When I started seeing pictures of stacks of pancakes on my Instagram feed recently, I was wondering WHY SO MANY PEOPLE IN JAPAN NOW AH?
I only found out that KYUSHU PANCAKES is located right on our island when I clicked on the geotag. And HEY, it’s located at NOVENA – the latest happening spot where every cafe and possible F&B establishments are popping up there! This time, it’s at Novena Regency where the famous Waan Cha is located at!
Kysuhu pancake prides itself with their pancake mix which include a myriad of grains right from the fields of Kyushu (7 to be exact!) and farmed raw sugar from Okinawa and Kagoshima. Sounds healthy. Hmm.. So how different did it fare from the usual pancakes we are so used to having? We’ll see.
The Place
Their outlet in Singapore is their 5th outlet in the world, with one in Japan and the other 3 outlets in TAIWAN. I heard about the crazy queues they have in Taiwan for these pancakes, and weren’t surprised to find that they are perpetually packed on weekends. We headed down at an awkward timing of 3.30pm and had to wait just 5 minutes for our table on a weekend! When we opened the super heavy door to enter the cafe, the first thought that struck me was, WOW THIS CAFE IS DAMN JAPANESE LAH. The entire interior just brought me back to my tea sessions back in Japan, the wooden hues of everything and the ambience is… So Japan.
Also, the door is REALLY HEAVY. SERIOUS. Let me know if you find it otherwise.
The Menu
Prices are slightly steep for their brunches in my opinion, but afterall they are gluten free grains and what not, so I guess it’s justifiable as long as it tastes good?In other news, they’ve got a really really adorable name card.
The Food
1. Tomato Soda ($6.50)
Any thing exotic sounding, you can count Explodingbelly in. And it is really TOMATO SODA. LIKE TOMATO SODA. Tomato in the soda. Apparently we were told that this was only served in atas high end Japanese restaurants. Well.. I guess… I feel much more refined after having this. How you should have this is, manually crushing the tomato in the soda. The verdict? It’s not weird, but it’s just tomato and soda lor. For a more homogeneous flavor, wait for a while after crushing it, before you drink!
2. Karaage Chicken Waffle ($19++)
The karaage chicken was on point with its flavors and light crispness. Reminds me a lot of our har cheong gai. VERY SHIOK. This is the maple like syrup that was provided to create that sweet-savory combination. Chicken was on point, but the waffle, however, fared really poorly. There was no hint of crispness on its exterior, and the entire waffle felt limp and bready. Weird. Poor textures. Weird.
They should just offer the karaage chicken on its own.
3. Matcha Mont Blanc ($18++)
Part of its seasonal pancakes menu – the matcha montblanc, which is estimated to be around for just the next couple of months before it changes to something else.
Ah, that elusive Japanese healthy pancake. How did it fare? It’s perhaps a kind of acquired taste because we didn’t all quite enjoy it. We are so accustomed to our usual buttery fluffy pancakes, this healthier version lacked the buttery goodness and was pretty grainy tasting. Hmm.. Health conscious people might enjoy this one!The matcha mont blanc was a little flat, did not taste too much of the matcha and overall, pretty disappointing I’d say.
Closing Remarks
I came here feeling absolutely psyched, however I left as a disappointed diner as the pancakes were not to my liking. The only saving grace of this entire visit was probably the company and well.. The karaage chicken, but I’d rather pay $10 for my good old har cheong gai, really.
I’m not too sure if this is the just open jitters but I really don’t see where and why there’s a hype about Kyushu Pancake. Hmm..
How to get there?
275 Thomson Road Novena Regency
#01-08
Singapore 307645
Opening Hours
Daily; 11am to 9pm
No Comments Yet