Popular with the Rutgers crowd, the breakfast and brunch spot Hansel ‘n Griddle recently expanded to Hoboken. Despite being consistently rated among the top brunch spots in New Jersey, I really can’t understand what all of the fuss is about. It’s not bad, just not worth being rated among the best.
Hansel ‘n Griddle looks very bright and cheery—practically shouts college town. On a college-sized budget, I was able to get a cup of chili, a breakfast wrap with eggs and feta, a buffalo chicken wrap, three large blueberry pancakes, and a chicken and spinach quesadilla.
The buffalo chicken wrap was large, comparable in size to Mr. Wraps, and filled with potato wedges, lettuce, tomato, grilled chicken (normally made with popcorn chicken; my partner made the substitution in an attempt at being healthy), and spicy buffalo sauce. I’m told it was delicious as I barely had the chance to glance at the wrap before it had been devoured.
The spinach and chicken crisp, Hansel ‘n Griddle’s version of a quesadilla, was a bit of a letdown. More expensive than the wrap by about a dollar, the crisp looked like a flat nothing. The spinach tasted fresh, the garlic herb mayo had a subtle yet smooth flavor, but not even the balsamic vinaigrette could save the few thin pieces of dry grilled chicken sparsely spread throughout the wrap.
By far the item I would never recommend is the chili. Supposedly award-winning, this chili was more oily than a freshly made zeppole. I felt as though I should have asked for some meat with my grease. I took two bites, my partner took one, and then the bowl went straight into the oval filing cabinet.
The one item that saved the night was the blueberry pancakes. Reasonably priced at $5.25 with blueberries and bananas, and $1 extra for chocolate chips, each of the three was light and fluffy and deliciously cakey. I almost didn’t mind Hansel ‘n Griddle not offering any desserts—the pancakes were practically a dessert themselves. Each bite offered a fresh, sweet burst of blueberries. The egg wrap was not nearly as large as the buffalo chicken wrap, but according to my partner, the eggs tasted fresh and combined nicely with the feta and diced tomato.
I can definitely see why the Rutgers crowd loves this place—fairly cheap and a wide variety of sandwiches, wraps, burgers, wings, breakfast sandwiches, you name it. The food is fast and decent quality (minus the chili). They are open until 12 am from Sunday through Thursday, and until 3 am from Friday through Saturday, and offer easy online ordering and delivery, which means they are great for those semi-late night study or after party snacks.
If it sounds like I don’t have much to say about them then you’d be correct. I’m trying to find something that would make Hansel ‘n Griddle stand out. I feel as though they are trying to fill a niche that has long been filled by specialty stores with more choices. For breakfast, they don’t have nearly the same number of options as Stacks, for example, and for sandwiches there are practically a million other places to go. They’re not bad (except for the chili), they’re just not amazing. Quite frankly, compared to the diverse selection surrounding campus, Hansel ‘n Griddle just seems very ordinary. It’s college food, but Hoboken is not really a college town.
