Earlier this year, Gram Cafe & Pancakes, a Japanese chain restaurant, opened one of its stores in Milpitas. Renowned for its sweet treats, especially its fluffy pancakes, the establishment is the second Gram Cafe & Pancakes in the Bay Area, the first being in San Francisco.
Often seen in social media posts, Gram Cafe & Pancakes’ creations are known to be both tasty and aesthetically pleasing. As an avid lover of sweet treats and drinks, I went to the new Gram Cafe & Pancakes in Milpitas to see if its fluffy pancakes lived up to their reputation.
Each fluffy pancake costs $5; however, a set of five only costs $20. There are five flavors of fluffy pancakes: matcha, ube, pumpkin, Oreo, and vanilla. I bought the set of five and got one flavor each. At first, I was disappointed about the size of the pancakes because despite their rather steep price tag, each pancake’s diameter was only about as big as the size of my palm. However, after trying each pancake, I reached the conclusion that some of the flavors were worth the price, while others fell short.
The ube and vanilla fluffy pancakes were disappointing. The ube pancake had a vibrant purple filling, but the bright coloring couldn’t compensate for its blandness. The vanilla pancake lacked a vanilla flavor and instead just tasted like cream. Though the cream flavor was not bad and tasted like typical custard, it was definitely not vanilla as advertised.
On the other hand, the pumpkin, Oreo, and matcha fluffy pancakes met my expectations and were quite delicious. The pumpkin pancake tasted similar to pumpkin pie, but its flavor was nowhere near as strong. Its cinnamon seasoning was quite pleasant and was not overpowering like many other pumpkin-flavored products. The Oreo pancake had a cookie layering with its chocolate filling and had a delectable creamy chocolate taste. Like the pumpkin pancake, its flavoring was on the lighter side. Lastly, the matcha pancake had an excellent taste and captured the matcha flavor well. Compared to the other pancakes, the matcha pancake had a much stronger flavor but was still not overpowering.
All the fluffy pancake flavors had the same pancake base, each living up to their names of being fluffy with their soft textures and sweet flavors. The fluffy pancakes themselves tasted like extremely soft and moist sponge cakes. When the flavored creme was added in the middle of the two bases, it was basically a hamburger-shaped cake. All the fluffy pancakes were also very sweet, so only buy these pancakes if you have a sweet tooth.
Overall, I found the matcha flavor to be the best out of all the fluffy pancake flavors and would advise others to steer away from ordering the ube or vanilla flavors. It is the only flavor that I would say exceeded my expectations. Ultimately, I would say that the fluffy pancakes at Gram Cafe & Pancakes live up to their hype and price as long as you order the right flavors.
