Looking for tried and tested kitchen equipment? Visit our reviews section to find more than 600 buyer’s guides including the best tools for Pancake Day.
Best pancake pans at a glance
- Best mid range pancake pan: Lakeland forged aluminium non-stick crêpe pan 25cm, £24.99
- Best frying pan for pancakes: Ninja Foodi Zerostick frying pan, £34.99
- Best-value pancake pan: MasterClass ceramic non-Stick crêpe pan 24cm, £13.50
- Best budget frying pan: Stellar Rocktanium frying pan, £32.79
- Best pancake pan for ease of use: GreenPan Essentials ceramic non-stick pancake pan, £40.90
- Best investment pancake pan: STAUB 28cm cast iron pancake pan, £78.71
- Best frying pan for eco credentials: Kuhn Rikon New Life frying pan, £41.67
- Best pancake pan for fun design: Nordic Ware smiley face pancake pan, £49.58
- Best pancake pan for flipping: Judge crêpe pan 22cm, £22.99
- Best pancake pan with eco credentials: Prestige eco non-stick 24cm frying pan, £27.89
The best pancake pans to buy 2023
Lakeland Forged aluminium non-stick crêpe pan 25cm
Best mid-range pancake pan
More like this
Score: 5/5
This is an easy to use, easy to clean pan which you can use on all types of hobs. It goes in the oven up to 170C and this is helpfully marked on the base of the pan, in case you forget after you’ve disposed of the packaging.
The speckled appearance gives it an eye-catching look and it scored very highly on performance too. The shallow lip, double layer of non-stick and the light overall weight of its forged aluminium body combine to make flipping crêpes easy. The soft-feel handle is comfortable to hold and didn’t get hot during use. The pan is helpfully built up higher by the handle, giving extra protection as you flip.
At 25cm, this is slightly larger than most of the pans we tested, and spacious enough to easily cook four American pancakes at once. It heated up quickly and evenly.
This comes with a three-year guarantee and it can go in the dishwasher, though hand washing is recommended.
Ninja Foodi Zerostick frying pan
Best frying pan for pancakes
Star rating: 5/5
Not only is the Ninja Foodi Zerostick frying pan an excellent piece of kit for everyday frying tasks, but it excelled in our pancake test.
It’s equipped with a tough non-stick coating and long, thin handle ideal for deft pancake flips. This frying pan heats up quickly, and most importantly, evenly. It produced the smoothest and most even finish on our pancakes of all the frying pans tested.
Available in three different sizes: 20cm, 24cm and 28cm, we found all to be lightweight and easy to carry around. The frying pan also remained balanced on the hob.
This ultra-versatile pan is suitable for all hob types, is dishwasher safe and is oven safe up to 260C.
Read our full Ninja Foodi ZEROSTICK frying pan review
MasterClass ceramic non-stick crêpe pan 24cm
Best-value pancake pan
Score 4.5/5
If you’re put off buying a pancake pan because you think you will only use it a couple of times a year, this budget-friendly pan should assuage your guilt. It’s suitable for all hob types including induction, goes in the oven up to 150C (which we would say is quite restrictive for most cooking) and is chemical free. It even comes with a 15-year guarantee.
With an aluminium body and iron base, this pan is light with a shallow lip and a very effective non-stick surface.
Despite its below-average price tag, this scored highly on all the things you want in a pancake pan. Most importantly, it’s simple to use – our crêpe came away cleanly from the sides and flipped very easily. All of our pancakes were evenly cooked and none of them stuck.
Washing up afterwards was very quick, apart from a few scraps of pancake that got caught around the steel rivets inside. If we are being very pernickety, the handle wasn’t as comfortable to hold as some of the others.
Stellar Rocktanium frying pan
Best budget frying pan
Star rating: 4.5/5
If you’re not looking to break the bank, the Rocktanium frying pan from Stellar is a brilliant option.
It’s has all the makings of a pan brilliantly engineered for pancakes: an effective non-stick surface, lightweight body and long comfortable handle.
This pan took around 2mins30s to heat up, giving you enough time to whip up a delicious pancake batter. We were impressed with the results on our pancake test and enjoyed light, fluffy and evenly risen morsels. The Rocktanium pan is a fantastic all-rounder, too.
Read our full Stellar Rocktanium frying pan review
GreenPan Essentials ceramic non-stick pancake pan 24 cm
Best for ease of use
Score: 4.5/5
We could find very little wrong with this pan. Marketed as being suitable for ‘intense use’, you can use it on all types of hobs including induction. It’s oven safe up to 260C.
The non-stick is excellent and the pan comes with a ‘limited’ life-time guarantee. The coating is guaranteed PFAS free without any toxic chemicals. Unusually, you can even use metal utensils on it and it can go in the dishwasher, though we found it washed very easily by hand.
The pan is ceramic, so it is slightly heavier than others which may be a consideration if you toss your pancakes rather than flipping them over with a spatula. We found it heated up reasonably quickly and the handle grip was comfortable.
Performance is very good – both our crêpes and our American pancakes browned evenly. The crêpe tossed easily both because of the effective non-stick and the very shallow lip of the pan.
This feels good value for money especially given the guarantee.
STAUB 28cm cast iron pancake pan
Best investment pan
Score: 4/5
This isn’t the pan for you if you think Pancake Day isn’t complete without an exciting and potentially risky flip of the pancake. Made of cast iron, it’s heavy – very heavy – so it stays firmly on the hob. Instead, pancakes you cook in it are designed to be turned over with a spatula. A wooden spatula – as well as a wooden spreader – is included in the box.
The pan, which can be used on all hob types, was slower than average to heat up and it needs a bit of practice to get right. But results are worth it once you do! It’s much bigger than others we tried, so you will get noticeably larger crêpes. The edge of the pan is so shallow you couldn’t make crêpes too thick if you tried, so it helps you get lacy results every time. Once you master the use of the spreader, you’ll be able to make pancakes with a real flourish so this is great for flamboyant cooks. Our pancakes were evenly cooked too.
Although the pan washes fairly easily, its weight does make it awkward to manoeuvre in the sink.
This is an investment pan, backed up by an incredibly lengthy 30-year guarantee. The almost flat design is pleasing on the eye and the wooden handle is an attractive feature.
Kuhn Rikon New Life frying pan
Best frying pan for eco credentials
Star rating: 4.5/5
Sporting impressive eco credentials, the Kuhn Rikon New Life frying pan is made from recycled aluminium cans from Europe. This versatile pan is suitable for every hob type, is oven safe and dishwasher safe too.
The handle is a little stubby, but comfortable nonetheless. The walls of the pan are gently curved, making the New Life pan a great choice for pancake-flipping masters!
This pan is quick to heat up, but we found our pancakes a little patchy, aesthetically. However, we couldn’t fault them when it came to flavour and texture.
A fantastic option for pancakes, and more.
Read our full Kuhn Rikon New Life frying pan review
Nordic Ware smiley face pancake pan
Best pancake pan for fun designs
This pan is excellent quality and makes delicious American-style pancakes that will make you smile; there are seven cute, cheeky, funny faces on the pan to choose from and keep the whole family happy.
Unfortunately, the pan is made from cast aluminium so, is not suitable for induction hobs. It has a robust non-stick surface, so all that is needed for the pancake is the lightest brush of oil or butter; we found that a brush worked better for this job as it got nicely into the crevices of the faces.
We needed to cook several pancakes to get the amount of batter right – a good tablespoon; we finally settled at medium for the cooking heat as any hotter the little faces burned. Three minutes on each side gave a lovely, fluffy pancake with good colour.
The pan is only suitable for making this pancake style, so it is quite pricey, but it will provide hours of fun.
Prestige eco non-stick 24cm frying pan
Best pancake pan with eco credentials
Prestige makes a bold claim with their eco pan, claiming it is the world’s friendliest, plant-based, non-stick, good-for-you-and-the-planet pan. It’s PFOA and palm oil-free, and for every pan sold they plant a tree. It is made with recycled material and is fully recyclable. Oh, and it makes excellent pancakes.
The pan is ostensibly a frying pan, but the super, silky non-stick, beautifully curved sides and soft-grip cool handle make it ideal for pancakes.
For the American style, the pan is roomy enough to cook four at a time while still easy to turn over. With the crêpes, the batter swirls smoothly over the surface, and when flipping, they fly like a dream.
The pan is one of the few on the test which is dishwasher-safe, and even at the low price comes with a 5-year guarantee.
Judge crêpe pan 22cm
The best pancake pan for flipping
If there’s one attribute important in a pancake pan, it’s the ability to flip that pancake up in the air effortlessly with just enough oomph to launch it and turn it over and for this, the Judge crêpe pan is the one.
The 22cm pan has a super smooth Xylan Plus coating and comes with a 10-year guarantee. There’s a heat resistant handle, and with a reasonable weight to the pan, holds really well. And, washing-up is a dream, even after testing both American pancakes and crêpes, it only needed a quick wipe, but it is dishwasher-safe if you must.
It is the pan’s flipping qualities that make it a standout. All the above are essential, but this pan has a smart lip on the rim near the handle, which is like a starting block for the pancake, as you flip, the pancake slides up it and gracefully flies into the air. We loved it.
Also tried and tested
- Best pancake pan for children: Premier Cookware Essentials pancake pan 24cm, £14.99
- Best pancake for American-style pancakes: Nordic Ware silver dollar pancake pan, £73
- Best budget pancake pan: Kuhn Rikon Cucina 22cm non-stick crêpe pan, £21.95
- Best blow out pancake pan: Le Creuset 24cm toughened non-stick crêpe pan, £115
- Best handcrafted pan: Netherton spun iron crêpe pan 26cm, £75.50
- Best pancake pan for flipping: Judge crêpe pan 22cm, £22.99
- Best multipurpose pan: Circulon Infinite French skillet 25cm, £30.99
- Best pancake pan for American style pancakes: Nordic Ware silver dollar pancake pan, £51.95
- Best for versatility: Silverwood 29.5cm griddle pan, £60.45
Buyer’s advice
Why buy a specialist pancake pan?
A good, multipurpose non-stick frying pan will generally do the job when it comes to pancake making, however the non-stick element is really important.
The pancake pans that passed our test all have great non-stick credentials, but also have a flat, shallow design with a small lip to help flip the pancake.
The heat of the pan is very important when making pancakes – pancake pans are often thinner than regular frying pans so they conduct heat quickly and efficiently.
In a similar vein, handles are likely to get very hot during a batch cooking session, so rubberised or plastic handles are common to protect your hand. A tapered handle will also feel more comfortable in the hand.
A pancake pan can also double up as a general use fryer. They’re particularly good if you like to cook with minimal oil – some of them barely need any at all. Recipes like omelettes are ideal for pancake pans as the shallow sides will help them slide out easily onto the plate.
Which pancake pan to buy
- Consider how you’ll be using this pan. If you just want to use it to make crêpes and pancakes, you can go for a smaller size (around the 24cm mark). However, if you want this to double up as a fryer, go for a larger diameter.
- If you’ll be using this pan frequently, opting for a material like reinforced cast metal should ensure longevity.
- The non-stick coating is of paramount importance. Among our sample were a number of heavy duty, cast iron, skillet-style pans that had no non-stick coating. While this ‘natural’ finish has its benefits in some ways, it’s a no-no when it comes to pancake making – we found ours just stuck to the bottom and had to be scraped off.
- Most of the pans we tested were suitable for all hob types, including induction. However, the Nordic Ware skillet and some other pans had to be tested on gas. Do check before buying to ensure the pan is suitable for your cooker.
How we tested pancake pans
We reviewed a representative sample of pancake pans and scored them against the following criteria on our testing matrix. We used our foolproof easy pancake recipe to test the pans, plus our fluffy American pancake recipe.
Handle comfort
Pancake-making sessions can last a while, especially when you have a big batch of batter. We looked for a handle that was comfortable, didn’t get too hot and could be easily gripped – rubber or plastic handles work well on this front. We also liked handles that had a notch for hanging.
Heat distribution
We expect pancake pans to heat up quickly and evenly. If the finished pancake had darker spots or cooked quicker in certain parts of the pan, we marked the product down.
The non-stick surface
Arguably the most important criteria for pancake pans. We looked for a surface that allowed us to easily tease the pancake up to be turned or flipped. We looked for a PFOA-free coating and discounted any pans that omitted an unpleasant chemical smell, even after being washed several times.
Ease of flipping
We judged the pans on how easy the pancakes were to flip – both the handle comfort and shape and size of the lip are important here. A shallow, well-angled lip is ideal.
Finished effect of the pancake
Golden, evenly cooked, nicely round pancakes were what we were after – any burnt spots were taken into account.
Ease of cleaning
We judged how well the pans could be cleaned with hot soapy water and a sponge.
Related reviews and related content
Best non-stick frying pans
Best sauté pans
Best griddle pans
Best measuring cups
How to store pans
Pancake recipes and tips
The best tools for making pancakes
Our best ever pancake recipes
Our 10 favourite pancake toppings
How to flip a pancake
All you need to know about pancakes
If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at [email protected].
Which pan do you use to make pancakes? We’d love to hear your product recommendations in the comments below…
