Best Japanese Custard Pudding (Purin) in NYC: Why Café O’Te Stands Out
Japanese custard pudding is one of my all-time favorite desserts. Any time we’re at a Japanese restaurant, and it’s a house-made version on the dessert menu, it’s a no-brainer for me. Introduced by the British in the Meiji period, “purin,” which is the Japanese transliteration of the English word pudding, is usually a chilled gelatinous custard, typically served with a rich caramel sauce that coats it on top.
If you’ve never had Japanese custard pudding, it’s almost the exact same as flan, which is more commonly known amongst European, Spanish, or Mexican audiences. The major difference is that Japanese custard pudding is usually a bit lighter and creamier, sometimes with less of an egg presence in the flavor profile.
Maybe it’s because I watched too much anime as a child, or maybe it’s my fascination with food history, but I’ve always had a special place for caramel pudding in my heart. As a younger sibling who got most of his personality from his older sister (shoutout to my sister), when she said flan was her favorite dessert, it automatically became my favorite dessert too.
So when I went to Japan last year, I spent time researching online articles and blogs that reviewed and rated these custard pudding cafes, and went to many of them on my own. Even when I went to Taiwan this summer, every time there was a chance to have a pudding, I tried as many places as I could. While they were all good, none surprised me as much as the caramel pudding from Cafe O’Te in Greenpoint. Located in a Japanese center that features specialty goods, there are a couple of businesses in the space: the famous Dashi Okume, where you can customize your own dashi or eat a Japanese Teishoku breakfast at their restaurant, CIBONE which is a home goods store that showcases Japanese pottery, ceramics and other knick knacks that you didn’t know you needed, and HOUSE Brooklyn, which is a newer restaurant specializing in French influenced Japanese cuisine. Tucked away in the corner is Cafe O’Te, an inconspicuous cafe serving one of the best puddings I’ve ever tasted. They absolutely nail the texture and the flavor, and the caramel sauce is that perfect consistency right before burning to give maximum flavor.
I kept stopping my conversation with my friend to tell her how good this caramel pudding was, and though she agreed, I’m not sure she felt as strongly about it as I did. So if you’ve made it this far in this blog post, let me just say this: I have a strong bias towards custard desserts. If you also like things like panna cotta, crème brûlée, or even soft serve ice cream, you need to check out Cafe O’Te. If it’s not your vibe, you can stay on the other side of the store browsing home goods or Japanese dashi… but you’ll find me pigging out on a Japanese caramel pudding 100% of the time.