A Utah cafe’s Japanese fluffy pancakes are mega-popular and Instagram-worthy

For now, a South Salt Lake cafe is the only place in Utah making Japanese-style fluffy pancakes, and the treat has gotten so popular that the shop had to establish a reservation system to keep from getting overloaded.

Kumo Cafe, at 3432 S. State St., just south of Chinatown, is the “little sister” of Doki Doki, a Japanese dessert shop on 400 South in downtown Salt Lake City.

Irie Cao, who’s originally from Vietnam and whose husband is half-Japanese, is the owner of both businesses. She said she was inspired to open a Japanese bakery when she was living in Los Angeles in 2007. On her way to school was a Japanese bakery, and she said she would stop there to get a treat to enjoy on her journey.

Already in love with baking, she said, she became “obsessed” with the Japanese pastries, and how light and airy they were.

Cao opened Doki Doki (whose name refers to the sound of heartbeats in Japanese) in 2018, and originally had fluffy pancakes on the menu. But the treat — which is time-consuming to make and must be cooked to order — became so popular that she had to take them off the menu at the end of 2022.

In July 2023, Cao created a business, Kumo Cafe, centered around the fluffy pancakes. “Kumo” means “cloud” in Japanese.

Recently, the pancakes, with their signature wobble and decadent sauces, have been getting a lot of attention on social media, especially Instagram. The shop got so many customers and orders for pancakes on a recent Saturday in March that Kumo Cafe was “overwhelmed by love, strained by success,” wrote Cao in an Instagram post.

“It was our busiest day ever, and seeing so many customers interested in our fluffy pancakes filled us with joy,” wrote Cao, who went on to explain that pre-preparation of the pancakes is impossible, and each subsequent batch of pancakes after the first one takes an average of 13 minutes to cook.

That Saturday, from opening at 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m., the shop saw about 150 people, and some 120 orders for fluffy pancakes came in back to back, Cao wrote. Some people experienced a wait time for pancakes of two to three hours, and a few grew “hostile” with Cao and her staff, she said.

“We were simply overwhelmed by the high volume,” Cao wrote.

Since then, Kumo Cafe has implemented a reservation system that allows customers to reserve their spot in line and show up only when their pancakes are ready. Cao said the experience of ordering pancakes is “so much better now,” and people have been “so much nicer, so much more understanding.”

How to make (and eat) fluffy pancakes

When describing the fluffy pancakes, which each stand about an inch high, Cao uses the word “temperamental.” Meringue, made with whipped egg whites, is the ingredient that makes the pancakes so fluffy, and Cao and her team have to whip the meringue depending on the day’s weather. If it’s hot outside, they have to do a softer meringue, so that the extra moisture will support the pancakes as they rise. If it’s raining outside, they have to do a much stiffer meringue, so the pancakes don’t collapse. The cooking time also varies day to day.

Cao developed her pancake recipe from a Japanese formula, and then tweaked and adapted it for Utah’s climate and elevation, she said.

The meringue is folded into an egg yolk-based pancake batter (Cao said they go through “hundreds” of eggs every day), then the batter is placed on a pancake griddle in large scoops. A bit of water is added to the surface of the griddle, and then a cover is put over the top. The batter cooks all the way through with the help of heat and steam.

Once the pancakes are ready, a staffer stacks them three high on a plate with fresh fruit and dabs of whipped cream, and adds a scoop of ice cream from Cloud Ninth Creamery on the side. The pancakes are then enveloped in the customer’s choice of sauces; all of Kumo Cafe’s whipped cream, sauces and foams are made in-house.

After that, the pancakes arrive at the customer, who would be remiss to start eating without admiring the way the pancakes wiggle when the plate is gently shaken (and, of course, snapping a photo or two). Then, it’s time to dig in.

The pancakes are called fluffy pancakes for a reason, as they are as light and fluffy as marshmallows. Take time to savor the way these eggy souffles soak up the sauce and melted ice cream before gobbling them all down.

Recently, Kumo Cafe developed a gluten-free version of their fluffy pancakes. According to her own research, Cao said Kumo Cafe might be the only shop in the world making gluten-free fluffy pancakes.

And there’s good news for people craving fluffy pancakes in Utah County: In two or three weeks, Cao will be opening a large new Doki Doki location in Orem that will serve the special treat. Follow @dokidessert on Instagram for updates.

Kumo Cafe also sells slices of the crepe cakes that made Doki Doki famous, as well as burnt Basque cheesecake, adorable bunny-shaped panna cotta, teddy mochi cupcakes, hot and iced coffee, fruit sodas and ice cream. Visit KumoCafe.shop and DokiDessert.com to view the full menus.