Okaeri Japanese Cafe & Anime

This place was amazing! The ube soufflé pancakes were absolutely delicious, light, fluffy, and perfectly sweet with a rich ube flavor that wasn’t overpowering. The texture was melt in your mouth soft, and the presentation was beautiful. The soufflé pancakes with chocolate and banana were just as good, super fluffy and indulgent without being too heavy. Everything tasted fresh and thoughtfully made. The cozy atmosphere made it a great spot to relax and enjoy dessert with friends. The staff was incredibly kind, welcoming, and attentive, which made the experience even better.

This place was amazing! There’s really something for everyone on the menu and at a reasonable price. Food is authenticity brilliant. If you’re unsure of what to get, my suggestion would be the fluffy pancakes! I’ve never had anything like it before and I was not disappointed. Okaeri also doubles as an anime store! Lots of amazing finds in there! You can do some nice browsing after you finish eating AND buy Pokémon when the pop up pops up every 3rd Sunday of the month! Definitely recommend.

I was very excited to have some Japanese soufflé pancakes when I heard about this place. We came on a Friday for lunch around noon. The vibes here are amazing — themed art and wallpaper, even in the restrooms. You order food at a kiosk and pick it up yourself on trays. We ordered the plain soufflé pancake, potato croquette sandwiches, and katsu curry udon. Everything was pretty mid-tier, which I’ve come to expect for Japanese food in America. The pancakes were too custardy in the middle, leading to them looking smushed instead of the fluffy ones they make in Japan. The udon noodles were overcooked and way too soft, and the curry broth was watery instead of the thick curry they often serve for curry udon in Japan. It was decent enough to try once but I doubt I’d come back again.

We came here a Sunday at noon. First off, this place is on the back side of the shopping center. The front of the cafe is the shop with lots of cool anime stuff. It is very cramped. The cafe is toward the back. Seating is tight and limited. I would recommend grabbing a seat before ordering. The menu here is pretty amazing. Lots of unique offerings. Ordering can be a little confusing on the kiosk. My wife and daughter ordered the soufle pancakes ( these take about 20 minutes). I ordered the omurice(rice omelette), egg salad sandwich, and onigiri. I have to say that everything was incredible. The omurice was delicious! The soufle pancakes were huge and filling. The chocolate and banana was very rich!

We had the strawberry soufle and two onigiris (spicy salmon, spicy chicken) which were very tasty. I would recommend to come early as it does get quite busy and the seating is not well done. The seats are too big and low (just awkward). It makes it very difficult to move in and out of. Honestly, that's my only complaint with the atmosphere. I would easily come here again as the food was fresh and tasty. I spent about 20 dollars for the meal and we were both satisfied for a small brunch.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Things were fairly priced, which was helpful since we ordered a BUNCH of things to try. We travelled from over an hour a way just to try it and we left extremely satisfied. Here is the rundown of what we got: -Strawberry souflee pancakes. They were to die for. Super light and fluffy. It practically melted in my mouth. And the flavor was perfect, just the right amount of sweet. -Hamburger steak with a extra of a potato croquet. It was a good option for a savory item. Yummy, but not too crazy of a flavor profile if you are just trying Japanese food. The potato croquet was perfectly crisp and had the creamiest potato inside. -Mitarashi Dango. It has a chewy start and then sort of melts in your mouth. It can be an acquired texture, and may not be the best option for people wary of textures. However, the flavor profile of the sweet soy sauce glaze was amazing! -Takoyaki. I have had these octopus balls before at a different restaurant, and the ones they serve here are just as amazing as the ones I have had before. Did not disappoint. -Onigiri. We got two flavors, a spicy karaage and the konbu. The spicy karaage lived up to the name and was definitely spicy. Perfect if you want something with some spice. The konbu was nicely flavored seaweed with sesame. It got pretty salty in the middle bites, but nothing too salty to make it unpalatable. - Drinks. We got a Green tea pot. It was a smaller teapot that I was expecting and came with two cups. Not enough tea to go along with the amount of food we ate, but would maybe suffice if you were getting one meal. I feel like I read on the website that you could get one refill of it, but in the establishment there was no sign or anything obvious stating it. We could have possibly over looked it though. Then I got a blue cream soda (since the tea wasn't enough) it was a good cream soda flavor with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. My husband got a yuzu lemonade. He thought it was too lemony, but to me the flavor was a nice balance of tart to sweet. I didn't enjoy the bits of lemon coming into the straw though. If I had to give any constructive criticism it would be that the seats kind of sucked. They were these laid back chairs. They were comfortable for if you want to sit back and read, but not really good to seat and eat. I had to sit on the edge of the seat to properly eat. There was a little couch area and another seating area that looked better, but they were already taken. And the main floor of the dining area all had the same weird chairs as we had. If anyone with a disability that prevented the use of those types of chairs came in and the other slightly easier spots weren't open it could be rather difficult for them. The only other thing is I wasn't quite sure what to do with our trash. It wasn't the most obvious, and of course no one else was getting up yet so we couldn't copy them lol. We had to ask a worker what to do. It seems a employee waits by a waste area to take your trays when you are finished. I'm not sure if that's all the time or just cause of how busy it was when we came.

My partner and I went here for the first time to try their pancakes (of course). I ordered the Ube Montblanc & he got the strawberry creme pancakes. They both did not fail to impress, I was initially worried that the purple topper would be too sweet, but it really wasn’t. That’s not icing on top, it’s the Ube (purple sweet potato) and it even have a couple fried Ube slices on top. It all around tasted amazing, though they were a bit heavy— that’s no issue for me, I just took what I couldn’t eat home. My partners strawberry creme pancakes were also great (we tasted a bite of each others cakes lol). also not too sweet and is probably easier to finish since it’s not as dense as the Ube. The staff are all friendly & the tables are clean. We will be back to try some new cakes