Fuwa Fuwa: an exact soufflé science

If you like delicious flavours and something different to fill your belly (and your Instagram feed) take a trip to the UK’s only soufflé pancake café!

Having first tasted these fluffy pieces of heaven in Hoshino Coffee, a chain with over 150 outlets across Japan, I was immediately hooked! London I thought, renowned foodie destination, was sure to have somewhere for me to get my pancakes fix. Sure enough, there was one place specializing in these soufflé pancakes: Fuwa Fuwa.

The café first set up shop as a pop-up in Westfield Stratford, but as I hadn’t gotten my jabs to explore so far outside of central London, I waited a few months for its expansion. Sure enough they have now moved to a more central location, still in a pop-up style, located at the Brunswick Centre just outside Russell Square station. The setup is very simple with minimal decor. Although cute, it does look a little barren.

However, being a pop-up type setting, this is forgivable, especially since the quality and aesthetic of the food plated up more than compensates. The menu consists of sweet soufflé pancakes, so if you come here with anyone who dislikes pancakes, you should probably reconsider your friendship. It takes around 20-30 minutes to make them (unfortunately longer than most places), so I recommend you take some light entertainment (maybe that lecture you missed because you were trekking across London for pancakes!)

A bonus, however, is that the cooking takes place for all to see - the fluffiest batter is scooped out and placed onto the griddle, and then another is added! That’s right, to attain the extreme thick n’ fluffy character, two scoops are stacked. The precision-heated griddle has an infra-red temperature sensor, used to determine if it is pancake ready. The whole affair is very satisfying to watch and so you should definitely film this for your story, because your 375 followers definitely need to see this important process ;)

The menu is reasonably priced, slightly more expensive than a hipster milkshake but slightly less than your average avocado toast, with the pancakes costing between £7.90 and £8.90. The flavours include a honeycomb butter with whipped cream and syrupy goodness, Banana and Nutella (need I say more?) and summer fruit (fruit = new year new me?). With so much effort put into the pancakes themselves, the toppings are surprisingly good. The whipped cream I tried was out of this world, and the yuzu cream cheese and blueberry compote were a flavour match made in heaven. The pancake itself, after 20 minutes spent photographing it for Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and of course LinkedIn, was finally cut into.

It’s hard to explain its light and fluffy texture, but let’s just say that the NASA scientists who used the ultra-low-density Aerogel material to catch space dust should probably reconsider their choice. Despite their ultra-low density, they are surprisingly filling! You will still probably want another for the amazing taste.. but let’s be honest, you can’t afford that on a student budget.

All in all, highly recommended - visit Fuwa Fuwa soon to get your pancake fix!