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Best pancakes in London
18.02.09
It’s all in the filling: Crème de la Crêpe in Covent Garden
Serves you right: Decio Barroso in Kensington
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Shrove Tuesday is almost upon us and, as usual, London is getting pretty excited about Pancake Day. Crème de la Crêpe café is calling all wannabe tossers to its stage in Covent Garden next Tuesday to try their flipping skills — make the best pancake and you could win a year's supply. Crêpe Affaire is offering the same prize for the craziest crêpe recipe and is celebrating the launch of its new Spitalfields branch with a pancake-tossing relay competition in aid of Barnardo's. But you don't have to compete to enjoy yourself, just tuck in at one of London's crêpe emporiums. Here's our pick of the best...
THE KENSINGTON
CREPERIE
This South Kensington stalwart, which has just opened a Marylebone outpost, is a favourite with French locals who claim the traditional crêpes and galettes (savoury pancakes) are as good as those you'd find in France. Fans include Bob Geldof, Frank Lampard and Pierce Brosnan who deemed his New York Special (crispy bacon, cheddar, brie and egg, £7.75) “the best breakfast in town” before returning the next day with his mother. Manager Decio Barroso, a Portuguese former football star, keeps the batter mix a closely-guarded secret, but he'll make any filling combination you desire. If he likes it, he'll even put it on the specials board. The two best-sellers are the Portuguese (salt cod, onions, garlic potatoes and white wine sauce, £8.50) and La Belle Hélène (Belgian chocolate, pear, almonds and vanilla ice cream). Team your crêpe with the house Breton cider, served in traditional ceramic jugs and cups (£5.95 a jug).
Crêpes, £3-£8.50. The Kensington Crêperie, 2 Exhibition Road, SW7; The Marylebone Crêperie, 71A Marylebone Lane, W1 (kensingtoncreperie.com)
CREME DE LA CREPE
This quirky, cave-like café opened last month in Covent Garden and is already doing a roaring trade, thanks to imaginative filling combinations, both sweet and savoury. We were delighted by the texture of crunchy ginger biscuits in the banoffee pie crêpe (bananas, cream and dulce de leche, £3.95) and quirky combinations such as The Milkybar Kid (Milky Bar and fresh strawberries, £3.50), and Love Hate Thing (Marmite and cheddar, £4). We love the colourful crockery too, designed by celebrities including Claudia Schiffer and Gwen Stefani for the charity Whatever It Takes.
Crêperama 2009 pancake competition, Tues 24 Feb, 6-7pm. Crème de La Crêpe, 29 Covent Garden Market, The Piazza, WC2 (020 7836 6896; cremedelacrepe.co.uk)
MY OLD DUTCH
For those who enjoy going Dutch, this traditional pancake house chain has been seducing Londoners with its huge pizza-sized pannekoek since the Fifties. Expect combinations like the Amsterdammer (apple and smoked bacon with maple syrup, £7.95) and the Vermeer (£6.75, with ice cream and a shot of the liqueur). MOD has just opened a smart new branch in Kensington and serves other Dutch fare such as kaasballen (deep-fried cheese balls in breadcrumbs, £4.95) and hook of heron (marinated herring fillets with beetroot and gherkins, £5.95).
My Old Dutch, 16 Kensington Church Street, W8; 132 High Holborn, WC1; 221 King's Road SW3; 53 New Broadway W5 (myolddutch.com)
CREPE AFFAIRE
A Soho favourite now also found in Westfield and Spitalfields, Crêpe Affaire launched in Hammersmith in 2004. The slick mini-chain counts Billy Zane, Jonathan Ross and Christina Aguilera among its fans. The menu sticks to classics like lemon and sugar, £2.75, or Nutella, £2.95. Savoury crêpes are more adventurous, like Le Goat (goat's cheese on fresh spinach and tomato, £3.95). The Londoner (scrambled egg, bacon and cheese, £3.65) is its signature breakfast, with a complimentary cup of coffee before 11.30am. We love the Westfield branch — the only place in the UK to serve draught prosecco at £4.95 a glass.
Submit your craziest recipe in store from Monday to win a year's free crêpes. Pancake relay for Barnardo's, 10am-4pm 24-25 Feb. Crêpe Affaire, Old Spitalfields Market, E1. £15 for up to 5 people, enter at pancakeday@crepeaffaire.com (crepeaffaire.com)
HOUSE OF CREPES CAFE
There's no mistaking the French origins of this South Bank favourite with its red, white and blue-clad exterior. In a sunny courtyard with lots of outdoor seating, this packed café serves more than 40 varieties of sweet and savoury crêpes. Visitors include Cilla Black and Uri Geller. We recommend spinach and feta (£4.80) or, for those with a sweet tooth, banana and chocolate (£4.50).
1-3 Gabriel's Wharf, 56 Upper Ground, SE1 (020 7401 9816)
ARTISANS CREPIER
visitors to Camden Market make a beeline for this lively street stall, drawn by the music as well as the heady scent of Nutella and bananas. Its starry clientele includes Sacha Baron Cohen and Amy Winehouse. The menu is short, but very sweet. Savoury galette fillings include La Forestière (ham, mushroom and cheese, £4), while La Fleur de Canelle (£2.60), is a cinnamony twist on Winehouse's fave sugar and lemon.
Artisans Crêpier, Inverness Street Market, NW1 (artisanscrepier.com)
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Reader views (4)
had great crepes/pancakes I do not really eat this yukie food, but yours were the best...
Just found you on-line by accident
Andrea from clapham when I am in Good old London
- Andrea Lynch Mbe, North Hollywood California
I'd suggest you'd really go to SOS Smiths of Smithfileds...just gorgeous stuff!!!!OK they're more like Californian pancakes than French ones...but in the end it is pancake race not crepe race, is it?
- Giovanna, London
You have missed the best of the best La Crêperie de Hampstead, 77 Hampstead High Street, London, produces the best pancakes in London
- Nick, London
Sorry, but you have missed the best of the best
La Crêperie de Hampstead, 77 Hampstead High Street, London, produces what is as close to the original French crêpes as you can get north of La Manche.
- Bob, London
