We try Häagen-Dazs pancakes and love ’em!

April 25 was a sad day for Japanese ice cream lovers, as that was the day the final Japanese Häagen-Dazs store closed shop. The company had achieved its goal of spreading their packaged ice cream through convenience stores and supermarkets, and, after thirty years, decided that the Japanese locations were no longer necessary.

Many a frozen, delicious tear was shed that day.

But you can stop your crying, at least until September 2, thanks to a collaboration between Häagen-Dazs and j.s. pancake cafe!

After hearing that Häagen-Dazs was collaborating with j.s. pancake cafe, offering pancakes topped with Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Mr. Sato, our hungriest RocketNews24 reporter, decided to brave the Tokyo heat to try it out for himself. Here’s his report on the breakfast food treats!

j.s. pancake cafe and Häagen-Dazs

j.s. pancake cafe, for those unfamiliar with the chain, is a pancake specialty store from the fashion brand JOURNAL STANDARD, with branches in Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Osaka. The Häagen-Dazs collaboration will last until September 2, so now you have plans for the summer holiday!

A taste you can only get at the cafe

As Mr. Sato pointed out, the packaged Häagen-Dazs ice cream you can get at the convenience store or supermarket is delicious. There’s certainly no question about that! However, there are a lot of flavors that aren’t available in those packages. And even with those that are, there’s still something just a little different. So, for many ice cream fans, knowing they can’t get that fresh Häagen-Dazs ice cream is almost too much to bear, which makes this extremely limited collaboration so exciting! Mr. Sato was certainly thrilled to get the chance to have fresh Häagen-Dazs ice cream again.

The three choices

As we mentioned, this collaboration is very limited–both in terms of time and in options. There are only three items available: maple vanilla, berry strawberry, and green tea milk. And even these options are limited! While the maple vanilla selection is available until September 2, berry strawberry won’t be available after August 18, being replaced with the green tea milk on August 19.

So, all you strawberry lovers better check it out quickly!

How was it??

Okay, enough chit-chat, let’s get down to business! How was the Häagen-Dazs ice cream and pancakes?!

Mr. Sato had this to say about the maple vanilla:

When it came to eating the ice cream, it wasn’t really different from the ice cream that you can get in the stores, so you needn’t worry about it being bad. The vanilla had a reserved sweetness with a rich milk taste. It went well with the fruit arranged on the pancake. In particular, the banana helped accentuate the ice cream’s sweetness and creaminess.

As for the berry strawberry, Mr. Sato said this:

It goes without saying that the strawberry ice cream went well with the actual fruit. After stuffing my cheeks with the ice cream, and then tossing in the strawberries, it was like paradise in my mouth! The sweetness and the sourness, plus the texture of the strawberries create a truly complete universe! It wouldn’t be too much to say that this combination is simply unriveled.

The star of the show

Ultimately, though, he found that the main event was, for better or for worse, the pancakes. While the pancakes made a perfect match for the ice cream, there was still a problem. The ice cream simply disappeared too fast! As you might imagine, there’s way more pancake in these dishes than ice cream.

We suppose this normally wouldn’t be such a big deal, but for many customers, the Häagen-Dazs ice cream is going to be the bigger draw. Our poetic Mr. Sato put it thusly:

It’s like having a chance meeting with an old girlfriend on the street and only being able to exchange brief greetings before heading on your way. You want to chat some more! What’s she doing now? Is everything going well? You want to tell her to come see you some time!

The point is, as good as the pancakes are, everything would be better if there was a little more Häagen-Dazs on top!

Those almonds…

Unfortunately, there was another problem: the almonds. Mr. Sato discovered that the cafe had added a layer of caramelized almond slices between the pancakes. While the crunchy nuts certainly did accentuate the fluffy pancakes, they didn’t seem to go well with the sourness of the fruit. Also, they kind of got in the way of enjoying the soft sweetness of the ice cream. Maybe you’ll disagree, but Mr. Sato felt the dish would have been better without them.

In the end though, he was quite satisfied overall and happy to get some fresh Häagen-Dazs. The collaboration, though not quite perfect, is still unique—and delicious. So for all of you with a hankering for Häagen-Dazs, get to j.s. pancake cafe!

Location information
Here’s the specifics on the location Mr. Sato visited in Tokyo:
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Jingumae, 5-52-2 Aoyama Oval Building 1F
Hours: 11:00 to 21:00
Holidays: No set days off

And if you’re still not hungry, here’s some more photos to get your stomach growling!

▼Breakfast foods need not be eaten in the morning, right?