Takagi Coffee

Soufflé pancakes and a white latte

Two things define the counter at Takagi Coffee: the soufflé pancake, made in the Osaka manner, and the white latte, which is what most people order alongside it. The Osaka style is a meringue batter cooked slowly in rings, so the pancakes arrive several centimetres tall and move when the plate lands. Soufflé pancakes are slow by nature, so this is a sit-down order rather than a grab-and-go one, and it is the reason the room fills. Orders go in at the counter, and the room is small enough that the pancakes coming out are part of the atmosphere.

A modern kissaten in Los Angeles

The frame is Japanese: a kissaten sensibility applied to a Los Angeles café, where the coffee is treated as carefully as the pastry and neither is rushed. A kissaten is the older Japanese coffee house, a room where the coffee is made slowly and the point is to sit down; that is the register here rather than a takeaway bar. Takagi roasts its own blend and pours filter coffee alongside the espresso drinks, so the white latte has a house coffee under it rather than a bought-in one. Filter coffee brewed by hand gives a cleaner read of a roast than espresso does, which is why the pour-over is the order to make if you care about the blend. Matcha gets the same attention, and the Infatuation listed the café in its matcha guide for 2026.

What to order

Order the soufflé pancake and a white latte and you have the house in one sitting. Pancakes with coffee is a Japanese café pairing rather than a Western brunch one, and the room is built around it. The Strawberry & Mix Berry Pancake is the version to take when you want fruit with it, and it is the other named order on the pancake list. If you would rather read the coffee on its own, take a pour-over instead of the latte, because without milk the house blend is far easier to judge. If you are coming with someone, one pancake between two and two drinks is the sensible split, because the pancake is large and the coffee is the part you will want more of. Everything else on the list is a supporting order.