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Writer's pictureMarcos Regalado

Delicious Coffee and Pancakes in Tsukuba



It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon. The wife and I had just woken up and we were out of Cafe Bustello which we drink every morning. (If you have never drunk Cafe Bustello, stop reading this, order it online, brew yourself a cup and thank me later. ) The wife then mentioned that we should get some Costa Coffee since we enjoyed it that last time we had it at ChuChu Cafe. This time however, we wanted to try a new place that also served Costa Coffee. And like ChuChu Cafe, I found out about this place through the Food for Tsukuba Residents group. The wife and I were headed to N's Cafe.


N's Cafe


A word of caution, please be careful when you type in N's Cafe into Google Maps. As far as I know, there are two N's Cafes in Tsukuba. The first one we went to (the wrong one), is near Tsukuba station in the York Benimaru building in Takezono.

The one we wanted to go to is in Amakubo, near Tsukuba University. When we got to N's Cafe we found that there were two parking spots in front of the cafe. We were lucky that one of the spaces was open and we were able to park there. There is another parking lot near N's but I have no idea where it is. There is a map to the other lot in front of the cafe.


Bit cramped but cute


When we walked into the cafe, I found everything to have a cute cafe style to it. I was also the only man in the cafe. The cafe was busy that day and it was filled with women attending Tsukuba University. The wife and I were lucky we were able to get seats. We looked at the menu and the wife's eyes lit up at the pancake section.


Pancake Menu


The wife looked at the one page on the menu that featured all of N's pancakes and she had a bit of a crisis. She looked at me and said "I have no idea what to choose! They all sound amazing!" I was also at a loss on what to order, everything did look delicious.

The great thing about the menu was it was both in English and Japanese. We were both debating on whether to order the Apple Cinnamon Fromage Blanc or the Mango & Milk Pancakes. In the end we went with mango and it ended up being a good decision.


Food Menu


The rest of the food menu was either omelette and rice or pasta. The wife and I were pretty hungry so we got pasta with our pancakes. The Carbonara to be exact. The pasta also comes in a set that brings a small hamburg steak with cheese in it which is what we ordered. Most of the sets in the menu come with Costa coffee and that is a nice deal.

There was also a tea section in the menu but since we were there for coffee, we didn't really look at that part.


Okinawa's Blue Seal Ice Cream


Have you ever tried Blue Seal ice cream? If you have a chance, you should give it a try. N's Cafe gives you that chance. If you order a pancake dish, you can get a cup of Blue Seal ice cream with your pancake as a set deal. That day we decided to have the "Okinawan Salt Cookie" flavor with our pancake. I have had this flavor before in Okinawa and I like it. It tastes just like the famous Okinawan souviner cookie, Chinsuko.



Cappuccino


N's Cafe also had a Costa Coffee menu. If you want to see the menu, check out my post on ChuChu Cafe. I have a picture of the whole Costa menu there.


This time around I ordered the cappuccino. If you read my post on Saza Coffee and read my review on their cappuccino, you know that I loved it. So I was really looking forward to comparing Costa's cappuccino with Saza's cappuccino.

After taking my first sip, I had to say that I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't really a bad cup of cappuccino, but it just didn't have that delicious cappuccino flavour that I love. Putting some sugar in helped a bit but it still wasn't great. The Cortado is my favorite Costa coffee thus far.


White Flat


The wife ordered the White Flat, hot this time. The last she drank this coffee she had the iced version of it. She said that she liked this version but the iced one was better. After trying it, I had to agree. The hot version is by no means a bad cup of coffee, it was actually quite good. But I feel that the iced version brought out more flavors and sweetness than the hot version.


Carbonara Pasta with Cheese Hamburg


First up was our pasta. I first tried the hamburg steak with cheese in it. The hamburg was good and so was the melted cheese in it but the sauce really took me out of the delicious zone. I don't know what sauce it was, I am guessing a sweet ketchup maybe, but it just didn't go with that hamburg at all.

The pasta was honestly OK. The Carbonara was thick and creamy just like a Carbonara is supposed to be. But it was a bit tasteless, nothing really special about it.


Mango Cream Pancakes


The pancake though, oh man, this is N's Cafe's master piece. I should have mentioned this before, at N's, the staff do not bring your food to your table. The staff stays behind the counter, calls your number, and you have to go and grab your food. So I was the one who brought those delicious looking pancakes to the wife. I could see the excitement in her eyes as I laid those sweet looking pancakes in front of her. These weren't your regular American style flat pancakes. These were soft fluffy melt in your mouth pancakes. She took one bite of the pancakes and was in pancake heaven. I mixed a piece of pancake with the cream and a slice of mango. That is the way to go, it was incredibly delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed the pancake and the wife absolutely loved it. The cream was perfect, the mango slices tasted fresh, and the fluffy pancake was absolutely perfect. Oh! Let's not forget having our Blue Seal ice cream with our pancakes. I first mixed some ice cream with the pancakes and then decided to just have them separately. The salt cookie flavour did not go with the mango flavour at all. But the ice cream itself was great. The wife said we would be having pancakes here again, soon.


What!?


After we had finished our delicious pancakes and all our coffee was drunk, I brought all our plates and cups to the staff and returned to our table to see the greatest Engrish sign I have ever seen. "Defeat the plate" it said. I laughed for a good while and I understand where the translation mistake was made. In Japanese, the sign says "プレートを倒して." 倒して, taoshete means defeat but it also means knock down. What N's is trying to say is to knock down the sign so that the staff knows to sanitize the table. It was a nice chuckle after a very enjoyable lunch.


The wife and I really liked our experience at N's Cafe. Sure, it did take a while for our food to come out but the place was really busy that day so I understand. The pancakes were fantastic and the wife and I hope we can give the other pancakes on the menu a try.


So if you are in the Amakubo area in Tsukuba and are craving delicious pancakes and Costa Coffee, why not give N's Cafe a try. Who knows, you might see me there, enjoying some sweet fluffy delicious pancakes with my Cortado.

Enjoy!


For more information on N's Cafe, check out their Retty page:


Again, special thanks to Carlos Guads for posting about N's Cafe and Costa coffee on the Food for Tsukuba Residents page. Another great recommendation sir!



One more thing!



I bet you thought this post was over, but I have just one more quick thing to say. Starbucks is releasing 47 different frappuccinos for the 47 different prefectures of Japan. This event started this week and will last until August 3rd. When the wife heard about this, we headed over to try the Ibaraki Frappuccino.


Ibaraki Frappuccino


After waiting for quite a while, seems like everyone wants to try this frappe, we were able to get our hands on this melon flavored frappuccino. We took a sip and realized we needed to really mix the cream and melon with the straw. We swirled our frappe and gave it another try. Delicious! The frappe is a bit expensive but the wife and I really liked it.

If you want to check out all the rappuccinos of all the prefectures, click on the link below.


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