Eight Turn CrĂŞpe Brings Unique Japanese Street Food To Wesley Chapel

If you’ve been wanting to try something truly different from the norm in our area — whether you want a delicious hand-held savory crêpe filled with crispy pork belly, chicken teriyaki or even smoked salmon and cream cheese, or a sumptuous dessert crêpe with Dubai chocolate or lychee, raspberry and almonds, you probably should go check out the new Eight Turn Crêpe, which celebrated its Grand Opening (photo above) at 2653 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., Suite 116, on Jan. 31. 

This location was previously occupied by 35 Below ice cream, in the same plaza as Dickey’s BBQ, Umu Japanese & Thai and Sorbo coffee — which is interesting because Eight Turn CrĂŞpe is an homage to Japanese street food, but offers items that are completely different from anything served at either Umu or Sorbo. 

Let’s start with the company itself, which began with a single location in New York City’s Soho district in 2013 and is now up to about a dozen locations in New York, California, Texas, Idaho, Washington state and Virginia. The BBD location is the first to open in Florida and the chain’s VP of franchising Steve Kogan was on hand (left in top photo) for the opening of franchise owner Lien Nguyen’s (center in same photo) Wesley Chapel location. 

The former ice cream shop is small but attractive, with only a few tables inside and a few more outside, but the stars of the show are the super-tasty, naturally gluten-free, rice flour crêpes themselves. You can order them in either the classic Japanese cone shape (right photo above) or rolled and sliced sushi-style, like the crispy Tokyo pork belly crêpe Charmaine and I shared (left) — an amazing mix of flavors, with kimchi, avocado, lettuce, crispy shallots, sesame seeds and Japanese mayo. 

In addition to the options I mentioned above, there’s also Thai chicken, bacon, egg & cheese and Philly cheesesteak savory options and all of the sweet crĂŞpes are layered with different flavors of custard cream — and most of them are stuffed with fresh fruits, including strawberries, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, mango and lychee, with pistachios, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts, crunchy flakes, granola and more. 

I incorrectly assumed that the sweet crĂŞpes also would include gelato, but even though only two of the sweet crĂŞpes on the menu include a scoop of vanilla gelato, there are a number of other gelato flavors you can add to any sweet crĂŞpe on the menu. Best of all, you also can design your own sweet or savory crĂŞpe, using any of the aforementioned ingredients. 

Eight Turn CrĂŞpe also has a large variety of bubble and fresh fruit teas, “super food” smoothies and creamy Japanese milk shakes. Charmaine and I loved the cherry blossom milkshake we shared — it was bursting with real cherry flavor. 

I’m hoping our readers will find and frequent Eight Turn CrĂŞpe. It’s truly different from anything else in our area — and totally tasty. 

For info, call (813) 867-6413 or visit EightTurnCrepe.com. — GN, all photos by Charmaine George