Pancakes are without doubt one of my absolute favourite foods, so during one of my latest visits to London, I knew I had to finally sample some Japanese soufflé pancakes. The soufflé pancake style first appeared and gained traction within Japan's café scene, particularly concentrated in cities like Osaka and Tokyo. Establishments such as Gram Cafe and Pancakes and A Happy Pancake made famous the distinctive 'jiggly,' sky-high appearance. But the pancakes rapidly crossed over to the UK and the soufflé pancake craze exploded on platforms like Instagram and TikTok from around 2018.
Companies like Fuwa Fuwa (established in Toronto in 2018) and C A Japanese Pancakes (discovered by London founders in 2019) introduced the concept to Western audiences. Food influencers and tourists saturated social media with slow-motion clips of the pancakes wobbling, transforming them into an instant online phenomenon.
Given that I relocated from London in 2019, followed by the pandemic, followed by having a baby, I'd spotted the pancakes online but never actually sampled them in person. Nevertheless, I resolved to remedy that during my recent London visit and made my way to Fuwa Fuwa in Soho.
I'd seen online that the café frequently has queues stretching outside and you can 'expect a minimum wait time of 15 to 30 minutes' for food. This resulted in me mistakenly joining a queue for the wrong establishment, which I assumed was Fuwa Fuwa. However, I quickly cottoned on that I was actually being directed into trendy new bakery Onsu, and promptly left. I discovered Fuwa Fuwa just down the street and I must confess that my initial impression was that the exterior could benefit from some maintenance. The paintwork certainly wasn't looking pristine, to put it mildly.
Unlike Onsu – which is presently trending amongst food enthusiasts – there wasn't a queue either, which I found rather strange given it was Saturday morning in central London. Just one customer was ahead of me and once they'd been served, it was my go. I informed the member of staff that I was torn between the Strawberry Fluffcake (strawberry sauce, vanilla cream, fresh strawberries, and toasted almonds) pancakes and the Blueberry and Yuzu Cheesecake pancakes, which come topped with deconstructed yuzu cream cheese, blueberry compote, and biscuit crumb. He mentioned the Blueberry and Yuzu Cheesecake pancakes were the more sought-after option of the two so I opted for those.
I handed over £11.90 for them, which as you'll probably acknowledge is substantial for pancakes. Nevertheless, I genuinely wanted to sample them. A vacant table and chair were available so I settled down there, anticipating somewhat of a delay for the pancakes, yet I was taken aback when I was summoned back to the counter to collect my order almost immediately.
The pancakes definitely resembled how they appear online and they were as light as you'd anticipate, but I can't claim the flavour impressed me that significantly. As in I'd probably suggest I've enjoyed tastier pancakes at home myself. The steep prices leave a sour note, despite the food itself being enjoyable.
Central London or not, shelling out nearly £12 for pancakes feels rather excessive, even for a self-confessed food enthusiast like myself. There's no denying it was an enjoyable one-off experience, and I can certainly understand the appeal for tourists visiting London who don't have anything comparable on their doorstep. However, I can't honestly say it'll become a regular haunt on my London foodie circuit. Judging by the notably absent queues, it appears plenty of others feel the same way now that the social media hype has well and truly fizzled out.
