Restaurant review: My Old Dutch, Chelsea, London

I tried to go to My Old Dutch once on Shrove Tuesday – along with half the population of London, it seemed! My Old Dutch is a pancake house offering sweet and savoury dishes, with three locations around central London. I thought I’d had a bright idea to go on Shrove Tuesday – pancake day – a couple of weeks back, and found they weren’t taking bookings for that night, so went as early after work as I could. The queue was so far down the street we decided to go elsewhere – something I’ve always slightly regretted as the food looks really good.

So I was very pleased to be invited to enjoy a complementary meal to review a new dessert range at My Old Dutch – I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed.

 

My husband and I visited the King’s Road Chelsea branch, and were warmly welcomed by our server Raphael, who combined just the right amount of attentiveness and friendly chat with fast, efficient service.

 

The menu took a while to peruse even though I was skipping over the starters and salads and going straight to the savoury pancakes – because there were so many choices, some old favourites and other flavour combinations I would never have thought to put on a pancake – not to mention the create-your-own section.

I love seafood so had a pancake with king prawns, tuna, cheese, tomato sauce and capers (£11.50) while my husband, who is more of a traditionalist when it comes to food, picked mozzarella and bacon from the create-your-own.

 

We were astounded at the size of the plates when they came – of course the pancakes are thin (the crepe variety) but they were huge – you can see my fork in the picture for scale! Needless to say we couldn’t finish the pancakes but they were very good – I thought my seafood was delicious with just the right amount of cheese so the seafood was the main flavour but it had a nice gooey base as well.

The real reason we were here though is the Kinder vs Oreo promotion that My Old Dutch is currently running. The two big chocolate brands have gone head to head with a selection of sweet pancakes and milkshakes to choose from – which side will you come down on?
 

We each tried a milkshake – a peanut butter Oreo shake (£5.50) for me, with ice cream, cream, sprinkles and a peanut butter Oreo on the side. The milkshake itself had a distinct peanut butter taste but not too strong – it was creamy and delicious. My husband had ‘my Kinder love’ (£5.75) , a Kinder Bueno and Kinder Chocolate milkshake topped with cream, wafer, Kinder chocolate, chocolate sauce and chocolate nibs. I think he was in chocolate heaven!

Despite being really full, we had to try the desserts. I was hoping my husband would have the ‘Have fun with Oreo’ (£14.95) as it sounded right up his street – a sweet pancake topped with mini Oreos, Milky Bar buttons, crushed Chocolate Crème Oreos, chocolate nibs and sprinkles served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, but I think the idea of all that sweet stuff after the milkshake he’d just polished off was a bit too much! Instead he decided to try poffertjes, which are Dutch mini pancakes – bite sized pieces that are thick and fluffy, served with chocolate sauce (£5.95). He really enjoyed them and managed to eat nearly all of them despite having complained he was too full for dessert!

I had ‘My happy Kinder’ – butterscotch pancakes topped with Kinder Happy Hippos, Kinder Eggs, banana, vanilla ice cream, chocolate nibs and chocolate sauce (£14.95 - I had it without the banana). The butterscotch pancakes are thicker, American-style pancakes and you get a whole stack so the dessert is very filling – I couldn’t eat much at all! The hippos were a fun touch and slightly melted from the warmth of the pancakes which was very nice. I was slightly disappointed that the Kinder Eggs were the chocolate shells and I didn’t get a little yellow capsule with a toy inside! But you can’t have everything and this was an amazing dessert – not cheap for a pancake but given everything that is piled on top I don’t think it’s unreasonable.

Overall we had a great meal – it’s casual, fun food that would suit the whole family and definitely something a bit different. As for whether Oreos or Kinder won? My Oreo milkshake was delicious but I think the Kinder dessert had the edge.