eF & Be Bakehouse (NO store front. Preorder ONLY) — Restaurant in Burnaby

One thing about this whole pandemic thing is that we’ve been keeping an eye out for new take-out options… and what could be better than having freshly baked melonpans delivered right to your door?

We fell in love with melonpans during our trips to Japan and, thankfully, we’ve started seeing more and more of these pop up around Vancouver over the past couple of years. eF & Be Bakehouse is an online bakery that specializes in Japanese-style melonpans. You pick your pickup/delivery date and then select your melonpan of choice. Note that the popular flavours sell out quickly so get your order in early so you’re not disappointed.

Wanting to try a little bit of everything, I decided to order the Assorted Mini Mochi Melon Pan Box ($22 for 6 mini melonpans). Honestly, this is a great way to try out their different pans. We also grabbed a Ham and Cheese Pan ($4) and their popular Mochieese ($4). The box came with the following:

Original Mini Mochi Melon Pan with Dark Chocolate Ganache Chocolate Mini Mochi Melon Pan with Dark Chocolate Ganache Matcha Mini Mochi Melon Pan with White Chocolate Ganache Cranberry Mini Mochi Melon Pan with White Chocolate Ganache Hojicha Mini Mochi Melon Pan with White Chocolate Ganache Kinako Mini Mochi Melon Pan with Red Bean Paste

First off, their savory ham and cheese pan was really good… it reminded me so much of the pastries that we’d eat in Japan. The mini mochi melon pans were all good (best if you heat them up a bit before you eat them) but I think my favs of the bunch were the cranberry, hojicha, and kinako flavours.

They also have other bakery items other than melonpans so make sure you try out their other...

We loved everything we tried from here! First, you can tell everything was freshly made earlier that morning! When the buns and cookies arrived, they were still warm! Their matcha mochi melon pan was light and just sweet enough that leaves you wanting a dozen more. The curry beef bun - filling was nice and savoury while the bun itself had a very nice texture and not greasy like other places! And the matcha white chocolate mochi cookie was absolutely delish and had some serious mochi pull! The sesame mochi cookies had wonderfully intense roasted sesame flavour and satisfies your sesame craving with just half a cookie! Potato salad bun was nicely seasoned. They deliver and text you minutes before arrival,...

I've had a solid selection of both their sweet and savoury baked items, and you can't go wrong with anything from this lovely bakery. I would highly suggest you set an alarm for when they "open" their weekly sales and don't miss out!! I would highly recommend their hotel bread (it's so soft, milky, fluffy and just amazing), their hotdog bun (just the perfect snack re-warmed in the air fryer), their custard bun (creamy, soft not too sweet custard - you must warm it up) and any of their melon buns (warm them up and put a scoop of ice cream in the middle; you'll thank...