Flipper's Umeda EST — Restaurant in Osaka

During my recent visit to Flippers in Umeda, I was looking forward to indulging in their jiggly pancakes, a dish I've savoured on several occasions before in London. The restaurant, although not very large, was adequately sized. However, reaching it from the train station was a challenge, requiring several attempts to find the right route. If you plan to visit, it's important to keep this in mind.

Upon my arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to find no queue, and I was promptly seated. However, my initial excitement began to wane as I realised that the servers were quite inattentive and seemed somewhat unbothered in their approach to service. I observed that they even forgot to provide menus and the complimentary nuts that Flippers is known for, even though the restaurant wasn't particularly busy at the time. Even a simple request for a glass of water took an unusually long time to fulfil.

Despite the lacklustre service, I must admit that my meal was delicious. I got the roasted pistachio pancakes, a delightful treat for the taste buds. I enjoyed the food so much that I returned a few days later to sample something new. Unfortunately, my second visit turned out to be an even more frustrating experience than the first. Despite being a solo diner, they struggled to find a table for me, and I found myself waiting for an uncomfortably long time at 40 minutes. This time, I ordered an Assam tea pancake, and to be honest, it was rather disappointing and not as flavoursome as the pistachio one. However, my disappointment was overshadowed by the abysmal service.

The staff appeared to be even more overwhelmed and understaffed during my second visit, so the chef had to step in to help out. It left me puzzled as to why they didn't have an adequate number of staff members, as it significantly impacted the overall dining experience. Furthermore, a particularly unsettling incident occurred during my second visit when I noticed the server take nuts from someone else's plate after they had left and then serve them to me. This blatant lack of hygiene and attention to detail was unacceptable.

All in all, I cannot recommend visiting Flippers Umeda primarily due to the poor service. While the food can be tasty, the overall experience is marred by the underwhelming service. Additionally, the prices, at around £15-16 GBP plus tax, felt rather steep considering the overall experience and the inconsistency in...

This is part of a food hall in the Umeda building. Plenty of great options here open until 11pm btw. We came around 9:30pm and it was quite empty. You must order first before taking a seat. However, they already prepared a table for us with 3 glasses of water when we were perusing the menu outside. Having arranged seating is a plus.

They have a good number of options for their souffle pancake. I highly recommend the lemon 🍋 souffle pancakes. It comes with a ball of lemon sorbet which is a refreshing change from the fresh cream or ice cream the pancakes usually come with. The lemon curd really cuts into the sweetness while the lemon cheesecake pancake batter keeps it from tasting too tart.

We also got the matcha pancakes which were alright. Maybe we had too many sublime forms of matcha and hojicha recently.

Flipper's is a chain, just like Gram, that sells souffle pancakes that are pretty dense and can be made into sandwich form with cream and fruits in the middle. I prefer eggy and airy pancakes so this did not satisfy my souffle pancake craving. Good to try out this chain though.

Speaking of dense pancakes, we also got their American-style pancakes which were rightfully heavy and came with fried chicken. The chicken was more Asian fusion but had maple syrup on the side. I felt this was pretty well conceptualized. Nice to try two different types of pancakes here.

Just a note: everyone has to order a main dish which can be a bit much if you just wanted to come for dessert like we did. Would have been nice to share two dishes between the...

if you're visiting from another country, here's how our experience went (as non-japanese speaking foreigners):

we came in around 4:40pm (16:40) and picked up a menu from the front, then we were seated right away since the restaurant had a number of open tables (it was an odd time, but even as we finished up around 5:30pm there were still a fair few tables available)

they had an english menu! the pictures helped as well, and they told us the pancakes took about 20 minutes to make. we were confused on how to order, but you just need to waive down a staff member and they'll take your order for you

we ordered 3 different kiseki pancake options to share between 2 people (plain, berries, and apple cinnamon) as well as 2 drinks. we had the drinks come out first and you get a good amount of volume. the pancakes were then brought out one at a time about 5 minutes apart, and overall it only took 25-30minutes for all the plates to arrive

to pay, you just take the receipt they place on the table up to the register. no need to do any clean-up at the table, the staff handled it for us

review: food was delicious! 1 plate is definitely enough for 1 person (we over estimated how filling they can be) staff were lovely and kind wait time was not bad at all atmosphere was good, but we ended up sitting next to a pair of seemingly snobby people who appeared to be sneering at us the whole time they were in the restaurant definitely recommend if you're looking to try fluffy souffle pancakes in...