I went for a midweek stay at the Whinfell Center Parcs village with my family. The time wasn’t really spent doing grown up foodie things so this post is a little different. It was all about the 2 year old that was with us.

We only ate out twice, the first time being Dexters Kitchen which is the Center Parcs version of a fast food place stating that it is for “fresh food fast” and focusing on burgers, light bites, shakes etc. We were having a light lunch prior to our afternoon activities and so the grown ups decided to share a few things, the normal nachos, the chilli nachos (both £5.50) and the mac and cheese (£3.95). The little one had the fish dippers with chips (£4.95).

The nachos were pretty standard, the one comment I will make is that there was very very little chilli on the chilli nachos and this was in place of the guacamole which was included in the standard nachos. I think it would have been better if the chilli nachos were slightly more expensive but had more chilli. What little chilli I did get to taste (after all I was sharing) was lovely, rich and flavoursome with a bit of a kick. The fish dippers were lovely fresh pieces of fish in a light batter and I polished off one of those that were left. It was a good size for most kids and obviously he was only two and wasn’t going to eat as much as a 9yr old.

Verdict- would recommend

On the last day we went to the pancake house. This was a throwback to when I used to go to Center Parcs with my parents as a child and we went on the last day. The staff here were absolutely brilliant. Very friendly and accommodating. It was brilliantly set up for kids and the little one was given a colouring placemat and crayons as soon as he sat down, he also had a hat to colour in. He had a ball. He had the children’s meal for £6.50 which was a bangers and beans pancake, a drink and a scoop of ice-cream. He was very proud to have his own bowl of ice-cream a real treat for him. He also enjoyed waving to the cooks in the kitchen who happily waved back. I cannot recommend this place highly enough for being family friendly. Although the whole place is geared up for families.

I had the cheese and mushroom pancake with garlic butter and cheese (£7.15 for a small), it was lovely but could have done with a little more garlic butter. Then the desserts! We shared two between three, the banoffee stack at £7.95 and the blueberry delight (£8.15 and added strawberries for £1.05). The blueberry stack was a teeny bit disappointing. I love blueberries and so eat tonnes of them both fresh and frozen for when I’m in a rush and can’t be bothered picking through them to wash and check for mouldy bottoms (I never used to do this and now I wonder how many mouldy ones I have eaten in my time). The frozen ones always have a tougher skin and the blueberries in the compote had obviously been frozen at some point, but in this kind of establishment I guess that is to be expected. The compote needed to be slightly sweeter and the strawberries were an expensive add on for the amount we got. The banoffee stack was lovely, not too sweet and just the right amount of pancake, cream, sauce and banana. Yum!

Verdict – highly recommend (for the service and how family friendly they are)