Remembering Manchester’s iconic Dutch Pancake House and its massive plates

It’s almost Pancake Day – Tuesday February 16th this year – so it’s only right we look back at the Manchester institution that was the Dutch Pancake House.

Everyone has their own fond memories of this restaurant, and mostly they revolve around the giant-sized pancakes and the massive plates they were served on. 

The iconic pancake place shut its doors in the early 2000s, flipping the frying pan for one last time, and the building itself has since been demolished, replaced instead with 1 St Peter’s Square.

Sitting on the corner of Oxford Street and St Peter’s Square, the Dutch Pancake House was a basement restaurant before the resurgence of hip basement bars was even a dream.

Behind the plastic plant strewn entranceway was a much-missed pancake haven.

Opening back in the early ’70s, the Dutch Pancake House boasted an extravagantly large menu – we’re talking at least 100 pancakes to mull over.  That level of choice makes an indecisive soul like mine shake to its core. 

Once you’d had the first glance over the War and Peace-sized menu you’d quickly find that there was just about every flavour combination under the sun – like the Willy Wonka factory of pancakes. 

There were sweet ones, savoury ones, and some with a tooth-aching mix of both.

At this point in the UK’s pancake history, a savoury pancake was almost unheard of and a mix of both was borderline ridiculous. But not for the Dutch Pancake House, of course. 

By 2003 this place had become a bit of an enigma. You could peer through the windows to a seemingly open restaurant, dribbling onto your shoes thinking about the pancake you were about to demolish, when you’d disappointedly discover the door was locked.

Other times, probably when you were full to bursting, this place was open and jealousy would consume you.

Eventually, it saw its fate of being demolished and a swanky new building was put in its place – home to KPMG and a posh San Carlo Fumo restaurant on the bottom floor.

The people of Manchester will never forget the Dutch Pancake House though…

People have been banging on about their memories of this place on social media since the day Twitter was born, and there is definitely a lot of love for it.

One person even reckons the last time Manchester was awarded a Michelin star (before the recently awarded Mana) was indeed for the Dutch Pancake House.

A second person tweeted back in 2019: “Every Shrove Tuesday, I pause for a moment and remember the truly fantabulous The Dutch Pancake House. If you ever had the privilege of going there, you’ll know how much it is missed”.

This place has even had global recognition over on Yelp too. Two separate Americans offered their reviews of the place and gave it five stars each which is pretty telling, as America has it’s very own style of delicious and quite different pancake. 

What’s your favourite memory of this place? Let us know!