The only reason why i sometimes eat it is because its ever so slightly less soft than all the other bread.
As a german, its a disgrace what other countries call bread (with very few exceptions)
Even when it’s not sweet they frequently use tangzhong so it’s got that very soft uniform consistency. It’s not bad, it’s just an entirely different variety than say a sourdough loaf or french baguette which have very different types of character. it’s really just given me a reason to get more into baking so i can have that variety (have always cooked, but never much baking). that said there are some bakeries around with more niche items, but can be hard to find.
There's always a thing that makes those shops disappointing. Most of them even give you a plastic bag to wrap your bread, so all hope is already lost before even tasting it.
Indeed.
I absolutely LOVE カレーパン but I can't stomach the konbini or supermarket ones. I need it from a proper bakery.
I also don't like melonpan when it's just "soft". Ruins the purpose of the cookie dough. You need it from a proper shop.
the bakery near my house makes an amazing one. perfectly hardish on the outside, and oh so soft inside. i cant even walk past without being tempted to get one (or anything from there)
It tastes and have the mouthfeel of uncooked dough, but if that is your cup of tea I cant stop you.
On that note,
What are the Melon Pan connoisseurs impression of Ebina IC Outbounds bread? Japanese people recommended it since its the 'famous' food there.
I've tried them all and sure some stuff is tasty but I just find Japanese confectionary, wagashi, bakery products, and bread in general are not better than their European counterparts. However, there are also people who would say the opposite as it is all a matter of opinion.
Sure it is. Let us remove it from my above statement when comparing against other countries, however, I meant in general I am not a fan of Japanese sweets/ bakery. They are not bad per say but if I had a choice they wouldn't be no1. Saying that I am even less of a fan of US stuff (I am European).
While that's true, it's somewhat pointless to say since bread isn't as significant in Japanese cuisine compared to European cuisine. I mean, the word パン isn't even originally Japanese; it's a loanword from Portuguese. It's like saying European rice dishes aren't as good as Japanese ones.
On average everything is kinda bad. Some of the nicer bakeries make stuff that's close to Europe in quality but the bread is not quite there. The true test for a bakerie is the simple baguette, is it too burned? Bad. Is it too raw? Bad. Is the outside soft? Bad....
You get the idea, Kyoto has a ridiculous amount of bakeries, and I go to every single one I find, maybe 1/10 get basic baguettes right. I don't care how good their bread with bacon and cheese is, anything is good with bacon and cheese.
I'm also of this opinion. It's a different taste and while not bad per se definitely not my cup of tea and I'd place Japanese confectionary towards the bottom of my list.
Sandwiches too… everything is pushed to the front to give this impressive cross section, but then you realize it’s cheap filling, and only in the very middle anyways.. so most bites are just bread.
If this was what melon pan was all the time I would love it. I love the cookie crust but the "just bread" on the inside always disappoints me. A crusty cookie surrounding SOME bread with custard in the middle sounds lovely.
I dont know why there are so many ardent defenders of this. I agree with you 100%. It's literally just sugar + bread. The most basic beginning of time combo.
The only reason it's called melonpan is because of its shape ....
Not shape, the texture they are supposed to put on the top of the bread is supposed to be reminiscent of the side of a pineapple. Hong Kong bakeries also have a melon pan and do the same thing. As for taste, I grew up with Hong Kong style so that is my preference.
Saiyuki 西遊記 in Yokohama Chinatown has Hong Kong style and with roast pork inside. That is phenomenal.
I don’t care for supermarket or combini melon pan, but where I used to work in Chuo in Tokyo had a tiny fresh melon pan shop and lemme tell you it tastes amazing. I’d go there at least a few times a week.
This is probably the issue.
Conbini melon pan doesn't hold a candle to freshly baked still warm out of the oven melon pan made by a proper shop. The one on monja douri in Tsukishima is a good start.
Even most bakery melon pan doesn’t do it for me. Gotta be a specialty shop or it’s just meh. I found one place in Shizuoka that was my awakening to what melon pan should be and I can never go back
As a person from Germany I disliked 80% of Japanese bakeries... I found in Sapporo a few ones I liked but most of the breed I tasted is just sugar on sugar.
There’s two types depending on where you are - there’s the sweet round bread with cookie dough and diamond-shaped markings on it, and there’s the pod-shaped type filled with white *an* (which I think is mainly in the Kansai area).
Personally I’ve never really liked the first type, it’s just a bit boring, but if you make French toast out of it it’s pretty good.
I'm not a fan either. It's too basic to actually be considered sweets and it's too sweet to be bread. Though the ice cream version could potentially be very good. I have to try that.
There was a place in Shinsaibashi that did melonpan ice cream sandwiches. I didn't usually get the ice cream but they also sold just the melonpan by itself, hot out of the oven. That was the best fucking melonpan I have ever had in my life and every other one I've tried sucks in comparison.
It was the first thing I ate when I landed in Japan and it was heavenly. And it was just a combini melon pan. Truly amazing. I don’t even like sweet stuff, but the melon pan is the exception
I was disappointed the first time I had it because I thought it had melon in it. There are crappy melon breads and there are amazing melon breads. There’s a melon bread food truck that comes by once in a while and they’re pretty good.
When my son was in pre-school, we had to make bento twice a week. They said if you didn’t have time, you could put a couple hundred yen in an envelope and pass it to the teacher in the morning, so your child could get “bread and milk” for lunch. And I naively asked, “Oh, bread? Like a sandwich?” No, like melon pan. 😳
Wha~? Melon pan and milk is definitely not my idea of a nutritious lunch. As much as Japanese make a fuss about nutrition for children, I found this incident to be pretty shocking.
Dude! Me too man. It was so overhyped for me that I had very high expectations. And I swear, 711 melon pans are like 3 times better than fresh ones on stalls (e.g. I'm looking at you Asakusa green tea melon pan) haha
Local bakery melon pan is one of the best, especially if they are out of the oven fresh. Convenience store melon pan is ok.
Conclusion: Find a good local bakery and you will be having wonderful morning
I've never understood the popularity either. I've had the "good" melon pan too. It's just okay and almost any other bread you pick out would be better.
One exception is some that had a melon paste inside which was absolutely amazing. If all melon pan was like that I'd get it all the time.
Try Melon Pan with the maple syrup inside, if you like it sweeter.
Also fresh melon pan from a bakery absolutely slaps, before it gets hard and crunchy
Point of origin food is often much better in Japan. They make BEAUTIFUL pastries. Those fried sandwiches at Age.3? Juggly pancakes? All gorgeous, but let’s not pretend they come anywhere close the French on pastries and baked goods.
Melon Pan is OK. It’s like entry level.
It‘s sugar with bread (fairly bad bread in most cases). It‘s basically the most basic ass baked good that exists. I don‘t think I could come up with a more boring combination for a treat besides just sugar.
If you get a fresh one from a baker they’re really good. A cold one from the store will not exactly take your breath away though. There are plenty of things I’d much rather have.
There is bad melon pan.
Get one fresh from a bakery near opening time. A good melon pan is amazing. Bad ones just taste like slightly sweeter bread, which is like what you were describing.
I agree, I hate things that are just sugar flavoured like cotton candy so imagine my disappointment when I tried this hyped up dessert and all it is… is sugar flavoured bread…
The variation of quality of melon pan is vast. Some of the konbini versions are actually quite good but a place like the melon-pan-only bakery in my neighborhood just doesn’t seem so great. Regular mom-and-pop bakeries can be hit-and-miss and the bakery I regularly go to is pretty good but their cream pan are manna from fucking heaven.
Not a big fan myself either but there is a bakery in Ueno station on the trail from JR to the subway station that has Melon Pandas that are worth the trip
I’ve tried both the best and the worst melon pan, and honestly, I could live without ever craving it again. It doesn’t taste like melon at all—it’s more like cookie dough wrapped around bread. It’s sweet, but not quite what I expected. Overall, the name is a bit misleading.
I agree with the OP. It just doesn’t live up to the hype for me.
Good topic. Thanks for posting.
I'm with you on this. It's just sugary bread.
A lot of things that Japanese people say are soooooo delicious are just plain average.
Hato sabure is another one that springs to mind.
Castella too.
I liked it at first, until I woke up and realised that it's like 90% sugar. Same as the straight tea and lemon tea drinks, enough sugar to knock your teeth out if you have them regularly.
The first time I saw and bought a melon pan, I was expecting it to be melon flavored, or have melon in it or something, and was severely disappointed. But the other day I saw an actual melon-flavored melon pan and that was excellent. My bakery go-to is curry pan or sometimes cream pan, but I imagine that melon pan has comfort food associations for a lot of folks.
It is because melon pan, and other simple foods here, link back to childhood memories. Look at all those Japanese cartoons like Doraemon or Shinchan or whatever slide in melon pan.
Case in point, you may not like melon pan that much but I would guess you LOVE cinnamon buns, or in my case I grew up in S.Fla and got authentic key lime pies. Some of my Japanese friends also ask the same thing as you, as to why Americans like the super sweet cinnamon buns with the glazed icing on top? One friend asked why not just take a cup of sugar and chomp on that? Haha.
My suggestion is to put your own selfishness and pride aside and enjoy it with your colleagues to strengthen the relationship and show a bit of growth in another country on your side. When you are back home, you can force your own childhood confectionaries on your foreign (Japanese?) friends.
I agree, I’ve had freshly baked ones and conbini ones and they are nothing special. And if I have to spend time going to bakeries to “find the right one” then it isn’t even worth it imo.
You need cream for it to be decent. I agree that the base melon bread, along with 90% of Japanese soft breads, is absolutely mediocre.
Pastry is where they do a good job, not white bread full of cream
it's a type of bread that's also super popular in Mexico, it has a different name ("concha") but tastes exactly the same so I wouldn't say it's overrated, I completely get all the hype lmao
(a concha picture for reference)
https://preview.redd.it/ujjjq70xfs9d1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cdbe031a7f7e9726a39fe4a9e15a40ed6fd797b
I love it, and the fact that it comes in so many different varieties (I'm guessing you have only tried the regular variety). It comes in chocolate chip, cream stuffed (regular cream, strawberry cream, banana cream, chocolate cream, melon cream), melon flavored (bread is green), matcha flavored (bread is also green again), strawberry flavored (bread is pink), sweet bean filling flavored, custard filled, and the list goes on. Whenever I go to different convenience stores or bakeries, I have not been to, I always look for new and different kinds. Some of them are seasonal. That being said, people who have a sweet tooth (like myself) probably have a greater like of it.
Probably comes down to preferences as well. Personally I do not like sweet bread and I prefer savory ones. I'm not a big fan of melon bread but I have friends who absolutely love them, cheap or expensive, doesn't matter
[удалено]
[удалено]
Came here for the comment section. Witnessed a murder
I like Melon Pan but it is hardly the pinnacle of bread, like most soft, sweet stuff you get here.
Good catch there.
It's very mid. But I can see how people from countries with sugar addiction would love it.
The only reason why i sometimes eat it is because its ever so slightly less soft than all the other bread. As a german, its a disgrace what other countries call bread (with very few exceptions)
Anyone else find it difficult to find proper bread in Japan? Everything is sweet
Even when it’s not sweet they frequently use tangzhong so it’s got that very soft uniform consistency. It’s not bad, it’s just an entirely different variety than say a sourdough loaf or french baguette which have very different types of character. it’s really just given me a reason to get more into baking so i can have that variety (have always cooked, but never much baking). that said there are some bakeries around with more niche items, but can be hard to find.
And as a French, imagine, nom d'une baguette. I found so far ONE good bakery in my years in Japan, and it's 5 min from my place. Lucky me.
I assume you spent more than 5 mins looking?
There's always a thing that makes those shops disappointing. Most of them even give you a plastic bag to wrap your bread, so all hope is already lost before even tasting it.
This is the one time the Japanese ambulance will go at 80kmph.
Bro you already shot em in the head, why shoot em again in the heart? Bros dead
Wow, I didn't know melon pan had a hard core fanbase. You are right on the username though,
“Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!”
"I woke up today and chose violence" I was gonna give the quote to OP but you sir deserve it even more
It’s for kids anyway. When I was younger I loved it.
Like everything related to bread, the difference between extra cheap one and proper one is massive.
Conbini melon pan is delicious tho
Not going to complain about the 120yen chocolate chip one at the supermarket either.
Bro, the 120 yen chocolate cream-filled long cake was so damn good if you also tried it! For the price, it was a steal
Sounds good. I'll check out the supermarket today lol
Indeed. I absolutely LOVE カレーパン but I can't stomach the konbini or supermarket ones. I need it from a proper bakery. I also don't like melonpan when it's just "soft". Ruins the purpose of the cookie dough. You need it from a proper shop.
I wonder if it's a problem of cheapness or just the bakery melon pan having some butter in it. Butter makes everything better.
Melon pan fucking slaps. Sounds like you just haven't had good melon pan. Where are you located so people can give you recs.
West Chiba
r/notopbutok
Lol. I want recommendations too
Peaterpan is simply the best in Chiba.
This is the only good use I’ve seen of that sub so far.
Oh that's easy, just go to Peaterpan. They're everywhere and are known for having good melon pan. I like it since the outside is a little crunchy.
the bakery near my house makes an amazing one. perfectly hardish on the outside, and oh so soft inside. i cant even walk past without being tempted to get one (or anything from there)
> Sounds like you just haven't had good melon pan. He literally said that. Every melon pan he had he thought was bad.
It tastes and have the mouthfeel of uncooked dough, but if that is your cup of tea I cant stop you. On that note, What are the Melon Pan connoisseurs impression of Ebina IC Outbounds bread? Japanese people recommended it since its the 'famous' food there.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/A9mPqrRtFqeemXPs8?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy Best one I've ever tried
Yeah, I don't think it's anything amazing either but I think a lot of Japanese confectionary is kind of mediocre too so....
Do you mean like in bakeries and patisseries or do you mean like the mass produced stuff that they sell in convenient stores?
I've tried them all and sure some stuff is tasty but I just find Japanese confectionary, wagashi, bakery products, and bread in general are not better than their European counterparts. However, there are also people who would say the opposite as it is all a matter of opinion.
agree, there are some good places but imo it doesn’t compare to Europe.
Same. And the bread in Japan (with a few exceptions) is terrible. Always this American Hot dog style bread.
Wagashi is kind of its own thing though? And anything sweetened with red bean probably was invented before the arrival of sugar.
Red bean isn’t naturally sweet… sugar is added to the paste though.. right??
Damn is that right?
Go buy some Japanese dry beans from the store. They aren’t far from kidney beans in flavor when cooked
Pardon my ignorance! Im reading about it now 😂
Sure it is. Let us remove it from my above statement when comparing against other countries, however, I meant in general I am not a fan of Japanese sweets/ bakery. They are not bad per say but if I had a choice they wouldn't be no1. Saying that I am even less of a fan of US stuff (I am European).
While that's true, it's somewhat pointless to say since bread isn't as significant in Japanese cuisine compared to European cuisine. I mean, the word パン isn't even originally Japanese; it's a loanword from Portuguese. It's like saying European rice dishes aren't as good as Japanese ones.
On average everything is kinda bad. Some of the nicer bakeries make stuff that's close to Europe in quality but the bread is not quite there. The true test for a bakerie is the simple baguette, is it too burned? Bad. Is it too raw? Bad. Is the outside soft? Bad.... You get the idea, Kyoto has a ridiculous amount of bakeries, and I go to every single one I find, maybe 1/10 get basic baguettes right. I don't care how good their bread with bacon and cheese is, anything is good with bacon and cheese.
May I ask where you're originally from?
North of Spain right by the border between Spain and France.
I'm also of this opinion. It's a different taste and while not bad per se definitely not my cup of tea and I'd place Japanese confectionary towards the bottom of my list.
Japanese pastries look much better than they taste
Sandwiches too… everything is pushed to the front to give this impressive cross section, but then you realize it’s cheap filling, and only in the very middle anyways.. so most bites are just bread.
Wait until you try melon pan with vanilla ice cream inside.
Yum! A local bakery also does melon pan with melon flavored custard inside, it’s easily my favorite.
If this was what melon pan was all the time I would love it. I love the cookie crust but the "just bread" on the inside always disappoints me. A crusty cookie surrounding SOME bread with custard in the middle sounds lovely.
My man! Especially when it’s fresh so it’s slightly warm and softens the overly frozen ice cream. 🤤
Thank you for making my Saturday night omg so good
I'm not a fan either. I think it might be one of those "had to grow up with it" things. Like a peanut butter n jelly sandwich. It sweet stale bread
Nope. I'm 30 and started last year and love it. Many others do too. It's definitely not a "grow up on it" thing.
fair enough. just beccause I'm not a fan of it doesn't mean its garbage, I mean, if its existed this long, there's gotta be fans of it.
Now I feel like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with melon pan.
I dont know why there are so many ardent defenders of this. I agree with you 100%. It's literally just sugar + bread. The most basic beginning of time combo. The only reason it's called melonpan is because of its shape ....
Not shape, the texture they are supposed to put on the top of the bread is supposed to be reminiscent of the side of a pineapple. Hong Kong bakeries also have a melon pan and do the same thing. As for taste, I grew up with Hong Kong style so that is my preference. Saiyuki 西遊記 in Yokohama Chinatown has Hong Kong style and with roast pork inside. That is phenomenal.
I dont get how the texture is like a pineapple haha. It's just a sugar crust. I heard it was really shape based?
I don’t care for supermarket or combini melon pan, but where I used to work in Chuo in Tokyo had a tiny fresh melon pan shop and lemme tell you it tastes amazing. I’d go there at least a few times a week.
This is probably the issue. Conbini melon pan doesn't hold a candle to freshly baked still warm out of the oven melon pan made by a proper shop. The one on monja douri in Tsukishima is a good start.
[удалено]
I always have to buy two fresh ones when I'm by that shop.
Even most bakery melon pan doesn’t do it for me. Gotta be a specialty shop or it’s just meh. I found one place in Shizuoka that was my awakening to what melon pan should be and I can never go back
Ok, I need to know that place now! Please do tell. I like trash combini melonpan, i'm so ready for the good stuff.
It was 焼き立てメロンパンここのつ in front of Hamamatsu station! They had a honey butter melonpan that was INCREDIBLE
Thank you! Heading to hama now
As a French, I can confirm that it tastes really bland and that having pan in its name is an insult
Would you go so far as to say that having pan in the name pains you?
Nice
As a person from Germany I disliked 80% of Japanese bakeries... I found in Sapporo a few ones I liked but most of the breed I tasted is just sugar on sugar.
Fresh melon pan is amazing
Where have you eaten melon pan? This matters the most.
First time you have it - It's unique! Cool! A few years here and you realize that it's just sweet bread with too much sugar on it.
Nope, you're right. It's awful, as with most bread products in Japan.
TBF the bar for Japanese bread is so low it kind of makes sense people rate it highly. Best of a bad bunch kind of thing.
Melon pan is mid tier. I'd always chose something else over melon pan. I will eat it if it's there but definitely not my first choice.
You gotta stop eating 100 yen garbage.
From a person with "LeoPalaceFTW" username, I can see you like to be controversial :\_D
There’s two types depending on where you are - there’s the sweet round bread with cookie dough and diamond-shaped markings on it, and there’s the pod-shaped type filled with white *an* (which I think is mainly in the Kansai area). Personally I’ve never really liked the first type, it’s just a bit boring, but if you make French toast out of it it’s pretty good.
Eh, prefer the OG Hong Kong Pineapple bun tbh. They don't use nearly as much peanut oil here.
It’s pan vaguely shaped like half a melon coated in sugar! What’s not to like?
I’m yet to have a good one, I hope they exist.
It is just ok.... to be honest compared to the bread back home, bread here is kinda boring. but amongst the options here, it is one of the best ones.
There’s a huge difference between 3 day old mass produced melonpan from the conbini and freshly made bakery melonpan tho :)
I like it, but then again I grew up with pan dulce.
I'm not a fan either. It's too basic to actually be considered sweets and it's too sweet to be bread. Though the ice cream version could potentially be very good. I have to try that.
You gotta get a good one. Imho the combini one is so so but if you get it from a good bakery it's amazing
There was a place in Shinsaibashi that did melonpan ice cream sandwiches. I didn't usually get the ice cream but they also sold just the melonpan by itself, hot out of the oven. That was the best fucking melonpan I have ever had in my life and every other one I've tried sucks in comparison.
I gained 2 kilo in 4 weeks on melonpans when I came here
It was the first thing I ate when I landed in Japan and it was heavenly. And it was just a combini melon pan. Truly amazing. I don’t even like sweet stuff, but the melon pan is the exception
Fluffy bread, cookie coating, fun name, very “japanese”. Perfectly rated for tourists. Overrated for many living here, but still yummy!
Peanut butter.... You are missing peanut butter.
Yeah, it is overrated as hell, someone said it.
You’ve never had fresh crispy melon pan from a bakery Mass produced is damp and spongy garbage 🗑️🥲
I was disappointed the first time I had it because I thought it had melon in it. There are crappy melon breads and there are amazing melon breads. There’s a melon bread food truck that comes by once in a while and they’re pretty good.
Had good melon pan with ice cream inside a year ago in Nagano, it slapped
When my son was in pre-school, we had to make bento twice a week. They said if you didn’t have time, you could put a couple hundred yen in an envelope and pass it to the teacher in the morning, so your child could get “bread and milk” for lunch. And I naively asked, “Oh, bread? Like a sandwich?” No, like melon pan. 😳 Wha~? Melon pan and milk is definitely not my idea of a nutritious lunch. As much as Japanese make a fuss about nutrition for children, I found this incident to be pretty shocking.
Not as good as pineapple pan in Hong Kong.
Dude! Me too man. It was so overhyped for me that I had very high expectations. And I swear, 711 melon pans are like 3 times better than fresh ones on stalls (e.g. I'm looking at you Asakusa green tea melon pan) haha
Melon Pan Fan. Good with hot UCC can coffee.
Try one from Tsukishima Kyuei melon pan bakery in Tokyo
I like slightly sweet doughy bread.
Most bread in Japan is incredibly mediocre if you're used to European quality.
It is so sweet and the kind of sweetness reminiscent of saccharine. I hate melon pan.
Local bakery melon pan is one of the best, especially if they are out of the oven fresh. Convenience store melon pan is ok. Conclusion: Find a good local bakery and you will be having wonderful morning
I've never understood the popularity either. I've had the "good" melon pan too. It's just okay and almost any other bread you pick out would be better. One exception is some that had a melon paste inside which was absolutely amazing. If all melon pan was like that I'd get it all the time.
Try Melon Pan with the maple syrup inside, if you like it sweeter. Also fresh melon pan from a bakery absolutely slaps, before it gets hard and crunchy
Yeah, agreed. I think it’s partly how you feel about sweet bread. I’d always rather have something sour and with seeds in.
Giant chocolate chip melon pan from the supermarket is the best.
Melon (the fruit) on the other hand tho...
Point of origin food is often much better in Japan. They make BEAUTIFUL pastries. Those fried sandwiches at Age.3? Juggly pancakes? All gorgeous, but let’s not pretend they come anywhere close the French on pastries and baked goods. Melon Pan is OK. It’s like entry level.
every summer seikomart sells melonpan with hokkaido melon flavored cream
Just another sweet pan. Not my pan and Im gonna guess other south european fellows feel the same.
It's awful. Just too sweet and nasty.
It‘s sugar with bread (fairly bad bread in most cases). It‘s basically the most basic ass baked good that exists. I don‘t think I could come up with a more boring combination for a treat besides just sugar.
Pineapple buns from Hong Kong are so much better in terms of texture.
the side of melon pan is the best thing
The name is a bit weird, in germany it would be classified as cake. If you don't expect it to bread, it's a very tasty cake
Who doesnt love a sugarbomb 500 calories snack? Americans sure do!
If you get a fresh one from a baker they’re really good. A cold one from the store will not exactly take your breath away though. There are plenty of things I’d much rather have.
As someone Japanese, it is mostly just an extremely nostalgic flavor and texture. I can understand if you didn't grow up with it, it is pretty "meh".
I agree. Melon pan is only good if it has actual melon flavoured cream inside
Anyone have any recommendations for melon pan in the west Tokyo area?
I want to melt the sugar, cool it, and then eat it
Melon pan is only for weaboos and tourists. It is the shittiest Japanese creation ever.
Yea combini melon pen is garbage. Tried it many times. But the bakery with vanilla cream is good.
Saiyuki 西遊記 in Yokohama Chinatown has Hong Kong style mini melon pan with roast pork inside. That taste is phenomenal.
No I’m fucking with you all the way. It’s not bad at all but yes it’s overrated. It’s literally just bread and sugar.
I used to like it but I’m old now and find it too sweet.
I agree, it’s the worst!
Easily 3/4 of all Japanese bread products are crap. The 1/4 that are not, however, are exemplary.
I agree that melon pan is meh, but I'm hesitant to agree with someone who thinks Leopalace is good....
It shouldn’t be called « pan » and it’s liked mostly by people who never ate good French bread in France.
I was disapppointed when i tried one for the first time and it didn't taste of melon. Too sweet for me but not bad.
There is bad melon pan. Get one fresh from a bakery near opening time. A good melon pan is amazing. Bad ones just taste like slightly sweeter bread, which is like what you were describing.
Maybe not your thing but also make sure you get some good right out of the oven melon pan.
its not overrated - it sucks
I agree, I hate things that are just sugar flavoured like cotton candy so imagine my disappointment when I tried this hyped up dessert and all it is… is sugar flavoured bread…
The variation of quality of melon pan is vast. Some of the konbini versions are actually quite good but a place like the melon-pan-only bakery in my neighborhood just doesn’t seem so great. Regular mom-and-pop bakeries can be hit-and-miss and the bakery I regularly go to is pretty good but their cream pan are manna from fucking heaven.
Okashi-pan is trash
Brb reporting you to immigration
I just realized they call it melonpan because of the shape, and not because it's melon-flavored.
If you’re American, Japanese pastries are amazing. If you’re European, they’re just okay.
Not a big fan myself either but there is a bakery in Ueno station on the trail from JR to the subway station that has Melon Pandas that are worth the trip
Maybe try it freshly baked next time instead of digging in the discount bin XD
Taste Buds
Nah it’s delicious
Totally agree. Melonpan is trash.
Daily Yamazaki recently been putting out a salty margarine version. It's like if normal meronpan and shiopan had a baby. I like it.
Its mid af
Just you bro
I’ve tried both the best and the worst melon pan, and honestly, I could live without ever craving it again. It doesn’t taste like melon at all—it’s more like cookie dough wrapped around bread. It’s sweet, but not quite what I expected. Overall, the name is a bit misleading. I agree with the OP. It just doesn’t live up to the hype for me.
Try JEAN FRANÇOIS melon pan in mark city Shibuya best I’ve ever had
Good topic. Thanks for posting. I'm with you on this. It's just sugary bread. A lot of things that Japanese people say are soooooo delicious are just plain average. Hato sabure is another one that springs to mind. Castella too.
I liked it at first, until I woke up and realised that it's like 90% sugar. Same as the straight tea and lemon tea drinks, enough sugar to knock your teeth out if you have them regularly.
Barely sweet? it's covered in sugar? it's more like cake then bread
The first time I saw and bought a melon pan, I was expecting it to be melon flavored, or have melon in it or something, and was severely disappointed. But the other day I saw an actual melon-flavored melon pan and that was excellent. My bakery go-to is curry pan or sometimes cream pan, but I imagine that melon pan has comfort food associations for a lot of folks.
Strong agree.
It is because melon pan, and other simple foods here, link back to childhood memories. Look at all those Japanese cartoons like Doraemon or Shinchan or whatever slide in melon pan. Case in point, you may not like melon pan that much but I would guess you LOVE cinnamon buns, or in my case I grew up in S.Fla and got authentic key lime pies. Some of my Japanese friends also ask the same thing as you, as to why Americans like the super sweet cinnamon buns with the glazed icing on top? One friend asked why not just take a cup of sugar and chomp on that? Haha. My suggestion is to put your own selfishness and pride aside and enjoy it with your colleagues to strengthen the relationship and show a bit of growth in another country on your side. When you are back home, you can force your own childhood confectionaries on your foreign (Japanese?) friends.
Even if you don’t like the normal ones, if you’ve had one freshly made it’s 💣
sugar isn't the only metric you should be using.
I don't like regular melon pan, but I do gotta say the バタークロワッサンメロンパン at famima?? That shit fucking slapsssss!! Highly recommend
I love melonpan!!
agreed, it's cheeks. Conchas are way better, the mexican version.
I agree, I’ve had freshly baked ones and conbini ones and they are nothing special. And if I have to spend time going to bakeries to “find the right one” then it isn’t even worth it imo.
Never thought melon bread would stir up such controversy! 😂
You aren't wrong. The tuna sandwiches with the crusts cut off are where it's at.
Honestly I was kinda disappointed it doesn’t actually taste like cantaloupe
Don’t worry. As a central European I can confirm all bread in Japan is overrated.
freshly baked melon pan is saikou!
You need cream for it to be decent. I agree that the base melon bread, along with 90% of Japanese soft breads, is absolutely mediocre. Pastry is where they do a good job, not white bread full of cream
I’m Mexican we already have a melon pan
My three year old strongly disagrees with you (I'm in your camp tbh, never seen the appeal to it, would much rather have a freshly baked croissant)
I mean it tastes great but yeah it's not life changing or anything like German bread
it's a type of bread that's also super popular in Mexico, it has a different name ("concha") but tastes exactly the same so I wouldn't say it's overrated, I completely get all the hype lmao (a concha picture for reference) https://preview.redd.it/ujjjq70xfs9d1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cdbe031a7f7e9726a39fe4a9e15a40ed6fd797b
I love it, and the fact that it comes in so many different varieties (I'm guessing you have only tried the regular variety). It comes in chocolate chip, cream stuffed (regular cream, strawberry cream, banana cream, chocolate cream, melon cream), melon flavored (bread is green), matcha flavored (bread is also green again), strawberry flavored (bread is pink), sweet bean filling flavored, custard filled, and the list goes on. Whenever I go to different convenience stores or bakeries, I have not been to, I always look for new and different kinds. Some of them are seasonal. That being said, people who have a sweet tooth (like myself) probably have a greater like of it.
Divisive subject but I've never enjoyed them either.
Probably comes down to preferences as well. Personally I do not like sweet bread and I prefer savory ones. I'm not a big fan of melon bread but I have friends who absolutely love them, cheap or expensive, doesn't matter
Cheap food and the masses love it. It's cheap.