Milan’s first Japanese soufflé pancake shop turned the humble breakfast stack into a jiggling cloud, and the city has been queuing ever since.
Intro
If you’ve spent more than five minutes on food TikTok, you’ve seen them: pancakes so tall and so wobbly they look like they might float off the plate. These are Japanese soufflé pancakes, and in Japan they’re a full-blown institution. The style exploded out of Tokyo in the mid-2010s, with shops in Harajuku and Shibuya pulling hour-long queues of people waiting for a stack that jiggles on camera. The secret is whipped egg whites folded into the batter and a slow, low-temperature cook under a lid, closer to steaming than frying. The name says it all: fuwa fuwa is Japanese onomatopoeia for “fluffy.”
Panfuwa brought that exact format to Italy at the end of 2023, opening its first shop on Via Vetere near Colonne di San Lorenzo. It was the first place in the country dedicated entirely to soufflé pancakes, and the queue outside became a Milanese landmark of its own. The brand has since expanded fast: three locations in Milan (Via Vetere, Piazzale Lagosta in Mercato Isola, and CityLife at Piazza Tre Torri), plus outposts in Rome, Como, Turin and Florence.
The vibe
Each Milan location has its own personality. Via Vetere is the original: tiny, maybe fifteen seats, with the griddle visible from the street so you can watch the pancakes rise in real time. It’s charming and cramped in equal measure, and on weekends the wait can stretch toward an hour. Lagosta is roomier and skews brunch crowd, while CityLife is the newest and most polished of the three, built for the post-shopping merenda.
Across all three, the mood is cozy Japanese café: soft lighting, matcha lattes, pastel plating, and a steady rotation of phones filming the wobble test. The staff is consistently warm, which matters in a place where you’ll be waiting 15 to 20 minutes for your order. That’s not slow service, that’s the recipe! Each pancake is cooked fresh, and rushing it would kill the fluff.
The food
The star is obviously the pancake itself: two thick, trembling discs that taste like a soufflé and a cloud had a very photogenic baby. L’Originale (honey butter, powdered sugar, cream, maple syrup) is the purist’s order and the closest to what you’d get in Tokyo. From there the menu goes fully Italian, with tiramisù, pistachio and Lotus versions, plus fresh fruit, matcha, and even a protein-boosted “healthy” line. Savory options like salmon-avocado or crudo with squacquerone run around €13.90, sweet ones between €7.90 and €11.
The honest bit: soufflé pancakes are an egg-forward dessert by design, and if whipped egg white isn’t your thing, the simpler flavors can read a little plain. Go for the richer toppings on a first visit. The floating hot chocolate with burnt meringue is the sleeper hit of the drinks menu, and the matcha is priced fairly for Milan.
The verdict
Panfuwa earns its 4.6 stars on Google across thousands of reviews, which is rare for anything this viral. Is it cheap? Not really, €10 for two pancakes stings a bit. Is it worth doing at least once? Absolutely! This is a genuinely faithful piece of Japanese café culture, executed with care, not a trend cash-grab.
Our advice: go on a weekday morning, order at least one indulgent flavor, and don’t check the time while it cooks. The wait is part of the ritual, exactly like it is in Tokyo.
Panfuwa
📍 Address: Via Vetere 7 | Piazzale Lagosta 7 (Mercato Isola) | Piazza Tre Torri 1 (CityLife)
🌐 Website: panfuwa.com, Facebook: PanFuwa Italia, Instagram: panfuwa
Have you tried Panfuwa yet? Let us know your opinion, and do not forget to bookmark chinatownmilano.it for more Asian sweet spots around the city and follow us on social media @chinatownmilano.it.
