A Happy Pancake Kyoto — Restaurant in Kyoto

Happy pancake? More like...unhappy pancake...

First of all, the reservation/waitlist system was very unorganized. You sign in on a tablet inside, but must do so quickly unless you want to be shooed away by one of the workers for standing inside of the restaurant. You'll be instructed to "Go outside," and that literally means "go outside" (no matter what the weather may be).

I understand that they may have had complaints from neighboring businesses due to unwanted customer-gathering in the common area (specifically next to a business that seems to be more locally-oriented), but surely there's a better system than this.

You are given a ticket with a number assigned to your group which will eventually be called (emailed), but there is no estimated wait-time given.

Moving on, once our number was actually called, we were allowed back in the restaurant, but instead of being welcomed, we were gazed at from afar (aka from behind the kitchen) by frozen monuments of so-called servers. We were left standing at the entryway, along with two other groups, for over 10 minutes despite multiple tables being available and the servers not working on anything. Any form of communication would have been a nice gesture.

Once we were finally seated, a male worker (who seems to primarily enjoy staying in the kitchen) hastily threw down some cups of water with little greeting. When we were ready to order, we attempted multiple times to summon a server. But again, we were accompanied by blank stares (mind you, with eye contact). It almost seemed as if no one wanted to serve us.

I suspect that two of the three servers were paired up as worker and trainee. But upon observing previous reviews, it appears that these so-called trainees may permanently remain in these positions.

The experience did get better once we ordered, and a note informing us about the extra time that it takes to prepare the soufflé pancakes was given and appreciated. I personally don't mind long waits when it comes to receiving my order.

The food itself was decent. Better than normal pancakes, but nothing particularly remarkable. We did order the breakfast though, which is slightly different when compared to the dessert options. It was good, but was overshadowed in our experience by the subpar service.

I read in previous reviews that locals may be favored in terms of service over people who are more obviously "tourists." There was a Japanese family sitting across from us who seemed to be tended to much more than anyone else. It is also worth noting that they had ordered something that was marked as unavailable on the English menu, but that I guess was still left as an option on the Japanese menu for their Japanese guests.

Side note: One of the members of my party speaks fluent Japanese, and even communicated that to the servers, but they still hardly attempted to have any...

In case you need spiritual inspiration or direction in your life, I’m hear to tell you I have discovered religion and it came in the form of these UNIQUELY Japanes pancakes at A Happy Pancake’s Kyoto location. The store is on a small street, not too far from Nishiki market. It’s a small place (which I keep saying in reviews of Japanese restaurants, but really they’re all small) on the second floor of the building.

It takes 20 minutes to make your pancakes which are made with whipped egg whites so they’re especially fluffy. I mean ESPECIALLY fluffy. (It also seemed to take almost that long to bring us our tea and coffee, but the superb divinity of the pancakes made us forget about that.)

The coffee was good and the tea served were the premium Mighty Leaf bags.

I ordered the Matcha Green tea pancake with “black honey” butter and adzuki bean butter. (Side note, I’m also developing a new religion around Japan’s “black honey.”) I didn’t taste the matcha much but the black honey was PHENOMENAL.

My wife ordered the Peach and Rose Hips Pancake. This was a summer special and had a very refreshing taste. It was served with peaches on the side so it was a little more food than the matcha pancake dish. They tasted great. My wife loved all the flavors put together, especially the black honey, and including the peach rose hip jelly and whipped cream.

You can watch them making the pancakes in a window next to the kitchen. (Something to do with that 20 minutes of time.) If we lived in Kyoto, or nearby any of the other “A Happy Pancake” locations, our live would forever revolve around when we would be going back to eat there.

Join my movement. Eat here. Let us spread peace and joy throughout the world by raising awareness of these heavenly,...

After a week in Japan we craved some pancakes. Coming from the States, I like to think that we know a thing or two about a good pancake breakfast.

Here’s what to know about this spot:

1: VERY long wait time. Now, we found out an hour into waiting that they have a wait time disclaimer at each table (see photo). Looks like each dish is specially prepared. That’s great if you’re really into cute little fluffy pancakes that are individually prepared and have a lot of time to kill. We were lucky to get right in today at about 11:15, and ordered shortly thereafter. However, we didn’t receive our food (or our two black coffees) until about an hour after ordering. This sort of ruined the vibe since by the time you get your food, you’re pretty much starving.

2: Confusing wait process. You get a ticket to wait for a table, but you really can’t congregate out in front of the door and they tell you not to. There’s virtually nowhere else to stand or sit, and it’s really crowded in front of the doors. Right before we were seated we heard the hostess telling people the wait was about an hour.

3: Honestly and overall, disappointing food for the wait time. My pancakes were dry and served with no syrup, cream or butter. I think I had an egg or two scrambled. My s/o’s pancakes looked better but only slightly so. Hers came with a walnut syrup of some kind and whipped cream that looked fresh and airy. You should know the pancakes are about the size of a hockey puck and pretty fluffy, but mine at least were flavorless and fairly dry.

Overall we would not go back. I see lots of rave reviews, I guess if you’re really looking for special, bespoke pancakes this is your spot. Otherwise grab breakfast...