I love all the locations but Ballard is cozy and intimate. The space smaller and you can get the whiff of gooey chocolate as you walk in. The location is also quintessentially Ballard and you can come here after shopping at Lucky’s vintage or after eating delicious Oaxacan mole next door. I love the cookies. The peanut butter cookie has a nice salt taste to it that really comes through. It is rich, balanced and crunchy. The s’mores is my other go to and it is gooey with decadent chocolate. Of course the molten lava cake with ice cream. Surprisingly, it travel really well and I’ve gifted this for special occasions. I’ve not tried anything savory am I want to. Anything with Beechers great.
Service was friendly and kind. The vegan grilled cheese was so good! Strong green onion flavor but it was mellowed out by the nice side of red sauce for dipping. We got the brownie lava cake to share and found it to be super yummy and delicious! Our only complaint was the paper vessel it was baked in: lots of the cake stuck to the container and we couldn’t eat certain bits because paper got stuck to the crispy batter. It was a super fun dessert to share, and we enjoyed our hot drinks. Definitely coming back for milkshakes, too! Super tasty and cozy on a cold day. Great for vegans
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hot Cakes, Chocolate Molten Cake, Vegan, Grilled Cheese
D.B.
Perfect after dinner spot or, anytime spot if you’re craving a perfect latte and sweet treat. Share a table and strike up great conversation with some locals too!
augie white
We were really craving a hot fudge Sunday late at night. Almost went to McDonald’s but decided to not support a fast food chain. Instead went to hot cakes and we were disappointed. $9 for a kids size “hot” fudge Sunday and the chocolate sauce was not even hot and tasted like it was Hershey’s. The normal size one is like $16. Crazy expensive prices and not even good quality. Should have gone to McDonald’s. This place was better back in the day before owners changed.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 2
Jacob
We were really excited to try this place out, and it fell way short of our expectations. For starters, we paid over $40 for two small lava cakes. It would be one thing paying that price if the cakes were good, or even served in something other than paper cups, but they just tasted like underbaked batter, we didn’t even finish them. Don’t expect to get any actual cake, it’s just a cup of hot batter.
The ice cream was good and the atmosphere was fine, but there’s just no way to justify charging that much for a small mediocre dessert.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
AddiJaddi
This place has the best vegan grilled cheese I’ve ever had. They make the cashew cheese in house and it goes perfectly with the sourdough/herbs/tomato soup. We will be back.
Updated from previous review on 2025-12-28
Ratish
Finally made it to Hot Cakes! Not sure if it was the hype from my friends that I came in very high expectations.
Ordered the Dark Decadence which is Dark Chocolate with caramel toffee and Vanilla Ice cream. you can feel the difference in the richness of the dark chocolate. The vanilla ice cream was great and not super sweet!
Good outdoor seating with heaters that worked well during the chilly cold evening
The letdown was the ROI, the quantity and quality. I have had better chocolate cakes for the price I paid!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Lisa Smith
I’ve been coming to hotcakes since I was a kid — bringing friends, family, visitors in town, etc. Throughout all the price increases, I’ve stayed loyal to the warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream ($16). It has never let me down until now. Tonight, the cookie was not warm and it was incredibly dry, like they had given me old ones from the day before. There were several employees working at the time and the space was not busy, so I know this was not due to understaffing or a food rush. I actually didn’t finish it, it just wasn’t worth it. Go spend your $16 on a sundae at Molly moons.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
Alec Williamson
Had the warm PNW apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and my friend had a chocolate molten cake with hot cafe mocha. The desserts were delicious! Service was great too. Definitely recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Iliad Hera
Waited a long time for 3 bites of cake that weren't even good. Portion sizes were so small. Not worth the price of a meal at all.
Was recommended to come try this place out with my friend, went on Saturday right after they opened and seen 2 employees working hard, The woman with the longer darker hair seemed to know her stuff! She gave me a good recommendation to try out the chocolate molten cake and it was absolutely delicious!! She was so friendly and nice! 🙂 Was going to order some more but noticed she was really working her butt off and helping everyone else and still helping everyone with amazing customer service to others, I didn't want to add to the busyness but definitely will visit again when I'm back in town!😁
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chocolate Cake
Alexandre Ferreira
Amazing! Not only the cakes, but also the creme brulèe, one of the best i've tried. It is pricey, though.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
A. T.
We tried smores molten cake and chocolate cream pie. Both were delicious, we liked their cappuccino and latte too. Will be back to try other molten cakes.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Neilson Hayat
Food, drinks, service. All amazing!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ali G
Very overpriced for the size/quality. A small dessert at the price of a main course. Too small for sharing. And the area isn’t great, lots of transients and can smell the stench of weed if sitting outside. On top of that, it upset my stomach!
I love all the locations but Ballard is cozy and intimate. The space smaller and you can get the whiff of gooey chocolate as you walk in.
The location is also quintessentially Ballard and you can come here after shopping at Lucky’s vintage or after eating delicious Oaxacan mole next door.
I love the cookies. The peanut butter cookie has a nice salt taste to it that really comes through. It is rich, balanced and crunchy. The s’mores is my other go to and it is gooey with decadent chocolate. Of course the molten lava cake with ice cream. Surprisingly, it travel really well and I’ve gifted this for special occasions. I’ve not tried anything savory am I want to. Anything with Beechers great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hot Cakes, Chocolate Cake, Molten Chocolate, Chocolate Molten Cake, Molten Cake
Service was friendly and kind. The vegan grilled cheese was so good! Strong green onion flavor but it was mellowed out by the nice side of red sauce for dipping. We got the brownie lava cake to share and found it to be super yummy and delicious! Our only complaint was the paper vessel it was baked in: lots of the cake stuck to the container and we couldn’t eat certain bits because paper got stuck to the crispy batter. It was a super fun dessert to share, and we enjoyed our hot drinks. Definitely coming back for milkshakes, too! Super tasty and cozy on a cold day. Great for vegans
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Hot Cakes, Chocolate Molten Cake, Vegan, Grilled Cheese
Perfect after dinner spot or, anytime spot if you’re craving a perfect latte and sweet treat. Share a table and strike up great conversation with some locals too!
We were really craving a hot fudge Sunday late at night. Almost went to McDonald’s but decided to not support a fast food chain. Instead went to hot cakes and we were disappointed. $9 for a kids size “hot” fudge Sunday and the chocolate sauce was not even hot and tasted like it was Hershey’s. The normal size one is like $16. Crazy expensive prices and not even good quality. Should have gone to McDonald’s.
This place was better back in the day before owners changed.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 2
We were really excited to try this place out, and it fell way short of our expectations. For starters, we paid over $40 for two small lava cakes. It would be one thing paying that price if the cakes were good, or even served in something other than paper cups, but they just tasted like underbaked batter, we didn’t even finish them. Don’t expect to get any actual cake, it’s just a cup of hot batter.
The ice cream was good and the atmosphere was fine, but there’s just no way to justify charging that much for a small mediocre dessert.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
This place has the best vegan grilled cheese I’ve ever had. They make the cashew cheese in house and it goes perfectly with the sourdough/herbs/tomato soup. We will be back. Updated from previous review on 2025-12-28
Finally made it to Hot Cakes!
Not sure if it was the hype from my friends that I came in very high expectations.
Ordered the Dark Decadence which is Dark Chocolate with caramel toffee and Vanilla Ice cream. you can feel the difference in the richness of the dark chocolate. The vanilla ice cream was great and not super sweet!
Good outdoor seating with heaters that worked well during the chilly cold evening
The letdown was the ROI, the quantity and quality. I have had better chocolate cakes for the price I paid!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
I’ve been coming to hotcakes since I was a kid — bringing friends, family, visitors in town, etc. Throughout all the price increases, I’ve stayed loyal to the warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream ($16). It has never let me down until now. Tonight, the cookie was not warm and it was incredibly dry, like they had given me old ones from the day before. There were several employees working at the time and the space was not busy, so I know this was not due to understaffing or a food rush. I actually didn’t finish it, it just wasn’t worth it. Go spend your $16 on a sundae at Molly moons.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
Had the warm PNW apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and my friend had a chocolate molten cake with hot cafe mocha. The desserts were delicious! Service was great too. Definitely recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Waited a long time for 3 bites of cake that weren't even good. Portion sizes were so small. Not worth the price of a meal at all.
Food: 1
Service: 3
Restaurantji Recommends
Was recommended to come try this place out with my friend, went on Saturday right after they opened and seen 2 employees working hard, The woman with the longer darker hair seemed to know her stuff! She gave me a good recommendation to try out the chocolate molten cake and it was absolutely delicious!! She was so friendly and nice! 🙂 Was going to order some more but noticed she was really working her butt off and helping everyone else and still helping everyone with amazing customer service to others, I didn't want to add to the busyness but definitely will visit again when I'm back in town!😁
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chocolate Cake
Amazing! Not only the cakes, but also the creme brulèe, one of the best i've tried.
It is pricey, though.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
We tried smores molten cake and chocolate cream pie. Both were delicious, we liked their cappuccino and latte too. Will be back to try other molten cakes.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Food, drinks, service. All amazing!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Very overpriced for the size/quality. A small dessert at the price of a main course. Too small for sharing. And the area isn’t great, lots of transients and can smell the stench of weed if sitting outside. On top of that, it upset my stomach!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 3
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