Located just one-minute on foot from Yoyogi-Uehara Station, Boulangerie and Cafe Main Mano in Oku-Shibuya will make you feel like you’ve been transported to Paris. That’s no accident – the chef here worked at Hotel de Crillon, a five-star hotel in Paris. The pastries here use premium ingredients including wheat from Hokkaido, AOP-certified fermented butter from France, locally cultivated yeast and more. The terrace seats are the perfect place to relax and savour the baked goods over a cup of tea or coffee.
The bestseller here is the egg tart, but we just can’t go past the creamy maritozzo. The latter are made with a moist brioche dough, stuffed with a mixture of fresh cream cheese, homemade vanilla custard cream and special whipped cream. The chef also adds wasanbon (fine-grained Japanese sugar) to give the buns a richer flavour. To top it all off, Main Mano’s maritozzo are filled with seasonal fruit. They’re available in two flavours: matcha and Japanese black tea, priced at ¥760 each.
There are only four buns available per day, but these gems are absolutely worth it for their delicate texture and the freshness of the fruit. We recommend calling ahead, or getting there early to make sure you can get your hands on one.