**PS. Seattle, you can now get Souffle Pancakes at Beanfish at Uwajimaya. I’ve been told Cafe Remix who used to have them is now closed. **
Is anyone else out there obsessed about Japanese Souffle pancakes? I first saw these thick, fluffy pancakes on Instagram and put them on my bucket list of things to try in Japan. I remembered seeing lined-up pancake restaurants when the kids were smaller when we visited Tokyo and now I realize these lineups were probably for these pancakes. I pinned a bunch of potential Souffle pancake stops in my Google Maps before we left on a recent trip and I kept my fingers crossed that somewhere along our travels we would get to see what all the Japanese souffle pancake hype was all about.
I like getting good value when I travel so I booked many of the hotels on our most recent trip because they had breakfast included, like this incredible breakfast at our hotel in Nagoya. And because many souffle pancake restaurants don’t open very early our best chance to try them would be at lunch time. We ended up finding time on one of our last days in Japan and it was in an area just outside of the heart of Tokyo called Kichijoji that we passed through on our way to the Studio Ghibli. (If you are hoping to head to Studio Ghibli, be forewarned that you need to book tickets ahead. You also need to arrive pretty much precisely at the time on your ticket. You will not be able to go in earlier or later than your assigned time and I know that because I tried. I will hopefully blog about our experiences at Studio Ghibli soon so I can tell you more.).
The shopping area in Kichijoji is a nice area to spend some time and this was where we found a Flippers pancake without any line.
Souffle pancakes take about 20 minutes to prepare so I’ve read there are often lineups at souffle pancake restaurants. They’re probably also not the best to try if you are in a rush. We had a lot of time when we sat down for our souffle pancakes at Flippers in Kichijoji. We saw a promotion for a “melty chocolate” souffle pancake when we went so we decided that we would try this one along with a more traditional souffle pancake. We also had a savory pancake that wasn’t a souffle pancake at all, but more like a pancake appetizer to eat before the souffle pancakes arrived.
And we loved all the pancakes. The souffle pancakes were fluffy, delicious and fun. I couldn’t believe we had never tried them before and I can’t wait for them to become popular in Seattle. I read a lot of news from Vancouver BC and saw that Gram Cafe, a famous souffle pancake restaurant in Japan will be coming to Vancouver and Richmond BC later this year. I didn’t realize they already have a location in San Francisco too, and I’m hoping that maybe Seattle is next for Japanese Souffle pancakes. I also recently read in Daily Hive Vancouver that you can get souffle pancakes at Sweet Somethings in Vancouver. It sounds like maybe souffle pancakes are finally on their way to the Pacific Northwest. I’ve also heard that Tsujiri in Richmond BC has a matcha version of souffle pancakes and the Richmond Night Market has Japanese souffle pancakes at a place called “fluffy Souffle”
Have you tried Japanese Souffle pancakes? And maybe you’ve found them in Seattle? (If you do can you please let me know too!). I’ll definitely let you know if I find them soon here as well!
(PS. if you are impatient to try them but are good at cooking, I found a recipe to make your own Souffle Pancakes from Kirbie’s Cravings and my mom made me this recipe for Japanese Souffle pancakes from Just One Cookbook and they were delicious too. And if you love pancakes as much as we even if they are not souffle ones, we found some really yummy pancakes in Amsterdam and we also love the pancakes and waffles at Eques in Bellevue Washington too.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)