There are many delicious items on the menu at Fairway Café, some lunch and some dinner and some more mysterious. Naturally, I selected Elaine’s Famous Pancakes because I assumed that it was the same Elaine that was on Seinfeld.

I am biologically programmed to be dubious of any product that claims that it is famous. Going with my instinct, I suspected that Elaine might be a bit presumptuous about the notoriety of her pancakes. I certainly had never heard of them before. What I’m sure you’re asking yourself is whether the pancakes actually deserve this label, but I’ll get to that later.

The first thing that is very noticeable about Elaine’s Famous Pancakes is that there are six of them. Besides the six pancakes, the dish is served with a plastic dish of butter and another of maple syrup. The only other accompaniment the pancakes have on the plate are several blueberries which are placed next to it, for unknown reasons. It must be stressed that there are no blueberries actually inside the pancakes. It’s an interesting decorative choice, and it makes the pancakes look either lonely or full of pride, depending on whether or not you are a glass-half-full type of person.

The other thing that makes these pancakes look so isolated on the stark white ceramic plate is that they are tiny little guys. These are not plate-sized monstrosities that are often found in breakfast restaurants. I think this is a wonderful choice, and an interesting departure from the norm. It prevents the situation where you have made your way through the first pancake in a stack of three only to discover that you are full and are now staring directly at two or five uneaten pancakes and your family is staring at you and you take the only honorable course of action available to you and kill yourself. This has happened to me more than once.

As for the pancakes themselves, they definitely taste unique. There is a distinct eggy quality to them that differentiates them from every other pancake I have ever tasted. This egginess makes the cakes richer than I had ever thought possible. With a topping of delicious (Grade A, I should hope) maple syrup, these pancakes go down easier than Paris Hilton on Mr. Monopoly.