Middle Earth Munchies at Denny's

"Hobbits eat at least seven meals known as breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

In addition to being foodies, we are nerds. We love cult classics and pop culture references, we read constantly and have innumerable books in our house, play board games weekly and get fan-boy excited about upcoming blockbusters, including this year's installment of The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug. 

To incorporate our geek enthusiasm and hunger, we decided to venture to Denny's to try out their Hobbit-inspired menu for our "supper." (They also did a menu for the first of the three Hobbit films, which debuted last year; we didn't sample that one).

I thought they'd only have a few items, but was happily surprised to see a wide variety of options to suit any Middle Earth mealtime.

The menu features several "luncheon", "dinner" or "supper" options including a hellaciouly spicy burger inspiring by the dragon Smaug and a dwarves feast of turkey, dressing and gravy. They have a wide menu for the sweet-toothed hobbit (especially one seeking a tasty treat to share at "afternoon tea," like woodland elf pies, Radagast's red velvet pancake puppies (like a fritter), and two pumpkin-themed drinks for Bard the Bowman. 

I think if a restaurant has a specialty that they're known for, that's your best bet for quality and value; so being at Denny's, we went for breakfast foods. Jordan "built his own Hobbit slam" with eggs, hashbrowns and Hobbit-special menu items sweet potato pancakes and breakfast sausage. 

I ordered the "Hobbit Hole." Go ahead, laugh, I think it's a horrible name too; but bear in mind that Hobbit holes are the doors to their hillside homes in the Shire and it's fashioned after a toad-in-a-hole (often called an eggie-in-a-basket) with two eggs inside cheddar buns, hasbrowns and I opted for make the 50 cent upgrade to breakfast sausage, too. 

Like many grand slam combinations, Jordan's order was HUGE. I think eggs and hashbrowns are standard fare, so they were your normal diner sides. However, the pancakes and sausage were terrific. It's rare that I diss any pancakes because despite our culinary skills, we cannot make good pancakes in this house; it's impossible. But these pancakes were better than average, and surpassed good. Most diners' pecan pancakes have a few chopped up pieces in them, but these had large chunks of candied cinnamon pecans. This was an incredibly sweet adjustment to already saccharine pancakes, but was wonderful. There was a cinnamon drizzle included in the presentation (with syrup on the side) and I don't know that it added much to the fluffy, flavorful and autumnal-tasting pancakes. 

The sausage was also delicious. This was a large sausage (like traditional English bangers) and was very flavorful. It tasted like a blend between a hot bulk sausage and an Italian sausage. The casing had a wonderful crispness and held inside it a juicy sausage that tasted of pepper, sage and onion. I'm a bacon purist the end, but I know we made the right choice for our meal's meat component. 

I was only slightly less pleased with my meal. My favorite breakfast my mom used to make me was her toad-in-a-hole. She'd butter the bread, cut it out with a cute cookie cutter and cook my eggs in that just right way that you can never explain to a waiter. My waiter didn't ask how I'd like my eggs cooked so, silly me, I just assumed they'd be cooked how momma makes hers - I suppose you'd call it over easy. However, I think they sliced a hard boiled egg into it's bun-case. The idea was wonderful but the application was kinda sloppy. Had the egg had a runniness to it that would've been sopped up in the fluffy, cheesy bun, it would have been perfect; this version fell just short. But you can't fail with hashbrowns and that wonderful "hearty breakfast sausage." The biggest joy for me was that my fear of having heartburn that surpassed the desolation of Smaug was never realized!

We both ended up being so satisfied and utterly full that we had to skip Hobbit "dinner!" 

If you've got a Denny's franchise nearby, this is certainly worth a stop, if for nothing more than being a fun novelty to bring Middle Earth to your dining table. It would certainly be a good precursor or follow up to a screening of The Hobbit,  out December 13 (in US theaters). 

And according to this sci fi bloke, eating like a Hobbit is a great way to diet. No really, he kinda make sense.