We continue to follow our directions, and eventually find ourselves at the Pancake Bakery. It looks quite full and we wonder whether we’ll have to wait for a seat, but the friendly waiter welcomes us in and finds us a place almost straight away.
There are several reasons why we’ve chosen to eat here. Firstly, it’s been recommended by several websites and also some Dibbers. Secondly, we get 25% off an ‘international pancake’ with the iAmsterdam card. And thirdly, well, you have to do pancakes when you’re in Amsterdam!
Following a Dibb recommendation, we start the meal with French onion soup. And oh my goodness, are we glad we did! It’s full of flavour, hearty and satisfying, and as is traditional, it comes with a slice of bread with toasted cheese on top. However, rather than the French or Swiss cheeses you’d find if you had this dish in France, here it’s topped with ‘Old Amsterdam’ cheese, which has a rich, nutty flavour that really adds to the dish.
We move on to our ‘international pancakes’. Peter has gone for the Canadian – crispy bacon, onions, mushrooms, ham, cheese and BBQ sauce.
I’ve chosen the French – melted goat cheese, thyme, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and honey.
They are enormous! I do think we could easily have shared one. We do our best with them, but neither of us manage to finish. That’s not the fault of the pancakes though, they are absolutely delicious.
However, of course we have a little corner left for something sweet to end the meal. The speciality is poffertjes – little puffed pancakes served with butter and icing sugar. So we decide to share a plate of these between us, and two lattes.
When our order arrives, the waitress brings us two plates by mistake! We can’t possibly manage one each, so we explain that we only ordered one, and she apologises and takes one back. The poffertjes are lovely, fresh and hot, and just enough between us. As well as the butter and sugar, we add some syrup from one of the bottles on our table. A tasty and indulgent and to the meal.
I haven’t made a note of exactly how much the meal cost, but with the discount on the pancakes it’s about 40 Euros in total - pretty reasonable, considering how much we’ve eaten! As we leave the restaurant, we see a woman scrutinising the menu, deciding whether her group want to go in. She asks us whether the restaurant was good, and we recommend it. She’s a bit worried about the cost, but we explain that they could easily share a pancake between two and still have a good meal. One day in Amsterdam and we’re being asked for help by tourists already!
Now that we know where we’re going, the walk back feels much quicker. We soon reach Dam Square and then it’s only a short walk until we’re back at the hotel. Rachel and Pepjin aren’t around when we get there, so we can’t ask for an earlier breakfast tomorrow; but we decide that it will be fine to have a slightly later start and go for the standard time of 9am for a change. And with that we go up to our room and soon we’re sinking happily into our comfy bed after a wonderful day. Goede nacht, everyone.
>>>Day 3
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