Where The Pancakes Are - Flat Iron Square — Restaurant in London

Not safe for allergies - especially if you have coeliac or a gluten allergy. The staff did not know enough about coeliac or preventing cross contamination, even though I tried to explain my requirements to the waiter at the start of my meal. Getting an even vaguely gluten free meal was hard work.

I nearly ordered the Australian style pancakes, marked as “gluten friendly” (whatever that means), when I realised it used oat creme fraiche. After asking the waiter to check with the chef, they confirmed this was not GF. I’m not sure why they even bother marking it as GF on the menu.

I then ordered the ‘boulder breakfast’, but asked for the corn fritters and halloumi to be included on the side too. My meal arrived, and a different waiter came over to ask me more about why I couldn’t eat gluten (which should have been asked at the start of the meal if they were unsure). After I explained again that I’m coeliac, and can’t eat anything that has come into contact with gluten, he told me the corn fritters and the halloumi are not gluten free. I then asked for the menu and said I would like to choose another form of protein as an alternative side, to which the waiter responded to say that the chickpeas on my plate should be protein enough. I insisted on being given the menu, and then requested bacon and poached eggs. I was not provided with cutlery in the interim period, and had to ask again for cutlery so that I could actually start eating in the meantime.

I finally ate my meal and felt sick shortly after. Clearly there were traces of gluten in the ‘boulder breakfast’ that hadn’t been accounted for.

Separately, their bathroom (a single unisex cubicle) did not have any toilet paper. I had to leave pretty swiftly and find a better bathroom elsewhere once I realised I had eaten gluten.

Clearly not the place to go if you want safely prepared gluten free pancakes. I will not...

The food was ok, nothing bad, nothing special. The service however… I can honestly say it was the worst of my life. If you're reading this, grab some popcorn and enjoy the story: We book a table for 4 people. Turns out we’re 5. Instead of just adding a chair, they make us wait and give us a table to share with another group of 5. Fine, no big deal, the weather was good and we were happy. We order food for everyone + a pitcher of mimosa (remember that for later). All good. After 45 minutes of waiting (and watching tables that arrived after us get their food first), we politely asked if our order could be sped up since some of us had a flight to catch. Reasonable, right? Well, not according to them.

This is where it gets interesting.

A waiter comes over just to inform us that we’ve actually been waiting exactly 42 minutes (not 45, excuse us for the miscalculation) and that we should be patient because other tables exist. Like… what? 😂 Why is he so fixated on the exact wait time? And since when is 42 minutes a fair wait for poached eggs? He feels bad, apologises and promises that the mimosas (that we still didn’t get) would be on the house. The food arrives after 50 minutes AND STILL NO MIMOSAS. So we kindly ask for it. A waitress comes to tell us we never ordered the mimosas 😂 We tell her that we did, she argues but eventually re-orders it. They finally get us the mimosas but it didnt make sense anymore because we ate all the food. They still decide to add the mimosas on the bill, despite telling us they wouldn’t 😂😂😂😂 I don’t think I need to add anything else. If the staff enjoys arguing this much, maybe they should consider a career in politics instead. Worst service ever. And it's the first time I don't pay...

Despite having a reservation, we were left waiting outside in the cold for 20-25 minutes, which was particularly frustrating as we had a baby with us. The explanation given was that your ordering system was down, but this was so poorly managed, and no effort was made to accommodate us more comfortably during the wait.

When we were finally seated, the only option was at an elongated bar-style table that was not suitable for our group size nor was it easy to talk to each other at all! The space of the entire restaurant is super small too. FYI for anyone bringing kids or large parties.

While the food was great, the overall service was terrible. When it came time to pay, we were THEN informed that your payment system was down, and we would need to either transfer the money via bank transfer or pay in cash. This was incredibly inconvenient, particularly as no prior warning was given about the issue when we were seated!

To make matters worse, the staff member we spoke to about this was unnecessarily rude when we questioned why we hadn’t been informed earlier and was extremely condescending on why we don’t have cash?! Despite her having five iPads visibly in the front of her, none of them were charged or functioning, which came across as highly unprofessional. When we requested an invoice or payment link as a solution, this was also declined.

We go to the Battersea branch once in a while and service is usually good so we decided to try this branch. Our whole group left feeling so awkward and uncomfortable in...