Melonpan appears as a signature dish in 1 Japan cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Melonpan · Tokyo
Melonpan is a soft enriched-dough bun topped with a thin layer of crisp sugar-cookie crust scored in a melon-skin grid. No melon flavour despite the name; sweet, fragrant, sold hot.
Melonpan emerged in Tokyo's bakeries in the early 20th century, with the cookie-topped form attributed variously to Kobe and Tokyo bakers in the 1910s and 1930s. The dish is now a national bakery staple, and Asakusa's Kagetsudo (opened 1945) is widely credited with making the city's most famous outsized melonpan. Tokyo bakeries push variations (matcha, melon-cream filled, chocolate-chip) but the canonical form is the plain bun with the grid-scored cookie top, baked twice a day and sold warm.
Where to eat in Tokyo:
- Nakamise-dori snack street
- Centre The Bakery
- Pelican Bakery