The best Japanese bakeries in London are Happy Sky Bakery, on Hanway Street near Tottenham Court Road and on Askew Road in Shepherd’s Bush, WA Café’s four cafés, and the bakery counter inside Japan Centre on Panton Street. A melon pan costs from £3 at Gu Choki Pan and WA Café to £4.60 at Happy Sky, and a shokupan milk loaf from £4.80 to £8.90.
Below are six places to buy Japanese bread in London, checked on each bakery’s own website or online shop on 1 November 2026, with addresses, opening hours and a price table for the breads people come for: melon pan, curry pan, an pan and shokupan. First, the quick answer to what Japanese bakeries are called.
What Japanese bakeries are called
In Japanese, a bakery is a pan-ya (パン屋), from pan, bread, and -ya, shop. The word pan comes from the Portuguese pão. The encyclopedia Nihon Daihyakka Zensho says bread is traditionally dated to the Portuguese arrival on Tanegashima in 1543, and only became an everyday sight after Japan’s 1858 trade treaty with the United States.
Japanese Bakeries in London and What to Order
Melon Pan, An Pan, Curry Pan and Shokupan: Japanese Breads Explained
A Japanese bakery sells soft, slightly sweet breads, many with a filling, alongside French-style pastries. These are the four you will find in London.
An pan is a soft bun filled with sweet azuki bean paste, and it has a known birthday. Kimuraya, which opened in Tokyo in 1869, records that its founder Kimura Yasubei created his sakadane an pan in 1874, a bun leavened with a sake yeast starter, and that it was presented to the Emperor Meiji the following year. Nihon Daihyakka Zensho describes it as a Japanese invention that put bean paste, the filling of a traditional sweet, inside bread dough.
Melon pan is a sweet bun under a crisp biscuit crust. WA Café describes its version as a soft sweet bun under a crunchy golden crust shaped to look like a melon, and Happy Sky’s is soft and fluffy inside with a light, cookie-like crust on top.
Curry pan is bread wrapped around Japanese curry. Versions differ from shop to shop: Gu Choki Pan’s is a savoury sourdough doughnut filled with vegetable curry, and WA Café’s vegetable curry bun is crumbed and baked.
Shokupan is the soft Japanese milk loaf. Happy Sky’s nama shokupan is made with cream and also goes into its Tokyo honey toast, and Gu Choki Pan’s award-winning version is a sourdough loaf.
Japanese Bakery Prices in London, November 2026
Prices come from each bakery’s own website or online shop. Where a bakery does not list an item online, the table says so.
| Bakery | Where | Melon pan | Curry pan | An pan | Shokupan loaf | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happy Sky Bakery | Hanway Street, W1, and Askew Road, W12 | £4.60 | £6.20 (chicken katsu curry pan) | £4.60 | £8.90 (nama shokupan) | 1 November 2026 |
| WA Café | Covent Garden, Marylebone, Ealing, Aldgate East | £3.00 | £3.60 (baked vegetable curry bun) | £3.50 | Not listed online | 31 October 2026 |
| Gu Choki Pan | Delivery and pop-ups | £3.00 | £3.00 | £3.00 | £4.80 | 1 November 2026 |
| Kanazawa Curry Bread | Islington Green, N1 | Not listed online | Price not listed online | Not listed online | £8.50 | 1 November 2026 |
| Sakurado | Five shops, from Soho to Vauxhall | Not listed online | Not listed online | Not listed online | From £7.50 | 1 November 2026 |
| Japan Centre | Panton Street, SW1 | £2.20 (matcha melon pan) | £2.99 (baked curry bread) | Not recorded | Not recorded | Shelf prices, 24 March 2026 |
Map of Happy Sky Bakery
Six Places to Buy Japanese Bread in London
Happy Sky Bakery, Hanway Street and Askew Road
Happy Sky is the closest London has to a neighbourhood pan-ya in Japan. Its founder, Motoko, grew up with Japan’s bread culture, and the bakery says its dough ferments slowly at low temperature for up to 72 hours, with no additives. The best seller is the matcha ribbon, a matcha croissant filled with matcha mochi, at £7.80. The salt butter roll is £3.80, and melon pan and an pan are £4.60 each. The Hanway Street shop sits on a quiet street behind Oxford Street, and the original in Shepherd’s Bush opens at weekends. Hours and online ordering are on Happy Sky’s where to buy page.
Hanway Street: 40 Hanway Street, London W1T 1UT. Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10.30am to 4.30pm. Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road.
Askew Road: 94 Askew Road, London W12 9BL. Friday 9am to 3pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am to 3pm. Nearest Tube: Stamford Brook.
WA Café, Covent Garden, Marylebone, Ealing and Aldgate East
WA Café is a Japanese patisserie first, with a bakery shelf beside the cakes. On its online ordering shop on 31 October 2026, melon pan was £3.00, an pan filled with homemade azuki paste £3.50, the baked vegetable curry bun £3.60 and the tofu katsu pan £3.90. Our full WA Café review has every branch’s hours and the cakes worth ordering. All four cafés are walk-in only, and the Ealing branch opens earliest, at 8am on weekdays.
Covent Garden: 5 New Row, London WC2N 4LH. Nearest Tube: Leicester Square. Also at 6 Thayer Street, Marylebone (Bond Street), 32 Haven Green, Ealing (Ealing Broadway) and 21 Commercial Street (Aldgate East).
Japan Centre Bakery, Panton Street
The bakery counter inside Japan Centre’s flagship store is the easiest place in the West End to pick up a melon pan with your groceries. A photograph of its shelves on 24 March 2026 shows a matcha melon pan at £2.20, and baked curry bread and matcha croissants at £2.99 each. Japan Centre’s food hall at Westfield London has its own bakery too. Our guide to Japanese markets and supermarkets in London has both stores’ opening hours.
Address: Panton Street, London SW1Y 4EA. Nearest Tube: Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square.
Gu Choki Pan, West London Micro Bakery
Gu Choki Pan is a Japanese micro bakery with no shop. It bakes everything on a sourdough base, restocks its online shop every Monday, delivers in west London on Thursdays and posts to the UK mainland. Melon pan, curry pan and an pan are £3.00 each, a shokupan loaf is £4.80 (one per order), and seasonal specials in autumn 2026 included a chestnut kuri pan at £3.40. It also trades at Japanese markets: it is on the food list for the Yokimono sample sale in Dalston on 7 and 8 November 2026. Order through Gu Choki Pan’s online shop.
Kanazawa Curry Bread, Islington Green
Kanazawa is a Japanese-owned bakery that specialises in curry bread, with toppings such as cheese or sausage. It has a small shop on Islington Green and a stall at Lower Stable Street Market behind Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross from April to December. Its shokupan is £8.50. Details are on Kanazawa’s website.
Shop: Unit 3, 34 Islington Green, London N1 8DU. Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 4pm. Nearest Tube: Angel.
King’s Cross stall: Lower Stable Street Market, Thursday and Friday noon to 7pm, Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays 11am to 6pm.
Sakurado, Soho, Covent Garden and Kensington
Sakurado is a Japanese patisserie known for mille crêpes and fresh cream mochi, and it keeps a bread and pastry range alongside: shokupan from £7.50 and Asami mochi buns at £4.50. The Soho shop on Shaftesbury Avenue stays open until 11pm most nights, the latest of any bakery here. For a matcha latte to go with your bun, our round-up of matcha cafés in London covers twelve cafés across the city. Shop hours are on Sakurado’s stores page.
Soho: 66 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LX. Sunday to Thursday 10am to 11pm, Friday and Saturday 10am to 11.30pm. Nearest Tube: Piccadilly Circus. Also at 38 Southampton Street, Covent Garden; 14 Gloucester Road; Kensington Arcade, 125 Kensington High Street; and 21 Miles Street, Vauxhall.
Japanese Bakeries in London: Questions and Answers
In Japanese, a bakery is a pan-ya (パン屋), joining pan, the word for bread, with -ya, meaning shop. Pan comes from the Portuguese pão, a reminder that bread reached Japan with Portuguese traders in the 16th century. In London, Happy Sky Bakery on Hanway Street and in Shepherd’s Bush is the closest thing to a neighbourhood pan-ya.
Melon pan is a Japanese sweet bun topped with a crisp biscuit crust. WA Café describes it as a soft sweet bun under a crunchy golden crust shaped to look like a melon. On prices checked on 31 October and 1 November 2026, it cost £3.00 at Gu Choki Pan and WA Café and £4.60 at Happy Sky Bakery, and Japan Centre sold a matcha version for £2.20 in March 2026.
Happy Sky Bakery on Hanway Street near Tottenham Court Road, WA Café’s four cafés in Covent Garden, Marylebone, Ealing and Aldgate East, and the bakery counter at Japan Centre on Panton Street all sell it. Gu Choki Pan delivers melon pan in west London on Thursdays and posts it to the UK mainland.
Gu Choki Pan sells a sourdough shokupan for £4.80 online, Sakurado’s loaves start at £7.50, Kanazawa Curry Bread on Islington Green sells one for £8.50, and Happy Sky Bakery’s nama shokupan, made with cream, is £8.90. Prices were checked on each bakery’s own website on 1 November 2026.
Yes. Happy Sky Bakery is at 40 Hanway Street, a quiet street off Oxford Street a short walk from Tottenham Court Road station. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm and on Sunday from 10.30am to 4.30pm. WA Café’s Marylebone branch at 6 Thayer Street is a few minutes from Bond Street station.
An pan is a soft bread bun filled with sweet azuki bean paste. Kimuraya in Tokyo, which opened in 1869, says its founder Kimura Yasubei created his sake-yeast an pan in 1874. In London, it costs £3.00 at Gu Choki Pan, £3.50 at WA Café and £4.60 at Happy Sky Bakery, on prices checked on 31 October and 1 November 2026.
