The Best Bakeries in Asia

Seoul

Mandong Bakery is a small bread shop in Yeonnam-dong. Its garlic baguette, soaked in garlic butter sauce, is the item most often bought, and staff hand out samples before purchase. Cultural Bakery is a takeout shop in an alley near Jongno 3-ga Station, with a tiled Hanok-style roof. It sells only bread baked the same day, donates unsold loaves, and is known for garlic bread and onion bagels.

Tokyo and Mitaka

Toho Bakery is a small shop in Mitaka, a short walk from Inokashira Park. Its salt butter roll is the most popular item, and fresh bread comes out of the oven throughout the day. Pain des Philosophes opened in 2017 on a residential street in Kagurazaka, run by chef Tetsuya Enomoto. Its Alpha baguette and ficelle d'aille draw lines that often run down the hill. Centre The Bakery in Ginza has a cafe where diners toast their own slices on tabletop toasters. The square loaf is the item most often bought.

Taipei and western Japan

Celebread is a sourdough bakery in Taipei that sells loaves and baguettes in flavours such as chili cheese and walnut cranberry. Koro Bakery sits on Hondori shopping street near Onomichi Station and sells about 70 kinds of hard and sweet bread. Its dough ferments for a long time and uses homemade yeast. Flip up! in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, is open from morning to evening and is known for its bagels with chocolate and cheese fillings. Pain Stock in Fukuoka offers mentaiko baguettes, and Paris-h, on the ground floor of the Nakanoshima Daibiru in Osaka, sells the same baguette along with the Tricolore.