MY OLD DUTCH, CHELSEA

I made the mistake of making pancakes a couple of years ago and they were absolutely revolting. No amount of nutella could repair the damage I did and so this year I made the executive decision to go out for pancakes! Our boiler is also currently broken and the house is 13 degrees so this also played a big part in my plan!

My Old Dutch on the King's Road has been there since 1958 and serves both savoury and sweet pancakes, salads, traditional dutch starters and puddings (menu). I love the sound of all the savoury pancakes so was at a total loss of what to have. We were lucky to get a table as the restaurant was rammed even at 5pm! I expect that this is because it was pancake day - by the end of our meal there were people queueing down the street.

Service was friendly and prompt, I had to ask the waitress to slow down as I had no idea what to choose. There are several starters (mainly dutch) like nachos (er Mexican), meatballs or even fried cheese parcels that sounded very interesting! There are many many pancakes - they have pancakes that are pizza - esque like a four cheese or a Hawaiian with ham, cheese and pineapple, they have other folded pancakes with fillings like chilli con carne or chicken curry and then they have create your own pancakes where you can add whatever toppings you like. I went for the Greek one in the end with aubergine, halloumi, feta, red onion, tomato, black olives and oregano.

It looked HUGE when it arrived like a giant pizza but the whole thing is so much lighter and softer, so I had no problem finishing the whole lot off. The flavours worked really well together, there was a perfect amount of cheese and the halloumi especially was cooked to perfection.

There was a children's menu for Arabella, with a choice of five different savoury pancakes like ham and cheese or a margarita with olives. She decided to build her own and had halloumi, a cheese mix, pepperoni and olives. I did have food envy when it arrived!!

She loved it - especially the halloumi! The pepperoni was delicious too (I obviously had to sample it for research purposes) - I will definitely adding it to mine next time.

Despite being full, Arabella just had to have a sweet pancake! I was even tempted as they looked so good - there were lots of different flavours available - sugar and lemon, maple syrup and butter, fresh fruit, chocolate etc. Arabella went for a Smarties one which came with vanilla ice cream, smarties (obvs) and icing sugar.

It was delicious - the ice cream all melted in the middle and so we folded it up like a crepe - I think I actually ate more than she did (this week is not the diet week I had planned)!

The restaurant also does other puddings too like apple pie, banana splits, butterscotch, waffles and even an 'ice cake'…..this is definitely somewhere for me to go when I have a sweet tooth. Although not for a while as my best friend Amanda and I have decided to give up sweets and chocolate for lent. Arabella thinks I am crazy, I am not holding my breath that I will last til Easter but I can try.

Anyway all in all a successful meal, I really enjoyed it, as did Arabella. It sometimes has a Monday Madness offer where all pancakes are £5 - I would definitely return for that. Otherwise I will be back Tuesday 17th February 2015 for sure and maybe even before! A great place to come with kids and they had a couple of big booths which would be great for families. All pancakes can be made gluten free and they have 'lite' options and salads plus they also do take away. There are another two branches - one in Kensington and another in Holborn - a must for pancake lovers!

My Old Dutch

221 King's Road
London
SW6 5EJ
Tel: 020 7376 5650