pain･maison Ginza — Restaurant in Tokyo

To some people, it is just bread. To me, bread is life 🥰😇

We initially purchased three items: Truffle, sweet potato and egg mayo ham. Before we finished chewing and before we swallowed our first bite, we already decided we need to buy more bread!

Their signature truffle salt bread is delicately delicious. It has a paper-thin crisp exterior and tender chewiness, contrasted by and an souffle like, fluffy and multi-layered bread almost half-baked soft dough. There is a small square of unmelted truffle butter encased within each roll, for a moorish almost magical mouthful.

Their egg mayo ham sandwich, ankirim (red bean paste with whipped cream) were delicious as breakfast or dessert. We had the apple crumble pie the next morning and it was so good, overflowing with chunks of stewed apple cubes and cinammon syrup.

My absolute favourite was the "imoyaki" sweet potato salt bread. I cannot explain how something so simple, so small can bring such joy. In the moment was, I was very grateful to be alive and that life has such amazing experiences to offer.

Priced from ¥110 to ¥220, this bakery offers a small but curated collection. There are seasonal items such ad Mentaiko, Apple Crumble. The shop assitants are friendly despite the many photographs taken; and the bakers are busy but keeps a friendly demeanour and...

The online queue starts at 8:00 each day and is simple to use. You can queue up on their website before you go, which also shows the current queue and wait time. You do not select a time - once you reserve (confirm with the link sent to your email), you are assigned the next number in the queue.

Once you arrive, you then join the line. The line moves very quickly. Be prepared to show them your assigned number on your phone when you are about to enter so that they can mark it off.

I'm not sure what exactly the significance of the number you are given is, however, as it appears that even if you don't reserve a spot until you get there, you can immediately line up. For example, my number the other day was 26, and the wait time was still 17 minutes when I arrived, but there were people ahead of me in line with numbers in the 50s. It may be a different experience based on how large the queue is.

Despite not being a bread person, I would eat here every day. I recommend the melon pan - the texture, taste, and smell is incredible. The shio pan was okay, the soft texture is...

Ever met a girl and immediately know that she's the one?

I stumbled upon this bakery on my way to Bongen coffee and immediately knew that their pan is what I want. It's the pan!

Bad puns aside, Pain Maison is a very popular bakery on the outskirts of touristy Ginza. Their specialty is shio pan (salted bun) and melon pan (melon bun). I've had copious amount of both, on multiple days and that was how addicted I was.

My highlight would be their melon pan, slightly sweet, crunchy when hot and rich in butter. Its sweet-savoury taste, and outside crunchy, inside fluffy texture was a delight to my tastebuds. Bear in mind though, I love butter. Those on a diet, it is fine to turn away.

Their shio pan was also good, salted just enough to satiate tastebuds, and bun fluffy enough to feel light.

The turnaround of buns were fast, as there were more customers than buns so you get them hot and freshly baked. Queues were roughly a 30-minute wait.

I would return...