Pancakes, darling, pancakes. Surely one of the best food concepts ever? And there's only one official day dedicated to them a year. ONE. Luckily, I'm not the only one who find this outrageous. Otherwise I'd be stuck in a sad pancake-less void for 364 days a year. Imagine the horror.
I first went to the My Old Dutch Pancake House in my early teens, when my parents took me as a birthday treat, and I remember it being wonderful. But I haven't been for years. So long in fact, that I'd almost forgotten about it.
Almost.
It took our trip to Holland to remind me that I could get regular access to Dutch-style pancakes in the UK as well. My boyfriend, G, was very surprised when I oh-so-casually mentioned it on the last day of our holiday. He was shocked I hadn't mentioned it earlier on in our relationship which, given my obsession over food and general delight at exciting restaurants, was a fair point.
Less than two weeks later, we were there.
The first thing you need to be, when going, is HUNGRY. Do not go if you've had a long, lazy three-course lunch. Well, you can, but you'll probably throw up on some innocent guy on the tube home. There are both sweet and savoury options so naturally, you need to have both, and this is not a restaurant that understands the concept of small portions (and quite rightly, honestly, when are 'pancakes' and 'small portion' ever put together?).
The second thing you're going to need is TIME. There is SO much choice on the menu and you're going to want to make a carefully considered decision. Relax, browse, ignore the waitress who keeps coming to ask if you're ready yet...
My heavily-debated choice was the Chilli Con Carne pancake. An enormous portion of chilli comes wrapped in a pancake, served with tortilla chips, guacamole and sour cream on the side. I also added mozzarella to mine, because, cheese.
G goes for the My Old Dutch; smoked bacon, chicken, ham, sweet pepper, mushrooms, sweet corn and cheese, served more like a pizza.
They're both served on the biggest plates you've ever seen and we make a valiant effort to clear them. We're both pretty full by the time we're done but that's not enough to stop me having pudding.
Since I was last here, they've introduced the 'Butterscotch' menu which are butterscotch (obviously), American-style pancakes. Thicker and more spongy than the crêpe style used on the rest of the menu, I think they're perfect for a more pudding style of pancake.
I'm torn when it comes to the pudding choice; chocolate chip and chocolate sauce sounds pretty darn good but there is just something about the maple syrup classic... I eventually go with the classic because, as G rightly points out, this is not going to be my last trip here!
I get a pile of butterscotch pancakes, topped with icing sugar, two knobs of butter and a cup of thick, golden maple syrup.
There is something strangely hypnotic about watching maple syrup slowly drip down a big pile of pancakes. Definition of a foodgasam right there...
As if all of this wasn't enough, since I last went, they've also starting offering a load of UH-mazing looking milkshakes! Seeing as I was sticking to tradition, I went for my classic banana but I absolutely have to go back and try some of their more adventurous ones (peanut butter and Oreo anyone?).
Naturally, our trip has inspired me to try cooking my own pancakes. I'm sure it won't take long for me to get in the kitchen and start whipping up pancake batter...
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