10 Frozen Pancake Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

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Pancakes are a classic childhood breakfast treat with syrupy sweet nostalgia poured on top that have been relegated to weekend food. Many people who pine for pancakes and flip for flapjacks often don't have time, ingredients, or counter space to cook up a batch of hotcakes from scratch every morning. Of course, boxed mixes save a little time, but making them usually creates a bigger mess than you expect. That's why frozen pancakes are a convenient solution for a rushed morning, an easy fend-for-yourself breakfast for kids, and the timely answer to a late-night carb craving.

Frozen waffles have dominated the freezer section for decades, despite the slightly higher popularity of pancakes. It wasn't until flash freezing technology could finally resolve the problem of moisture in bread products that it was even possible to produce a frozen flapjack with a fresh taste and texture when reheated.

Preferences vary, but I like my hotcakes fluffy and chewy, more flavorful than just sweet, and with a crispy exterior — but only if the middle stays soft. I sampled 10 brands of frozen pancakes, eaten plain with no butter or syrup, to rank them based on my preferences. Suggested preparation methods included toasting, microwaving, and baking, so I used at least two methods to heat each option. For more on my methodology, check out the end of the article.

Whole Foods Market 365 brand makes more than 3,000 products, including frozen buttermilk pancakes. In my opinion, it shouldn't, and I'm not alone. The Takeout tasters have not been impressed with the brand's store-bought chocolate chips, for example, and even recommended avoiding Whole Foods' straight-cut frozen french fries. When I placed this pancake on my plate, my senses did not like what they saw, smelled, felt, or tasted. (My sense of hearing was silent on the subject.)

There's no other way to say this: These were ugly pancakes. They had a lumpy backside and a strange, greige hue. A strong odor of wheat wafted from the microwave as they heated, so I was surprised these don't contain whole wheat flour. They do, however, contain malted barley extract, which provides a mildly sweet barley flavor. There was no buttery, tangy taste or light, fluffy texture I expected from buttermilk pancakes. In fact, their dense, moist consistency sealed their fate as the worst pancakes on the list.

In my mouth, a bite turned into culinary quicksand. Chewing seemed to activate a chemical reaction so that it became thick and sticky. It was soon plastered on the roof of my mouth, triggering mild arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter stuck to your palate). These frozen flapjacks are a poor breakfast choice for anyone, especially young children, for whom I think they present a possible choking hazard.

Kodiak is a popular option sold at most major retail stores and is even one of the brands from "Shark Tank" you can find at Walmart. It appeared on the TV show before it gained a reputation for whole-grain, protein-rich, low-sugar breakfast foods. Now that it makes frozen Kodiak Power Flapjacks, the brand continues to promise a hearty breakfast for rugged adventurers, just in less time. With 100% whole-grain wheat and oat flours and 16 grams of protein per serving, these frozen pancakes should be a satisfying way to start the day. In truth, however, they were thin and tasteless, almost like watered-down oatmeal.

It's a shame these speckled brown flapjacks didn't taste as good as they looked. They were a healthy brown color, dotted with tiny holes that created a light, fluffy texture. And because whole grains contain less gluten than white flour, the pancakes were soft and tender. They even smelled heavenly — wheaty with a strong vanilla fragrance — but it was all just a highly scented illusion. It was so disappointing to anticipate a sweet, floral vanilla flavor and end up with the taste of dry, raw oats. Luckily, pancakes are rarely eaten plain, and I think a good amount of syrup, jam, Nutella, or one of the better Nutella alternatives could help make up for the lack of flavor. 

Frozen pancakes are precooked, so preparing them to eat is just a matter of warming them up. Reheating instructions are basically the same across all the brands, with two or three options: toaster, microwave, or oven. De Wafelbakkers brand boasts a microwaved "60 seconds to delicious" for its frozen buttermilk pancakes, and for the first five seconds, I really enjoyed eating them. 

They were moist and tender, with a hint of sweetness and a slight buttery tang. Then, the pleasant taste faded, and by the third bite, a strange flavor began to bloom — a bitterness that blossomed into a fully developed nasty taste which lingered longer than you'd expect. This brand fell from the top five to the bottom five in a matter of 20 seconds.

Hotcakes contain some potentially bitter ingredients. Buttermilk can have a sour backbite, and baking powder and baking soda, common leavening agents in baked goods, can taste bitter, salty, or metallic. Back in the 19th century, people even used freshly fallen snow, which contained ammonia, as a leavener in pancake batter. That would certainly leave a bad taste in your mouth. De Wafelbakkers uses a mix of leaveners including sodium acid pyrophosphate, which is most commonly used in highly sweetened baked goods so the sugar can mask the additive's bitter aftertaste. If you like your pancakes drowning in syrup, you may enjoy these more than I did.

Much like Veronica Mars, Food Club Buttermilk Pancakes are tough and sweet. However, that character combination works much better for a TV teen sleuth than a breakfast item. These griddle cakes were too sweet even without any syrup or jam. It's not just the sugar (12 grams per serving) but also the malted barley flour, with its naturally sweet flavor, that contributes to the overall saccharine quality. But my main problem with these hotcakes was that they were too thin to contain any kind of airy lightness, so they chewed up dry and thick. It didn't matter which heating method I used; the result was the same.

Another complaint was the packaging. Some manufacturers cleverly pack the frozen discs in plastic with separate sections so you can take a few out at a time and keep the rest sealed against freezer burn. Food Club is not one of those brands. If you don't eat all 12 in one sitting, you're left wondering whether you can just fold over the top and stick it back into the box, or if you need to repackage the rest of the pancakes in a freezer bag. Of course, months later, when you excavate a small, unmarked bag of frozen pancake orphans, you won't know what the expiration date is if you are concerned about that type of thing. However, it might not matter because if not properly sealed, it'll be easy to tell they got freezer-burned.

Characters from the popular TV show "Bluey" have been used to market fruit snacks, cheese, baked beans, SpaghettiOs, and now, apparently, Bluey is a brand of frozen pancakes. News sources name Hometown Food Company as the manufacturer, Whole Foods lists it as Birch Benders, and small text on the product's box claims De Wafelbakkers makes the pancakes. It's not so confusing if you understand that Birch Benders and De Wafelbakkers are both part of Hometown Food Company. 

My first impression of these hotcakes was that they were sweet — the kind of over-the-top sweet that is marketed specifically to kids. The manufacturer has also snuck in some whole grains — another hallmark of marketing food for kids — which gives the pancakes a soft but dense bite, but each serving still contains 24% of the recommended daily amount of sugar. The flavor was maple syrup-sweet, which can be attributed to ingredients such as sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, malted barley flour, and natural flavoring. 

Only because these pancakes are specifically marketed to kids am I going to comment on their appearance. The strange grayish-brown color and splotchy brown spots on one side may be off-putting to picky eaters. The texture could also be a problem. Because these pancakes have a moist, bready texture — even when toasted, they don't get crispy — chewing makes them sticky and gummy, two of the food textures America hates most.

What does a protein drink company know about pancakes? Well, probably nothing. Premier Protein drinks have very little in common with batter cooked on a hot griddle until golden brown. If you've ever played around with a griddle cake recipe, you know you can't just dump in any mix and get a fluffy pancake. Fortunately, Premier Nutrition, which makes Premier Protein, collaborated with De Wafelbakkers to develop a line of protein pancakes. And even though De Wafelbakkers frozen pancakes did not rank well on this list, nor did the protein-packed Kodiak flapjacks, these were surprisingly better than I expected.

Premier Protein makes regular-sized pancakes, but I bought the mini ones for variety. I also think tiny foods are fun to eat, though if you are trying to get more protein in your diet, fun might not be your top priority. If your time is limited, these are a good snack because they warm up in as little as 30 seconds in the microwave. Whether popped into the oven, toaster, or microwave, these cuties stayed soft and tender, but they were fluffiest when baked.

These one-bite pancakes had a pleasant, sweet flavor, though they finished with a protein powder aftertaste. My fellow tasters and I each detected a different underlying flavor, like vanilla or maybe banana. One taster was adamant that they tasted like Cookie Crisp cereal. I suspect the protein powder in the pancakes triggered memories of the ingredients we used in our protein smoothies back when protein powder was mainstream.

Great Value is a low-cost Walmart brand, although there are many famous brands behind Great Value. Walmart's frozen buttermilk pancakes were the darkest and one of the thinnest pancakes I tried, but they still managed to have a moderate amount of fluffiness. My favorite preparation method for this brand was the toaster, where the outside became crispy, and the inside became soft, creating a fantastic contrast of textures. They didn't become as crisp when heated in the oven, but had a good chewy texture. With the microwave method, they were bready and slightly tougher, but still good. These mildly malty, sweet flapjacks didn't need to be doctored up with fancy syrup, though the best store-bought maple syrup wouldn't have hurt.

As a general rule, microwaving bread usually backfires because it dries it out. But when bread products, like pancakes, are flash frozen, the moisture is preserved in tiny ice crystals. Compared to hotcakes frozen in your home freezer — in which larger ice crystals form and result in mushiness when reheated — commercial techniques preserve the moisture, texture, and taste so the cakes taste similar to freshly made.

Eggo's iconic, round, frozen waffles were invented when boomers were just kids, but Gen X grew up with the frozen waffles in all kinds of experimental renditions, like some of these discontinued Eggo waffle flavors. It wasn't until millennials  were old enough to toast their own breakfast that Eggos finally introduced frozen pancakes. Now, the youngest generations enjoy the wide world of Eggo's frozen waffle and pancake offerings, which have expanded into flavored, protein-packed, mini-sized, and character-shaped varieties.

Despite all the options, I stuck with Eggo's Buttermilk Pancakes. The brand has nailed the classic texture of homemade flapjacks — light and elastic, fluffy and tender, and slightly chewy. These lightly browned hotcakes looked and tasted freshly made, with a smooth buttermilk flavor and mild sweetness. There was the tiniest hint of baking powder every few bites, but that was probably only noticeable because I tasted them without any toppings. This wasn't quite the best-tasting brand of frozen pancakes, but it was hands down the fluffiest. Just be aware that if you stack them on a plate while they are still warm, they tend to stick together. 

Kroger buttermilk frozen pancakes were out of this world in both taste and appearance. The golden brown discs had color-contrasting details that, to me, made them look like a UFO on the topside and a cratered moon surface on the bottom. These launched out of the toaster with a crispy golden exterior and soft innards that pulled apart with a satisfying elastic stretch. And just like the most beloved copilot in the sci-fi galaxy, the texture was surprisingly chewy and fluffy. This was my first contact with this particular brand of pancakes, and in my initial scan, my sensors picked up a well-rounded pancake taste with sweet, malty, and tangy notes.

I ate these plain and low-tech for taste-testing purposes, but there's no topping these pancakes couldn't handle: butter and syrup, fruit and whipped cream — they are even sturdy enough to swap for bread in a breakfast sandwich. But if you want to emphasize the space theme, I suggest serving these golden saucers with sausage patty planets and Runamok's starry, sparkly syrup.

While some Trader Joe's brioche-style pancakes have received negative feedback, these mini silver dollar frozen pancakes were a delight to eat. Somehow, TJ's discovered the secret to making deliciously flavorful one-bite pancakes that are not too sweet, bitter, or wheaty. When cooked correctly, they were soft and chewy. The challenge is not to assume these are like any other frozen pancakes, but to vigilantly read the heating instructions on the package. 

If you look at the chart provided on the box, you will see how long it takes to cook a certain number of pancakes. If you follow that chart, you will get pancake crackers that snap when you try to take a bite. Ask me how I know. If you carefully read the smaller print above the chart, you'll learn that those times are for a microwave set to 50% power, and that the tiny cakes should be stacked so they retain their moisture. 

When cooked correctly — I tried oven baking and retried microwaving them at 50% — these were yummy little cakes. And honestly, the pancake crackers tasted good, too, which is why I didn't give up on them initially. I would eat these silver dollar pancakes plain, dipped in syrup, or slathered with Nutella and raspberries. Their diminutive size made them fun to eat and opens up so many possibilities, from a snack eaten out of a plastic baggie to a picturesque part of a breakfast pancake board.

To determine how these 10 frozen pancake brands stacked up against each other, I ate frozen pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and snacks for a few days. Then I sampled them again during the writing process, while I flip-flopped on where each brand belonged in the rankings. I noted color and appearance, but texture and taste were the most influential factors in my determinations. Brands moved up the ranking if they were fluffy, but poor flavor was a sure way to get downvoted.

I gave each pancake multiple chances to impress me, reheating them in a toaster, microwave, and oven according to the instructions on their boxes. I preferred the toaster preparation for most of them because it was quick and yielded the best texture. The oven method resulted in good pancakes, but it took longer than just whipping up a batter and cooking them myself.