Flapjack Flip-Off X: Picnic

As part of our annual competition to determine the best pancakes in town, we visited

Lee Klein

This year's winning jacks -- but from where?

​Picnic Miami, which picked up the coveted On Second Thought, Maybe I'll Have Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack Award. Its boom-boom soundtrack at 11 a.m. proved only slightly less distracting than the ESPN sports highlights flashing across a screen the size of the actual playing fields.

When we browsed the menu and asked for pancakes, the waitress kept with the Picnic staff's tradition of being quaintly erratic -- and inquired how we'd like the eggs, even though they weren't mentioned. Yet the three-stack was fresh, steamy, thin, tender, and sweet -- sort of like what you get when you prepare the Swedish pancake mix sold in supermarkets. Very tasty, though oversnowed with powdered sugar. Coffee poured from a fresh pot was good and strong. Overall, the pancakes were solid if unconventional, but the ambiance was horrid -- like a picnic basket of breakfast goodies unpacked in a sports bar during disco night. Three (thin) pancakes, $6; coffee, $1. Total: $7.

Picnic Miami
1400 20th St., Miami Beach
305-673-4755