about the growing market that craves for red velvet. Food as a business can be profitable. Sweets and chocolate — and red velvet has chocolate — are natural magnets for Filipinos, who, for one reason or another, have this precarious condition fondly called the sweet tooth (this is a puzzle, really, because the tooth is obviously not used for tasting). So everything should conspire to create a successful business model for any establishment that offers red velvet.
But not quite. Not quite. There’s a huge room for improvement for the Red Velvet Pancake — the Regal Red Velvet, to be exact — of the Pancake House.
We trekked to Pancake House specifically to seek out the Red Velvet. Ok, ok, we also ordered some breakfast items that would assuage our conscience for the Holy Week “fasting”. Ordering the red velvet is not exactly “momentarily avoiding pleasurable things.” We sinners have to do some penance for ordering the red velvet (but this would show how serious we take our red velvet).
In terms of presentation, which is a big factor when it comes to “designer pancakes” as how Pancake House calls it, we were reminded of the Michael Douglas movie “Falling Down,” where his character “vigorously” complained why the burger he ordered doesn’t look like the burger shown in the display photo. The first time we ordered the Regal Red Velvet, the 5-layer pancakes were flat on the plate, having slipped from the cream cheese between each pancake. We preferred — nah, demand, even — the pancakes to be round, not some irregularly shaped pancake that we amateurs could brainlessly whip out in our own kitchen. We’re sure Pancake House’s intention — with the taste and target presentation — is to create a fabulous red velvet pancake.
The next time we ordered the Regal Red Velvet, we asked the restaurant staff to please, please, be careful in setting up the presentation. This is the photo you’ll find at the top of this post. The photo of our first encounter with the Regal Red Velvet, which shows a stack of pancake that looked like the whole set was mugged on its way out of the kitchen, well, let’s just say we buried deep in our subconscious.
It doesn’t really help that the marketing materials, as can be seen in the photo above, makes reference to “expertly prepared pancakes.” Pancake House has placed the bar so high for itself.
The Regal Red Velvet tastes ok and this should not be ruined by the presentation. We would willingly go back and pay for it again — but hopefully with better presentation. We don’t need a 5-layer pancake. A 2-layer red velvet pancake that doesn’t slide on its own cream cheese would be perfect for us. We don’t need the walnut garnishing (and Pancake House should not add to the cost for the walnuts) because we love the red velvet as it is. Adding walnuts to a 5-stack that can’t stand its own weight is a bit pretentious. No fuss, no nonsense red velvet. That’s how it should be.
We apologize if this article strayed from the preferred praises for the Regal Red Velvet. Red velvet is a niche. The love for red velvet, just like in any niche market, comes with strong opinions. There’s a lot of retraining to do in preparing the Regal Red Velvet.