Rainbow Pancake - Tokyo, Japan

During my 24 hours of stay in Tokyo, I insisted to make time for pancake because pancakes I had on the land of rising sun NEVER once disappoint me.

I arrived at 10am, to this:

They're opening at 11am, and why were these people in line an hour earlier, or even earlier? Do they not need to go to work / school? The demographic at a glance: 98% female. 

I guess everyone just wake up and decided to have pancake that day. I was expecting a maximum of 1.5 hours of queue and I'm okay with that; Eggs 'n Things in Osaka took me an hour and it didn't feel like I've been standing in line for so long as everyone is extremely well-behaved. (Plus most reviews I read online said as the location of this shop isn't on the main road, the usual line only takes 40 mins to an hour.) Man I was wrong. Rainbow Pancake took me T H R E E H O U R S. And it was quite a chilly winter morning... But no one's making a single complaint. Everyone's in line quietly, peacefully. No grumpy faces no annoyed voices. Now that I recall, while most shops in that area weren't open yet, it was really quiet in fact.

Where I was almost 3 hours ago. The last stretch of line. 

Photo taken whilst we're still waiting outside the shop, on the second floor of the building. 

Another hour to go.

2 more lines were out of the pic cause my camera isn't wide angle. 

The ever friendly staffs will take your order while you're standing in line (when you've finally reached the left corner of the pic above) and I'm amazed at how they did not mess up with the orders as they did not reconfirm our orders after we were seated. I guess it's a #onlyinjapan thing.

It is a relatively small shop (that explains the queue), filled with fragrant aroma of freshly made pancakes and warm smiles and good looking staffs.

Their pancakes are FLUFFY. F L U F F Y. I repeat, F L U F F Y. Fluffy, airy, soft, buttery with hints of eggs. Every bite is perfection.

Seasonal Fruit Pancake, the whipped cream is light in both texture and sweetness. 

My pick: the popular Macadamia Nut Sauce Pancake. The tastes are very much well-balanced. The sauce is rich in macadamia taste and not overly sweetened; and as the pancakes are slightly thicker you can still taste the very delicate and buttery flavor of the pancake itself.

Despite the crazy queue outside, none of the staffs are giving you the pressure to finish your food quickly. They have been so friendly that they offered to take photos for us, and even told us to use the props (which I thought are decorative items).

So it turned out... worth the queue! I'll be back queuing again!

I can't find a decent pancake back in Malaysia (yes, not even a decent one). If you do know of any, kindly, PLEASE share with me. 'Em pancakes craving are gettin' serious. 

NOTE: My friend's brother who went recently doesn't fancy Rainbow Pancake though :( So I guess it's the place for fluffy pancake lovers only. Nonetheless, it's still good pancakes! :D