I do like pancakes, but have never quite got my head around the savoury types, having been brought up on the annual Shrove Tuesday sweet versions, served straight from the frying pan, with freshly squeezed lemon juice and golden syrup.

I never really contemplated pancakes as a Dutch dish, apart from noticing Ms R is rather fond of them, but apparently there are quite a few pancakes houses around Holland, which have led to the creation of this chain of ‘My Old Dutch Pancake House’, of which we visited the Holborn branch.

The interior was decked out with plain wooden furniture, a tiled floor and the odd piece of Delft Blue crockery adorning the walls; really going for the Olde Worlde farmhouse effect. Pretty kitsch, but not entirely unexpected for a chain restaurant at this end of the market.

The starters were a mix of Dutch staples (bitterballen, kaasballen & herring) with a few others just chucked in for the hell of it (seafood tortilla, Potato Wedges & Toasted Nachos). We went for a couple of plates of Bitterballen (shredded meat covered in breadcrumbs & deep fried) to share, which we all enjoyed and that tasted suitably authentic.

For the mains, I put my concerns away and went for the chicken curry pancake, with Mrs A going for the Smoked Salmon Pancake & Ms R opting for a sweet version, with bananas, nuts & ice cream. My reservations were well founded and although the curry wasn’t bad, it wasn’t particularly good, either, and I was quite disappointed that the pancake itself was a bit thick & stodgy. Mrs A’s Salmon was a bit better, but the sweet pancake was by far the best.

In keeping with the slight randomness of some of the starters, the service had a rather scattergun approach, too. Our mains were initially brought with our starters, which we sent back, and then when our mains were brought at the right time, the banana one was missing and took a good 10 minutes longer to arrive.

Although the place was packed, which really did surprise me, considering the paucity of shops close by for weekend shoppers (I think most of the clientele must have been students of some form or another), the overall experience did not match the restaurant’s popularity. The mains really aren’t that cheap, averaging about £9 quid each, so I’m guessing that there either must be a real dearth of greasy spoon cafés or average gastropubs around or the clientele are rich students with a lack of tastebuds, looking for some stodge to line the stomach after a heavy night’s drinking. Not a place I plan to return to.