Japanese bakeries in Sydney, and what to order at each

You had a melon pan in Tokyo, crisp on top and soft inside, or a curry pan still warm from the fryer. Back home you search japanese bakery sydney, and the map fills with cake shops, cheesecake chains and bakeries that call themselves Asian.

Sydney has only a handful of real pan-ya (パン屋), the Japanese word for a bakery (pan means bread), where sweet filled buns and curry rolls sit beside the loaves. Below is what each bread is called, which bakeries actually bake it, and where to find the Japanese bakeries in Sydney.

Which bread was it?

These are the eight you're most likely to have met, in Japan or on a Sydney shelf.

• 

  Shokupan (食パン, the everyday loaf)

  A tall, soft loaf baked in a square tin, sold whole or in thick slices

  a domed top is yamagata, a flat one kakugata

• 

  Melon pan (メロンパン, melon bread)

  A round bun under a crisp, cracked biscuit shell scored in a grid

  no melon inside

• 

  Anpan (あんパン, bean-paste bread)

  A round glossy bun with sesame on top and sweet bean paste inside

  Azuki Bakery calls it Azuki Pan, after the azuki bean in the paste

• 

  Cream pan (クリームパン, custard bread)

  A soft bun shaped like a mitten, filled with custard

• 

  Curry pan (カレーパン, curry bread)

  A crumbed, deep-fried bun with thick Japanese curry inside

  some bakeries bake it instead of frying

• 

  Yakisoba pan (焼きそばパン, fried-noodle bread)

  A split hot-dog roll packed with yakisoba, Japan's fried noodles

• 

  Choco korone (チョココロネ, chocolate cornet)

  A spiral cone of bread with chocolate cream piped into the open end

• 

  Shio pan (塩パン, salt bread)

  A small rolled bun, glossy with butter and finished with salt

What makes a bakery Japanese?

Three kinds of bread on one shelf. The loaf, the sweet buns and the savoury rolls all come from the same soft dough, and a Japanese bakery sells all three side by side.

The loaf. Shokupan is Japan's everyday loaf. It's sold whole or ready-sliced, and 4-slice or 6-slice on the bag tells you how many thick slices the loaf is cut into. Fuji Japanese Bakery bakes both shapes, the domed yamagata (山型, mountain shape) and the flat-topped kakugata (角型, square shape) from a lidded tin.

The sweet buns. Japan calls these kashi-pan (菓子パン, sweet bread), and they began with anpan. Kimura Yasubei, whose bakery in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district is now Kimuraya, started selling it in 1874, and Emperor Meiji was served one in 1875. In 1904 Nakamuraya, a Tokyo bakery and café, put custard where the bean paste went and made the first cream pan.

The savoury rolls. Curry pan, yakisoba pan and fried sausage rolls are filled with a dish that would otherwise be lunch. Fuji gives them their own section on its menu, chōri-pan (調理パン), which means prepared bread.

Which Sydney bakery should you go to for what?

They're three very different shops, so pick by what you're after.

The widest range of buns. Azuki Bakery, in Newtown and Wolli Creek near the airport, describes itself as Japanese-European. Its bread list runs from Azuki Pan and melon pan, plain or matcha green tea, to three curry pans, shio pan and a mentaiko baguette spread with spicy cod roe mayonnaise. You can pre-order online or walk in.

The classics, since 1984. Fuji Japanese Bakery opened in Brookvale in 1984 and moved to Killarney Heights, on Sydney's north side, in 1987. It's Japanese-run and bakes the classic Japanese set: shokupan in both shapes, anpan, cream pan, chocolate cornet, melon pan, a fried potato curry pan and yakisoba pan. Its most popular item is a twist doughnut.

A loaf of shokupan. Akipan in Pyrmont, next to the city, bakes loaves and nothing else. Its baker was born in Japan, and it brought most of its tools from Japan, Japanese-made shokupan tins included. The range runs from plain white to a matcha green-tea marble loaf, plus a yudane loaf, made by mixing some of the flour with boiling water first. Order online and choose a pick-up day.

Is every bakery selling Japanese milk bread a Japanese bakery?

No, and the names on the label won't tell you. Bread names travel between Asian bakeries, so a Japanese name on a bun doesn't make the bakery Japanese. Breadtop, the bakery chain that began in Box Hill, Melbourne, in 2002, sells a Japanese Melon Bun filled with custard. Its other specialities are mooncakes, and its head of pastry is a chef from Taiwan.

"Milk bread" is the same story. Outside Japan, shokupan is often sold as Japanese milk bread, or Hokkaido milk bread after Japan's northern island, and Asian online grocers stock loaves from other makers labelled Japanese-style shokupan. In Japan, though, the word has nothing to do with milk.

In Japan, shokupan means bread baked in a shokupan tin, square or round. Milk and egg are allowed in the dough but never required. Source: Japan's food labelling standard

That's why Akipan can make its loaves with no egg at all, and why it also sells a brioche shokupan, brioche dough baked in the shokupan tin. The test that works is the bakery's own words: each bakery below says on its own page that it's Japanese, and lists its breads by their Japanese names.

Where to find Japanese bakeries in Sydney

Everything below was checked in October 2026. Three bakeries, four doors, each with a map link that shows you its current hours.

• City

  Akipan

  Shokupan loaves only, plain to matcha marble, with online pre-order and pick-up.

  Pyrmont

• Inner West

  Azuki Bakery, Newtown

  Melon pan, Azuki Pan, curry pan, shio pan and Japanese-style cakes.

  Enmore Road

• South

  Azuki Bakery, Wolli Creek

  The second Azuki, near the airport, with pre-order for pick-up.

  Wolli Creek

• North

  Fuji Japanese Bakery

  Japanese-run since 1984: shokupan, anpan, cream pan, melon pan, curry pan and yakisoba pan.

  Killarney Heights

If none of them is near you, Japanese bread reaches further than the bakeries do.

• Made here: Fuji Japanese Bakery bread is also sold at Lucky Mart in Artarmon, Tokyo Mart in Northbridge, Ume-ya in Crows Nest and G'day Tokyo Grocery in Neutral Bay.
• On the shelf: Ichiba Junction, a Japanese grocer's online shop, has packaged shokupan and a long-life melon pan from the Japanese bread brand Pasco.
• On the shelf: JFC Online stocks Pasco shokupan in thick 4-slice and 6-slice loaves for Sydney orders.
• On the shelf: Genki Mart carries packaged anpan from the Japanese brand Honma, with bean paste, matcha or coffee filling.

Prices are a rough guide, not a quote. A bun at a Japanese bakery runs roughly $2 to $10, and a whole shokupan loaf anywhere from about $7 to over $30, depending on size and flavour.

For more on the grocers above, our guide to Japanese grocery stores in Sydney has each one's range and online shop.

Common questions

Of the eight breads above, yakisoba pan is the one you can put together at home: it's just yakisoba in a split roll. We're an online shop that delivers across Australia, and our Japanese yakisoba is the instant kind, ready in minutes. If you're new to Japanese food altogether, start here. Know a Japanese bakery in Sydney we've missed? Tell us.

Photographs — all from Wikimedia Commons, used under the licences shown: Top photograph by Sakurai Midori (CC BY-SA 3.0); Shokupan by 午後紅茶 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Curry pan by Laitr Keiows (CC BY-SA 3.0); Melon pan, anpan, cream pan, yakisoba pan and choco korone by Ocdp (CC0); Shio pan by 逃亡者 (public domain).