Famous Gourmet! Top 5 Bakeries in Kyoto for Japanese Bread

1. Gebacken Sennyuji Shop

Gebacken Sennyuji Shop is a popular shop that constantly stocks around 70 types of bread on its display racks – from hard orthodox German breads to sweet dessert-type breads. It also sells a lot of artistic breads that use Japanese ingredients, such as the Japanese rolled omelet called “Dashimaki” and an (bean paste) with Uji matcha green tea.
It is recommended to try the Yuzu Shiromiso Anpan (bun with white miso and yuzu citrus filling) (160 JPY (excl. tax)). Inside its crispy Danish bread is Saikyo shiro miso (a sweet kind of rice miso), shiro-an (sweet bean paste that is made by boiling and straining white azuki beans and white common beans), yuzu juice, and other ingredients that have been reduced to a syrupy consistency. It is accented by shiratama (rice flour that is shaped into balls and boiled) and sakura (cherry blossom) leaves that have been pickled in salt. This is one tasty baked delight!

2. Sizuya Kyoto Station Shop

Founded in 1948, Sizuya is a famous shop with more than 20 branches in Kyoto. It boasts massive popularity among locals and tourists thanks to its wide array of baked goodies – from side dish-type breads, up to sweets and sandwiches.
This bakery creates a lot of breads that incorporate a Japanese taste, but the most recommended item in its menu is the Sesame Bread Azuki & Osatsu (180 JPY (incl. tax)). It is a doughy baguette with mild, melt-in-your-mouth red azuki beans and sweet potato filling inside. Enjoy the natural sweetness of the filling, as well as the rich aroma of the sesame seeds enveloping the bread.

3. Panraku

Since it is an old-fashioned bakery, Panraku may have a somewhat drab atmosphere, but it is actually a famous shop with a full-fledged lava rock oven. Its specialties are sweet pastry-type breads with soft buns. They also have baked goodies that use Japanese ingredients. If you come here, the recommended item to try is the Kintokimame (150 JPY), which has an appealing mild sweetness. Its dough is flat, and has a unique soft and springy texture. It is filled with sweet boiled kintokimame (a type of common bean) paste.

4. fiveran

Fiveran is a well-loved bakery with a stylish shop design. It sells various types of breads – from hard breads to creative side dish-type and Danish-type pastries. There are also a lot of breads with Japanese tastes, incorporating ingredients like black beans, matcha green tea, and kinako (roasted soybean flour).
The Mentai Jagachi (200 JPY (incl. tax)) here is recommended. Japanese people have been creating various innovative dishes using mentaiko (the eggs of Alaska Pollack that have been pickled in salt and mixed with spices like cayenne pepper) for some time now. Some popular ways to use it with bread involve mixing mentaiko with butter and then spreading it on toast, putting mentaiko inside the filling of savory bread, or pairing it with bread. At this shop, mentaiko is fused with cheese and potatoes, creating a delicious baked bread that is crunchy and fragrant, and that also has a perfect balance of sweetness, spiciness, and saltiness.

5. Boulangerie MASH Kyoto

The last shop on this list is Boulangerie MASH Kyoto, a famous bakery located in Shijo Karasuma, which is downtown Kyoto. The breads made by its owner, who was raised in Kyoto and trained in Paris, are pillared on specialty Kyoto ingredients, such as Kujo negi (scallions), Japanese sake from local breweries, and matcha green tea from popular tea shops in Japan. There are many fine breads at this bakery that look so beautiful that they almost feel like Japanese sweets!
The recommended item here is the Hana no Iroha (180 JPY (incl. tax)). To make this bread, the dough that is kneaded with Japanese sake is filled with mildly sweet bean paste made from purple-fleshed sweet potatoes. It is baked, and then accented with a violet flower. The pretty appearance has made it really popular!

Aside from the above shops, there are many other famous bakeries in Kyoto. Make sure to drop by and check them out!