I waited an hour in line for Tokyo’s famous soufflé pancakes. I felt like a total tourist, but I have zero regrets.

As a food writer, I sometimes find myself waiting in long lines in the name of good investigative journalism, like spending five hours in the hopes of trying a Something About Her sandwich on opening day.

But I wasn’t on assignment when my boyfriend and I waited over an hour for Japan’s famous soufflé pancakes at Micasadeco & Cafe during our first trip to Tokyo. I just wanted to know if they were as good as everyone said.

The pancakes were so delicious that I knew I had to write about them.

Soufflé pancakes are known for their fluffy, cloud-like texture.

The texture is achieved by using whipped egg whites, as you would for a soufflé. There’s debate over who started the trend, although Nathan Tran, a restaurant owner in Hawaii, has said it started at his place.

“We’re the originators of that item,” Tran told Honolulu Magazine in 2021. “We were the first ones, period, to do it.”

Tran told the magazine that he was inspired to combine pancakes and soufflés after opening his restaurant Cream Pot in 2008. Tran kept pancakes off the menu because he wasn’t a fan of the classic breakfast dish. But when tourists kept requesting them, he decided to make pancakes using the soufflé technique. They were an instant hit.

“We separate 1,300 to 1,400 eggs every day, it’s very laborious,” Tran told the magazine, which noted that his restaurant now calls itself the “original place for soufflé pancakes.”

Soufflé pancakes have become especially popular in Japan, where there’s no shortage of cafés and restaurants offering the iconic treat.

Flipper’s and Gram Cafe have become the most famous of the bunch, even opening locations in California and New York. But my boyfriend and I decided to try the soufflé pancakes from Micasadeco & Cafe, which came highly recommended from a friend.

We visited Micasadeco & Cafe while spending the day in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood.

Harajuku is known for the bustling Takeshita Street, which features the animal cafés — where you can pet everything from fluffy samoyeds to baby pigs — as well as a variety of shops selling everything from rainbow cotton candy to sky-high tornado potatoes.

Micasadeco & Cafe is about an eight-minute walk from Takeshita Street, tucked away in a much quieter part of the neighborhood. The restaurant opened in Tokyo in 2013 and now has locations in Kyoto and Osaka.

There was already a line around the block when we arrived at Micasadeco & Cafe just before noon.

My boyfriend and I groaned when we saw the massive line, but quickly decided to stick it out.

After thinking about pancakes all morning, our hearts were set on those pillowy clouds.

After almost an hour on the dot, we were led inside the small but cheerful turquoise restaurant.

As we sat down, a server told us that the famous soufflé pancakes are made to order and take about 30 minutes.

We quickly sped through the short menu, which included traditional pancakes and eggs. We knew we wanted to stick to the soufflé variety, ordering the most popular flavor and a seasonal special.

I sipped on a sakura jelly soda, one of the restaurant’s seasonal drinks, while we waited.

We went to Japan just as the famous cherry blossoms were beginning to bloom, a time known as sakura season. From cocktails to Starbucks coffee, it seemed almost everywhere we went had a special sakura drink — and I wanted to try all of them.

Micasadeco & Cafe’s sakura jelly soda was delightfully fizzy and refreshing, with just a hint of that floral sakura flavor. It was perfect for spring.

We could also watch the chefs at work from the restaurant’s open kitchen.

The chefs expertly mixed and flipped their pancake batter as a row of orders waited on the counter.

Our jaws dropped as the first plate of pancakes arrived.

These ricotta cheese pancakes are the most popular order at Micasadeco & Cafe. The dish, which cost 1,750 yen, or about $12, featured three plump pancakes with a side of cream, plus maple syrup served in a mini beaker.

Our dish arrived with “Merci” spelled out in powdered sugar, a sweet thank you from the chef. The pancakes, topped with a perfectly square butter knob, looked so plump you could rest your head on them.

My boyfriend and I couldn’t resist moving the plate around, laughing like kids as we watched the pancakes jiggle. Micasadeco & Cafe says on its website that soufflé pancakes are known as the “dancing pancakes.” I couldn’t think of a more fitting nickname.

The soufflé pancakes were as delicious and fluffy as they looked. Their texture was light as air, melting in my mouth, and the ricotta cheese and fresh cream added a lovely hint of sweetness.

My boyfriend and I were also huge fans of the maple syrup. I was shocked to learn it was from Costco’s Kirkland brand, a discovery I made when I spotted the bottle on the way to the bathroom.

We also tried the seasonal sakura pancakes, which looked stunning on the plate.

The pancakes, which cost 1,950 yen, or about $14, were infused with sakura powder and topped with matcha and strawberry cream, as well as fresh strawberries. Matcha syrup and fresh strawberry-infused cream were also provided on the side.

The texture was just as light and cloud-like as the ricotta cheese pancakes, but tinged with that subtle sakura flavor. The pancakes tasted surprising and sweet, pairing perfectly with the fresh strawberry cream.

I loved the flavor of the pancakes so much that I didn’t even use the matcha or maple syrups.

We loved trying Japan’s famous soufflé pancakes in Harajuku.

Micasadeco & Cafe promises to deliver food that’s “Delicious! Cute! Fun!” and its soufflé pancakes were all of the above. They were delightful and playful, but also super delicious. This is not a dish that just looks good on social media.

Our lunch was a good reminder that sometimes the “tourist trap” can still be worth trying. It’s a lesson we embraced as we walked through Takeshita Street and tried glazed strawberries on skewers and tornado potatoes — both delicious!

So, if you’re heading to Japan, seek out the hidden gems, but don’t be afraid to try a few of the TikTok spots. Sometimes waiting in line is worth it.

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