Listen to the Rain

A month or so ago, I learned that Hanabusa Cafe of Toronto, famous for its super-fluffy soufflé pancakes, was going to open a branch in Chicago and told my friends about it and that we should go. A couple weeks ago, worldbshiny texted me and said that we should go. Last week, I suggested that we go on Tuesday for lunch, so we did. We got there around 11:30, got in line, and then went to Benj Yehuda instead when we learned that there was an hour-and-a-half wait for food after ordering.

After my Japanese tutoring, I immediately tried again and they weren't even serving pancakes anymore due to the wait time, but I got a matcha latte that was delicious.

Yesterday I left work a little early and tried again, and it turned out that third time was the charm (三度目の正直).


It was even fluffier than I was expecting. They piled pancake mix on top of pancake mix and had a double-sided fryer so there wasn't any extra gravity from flipping the pancakes, which were delicious. My only complaint was that I would have liked a little bit more matcha syrup because matcha makes almost anything better and also I misallocated my syrup and ran out right at the end.

I'm definitely going back. They have taro pancakes and early grey and caramel pancakes and jasmine pancakes and I want to try them all. worldbshiny is also really interested in the cheese tea--currently popular in East Asia, but which she hadn't heard about before--and we'll be back once they open all the way. I was worried about their ability to make the food in a reasonable time, but the third time I went I only had to wait ten minutes.

Also, they have chabudai-style seating by the window, so I sat there and I felt right at home. 🇯🇵

(Translator's note: "Fuwafuwa" means "fluffy.")