London's best pancakes: the most decadent places to celebrate Shrove Tuesday 2019
For those who prefer to let someone else do the batter whipping and pancake flipping, London is awash with decadent places to celebrate Shrove Tuesday today.
From Crêpes Suzette flambéed tableside at The Ritz, to create-your-own stacks of fluffy American-style pancakes at Christopher’s, these 12 restaurants elevate even the classic lemon-and-sugar to a dish worth dining out for.
The Wolseley
With its art deco interiors and celebrity-spotting potential, The Wolseley is a breakfast institution, and for good reason. The morning menu at this grandest of Grand Cafés runs the gamut from porridge, prunes and pain au chocolat to Eggs Benedict, kippers and kedgeree.
But Shrove Tuesday is the perfect excuse to order a stack of the fattest, fluffiest and most photogenic pancakes in town, lathered in berries and coulis with a dusting of icing sugar, or served American-style with bacon and blueberries. Mayfair mornings don’t get much better.
160 Piccadilly, St. James's, London W1J 9EB; thewolseley.com
The Ritz
Traditionally, Shrove Tuesday is a last hurrah before 40 days and nights of asceticism - so what better place to celebrate than at London’s most unapologetically opulent dining room?
The gilded, neoclassical splendour of the Ritz Restaurant is every bit as palatial as you’d expect; starched white tablecloths and crystal chandeliers come with a side of formality that adds to the sense of occasion.
Place your order for the Crêpes Suzette for two at the start of lunch or dinner, and the be-suited Maitre d’ will flambée them with appropriate ceremony at the table. Remember to don your glad rags (jackets and ties are required for gentlemen) - My Old Dutch this ain’t.
150 Piccadilly, St. James's, London W1J 9BR; theritzlondon.com
Thomas’s Café
The menu at London’s chicest in-store café changes weekly, with an emphasis on seasonal British ingredients. For the first week of March, it’s putting pancakes front and centre, with a special menu of both sweet and savoury options.
The café is a favourite among the fashion crowd - notably for its Secret Smokehouse salmon, which appears in pancake form with creme fraiche, caviar, dill and spring onions.
Sweet options range from classic lemon and sugar to more extravagant poached Yorkshire rhubarb with hedgerow preserve and whipped cream. Elegantly restrained interiors maintain a light feeling, even if the menu is anything but.
5 Vigo Street, London, W1; burberry.com
Claridge’s
There’s no mistaking the green-and-white-striped crockery of a Claridge’s breakfast, and the hotel’s foyer, with its tower of fresh flowers, art deco mirrors and white-jacketed waiters, makes for a refined start to any day of the year.
The menu features American-style pancakes, which come with a trio of toppings on the side: berries, clotted cream and maple syrup, or more decadent raspberries, blueberries and liquid Valrhona chocolate. And whatever guests order for breakfast on 5th March, the hotel is offering a complimentary plate of crispy crêpes with lemon and sugar for the table to share.
Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HR; claridges.co.uk
Granger & Co
We say Granger & Co, you say pancakes - at least, according to Google autocomplete. But the dish drawing fitness fanatics and fashion types alike to Australian chef Bill Granger’s quartet of London restaurants is, in fact, ricotta hotcakes: cloud-like parcels of whipped ricotta-laced batter, topped with banana and honeycomb butter and drizzled with syrup.
Something of a social-media sensation, they’ve earned themselves a dedicated section on Granger & Co’s Instagram feed. Can’t even deal with the queues in Notting Hill? The Chelsea outpost takes bookings.
Branches in Notting Hill, Chelsea, Clerkenwell and King’s Cross; grangerandco.com
Chiltern Firehouse
Five years after its star-studded launch, the hype surrounding celebrity hangout Chiltern Firehouse has died down somewhat, but it has managed to retain an intoxicating air of exclusivity.
Service may be slow - timekeeping, presumably, is far too banal a concern for its fabulous clientele - but a Shrove Tuesday brunch here scores high on the Insta-smug-o-meter.
A stack of perfectly uniform, fluffy buttermilk pancakes comes with ramekins of blueberries, creme fraiche and maple syrup, leaving the all-important presentation up to you. If it’s good enough for Kate Moss…
1 Chiltern Street, London W1U 7PA; chilternfirehouse.com
Christopher’s
On paper, an American restaurant in the heart of theatreland might not scream elegance, but for 28 years and counting Christopher’s has been dishing up classy US-inspired comfort food across three floors of its handsome Grade-II listed building.
Its weekend brunch special, build-your-own pancakes, is available on Shrove Tuesday within the high-ceilinged dining room as well as the glamorous Martini bar: choose your own batter (buttermilk, buckwheat or blueberry-buttermilk), toppings (sweet, savoury or a combination), ice cream and sauce.
Pancake specials include butter poached lobster, potato and truffle with chorizo and caviar; those with a sweet tooth might prefer the oreo and white chocolate stack.
18 Wellington St, Covent Garden, WC2E 7DD; christophersgrill.com
NAC Mayfair
Millennial pink walls, marble table tops and lashings of brass accents: Mayfair’s NAC is an Instagrammer’s dream - happily, the food is every bit as enticing as the interiors.
It may attract a #cleaneating crowd thanks to a vegetarian-friendly menu of salads and small plates, but come the weekend it’s all about the ricotta pancakes: a hefty stack, smothered in creamy, categorically not #clean dulce de leche sauce and topped with banana. Usually only available for weekend brunch, the dish will be served on Pancake Day for lunch and dinner.
41 N Audley St, London W1K 6ZP; naclondon.co.uk
The Delaunay
Corbin and King’s follow-up to The Wolseley follows a similar grand café-inspired formula: historic location, glamorous clientele and a wide-ranging menu of European favourites. For lunch and dinner the focus may be on weiner and schnitzel, but at breakfast and brunch the fluffy pancakes are the crowd-pleaser.
Each small stack is served with a jug of maple syrup, with or without bacon, or with a sprinkling of blueberries and a dollop of crème fra?che, while the Delaunay Counter next door serves Krapfen - Austrian doughnuts traditionally eaten on Mardi Gras - to take away.
55 Aldwych, WC2B 4BB; thedelaunay.com
Social Eating House
Jason Atherton’s Michelin-starred Soho restaurant is better known for its gourmet twists on hearty bistro fare than for fussy French pastries.
But for Pancake Day, chef patron Paul Hood has taken inspiration from traditional millefeuille to create his Mille Crêpe: a tower of crispy crêpes layered with lemon pastry cream, topped with confit lemon, and drizzled with vanilla Chantilly cream. Available for one day only on Tuesday 5th March, in true Social style it’s designed to be shared.
58 Poland St, Soho, London W1F 7NR; socialeatinghouse.com
The Baptist Grill
For those who like their pancakes with a side of theatrics, Bloomsbury’s decadent L’Oscar hotel is putting on quite the show.
Its dramatic Baptist Grill, the mezzanine-level restaurant housed underneath the dome of the converted Baptist Church, replete with wood-panelled walls and regal purple furnishings, will serve up Crêpe Suzette soufflé throughout the week of 4th March. Served with a Grand Marnier sauce and flambéed at the table, it’s one of the most opulent ways to celebrate Shrove Tuesday.
L’Oscar London, 2-6 Southampton Row, WC1B 4AA; baptistgrill.com
The Game Bird
Something of a hidden gem in St James’s, the Stafford Hotel’s Game Bird restaurant champions the best of British, dishing up meat, game, pies and old-school puddings from trolleys that are rolled around its stately, members’ club-like dining room.
On 5th March the restaurant will welcome a Gallic addition in the form of a Crêpe Suzette trolley, offering the classic, citrusy French take on pancakes, flambéed before guests’ eyes.
The Stafford London, 16-18 St James’s Place, London SW1A 1NJ; thestaffordlondon.com
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