Brownstone Diner & Pancake Factory

The popularity of this diner baffles me. If you’re in the mood for diner food during Sunday brunch prime time you’ll find yourself waiting too long at Brownstone. I’ve been here twice, both times for breakfast foods; I just don’t take dinner seriously at a diner. Both times I have been served a mediocre breakfast except the pancakes which are fluffy and tasty and alone are worth the 2 stars.
Everything else here has fallen short. The bacon sucks. The eggs are super basic. The omelettes are uninspiring. Also the waitress telling me that the orange juice was freshly squeezed when it was clearly NOT is just not OK. I was too tired to cause a fuss; besides, she was pretty aloof as a waitress so I wasn’t trying to flag anyone down to complain about juice. But the pancakes are worth it.
Come to Brownstone for pancakes. If you get any other breakfast foods you’ll be disappointed.

Amazing breakfast, fabulous service and nice next door diner ambience.
I took a point off for chipped dishes and cleanliness.

We stayed in Jersey City during our travels and figured we would checkout where Diners DriveIns and Dives had gone. This location showed up on the map.
First of all we went on Memorial Day morning for breakfast and waited about an hour for a table. Apparently it’s always packed on weekends and holidays.
Our meals were good. Lots of good food! Specifically the pancakes are awesome.
The issue is waiting. We had our drinks ordered with our meal because it was taking too long. Food came out before our drinks! That’s a big no no.
Overall great food slow service.

Hands down the best diner in the neighborhood. I regularly crave their pancakes and give in.
Highly recommend the Chicken & Waffle, Sausage Meat Pancakes, and Honky Tonk pancakes.
Just avoid breakfast/​brunch hours on weekends — you’ll be in line a LONG time!

I ordered a TBLT and it was so good! I also had fries with gravy and cheese. I never had fries like that before and they were totally AMAZING!
I also ordered a drink from the bar. The bartender is rocking.
Our server was so nice and helpful with the menu. I wish I had a server like her everywhere I’ve visited.
I will visit again.
Next time I must try the pancakes.

I came here with my bf on Monday at noon. It was surprisingly busy. We were seated quickly, although there were a few people waiting near the door. To start we had an orange juice and coffee. The coffee was good but the orange juice tasted nothing short of Sunkist. For our lunch we had French toast, sunny side eggs up on toast, bacon, and the show stopper pancakes. All of the food was really good for the price! I think my favorite part of the meal was that they put a big wad of butter on the plates. Nothing to write home about but but The Brownstone is a good spot for a simple Monday breakfast/​lunch. The staff is friendly but the service is not the quickest. I wouldn’t come here if I was in a rush.

I’m a sucker for their pancakes along with the Greek omelette, ah perfection. All of there meals come in large portions, so you’d probably end up only eating this meal and another for the rest of the day.
I’ve been coming here for years and my family and I love it. Be prepared to wait awhile on weekends. There’s not much room to stand and wait, plus the parking lot is very small.
Very affordable and absolutely fulfilling, you won’t be disappointed.

I want to give this place 3.5 stars. I went on a Sunday afternoon with 3 other people. There is a parking lot but it’s very small. I parked on a side street. We waited about 30 mins but I already knew it would be a wait.
Our waitress was a bit confusing. She would only let us order drinks and food in a certain order. When my friend decided to order a coffee after the food, it took 10 mins. The service was slow but the food was good. The pancakes were delicious and big. We split the pancakes and ordered an entrée. The waitress didn’t rush us to leave.

This is another well known diner that was surprisingly empty. Ladies bathroom was filthy despite the day’s light crowd. I laughed to myself as the hostess was watering the plants meanwhile the bathroom was in shambles.
They offered a wide selection of pancakes. I found the color scheme of the menu a bit visibly impairing. The tan on brown, though beautiful in a livingroom, is hard to take in print.
Speaking of the menu, it’s pretty extensive. Lots of pancake varieties, toppings and flavors. I typically just eat eggs but, found the listing impressive.
My omelette was tasty. My company had the Guy Fiereti (sp?) Which was buffalo chicken with cheese wrapped in a pancake. It was just okay. Tasted like exactly what it was.
I’d come here again and possibly try a fun pancake flavor.

Pancakes Galore! I came here with a mission: to eat as many pancakes as I can! I’ve realized that I can only eat about 2.5 before I fall in to sweet carb coma.
My boyfriend and I came here on Good Friday, and as expected, there was a line out the door. Fortunately, this place is rather big so the turnover of tables and being seated was relatively quick for us. We had 15 tables ahead of us but only had to wait 10 minutes, if even. Our waiter was super nice and attentive and the ambiance is casual and purely of eating, eating, eating!
We shared the honky tonk pancakes and the country breakfast wrap. In general, the pancakes are super fluffy! I absolutely love the texture and the overabundance of pancake in your mouth when you take the first bite. It soaks up the syrup like a sponge and holds so well that whatever is encasing or topped with, the pancake stays strong. The honky tonk pancakes had plenty of banana slices up top and in between, small peanut butter chips. Everything was well balanced, nothing overwhelmed the other.
As for the country breakfast wrap, I was little hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure how the pancake would work with the savory scrambled eggs, pork sausage, potatoes and cheese but everything worked so well together. The pancake was just as fluffy as our stacked pancakes and the eggs, meats and potatoes were cooked nicely. All the flavors meshed well together. It was really delicious to mix the sweet and savory together.
Lastly, we shared the corned beef hash which was the perfect salt to counter the sweet honky tonk stacks. I wish there was a bit more crisp to them but there was plenty of beef and hash and easy to split between 2 – 3 people.
Overall, a great casual diner to feast on pancakes and more. Their menu is huge and they offer so much more but for me, it will always be those fluffy pancakes. If you are coming from NYC, it is a easy commute from the Grove Street Path Train stop. Prices are very reasonable, credit cards accepted and you pay at the counter by the entrance when you leave — old school style.

If you’re coming for a weekend brunch, don’t even think about parking in their tiny parking lot. Skip that headaches and just look for street parking.
My boyfriend and I came in on a Saturday at around noon and the wait was about 25 minutes. It didn’t seem like we waited that full time though. It was pretty packed when we arrived but by the time we were seated, the crowd had already started thinning out.
To start, we ordered the fresh fruit pancakes, which comes topped with blueberries and strawberries. I’m not usually a huge pancake fan but I figured I should try them if it’s in the name of the restaurant. They were pretty good! Could have been a little fluffier but overall, I enjoyed it.
By the time we finished that, I was almost too full to eat the chicken and waffles I ordered. This came drizzled with honey. The waffle was nice and toasty. The chicken was not that great. It was perfectly fried on the outside, but the inside was dry. I probably wouldn’t order this ever again.
He ordered some ‘pancake’ wrap. It was Guy Fieri’s buffalo chicken, or something along those lines. Anytime you see Guy Fieri’s name associated with a dish, you can gage that it will probably be disgusting and I thought it was. It was pretty much just buffalo chicken tenders, an obscene amount of cheese, and canned roasted peppers, all wrapped in a giant pancake. Moral of the story — just stay away from any food anywhere with Guy’s name attached to it.
Wouldn’t mind coming back for a Philly (I’m sure that’s not what they’re known for but I have a slight obsession with phillies) and some more pancakes!
Tip — the best part is the bottomless coffee, if you’re a fiend like me.

We came here at noon on a Sunday. Big mistake but it was our last meal in the city and we had to try the pancakes. There was so many people with a tiny waiting area. We finally got seated and the table was barely clean — I mean our ketchup bottle cap was on the floor… Anyways the waitress took awhile to get to us but she was nice and very calm for working in a chaotic restaurant. we ordered the banana pancakes and the south of the border omelette. The food came out pretty quickly. While we were waiting a couple got seated next to us and noticed a bloody napkin on the floor under the table. I’m sorry but I lost my appetite when the hostess swept it up. That is both unsanitary and disgusting.
The food finally arrived and I was disappointed that the bananas were just placed on top of the pancake. I’ve had amazing banana pancakes in Los Angeles that actually have banana mixed in the batter which was ten times better. The pancakes were actually good but I wanted more. The omelette came with mushrooms, ham, and some other vegetables and sour cream but we asked for sour cream in the size that we didn’t even end up using. The omelette was perfectly cooked but the hash was just sliced potatoes. Overall the the food was decent but not really worth the 35 minute wait and the restaurant is just so dirty. The staff is super friendly though!

Came here for brunch on Sunday to difficult parking (small parking lot), and a lot of people dining and waiting. Luckily, there was only two of us and the wait wasn’t too bad (maybe 30 minutes).
We ordered the South of the Border omelette with homefries and banana pancakes. The omelette and home fries were pretty good, and a good amount of food. The pancakes weren’t what we expected, but tasted fine. It was just topped with sliced bananas, instead of the bananas being infused in the pancake batter, which is much better and something they should consider.
The service was alright. It took the waitress a little longer to take our order because of how many people were there. The food did come out quicker than expected.

Apparently this place is always busy and it was a long 40 minute wait on a Sunday Brunch; however they turned over groups efficiently. The servers are so busy I don’t know how they can keep track of everyone but they do.
This typical diner serves breakfast all day and has an extensive menu of other non-​breakfast food. I came for brunch and the Lox Benedict caught my eye. Perfectly poached eggs on a typical english muffin much like eggs benedict minus the bacon and replaced with salmon. The slices of salmon in their tasty Hollandaise sauce was an interesting combination. I loved their home fries side which is their seasoned potato fries — it was cooked to the right soggy crunchiness.
I did try their pancakes and I was not a fan. It was dry and not very tasty. I had to douse it with syrup to get some taste to it. They didn’t have maple syrup as they only have one syrup which is the standard sugar syrup. The other thing I noticed is when one of my family members ordered chocolate pancakes we thought the chocolate would be cooked inside the pancake, no the chocolate pieces were just sprinkled on top of it. For a pancake spot, I was fairly disappointed. I think it might just be popular because the pancakes were pretty large.

The line is long here, especially on the weekends so this only made my anticipation mount. This comes after coming here twice but giving up due to wait times that can go up to a half hour or more. So come early, and have time to spare. The great thing
Is the huge menu. Unless you just hate breakfast there is definitely something for you here. They have it all which is pretty promising. Unfortunately this place just didn’t deliver I got a bacon omelette which was ho-​hum, and tasted overcooked and I had some of the eggs Benedict with Lox and that wasn’t all that either. Even the coffee was subpar. I will say that simply because of the massive menu and decent prices I wouldn’t be opposed to giving it another shot but the lines are just ridiculous here and can’t be bothered if to wait for breakfast basics. Come here ready to eat but wait before doing so.

They say when you visit Rome you should do as the Romans do… guess i didnt take take their advice because when one visits a breakfast place i guess they should stick to breakfast… sigh
The sight of the food on the neighboring tables made me want to order what they ordered… unfortunately when I ordered the chicken parmesan it wasn’t good. The cheese and the chicken tasted artificial and even the salt and pepper i added didn’t make it taste better. The waitress was really nice and helpful but the flies around my food and milkshake disgusted me. I felt the need to constantly watch the fly to verify it didnt land on my food or milkshake… gross.
Two stars for the great customer service. Zero stars for the actual food and the flies.

Go hungry!!! Portions are huge and food is tasty
This is a great go to especially if you have a big group. They have plenty of options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Potions are huge so great value for the money.
They are known for the Buffalo chicken pancake wrap because it was featured on the food network. It’s one of those things you should try because it’s unique but don’t expect to have your taste buds blown away. There is a lot of flavors and textures in the dish that would taste better if not combined.
The pancakes are very fluffy and fruit toppings are always fresh. Waffles are cooked through and have the perfect golden crisp.
Don’t get the banana cream pie. Doesn’t taste like bananas and filling tastes very artificial.

Well we got there at a little after 10 on a Sunday and sat down around 10:30 so the wait wasn’t bad considering the huge line.
I will say that the pancakes were really good! However, the rest of the meal was disappointing. I had the Benedict with lox and the eggs had no taste. The grits were fluffy but also needed a lot of salt. The worst part was the lox which was so thick and salty that it tasted just like ham.
The food did come out very quickly which was nice. I don’t know how the French toast or waffles are here but the omelet was also pretty average and the home fries are really hash-​browns which were ok.

I’ve eaten at this location as well. I love brownstone pancakes, their omelets, and coffee. I think I’ve been to this location about 5 times, but didn’t know I didn’t rate it.
Every single time I see a line or group of people waiting, but NOOOO need to actually be scared I’ve always got in and out NOOOO problems.
The service from this younger gentlemen every time has always been amazing. I was forgotten about a few times, but I just look like I’m not hungry and starting at my food, but I can’t eat because I’m missing something (works like a charm). I love food, I love dines, and I love when I can find a place who serves delicious and tasty food.
I’ve had their pancakes almost EVERY time I’ve eaten here and I have to say consistency is always the same!
I don’t think I’ve been here enough to say I LOVVVEEE it, but I do lovveee somethings about it. Lets just say its not MIND blowing…

This is an excellent diner that’s been here for years. The owner is friendly and always there making sure everything always flows smoothly.
It can get very crowded here during weekends especially in the breakfast time. They have free parking lot, but its very cramped and gets packed up.
The food, thats why I keep coming back here. I love the breakfast. Their pancake and french toast is perfect everytime. My favorite is the french toast combo which comes with eggs, bacon, sausage, and french toast of course.
Their pancake and omelette wraps are humongous and whenever I watch people eat and order them I cannot imagine that anyone could finish the entire thing.
Prices here are very reasonable, you get huge deal for your money.
They don’t take AMEX, Cash or Visa/​Mastercard only.
There is a breakfast bar area where you can sit and eat if you want to skip the wait.