In the last few years, a pancake boom has taken over Japan. Just go to a bookstore and you will see magazines featuring the newest pancake cafes and books that cover all different types of pancakes.
Just a walk around Tokyo will show you how many cafes hopped onto the bandwagon. Fluffy pancakes, small American pancakes, thick Japanese hotcakes, crepes, and other creations await you around almost every corner. Let me introduce some of the best pancake cafes!
Minami Aoyama is a “pancake battlefield” where you can eat various types of pancakes at almost every corner of the quarter. Since there are so many rivaling pancake cafe, the quality of the pancakes is extremely high.
Clinton St. Baking Company
This cafe is originally based in New York where especially the brunch menu and pancakes are very highly rated. The cafe serves simple American style maple-butter pancakes with a topping of your choice. You may choose blueberries, bananas and walnuts, or chocolate.
There are three types of toppings to choose from
YHT Minami Aoyama Building 1, 2F, 5-17-1 Minato-ku, Tokyo
https://clintonstreetbaking.co.jp/
crisscross Omotesando
crisscross is a cute cafe with a terrace surrounded by trees – something very rare in downtown Tokyo. They have many kinds of pancakes, from simple buttermilk pancakes, seasonal limited pancakes, and mouthwatering macadamia nut pancakes. Because of its hidden location in a back alley there isn’t a lot of traffic. This makes crisscross a quiet oasis in the big city.
Macadamia pancakes
5-7-28 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
https://www.tysons.jp/crisscross/en/
APOC
APOC is a pancake specialty shop for everyone who cares about where their food comes from. All of the ingredients are organic. All pancakes come as a set and depending of the set you select, are you can combine dessert pancakes with meal pancakes.
The spice mix goes well with sweet and savory pancakes (lower left); organic cereals (right)
Their spice mix goes well with the pancakes. When hearing that you can use the spice mix not only for the savory pancakes but also for the dessert ones, I did doubt it. But strangely, it was a good match and became almost somewhat close to a chai tea.
One pancake with an organic egg & one pancake with whipped cream and lemon
5-16-3-2F Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
http://www.sasser.ac/apoc/index.html
In addition to the “pancake battlefield” at Minami Aoyama, there are of course other famous cafes with delicious pancakes elsewhere.
“bills” at Odaiba is one of them, and even though they do have a cafe in Omotesando too, the location at Odaiba is much better!
bills Odaiba
The view is amazing!!
Australian popular “bills” at Odaiba is a restaurant which is originally from Sydney. It’s popular for its ricotta pancakes and organic scrambled eggs called “The world’s best breakfast”.
The atmosphere inside the cafe is very relaxing and from the seats close to the windows you have a spectacular view over Tokyo Bay and Rainbow Bridge.
The ricotta pancakes are made from scratch after you order them. Therefore it takes about 20 minutes until the three pancakes are ready to be eaten. Anyway, the fluffy pancakes melt like butter as soon as you put them into your mouth – amazing!!
Already delicious as they are, you may mix the pancakes with butter or maple syrup which come as a topping.
Super fluffy pancakes with butter and a banana topping
1-6-1 Decks Tokyo Beach Seaside Mall 3F, Minato-ku, Tokyo
