
Pancakes are for life, not just for Pancake Day. When you can't be bothered to make your own, here are the best pancake restaurants in London that will do flip one for you any day of the year — whether you're after fluffy American stacks, or thin French-style crepes. Lemon, sugar and chocolate at the ready...
If you've got special dietary requirements, check out our guide to vegan and gluten-free pancakes in London.
Pancakes at My Old Dutch, Chelsea and Holborn
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Previously, it was easy to sniff at My Old Dutch, with its bright orange frontage, tiny (yet strangely comfortable) wooden chairs and mock-Delftware plates. It was defiantly, sweetly, uncool. Now, with new, pale blue frontages, faux flower ceilings and neon lights, it's bona fide Instagram-worthy cool.
While the decor's tasteful, the pancakes are tasty. The classics are the sort you make at home — thicker than crepes, eggy and no buttermilk. Servings are enormous enough to be satisfying without a distended stomach, and there's a choice of both sweet and savoury toppings. We went for a sweet pancake and chose our own topping: banana, maple syrup and cinnamon. The smell alone is divine. We also like how the bananas clearly went in the pan first, batter engulfing them, so the undersides are slightly charred and caramelised.
Butterscotch pancakes are a newer addition, served in a stack of five, with your classic toppings covered, including fruit, bacon, maple syrup and chocolate sauce — though not all at once. Unless that's how you roll.
Vegan and gluten-free options are available here, too.
My Old Dutch has branches in Holborn and Chelsea.
Where The Pancakes Are, Southwark, Fitzrovia and Battersea

If you want to see the word 'pancake' so often that it completely loses all meaning, head to Where The Pancakes Are. The variety, size and quality on offer is quite something. Breakfast pancakes and all day pancakes. Buttermilk pancakes, vegan pancakes and Dutch baby pancakes (which look sort of like giant Yorkshire puddings).
There's sweet, savoury and more added toppings than you can shake a whisk at (banana marshmallow, pulled beef pastrami, and miso pear caramel are options currently on the menu). Makes us chuckle that 'fur babies' and actual human offspring are lumped together on the "Children's & Dog Treats menu" — make sure you're ordering from the right side of that one.
Where The Pancakes Are, branches in London Bridge, Fitzrovia and Battersea Power Station.Vegan, dairy-free and wheat-free options available too.
Pancakes at The Breakfast Club, various locations
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We first tried to visit The Breakfast Club's Soho joint on a Sunday morning. That was a stupid idea. The queue was snaking down the street. Instead we headed to a branch down a side street opposite Liverpool Street station (also the location of the secret Smeg fridge that gets you into a cocktail bar) on a Tuesday afternoon. Much quieter.
They serve white flour buttermilk pancakes with bacon so crisp you could snap it in half, and on our visit they left us with the maple syrup bottle (we can't guarantee that would happen at busier times). For the ultimate comfort food combo, get a hot chocolate with mini marshmallows. Healthy types (and we use the term 'healthy' very loosely here) can opt for berry pancakes instead, or combine the two — blueberry and bacon pancakes, anyone?
Pancakes grace the breakfast and lunch, weekend brunch and dinner menus — so basically, anytime they're open, pancakes are available. Some (though not all) of the pancake options are available in a vegan variety.
The Breakfast Club has locations all over London.
Sarava Creperie & Cafe, Brixton (previously Senzala)
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Originally known as Senzala Creperie, the Brazilian cafe changed its name to Sarava Creperie & Cafe in late 2022, but its Brixton location and crepe-centric menu remain the same.
It's a great shout if you're vegan (or with someone who is), as many of the galettes (crepes, but made with buckwheat flour, which is also gluten-free) are vegan and there are vegetarian and vegan savoury toppings available.
If you're in the mood for something sweet, they've got you covered — fruit, chocolate and caramel flow freely. Being a tad hungover on our visit, we opted for a white crepe with caramelised apple, cinnamon, maple syrup and creme fraiche, the latter being a stroke of genius; a cool, slightly sharp zest to offset the lake of syrup the crepe swims in. Definitely recommended as a day-after restorative.
Savoury options include cheese, ham, pepperoni sausage, fried egg, garlic, mushroom...
Sarava Brixton, Brixton Village Market, 41-42 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8PS.
Pancakes at Polo Bar, Liverpool Street
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Polo Bar is best-known for being open 24 hours a day, but it is also home to a dedicated pancake menu. Sure, the choices aren't as plentiful as some of the other places on this list, but your basics are covered (bacon & maple syrup, fresh berries & cream), and some of the toppings are so left-field they have to be tried.
If it's an early morning stomach-lining you're after, might we suggest the American Breakfast stack (pancake with maple syrup, streaky bacon, sausage, two eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, hash brown and cajun sweet potato chips)? Alternatives include Lotus banoffee pancakes, cookies and cream pancakes, and a red velvet pancake super stack.
Up for a challenge? If you (one person) can eat 12 pancakes in 15 minutes, you'll get a free bottle of prosecco. God knows what that'll do to your pancake-addled insides.
Polo Bar, 176 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4NQ.
Pancakes at Drunch, Mayfair

For pancakes with a side of Instagram likes, Drunch is the place for you. Situated just a 30-second walk from the madness of Oxford Street (with two other branches around London), the pretty, upmarket cafe specialises in brunch, and serves up some of the best pancakes we've had in London.
Thick, Scotch-style pancakes of impressive circumference are stacked up on your plate. You could opt for the banana and dulce de leche topping, but for our money, it's ricotta and berries every time. Very generous quantities of seasonal berries are beautifully presented, and perfectly complemented by the ricotta, topped off with icing sugar and just the right amount of syrup to keep sweet-toothed brunchers happy. In a nod to the Instagram crowd, the Nutella and hazelnut pancakes are served heart-shaped.
Don't forget to get a photo of the ever-changing floral exterior on your way out:
Drunch, 1 Woodstock Street, Mayfair, with other branches in Regent's Park and Oxford Circus.
Pancakes at Granger & Co, various locations

We still salivate at memories of the honeycomb butter that accompanies the ricotta 'hotcakes', as the pancakes at Granger & Co are known. You get three hotcakes, with maple syrup and a slab of banana. They are gorgeously fluffy and the ricotta gives a deliciously sour note to take the edge off the sweet, making them unlike any other pancakes we've found. Find them on the breakfast and lunch menus, as well as the sweet section of the dinner menu.
Granger & Co, locations in Notting Hill, King's Cross, Chelsea, Clerkenwell, and Marylebone.
Pancakes at Christopher's, Covent Garden
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If you're the sort of person for who brunch = pancakes, get yourself down to American grill, Christopher's in Covent Garden. Of a weekend, their pancake and French toast brunch menu keeps pancake lovers very happy indeed. Buttermilk with bacon and maple syrup, blueberry buttermilk or buckwheat with berries, maple syrup and coconut yoghurt are your options. Any qualms about responsible food intake soon disappear when you order an additional brownie and bourbon milkshake.
Christopher's, 18 Wellington Street, WC2E 7DD
Pancakes at La Petite Bretagne, Hammersmith
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Everything about this Hammersmith creperie is French: the recipes, the decor, the music, the staff... and half the clientele. It's also another ideal venue for coeliacs as the savoury galettes are wheat- and gluten-free. Sweet crepes can be gluten-free if you ask.
La Petite Bretagne, 5-7 Beadon Road, W6 0EA.
Cocktails and crepes at Crepeaffaire at The Hippodrome

French-themed crepe restaurant Crepeaffaire now has a branch at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square, and although the chain already had several branches around the capital, this particular one allows you to pair crepes with cocktails during the evening.
In fact, some are ready paired for you. The Get Lucky is a Lotus Biscoff crêpe with whipped cream paired with an Aperol spritz, and the Oh So Pisco, matches classic lemon and sugar with a sharp Pisco Sour.
Obviously, the booze isn't mandatory and the cafe sells the brand's usual offerings of crepes, galettes, coffees, milkshakes and desserts too.
Crepeaffaire at The Hippodrome, Cranbourn Street, WC2H 7JH.