Bucky's Cafe Portage

Bucky's is a nice little diner-style breakfast joint out near Austin/West Lakes. The food is reasonably good. Omelet and hashbrowns are pretty typical diner fare (albeit smaller portions than I was expecting); nothing to write home about, but solid nonetheless. The pancakes, though, are outstanding. Light, fluffy, well-prepared with that buttermilk pancake flavor I've never been able to duplicate at home.

It's location in a strip mall hurts the atmosphere a bit. It's packed with regulars, and you can eat at the counter, but the layout is such that it still feels like it's in the strip mall that it is. There are other strip mall diners in town that have solved this problem somehow (Nina's, for instance; you forget its location as soon as you walk through the door). Maybe Bucky's just has too much space. Who knows.

Anyway, aside from the pancakes, the other thing that stands out is the service. Polite, attentive, friendly (overheard some references to the regulars by name), and blazingly fast. Honestly, I've waited in line at fast food joints longer than it took my food to come out after I ordered it. I'm guessing the speed of the service is pretty well-known to its regular clientele since I was there on a Sunday morning and there were a couple of families who were obviously there for their BEFORE-church breakfast. You wouldn't ordinarily risk that on a Sunday morning at a popular breakfast joint unless you had some confidence the service wouldn't let you down.

All in all, Bucky's is a great place to hit up if you're in the mood for some quick, delicious pancakes!

Great people great food what more can you ask for. I come here often with my dad and we have yet to have a bad experience.