Ottawa's FlapJack Pancake Shack

An Ottawa Food Truck to Get Your Day Started

Food trucks have been on my mind lately. An autumn visit to Traverse City, Michigan, revealed a diverse and delicious food truck scene and I vowed to discover more street eats in my hometown of Ottawa. But like many a travel related vow, I was slow to take myself up on my own promises. It was going to take a tremendously tempting food truck to get me out of my rut and chowing down on the sidewalk. 

My attempts to break into the Ottawa food truck scene got off to a few false starts.  Random closures and stagnant social media profiles had me circling downtown in a futile attempt to secure churros and burgers. But when I heard about Flapjacks Pancake Shack I knew we had a winner. 

I am a huge pancake fan and the idea of noshing down on creative flapjacks was oddly appealing. Adding to the allure was Flapjack's ultra convenient location in Ottawa's Glebe neighbourhood, where casual, affordable, quality food is virtually non-existent. It also felt like trekking through the snow in search of bacon filled, maple syrup saturated goodness was the patriotic, good Canadian thing to do.

Flapjack's menu is divided into two sections. You can build your own pancakes, choosing from different sweet and savory add-ins to customize them any way you want. There is fresh fruit, crushed candies and cookies, nuts, and cheeses. You can also order a "panwich", a sweet or savory breakfast sandwich with filling ranging from Nutella and marshmallows to Gouda and bacon. 

Our friend's 4 year old devoured a "woodchipper" panwich, which has a layer of Nutella spread between two chocolate chip pancakes. Judging from how quickly it went down, the woodchipper was a success!

Ryan had the breakfast panwich, which had bacon, eggs, and cheese between two buttermilk pancakes. It was a tasty twist on a regular breakfast sandwich and wasn't much more expensive. 

I ordered a "Babe - The Blue Ox" panwich, which combined blueberry pancakes with a cream cheese filling. I have to confess to being a bit disappointed.  The pancakes were a bit skimpy on the blueberries and the cream cheese was just a solid hard lump in between the two pancakes. The individual components tasted fine but it didn't come together as a sandwich. 

Overall, I think Flapjacks is a fun and tasty breakfast option and is a good introduction to the Ottawa food truck scene. Despite my disappointment with the "Babe" panwich, I would still give Flapjacks another try and I think a visit is the perfect weekend morning excursion.  

Location: Flapjacks can be found behind Mrs. Tiggy Winkles at 809 Bank St., Ottawa.

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