Battered but brilliant
review: where the pancakes are
If you're after something a little bit different for Pancake Day, look no further.
By Adam Clancy
Tucked away in a corner inside Flat Iron Square, Where the Pancakes Are in Southwark is a small, independent pancake business with big potential. It has been open for two years, but you’ll feel lucky you found it now before everyone else does.
The building itself is quite off-putting as the colour-scheme is rather bland and the windows are designed with rings that makes it look more like a doughnut house from the outside. The logo looks quite child-like, but don’t let the outside put you off the pleasures that await once you enter the door.
The place feels like a welcoming, homely cottage. It’s a cute restaurant to invite a few friends but there are not many tables available, so it’s advisable to go outside peak hours (weekends are busiest) if possible. The house doesn’t take reservations either, so you’ve got to be quick to get there first.
Where the Pancakes Are is based in Southwark.
The staff are over-friendly, especially the manager, who are all keen to impress. The manager says each staff member is trained rigorously to make sure every pancake a customer orders is perfect, whether it would be the presentation or the taste. It’s not quite Hell’s Kitchen, as you can’t see the kitchen when it’s being prepared, you can only see what’s on your plate.
My party ordered both a sweet and savoury dish to indulge in different flavours and ultimately decide which was better. One was the ‘American’, consisting of three pancakes, maple syrup, blueberries and bacon. An odd combination my party found being from the UK, but they were intrigued to see why it was their best-seller. The sweet option contained a simpler two pancakes with sea-salted caramel.
As a twist, the pancakes were ordered vegan-based. The house offers both non-vegan and vegan batter. The vegan batter, which is also gluten-free, comprises organic rice, soy milk, chickpea water and buckwheat flour, which claims to lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The ingredients are sourced from all over the UK and parts of Canada and Europe. Even by drowning my pancakes with the sauces available, my party couldn’t taste the difference between the vegan and non-vegan varieties, despite the vegan option being drier and less buttery.
Both dishes were served with the sauces in a jug on the side. Although they supplemented the pancakes well, the helpings were too generous. It’s impossible to finish every drop unless you drank it straight from the jug. There were a lot of blueberries; you must put more than a few on your fork with each mouthful to not have any left over.
The pancakes tasted delicious and the wait for the food to arrive at the table was short. The odd combination of maple syrup, blueberries and bacon surprisingly complemented each other well, and the sea-salted caramel really added flavour to the sweet dish. The vegan batter was slightly dry but tasted better once the sauces and ingredients were added. The maple syrup won a ‘Great Taste Award’ in 2016 and it’s hard to disagree.
Pancakes range in flavours and pricing.
The pricing, though, was tough to swallow. The ‘American’ pancake costs £10.50 and no matter how good a quality you think it is, it’s still a lot to pay for a pancake. The sea-salted caramel option costs a more reasonable £6 but you get one fewer pancake and no added toppings. It is also the cheapest dish available on the menu, which one may feel is too much for two average-sized pancakes and a jug of sauce. Nonetheless, the pancakes do taste delicious and it may be a price worth paying as a one-off.
Pancakes aren’t the only thing you can buy; the house also has a wide range of beverages. The menu is broken up into juices, coffee and tea, cocktails, wine and beer and cider. The cocktails look particularly tempting at £7.50 each, which isn’t a bad price for London. There’s a mix of traditional and house cocktails, with the latter putting a spin on our old favourites. An example is their ‘lavender infused gin and tonic,’ which adds lavender bitter to the traditional cocktail. The rest of the drinks are average price-wise as they’re not too dissimilar to what you’d expect to pay elsewhere in central London.
The taste of the pancakes and the friendly atmosphere were the most pleasing aspects of the restaurant. The pricing and portion sizes should be looked at, but generally it’s a place you must try if you’re looking to eat somewhere different on Pancake Day, or perhaps just to treat yourself to a unique and highly-pleasing pancake.
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