I remembered the days when my mates and I were in the States, we would head to those diners that offer gigantic American breakfasts with huge servings of pancakes on the side. Almost impossible to finish all the food on our own but always so satisfying and enjoyable to fully indulge in a meal fit for a king. Those American pancakes were not just big in size but heavy in carbs as they really meant to fill your tummy up and fuel you for the rest of the day. However, in this post today, I’m featuring a different kind of pancakes that I feel are more like a dessert than a meal on its own.
So what are we waiting for? Pancakes, here we come! π
Belle Ville Pancake Cafe hails from Osaka, Japan. They are most famous for their soft and fluffy meringue millefeuille pancakes.
This cafe at Bugis Junction isn’t huge in space so is unable to sit a lot of customers at one go. I highly recommend that you come during non-peak meal times, otherwise you may have to wait in line for a long time (queue starts from this entrance as per pic above) because it takes time for the pancakes to be made which means it’s not going to be a quick meal.
The Menu
Belle Ville Pancake Cafe mainly specialises in pancakes but they also have a small selection of savoury sandwiches.
For the full menu, check out their Facebook page here.
J had an Iced Americano ($4.80) which was terribly acidic. Ewh.
I had a pot of Belle-Ville Original Tea ($4.50) that was light in tea flavour but totally complemented the pancakes without overpowering the taste buds. It came with a delicious biscuit on the side.
We started off with a Katsu Sandwich ($6.20 for the sandwich or $9.70 per set with choice of hot/iced drink) which took more than 20 minutes to come. Honestly, when this was brought to our table, it didn’t impress us much. The sandwich looked old. Portion was miserably small. Nothing like their description on the menu ‘…legendary crispy fried pork fillet in soft, pillowy Japanese white bread, sealed in Belle-Ville’s original Tonkatsu sauce…’.
The katsu sandwich tasted just like how it looked. ‘Legendary’ cold and unfresh.Β π Bread was dry and hard. Pork fillet was tough. Cabbage was still crunchy. But the only thing that stood out was the tonkatsu sauce. I wouldn’t recommend getting the sandwich, seriously.
It was another 10-15 minutes wait for our Mango Pancake ($14.40 for 4 pieces pancake) and finally the star of the show appeared. Not as luxurious looking as the menu pic but again most food we get never look the same as the menu, lol. I wished there were more mango chunks. π
Despite all the little gripes, I must say this was one of the BEST pancakes I ever had. The mango chunks were surprisingly warm, not super sweet but were still nice and juicy. The pancakes were like soft and pillowy sponges of egg whites that would almost immediately melt in mouth. So light, fluffy and airy – this was like the souffle version of pancakes.
Overall, the combination of the Hokkaido cream, pancakes, mango and sauce was a marriage made in heaven. Made the perfect dessert as it didn’t feel heavy and it wasn’t too sweet either. Seriously, I could have another portion of this pancake all to myself without feeling sickly.
Hmm, so are the pancakes worth the long wait?
I would say yes because they are darn delicious. I don’t like desserts that are extremely dense, heavy, rich and/or cloying, so Belle-Ville’s pancakes are really my cup of tea. And like what I’ve mentioned above, just go for what they do best – the pancakes – and forget about the savoury sandwiches which are a huge disappointment.