Rizlabo Kitchen — Local services in Tokyo

This is a fantastic place to eat gluten free pancakes! The entire establishment is gluten free. I believe they also have crepes, but I've been craving their pancakes from photos since I learned of this place's existence, months ago. Check their website for info in which days they offer each food because I had to adjust my itinerary so that I could eat these pancakes! I enjoyed them very much despite the following.

First, they're whipped--this means the texture is very different from a regular pancake from the US. Second, the pancake is not as sweet as those found in the US. Like the Mexicans, the Japanese don't overdo sugar in their baked goods like Americans do. (Meaning: I adore sugar, and wished the cakes were sweeter). But, the strawberry sauce was definitely sweet enough, and there was enough of it on the plate to do each bite. I believe there were also ruby chocolate chips on these pancakes! It was a wonderful and delicious surprise.

Despite the above, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, and my appetite was sated with just a single serving.

NOTE: this place is a bit tricky to find. It is on the GROUND FLOOR of the building with the...

@food.whale1419

🏠 Small isn't even a good word to describe this place. This cafe is basically composed of 5 seats in front of a stall, in a common space with other small shops/ stalls as well. Considering the space, I would not recommend waiting here if the line is more than 10 people.

🥞 The pancakes I wouldn't say were the fluffiest ever, but the topping well made up for it. We had the strawberry and the caramel one. Personally I love the strawberry one!

🍓 It was filled with fresh strawberries around the plate, a strawberry cream in the middle, and a strawberry sauce on top. It has good strawberry flavors without being too artificial, and the sweet and sour just makes everything better.

🍮 As for the caramel one, it's definitely sweeter than the strawberry one, but not overwhelmingly so. The crunch on top really added to the dish, and the caramel drizzle highlighted the sweetness just a bit more. A choice if you have a big sweet tooth. Though I have to say, the strawberry was definitely easier to finish than the...

The vibe here was amazing. This little cafe is located in an old Japanese mansion in Harajuku, together with a couple of other cafes. Of course, as it offers gluten-free options, I really wanted to try it at least once before leaving the country, and I must say.......... it didn't satisfy my expectations.

The service wasn't the best: the waiters were polite but it took so long for them to get us our drinks, and then it took so long to get the pancakes that by the time we were eating the pancakes, the drinks were either cold or finished already. That's definitely NG.

The price is also not cheap compared to other pancake places in Tokyo, of course one could say that here they prepare gluten free pancakes, but leaving that aside, our pancakes (i got the chocolate one and my friend ordered the caramel one) were not particularly flavorful.

Also, leaving this aside, as you might imagine, it's the kind of place that attracts mostly tourists rather...