Grab A Classic Breakfast At Millbrae Pancake House

There is brunch, a Bloody Mary-fueled romp that often includes lemon-ricotta beignets, house-smoked trout and golden slices of brioche.

Then there is breakfast, shored up by sturdy mugs of coffee, plate-size pancakes with ice cream scoops of butter, and bronzed sausage links that pop when you cut into them.

We like the former, but we crave the latter, in which Millbrae Pancake House specializes.

The red Colonial restaurant, run by the Mulcrevy family, has had 54 years to perfect its craft. Its stuffed-animal-stocked gift shop, dining room paneled in knotty pine, and paper-hat-clad line cooks inspire a feeling of bonhomie.

So does the menu, where you'll find few surprises: eggs prepared any way you'd like; malty waffles ($7 for one); even pigs in a blanket ($8), in which pancakes are rolled around sausage links. (Pro tip: If you prefer maple syrup to pancake syrup, BYO.)

All are deployed from the kitchen with lightning speed; combination platters composed of great mounds of fluffy scrambled eggs, bacon rashers and a sturdy-but-not-dense blueberry pancake ($8) provide ample fuel for the indecisive.

Is our view clouded by nostalgia? Perhaps. But nostalgia tastes pretty great.