Lisa C.
Yelp
This restaurant chain with 3 locations in London has been on my list for a while, but I never made it there before I started hanging out more in South Kensington and Chelsea. In fact, I find their choice of locations very weird - Who goes to brunch in Holborn? And what person living in the posh neighbourhoods of South Kensington and Chelsea want to go to a place that does simple pancakes for £10? We went on a Sunday morning right after it opened at 10 AM, and there were two families in the restaurant but it was otherwise empty. It's quite a large space with both a ground floor and a basement, both rather spacious, and the waitress was very attentive simply because she was so bored. We asked why it was so quiet and she said that it typically gets busy from 12 PM to 2 PM, so I guess people in the area like pancakes for lunch, rather than breakfast.
I ordered the My Old Dutch savoury pancake, which comes with smoked bacon, chicken, ham, bell pepper, mushrooms, corn, and cheese. It was enormous and would definitely have been enough to feed two people. It was the size of those large pizzas that Italian restaurants try to pass off as personal pizzas, but in reality a normal person would struggle to finish it. At least it is super thin, much more so than even a thin crust pizza, and the toppings were in good proportions, so I did not feel like I was having too much of anything. The smoked bacon was Canadian style bacon. My friend got the butterscotch pancakes with bacon and eggs, which was a totally different thing with American style pancakes in a stack, crispy American style bacon, and your choice of eggs. The only thing was that they didn't have maple syrup and had instead Dutch style syrup, which was much thicker and tasted like caramel. It was good that we got such different meals, as two of the Dutch pancakes would have been too much!
The food was good and the service was friendly and fast, but this place was not all that exciting and I'm not in a rush to come back. It does have a unique proposition in London, though, as I certainly don't know anywhere else that does these pancakes. It makes sense for a family outing when you have many mouths to feed and want to keep the costs down, but I much prefer the vibe of busy, trendy restaurants with good coffee and a great eggs benedict.