{"id":2139854,"date":"2025-05-02T15:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/?p=2139854"},"modified":"2025-05-02T15:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:55:10","slug":"golden-diner-pancake-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/golden-diner-pancake-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"I Made the Internet-Famous ‘Golden Diner Pancakes’\u2014Do They Live Up to the Hype?"},"content":{"rendered":"Whether you ordered pancakes at a local diner or your mom piled up the short stacks when you were a kid, most of us have fond memories of flapjacks for breakfast.\r\n\r\nPancakes have likely been around since Ancient Greece and Rome, when people ate fried cakes made with flour, oil, salt and honey. In the modern era, pancakes have gotten more complex, with variations ranging from super-thin basic crepes<\/a>, to elegant interpretations such as pecan-apple pancakes<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThere are plenty of tricks for making exceptional pancakes\u2014Martha Stewart has a super seltzer water hack<\/a> to increase the fluff factor\u2014but the pancakes at Golden Diner in New York City are so special that people stand in line for an average of two hours in the late morning, and for up to three hours during peak hours!\r\n

Why are Golden Diner's pancakes so special?<\/h2>\r\n\"Internet\r\n\r\nGolden Diner itself has tons of chef cred. The year it opened, Chef Sam Yoo's Asian-inspired take on classic American diner fare scored him a nomination for a \"Best New Restaurant\" James Beard Award (which is like the Best Picture Oscar of the cooking world). There, the grilled cheese and tomato soup includes kimchi, the cheeseburger buns are smeared with Korean gochujang sauce, and the coffeecake is spring green due to the inclusion of matcha<\/a>.\r\n\r\nWhat's so great about the pancakes? First of all, they're baked in a skillet, and they aren't flipped. Because of this, the cakes stay super tender and light, but the pan side turns a rich golden brown. Secondly, they're liberally slathered with honey butter, which is an easy and delicious topping.\r\n\r\nThe original Golden Diner pancakes are also leavened with yeast and include salt and soy sauce for a savory flavor that marries beautifully with the sweet honey butter.\r\n\r\nWith no time to head to New York and wait in line, I decided to test out a shortcut recipe from TikTok<\/a>.\r\n

What was it like to make them?<\/h2>\r\n\"Internet\r\n\r\nIn general, this recipe was easy to follow. However, since I only had one skillet in which to bake the batter, and each of the three rounds of baking took around 10 minutes, it took me a full half hour to cook the cakes. I couldn't keep the earlier ones warm in the oven (like I usually do when I'm making batches of pancakes) because the oven was heated to 400\u00b0F. By the time the last one was done, the first two were cold.\r\n\r\n\"Internet\r\n\r\nAnother gripe: The TikTok recipe didn't say to bring the dairy products and eggs up to room temperature before stirring in the wet ingredients, and the melted butter started to harden the moment it hit the cold milk.\r\n\r\nEven though the pan was pretty warm when it came out of the oven after the first bake, I needed to reheat the skillet on the stovetop before adding the next batch of batter in order to ensure the pancake had a toasty brown bottom. The one time I skipped this step, the resulting cake was pale and soft.\r\n

How do copycat Golden Diner pancakes taste?<\/h2>\r\n\"Internet\r\n

The TikTok copycat recipe doesn't include the soy sauce that's in the real Golden Diner recipe, nor does it use any salt. Without salty ingredients, the cakes tasted flat. Since soy sauce is part of what's intriguing about the famous 'cakes and is also incorporated into the diner's honey butter, I was disappointed that it wasn't in the mix.<\/p>\r\n

Using a good amount of buttermilk gave the pancakes a pleasantly sour flavor, which matched well with the honey butter topping. The chef who wrote the TikTok recipe got the amount of baking powder and baking soda just right, and the finished cakes were super light and airy, with attractive air pockets throughout. The actual Golden Diner pancakes are leavened with yeast, which makes the process take quite a bit longer, but contributes a more complex flavor.<\/p>\r\n

These pancakes also had a rich golden color on the \"down\" side that had been touching the skillet, and looked pretty when they were flipped upside down to be served. Neither the cakes nor the honey butter were too sweet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Are they worth waiting in line for?<\/h2>\r\nMy weekend breakfast go-to is a recipe for buttermilk pancakes<\/a> studded with blueberries or banana. The cakes are cooked four at a time on a cast-iron griddle. I love the crispy outside bits best, and alternate between using maple syrup, honey and fruit sauces like strawberry compote<\/a> as toppings.\r\n

This quick Golden Diner pancakes copycat didn't live up to the hype. Adding the combo of maple and soy in the original recipe and using salt would help bring intrigue to what is otherwise a basic, but elegant-looking breakfast. Skipping the yeast rise saves time, but detracts from the flavor of the finished product. The high loft of the finished cakes was great, but the fact that the early ones were cold before the last one was done was less than desirable.<\/p>\r\n

I might not wait for three hours for the real deal, but I think 45 minutes seems reasonable. I also think there's a version of the Golden Diner pancake recipe that's worth making at home, but it may not be this one.<\/p>\r\n

Related:<\/p>\r\n\r\n