Pancake at Cafe Nature / カフェ ナチュレのパンケーキ

Pancake at Cafe Nature in Odakyu Shinjuku
新宿小田急にあるカフェ ナチュレのパンケーキ

When I check reviews on a certain internet site, I saw Cafe Nature a lot in a high ranking.
This place is located on the 2nd floor of Odakyu department store in Shinjuku station and it's at West exit.

We decided to go to eat pancake and thought of going another one but we chose this place as it's a walking distance.

When we got there was around 2:30PM on Saturday, and there're 5 people before us waiting to get seated.

There's no paper to write down your name, so you just need to sit on a chair provided by the entrance.
Kitchen can be seen from where you wait as it's covered by glass walls.
As you can see, it's a pretty small space for 3 people making plate.
The way they make pancakes is interesting; they use a mini pans like Dutch pancake but much smaller.

There's a sign of no-smoking in this cafe. Nice.

We might have waited for 15 minutes before we got a table.

We sat by the window where we directly could see people walking by and buildings in the west area.

I ordered "matcha ice cream with sweet bean paste pancake" and also "mango lassi soda."

We asked our drinks to be served first but they never brought them to us.
After about 10 minutes waiting, they brought pancake first so I asked the waitress what had happened to drinks.
She said, "Sorry, there're many orders and they're busy cutting fruits."
*My husband ordered fruit tea which has cut fruits inside of the tea pot.
I had no word to say... If they forgot and didn't wanna say that, they needed to come up with a better excuse.

注文をした時に「飲み物は先で」と言ったけれど、10分ほど待ってから運ばれてきたのはパンケーキ。
店員に「飲み物を先にとお願いしたんですが」と言ったところ、「現在注文が多くて、お客様のフルーツティー用の果物を切るのに忙しいんです」と言われた。え？？？ 開いた口が塞がらない。。。
「忘れていました。すみません」と言いたくないのなら、もっと別の言い訳を考えてもらいたい。
＊旦那が注文したフルーツティーは、バナナやりんご、イチゴのスライスが入った紅茶のポット。

Anyways, my pancake came and still no drinks...
About 5 minutes later, they finally brought us drinks.

This is my pancake.
I knew it, but the pancakes were small and not fluffy. It's more like English muffin without corn grits.
When it's served, the ice creams were already melting quickly.

From the other side.

Inside of the pancake.
It was light and not moist like other pancakes I had.

First bite, I tried it without any whipped cream or ice cream and found that the pancake itself didn't have any single flavor (I mean both taste and fragrance).

Outside was crispy so that it had different texture from the inside.

Finishing the first pancake, I saw a messy plate.

Yes, ice cream melted and it's all watery, and pancake was absorbing the matcha ice cream.
Inside of the pancake is green tea color.
As pancake was dry, it absorbed pretty well and got mushy.

To me, the pancake they have is not worth the money.
Mine was 1,100 JPY.
I prefer Hoshino coffee shop's one much better and it's cheaper, too.
個人的には1,100円の価値はなく、星乃珈琲店のスフレパンケーキの方が美味しくて安いと思う。

Mango lassi soda was something interesting.
I've had lassi many times but never heard lassi with gas.

Not only interesting the name was, it tasted great and came with actual cut mango.

It was smoother than regular lassi and really suitable for humid and hot weather.
The big chunks of fresh mango were nice to have.
Also there're itty-bitty crushed mango inside, too, so when I drank this with a straw, both gassy lassi and mango pieces came through at the same time.

It's a season special menu, I don't know how long they'd have it on the menu, however I highly recommend this drink. (850 JPY)
It was much more satisfying quality than the pancake.
パンケーキよりも、このマンゴーラッシーソーダの方が断然美味しかった。

For the amount you get, things were a bit rip-off I think.
Maybe it because it's in a old firm department store, which is established in Shinjuku?
ただ、全体的に量が少ない、高い、店員の言い訳がちょっと、、、と言うことで、もう行かないと思う。

Cafe Nature / カフェ ナチュレ
2F, Odakyu dept. Main bldg.
1-1-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo

東京都新宿区西新宿1-1-3　小田急百貨店新宿店 本館2F

Open:  10:00 - 7:30PM (Order stop)  *same as Odakyu dept.'s service hour.
営業: 　10:00 - 19：30 (ラストオーダー)　＊小田急に準ずる

No reservation is taken. All non-smoking.
予約不可。全席禁煙。