Pancake House New Menu at Centre Parcs

 

To celebrate 2025, my son and I headed to Woburn Forest Centre Parcs for an annual holiday. 

After parking the car (early) in the car park, you are able to use the park facilities early too, before checking in to your lodge. 

Walking without time restraints, through the tall trees, we already decided to head to the Pancake House for our brunch. It's recommended to book ahead if you have an idea when you will arrive after a long drive. You can do this by logging in to your booking on the APP. 

Taking our seats, we looked out of the window overlooking the lake as we watched Mother Swans taking care of their signets. Turning our attention to the menu, I noticed a new menu was in place. 

Want to see all the videos we made? Click here.

As a gluten-free diner, (celiac disease), I worried. 

My favourite dish, the apple pancake, had some modifications and was no longer labelled Gluten Free.  I was sure I would still enjoy a gluten free option of some description but the first thing I noticed was the lack of ice cream. I'm not a huge fan of ice cream, but the tastes meander together to create a complete dish of swirling tastes on the pancake. 

"Excuse me," I called to the waitress as I asked for guidance. She advised me the ice cream now had gluten containing ingredients. I never quite understand the need for adding gluten to ice cream, when the dessert menu is short of items to add.

What a pity. 

The two menus differed in clear text: you could easily notice the difference between them. 

Tempted to choose the classic Dutch pancake, with orange, the calorific values puzzled me: the gluten free lemon was almost 200kcal more than the classic or vegan options.

Other Gluten free choices:

New Yorker or Fruit and Honey.

Determined to try a version of the unusual apple and cinnamon, I asked the waitress to check which ingredients were gluten free. The chef suggested omitting the crumble and ice cream and placed the whipped cream in a pot on the side. 

It was delicious. I was disappointed. 

The pancake seemed quite different than the previous year (last year). Next time, I will head back there and try the classic Dutch with orange, and more Kcal's than necessary.

Separate hot plates are impressively used to prevent cross-contamination and ensure the delicious dishes remain as free-from as possible. 

A wonderful time was had in this restaurant, and in the forest as a whole. I was determined to refer to this break as a holiday. I travel a lot for work and the lines often blur. I didn't film too much, but there is a short video that will be published in the future on my YouTube channel. There is a current full tour of Woburn Forest on this video:

Which menu calls out to you? Do you prefer the menu last year or the new one? Either way, we enjoyed the wonderful winter lights festival which tinkled its way into our blissful embrace of the inky days of winter. The new features added some stunning holograms of wildlife which grace you during your stay. We were blessed with stunning animals in the garden of our lodge this year. I bought a bag of peanuts to take from Amazon and packed them in my suitcase, and I decided to throw my banana skin out in the garden to see who might like it. After a long walk, we returned to find the banana skin was gone. I tried to imagine which animal sauntered in cheekily to eat the skin, but later I discovered we had one of the stunning Monk Jack Deers visiting. Of course, I swiftly ate another banana and tossed it into the garden to capture a glimpse of the deer and it confirmed my suspicion. Before long, we were spotting various deer and knew they were different animals due to size, or if they had little horns or not. We were even blessed with spotting a mother and her baby deer close to the swimming pool on our last day, but I was too slow and 'in the moment' to capture it on camera. 

No visit is ever the same at Centre Parcs. We always enjoy our visits and I love the idea of the wonder of what you will see, eat and feel. 

Love always, from a forest bathed,

Lou xoxo

Ps read last years post here. 

If you like this post, and would like to see more about Centre Parcs, please let me know: I have lovely photos of the landscapes, trees, winter lights and other things. I would love to hear from you. 

A video showing you what it's like at Woburn

The Pancake House at Center Parcs

Tradition brings us to Center Parcs, and the pancake house.

Edit: there is a new menu - find out more after reading this blog by seeing this post 🥞 

So often, people are saying how expensive it is to visit Center Parcs. I'm here to help you find some really amazing breaks.

Watch a full tour of Center Parcs by clicking here (and there is a full playlist by clicking here)

Normally, we go on all inclusive holidays with Tui. But I do love a UK break. 

As usual, some people are tied to children’s school holidays and tend to luck out.  Traveling at this time of year can prove amazing for value for money. The best suggestion I have if you want to travel with school-age children is to find the closest park to you, leave after school on Friday and go home after dinner on Sunday. You will get two nights, and we paid £350 for this break (up to four people). 

Breaks could cost between £2000 and £3000 in the summer holidays, or could just end up at £80 per person for a four-night midweek break in January. Of course, there’s always the opportunity that you’re going to spend more money once you’re actually there. And I guess this is the benefit of making great value breaks, affordable so that once you are there you’re spending more money and enabling the parks to keep staff wages paid.

It is our time to visit Woburn Forest, as is tradition for us to do once a year now, since 2016.  And as we arrive, it’s always a tradition that we visit the pancake house.

Sitting in the window of the pancake house looking out over at the lake, with drips of rain sitting on the tables and chairs outside, I remarked to my daughter Jasmine how many different people we have brought here with us over the years.

We usually sit outside with the dog. There were no lodges available for dogs this time, and apart from that, Harley really cannot walk very far now. And we have to use a dog pram for him. 

After a lovely drive of 1 1/2 hours, we sat at the table and ordered lunch online.

Centre Parcs are currently cashless, so ordering online was the best thing to do. Unfortunately, I had forgotten any purse or any cards. I would usually pay with Apple Pay, but thankfully my daughter is at the age now where she can pay, and I can do her quick bank transfer! Much is this sounds comical, as if I’ve done it on purpose, it truly wasn’t.

As always, I was thrilled at the pancake house it caters for gluten-free diners like myself. So often, when you go to certain types of restaurants if you are gluten-free, you’re out of luck. 

I was excited to try a waffle. I remember how much I enjoyed them on our last trip. Although as we tried to order online, there was no option for that. We called the waitress over who informed us that their waffle maker machine (which is kept separate from the usual waffle maker machine to ensure it’s gluten-free and not cross-contaminated), was out of order and waiting to be fixed. 

I completely understood and respected this. Instead, I went for an apple pancake which was dusted with cinnamon sugar. 

Completely delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed this and felt so full up. After that, it was time to do plenty of walking for the rest of the day and a little swim to try and help use some calories.

I would love to have you as a part of my YouTube family - come over and watch some fun videos and if you like it, subscribe to see more <3 

Louise xoxo