Whenever I meet someone new, they always ask me how I find the restaurants that I review. There are a couple of different methods such as recommendations from friends, being a member of expat food groups, and searching on social media, but the main way is just keeping my eyes peeled on my outings and seeing what’s new and making a note of it. One such place is the Pancake Shop, which I pass on my way to work. The place has been open for about 6 months but despite having a daily reminder to give it a try, it wasn’t until it popped up on my Instagram feed that my curiosity outweighed my laziness and I climbed the three flights of stairs to give it a try.
The cafe come pancake shop has a very New York apartment vibe going on. It kind of felt as if we had walked into someones actual kitchen and they were making pancakes for us. It is chilled out and homely at the same time and I am sure you could spend many a happy hour here, working or reading a book.
Despite the name being Pancake Shop, I think it is technically more of a coffee shop that sells pancakes. They seem to take their drinks menu very seriously. The menu is quite small with a handful of teas and coffees, with an emphasis on handmade items. As there were two of us, and two signature coffees, we decided to opt for those. The first the John Bluezy (6,500) a cold vanilla latte with no ice. Being a huge ice vanilla latte fan I was keen to try this. For one thing the coffee was strong and rich, it was also a very creamy drink, probably due to the lack of ice watering it down. It wasn’t quite as sweet as I like my latte, but as we were eating along side the very sweet pancakes, this didn’t matter so much. The other drink we got was the Mocha Master (6,500), which was a creamy hot mocha. We both adored the look of this excessive drink, spilling over the side with its thick creamy marshmallow like topping, sprinkled with cocoa. We unfortunately took too long taking photos of it, so it was a bit cold by the end, but piping hot it would be a very luxurious treat.
The menu is rather simple on the food front, with just four different kind of pancakes, two sweet and two savoury. It was a tough choice narrowing it down, especially knowing how much I love a savoury treat, but we settled on trying the muster of the sweet versions.
First up was the Original (7,000). Three buttermilk pancakes topped with salty buttercream and syrup. These were the first pancakes I tried and it was love at first bite. The pancakes were light and fluffy, the butter cream creamy and salty, and the syrup sweet and tasty. In fact as soon as I eaten the first bite, I quickly went for the next one. The mix of sweet and salty was orgasmic. The portion was very filling too for 7,000 won.
The Chocolatey version are called the Outella (10,000), chocolate pancakes, chocolate butter cream, butter cream, chocolate cookie syrup, and original syrup. These were uber rich. The chocolate in the batter made these a bit claggier than the original version. However we did enjoy the flavours, and liked the crunch from the Oreos. Personally we found these too rich to finish, so definitely consider sharing them. I think in retrospect, we should have only got one of the sweet versions and one of the savouries but our eyes were bigger than our bellies.
Overall despite not finishing all the pancakes, I was still quite impressed, especially with the original version. If you have a very sweet tooth then you will love the Outella. It is very similar to Pancake Epidemic in Apgujeong, so if you enjoy that vibe and are looking for something similar in Itaewon then you have found it.
Pancake Shop is located 3F 455-1 Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. To get there take a train to Noksapyeong (line 6) and exit using the lift. Walk over the bridge and exit to the right, follow the road around and take the first left, walking uphill. Pancake Shop is located on the third floor above the pizza place on the ground floor. The entrance is around the corner to the right. For more information you can call them on 02-6407-3770.