Toasting To Akipan, Pyrmont

Akipan is a Japanese bakery and cafe in Pyrmont selling loaves of shokupan or soft Japanese milk bread. There is also a cafe menu with around half a dozen varieties of their shokupan with sweet and savoury Japanese style toppings as well as coffees and teas. Find out what the must orders are here that you should not miss!

Sophia and I were very hopeful. It was during a very rainy weekend in Sydney at the end of November when we make our way to Pyrmont hoping that the rain holds out. We luck out with a park right near the Japanese bakery and cafe which makes it seem like a sign that braving the rain was a good idea. Akipan is serendipitously located on Bunn Street.

There are around half a dozen people milling outside Akipan at around 11am There are three tables outside and one bench and we wanted to make sure that we could eat in so we headed there earlier than our usual lunch hour.

The menu consists of a photo display of each of the toast offerings. These toasts use their house baked shokupan with toppings like cream cheese and banana on raisin toast, French toast or their version of a Monte Cristo sandwich. Sophia and I decide to share four between us. Inside where you order there are also displays of round and square shokupan loaves in flavours like hojicha marble, matcha marble, white, fruit and multigrain. These are sold as half loaves for $14 or whole loaves for $24. I see a woman buy a whole loaf and they package it up nicely in a paper bag and then slip it in a clear plastic bag - so Japanese!

While in there I also spy some of the bread rolls that I used to buy a lot when I lived in Japan. These diamond shaped loaves have a split down the centre exposing their fillings. These were usually filled with tasty cheese but here they're filled with corn and cheese so for nostalgia's sake I buy one as well as a small bacon cheese roll too.

I start with a ginger honey cafe latte, perfect for this grey day with a nice kick from the ginger and caffeine.

The toasts are made to order so we start on the two ready made buns as you just help yourselves to those from the display. The corn and cheese and mayo roll is nice. In Japan the bread is crispier but perhaps the wet day has taken the crispy edge off these. After we take these home and heat them up in an oven it does the trick crisping it up very nicely.

Similarly the bacon and cheese roll heats up very nicely and has a good ratio of bacon and cheese to bread. And just a note: the buns are both the same price but the corn mayo is much larger.

We start on the savoury toasts. The first one is both of our favourite. It's a slice of multigrain shokupan spread with a miso, mayonnaise and shallot topping. These three ingredients combine perfectly to create an incredibly moreish topping that reminds me of tuna salad but without actual tuna or fishiness, just pure umami. If you are going to get one savoury toast, make this be it.

I love Greek taramasalata, please bury me in it when my time is up. Their tarama salad is less salty and quite a bit milder than Greek taramasalata. It is nice though but I think that I was hoping for a stronger flavour.

Onto the sweet toasts - the An Butter has a thick layer of sweetened red beans and a square of slowly melting butter on the premium matcha marble toast. This is pure Japan in every bite and I really like the sweetness of the An with the flavour of the matcha.

But the toast that we all came to try is the mochi kinako on hojicha toast. Kinako is a toasted soybean flour that tastes nutty (when I first moved to Japan and tried it I thought it was roasted peanut powder) and it pairs perfectly with the nuttiness of the hojicha's roasted green tea flavour. The mochi stretches perfectly and I adore the texture of the chewy, stretchy mochi on top of the soft toast. And if you're going to get one sweet toast, this is my pick.

I saw so many Monte Cristo sandwiches going past us that I just had to go in and order one to take home for Mr NQN. The Monte Cristo sandwich comes out piping hot with a very generous amount of ham and gooey cheese inside. I like this spread with some karashi mustard because it can be very much on the sweet side as it has a sweet savoury balance like maple bacon pancakes.

Oh and if you spy a bag of rusks on the counter make sure to buy a bag. If you love the crunch of caramelised croissants then I think you'll love these batons of their caramelised shokupan. They are the perfect snack to go with an afternoon tea or coffee.

So tell me Dear Reader, which toast do you like the sound of the best? Do you venture out to cafes when it rains or do you prefer to stay home?

This meal was independently paid for.

Akipan

Shop3/2/14 Bunn St, Pyrmont NSW 2009

Phone: 0433 776 073

Tuesday to Wednesday 7 am–2 pm

Thursday to Saturday 7 am–6 pm Friday

Closed Sunday and Monday

https://www.akipan.com.au/