Wildberry Pancakes and Café has 3 locations in the Chicago area. Obviously they specialize in breakfast, and pancakes in particular.
The Corned Beef Benny ($10.75) is a take on an Eggs Benedict. The corned beef hash is house made. While good, I would have preferred the corned beef hash to be a little crisper. The eggs were poached well, with a nice runny yolk. A chipotle hollandaise finished the dish, but was lacking in any spice.
The Crème Brulee French Toast was a thick slice of bread drizzled with a vanilla crème anglaise. I prefer my French toast super soggy, and this one did not fit the bill. I have found that most restaurants will not make French toast super soggy since it takes extra time for the longer soak. I understand that the kitchen needs to turn over food as quickly as possible, but accommodating the probably infrequent request does not seem like a huge ordeal.
The Red Velvet French Toast ($10.75) was a nice, thick slice of red velvet cake with an insane amount of cream cheese stuffed inside. Once again topped with a vanilla crème anglaise, this was a sure winner.
The Banana Cream Pie Pancakes ($10.75) were two large pancakes topped with freshly sliced bananas smothered in a mountain of whipped cream. The pancakes were light, but somewhat dense at the same time if that makes any sense. Crumbled brown sugar added a slight textural contrast.
The Chocolate Chip Pancakes (9.25) were drizzled in chocolate syrup. Chocolate chips were imbedded in the pancakes. These were okay and nothing special.
One of the specials was Duck Hash, which contained a very generous portion of large pieces of duck intermingled with hash browns. It was topped by 2 eggs. This was a very good dish.
Although Wildberry specializes in pancakes, I found that they missed the mark on that end. The red velvet French toast and duck hash were the clear winners.
