Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake, Metropolis at Metrotown — Local services in Burnaby

I was finally able to try Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake recently for my dad's birthday! I was a little hesitant because of the ratings at first, but I wasn’t sure how much merit to hold to them after reading some of the reviews in detail so I decided to give it a shot myself anyway.

I was right to do so! I think a lot of the reviews were done by people going in and expecting your typical western style New York Cheesecake when in fact, Japanese cheesecake is not meant to taste like that.. at all. So, I personally don't think it's fair to review Uncle Tetsu based off of an expectation of western-style cheesecake because that's not what they are!

For what it was supposed to taste like, I LOVE IT! My dad and I tried a slice right after it was freshly baked and still kind of warm, and it was SUPER light and fluffy. Yummy, but not the type of texture I like with these cakes. I left it for a few hours (as suggested), and tried another slice and I L O V E D this one. It was perfect!! Exactly what I love my Japanese cheesecakes to taste like: light, fluffy, and creamy. I then put it in the fridge overnight and had a slice cold, and it had settled in quite a bit more (as predicted) and it was a lot more dense, and flavour had sunken in more. Still damn good. The honey in the madeleines was amazing too 😍

The only thing I would say is that their service system could really be better. However, you ARE putting yourself in the situation so I don't really understand the complaints merely based off of wait time as you obviously know what you're getting into when you step into a long line that was barely moving when you got into it in the first place?

I know that they like to make their cakes fresh and I honestly adore that about them, but it would be fantastic to have a screen with the estimated wait time displayed or even one showcasing when the next “batch” is to come, just, SOMETHING to give people an idea of how long they'd be waiting for, rather than waiting aimlessly. I promise you’d have a lot more, even...

Good: Everything is freshly baked and fresh out of the oven. I love that Asian sweets are not overpowering as opposed to Western style desserts though both are good in its own way.

The cheesecake is best after one night in the fridge. The honey madeleines were very good. My dad devoured his before I could even get the box out of the bag at the mall.

Bad: I can appreciate the wait and the line up is due to the company providing fresh cheesecake and other goodies, but I don't find it worthwhile to wait longer than 15 minutes for a cheesecake especially now that there are competitors in Vancouver and other locations are also baking the cheesecakes fresh out of the oven.

The service delivery needs work. It was over a 30 minute wait in a 10 person line up. Nobody was on cash because everybody was busy packing up the cheesecakes for customers in line. I'd like to see a more efficient line of production to minimize the waiting. The person who was originally on cash left to assist their colleagues, and it would have been nice to know that she was going to be occupied in a different station and will return momentarily.

A woman was waiting for her madeleines and gave a friendly reminder she was waiting for something other than the cheesecake, and another worker responded fairly rudely that she wasn't responsible for the cash register and that the customer needed to wait. The worker was visibly irritated at the customer's comment. I get that a lot of customers are very entitled to what they think is their right, but the customer in question wasn't rude to the worker, so I thought the response was...

Not worth the wait! (please see also update at the end) I know the difference between Japanese cheese cakes and New York cheese cakes. I have had many Japanese cheese cakes before i tried Uncle Tetsu. I also know the difference between French Madeleines and Tetsu Madeleines. So here is my feedback. Overall not worth the wait.... I will give this store one more year when the fad is gone... Maxim, St Germain, Michele, these Chinese bakeries provide better Japanese cheese cakes!. Ours was wet in the middle like it was not cooked enough. The madeleines were not madeleines but more like a sponge cake and certainly did not taste honey. More, the wait is inappropriate. They should have two lines . One for the madeleines only and one for the cheese cakes. Having only one line is frustrating. So a minus 1 for the madeleines or cup cakes.. no taste. And a 1 for the cheese cake. A minus 5 for the wait. Good luck in the venture, you will not survive with the competition making better Japanese cheese cakes and better cakes in general.....and please do not call your cup cakes Madeleines, this is an insult to French Pastry... No recommendation from us on this one.

UPDATE: One day after. So we ate the remaining of the cheese cake and the Madeleines. The cheese cake was in the fridge overnight. The madeleines were left outside. We had a surprise, overall, the cheese cake tasted much better (bust similar to Chinese stores bought) and so did the Madeleines but no taste of honey We still think however that the wait does not make it worthwhile. We have increased our rating to...