Japantown Japanese Bakery Andersen: $3.50 Melon Pan Daily

Andersen Bakery, at 1737 Post St in San Francisco's Japan Center, is the Japanese bakery that most Japantown regulars pass on their way to the bookstore or the ramen line, and the one many of them stop at. It is a self-serve shop in the Japanese style: you pick up a tray and a pair of tongs, walk the shelves of melon pan, curry bread and fruit sandos, and carry your choices to the register. The prices are posted on the company's online menu, which makes it easy to plan a snack before you arrive.

The Andersen name has a longer story than most mall bakeries. According to the Wikipedia entry on its parent company, Takaki Bakery, Mr. and Mrs. Takaki founded the original bakery in Hiroshima in August 1948. Founder Shunsuke Takaki took a study trip to Denmark in 1959, and the Danish pastries and European-style bread he saw there shaped everything that followed.

In October 1967 the family opened a restaurant and bakery called Andersen inside a former Mitsui Bank building in Hiroshima, a 1925 structure that had been damaged in the atomic bombing. The name is a nod to Hans Christian Andersen, and Danish pastry is still a pillar of the menu. The same entry notes a California restaurant and bakery in San Mateo opened in 1981, and a US branch based in Hayward. The Japantown shop belongs to that Bay Area family of stores, which now includes Hillsdale, Burlingame and a Fox Plaza counter on Market Street.

What you get in Japantown is the hybrid that makes Andersen interesting: Danish technique, Japanese taste. Laminated pastries sit next to soft, sweet Japanese breads, and both are baked for people who like their pastry less sugary than the American norm.

Start with melon pan, the domed sweet bun with a crackled cookie crust. Andersen describes it as traditional Japanese melon pan with a soft center, and the plain version is $3.50 on the online menu. Flavored versions cost $4.25, and the list includes coffee, strawberry milk and ube melon pan. Buy the plain one first, because it is the clearest test of the crust.

Anpan is $3.75. The company says the red bean paste comes from Hokkaido and suggests pairing the roll with matcha, which is how it is often eaten in Japan. Curry pan is $4.65 in three versions, chicken, beef and vegetable, and it is the savory buy that holds up best if you are walking around Japantown for an hour afterward.

Salt bread is $3.25. This is the butter-rich shio pan roll that has spread from Japanese convenience bakeries to shops all over California, and it is one of the cheapest items in the case. A soft creamy French roll made with Japanese milk is $3.95, and a pull-apart pack of Japanese milk dinner rolls is $7.50.

The sando shelf is where the Japanese convenience-store influence shows most. A strawberry cream sando is $6.99, a mixed fruit sando is $7.25 and the Kewpie egg salad sando, made with the Japanese mayonnaise, is $7.50. The pork katsu sando is $8.50 and the teri-tama sando, a teriyaki-and-egg combination, is $7.99. These are made to be eaten cold, so they work well as a picnic for Peace Plaza.

Japanese chiffon cake is sold by the slice. The blueberry version and the matcha azuki strawberry version are $6.95 each on the menu. A Japanese cheesecake tart is $4.95 and the seasonal ube pumpkin purin, a custard pudding, is $4.50. Cream puffs cost $3.95 in vanilla custard, strawberry cheesecake and orange creamsicle flavors.

The Danish roots are easy to find. A cheese Danish is $4.25, a mango Danish is $4.85 and the small Danish bars run from $2.75 for cinnamon sugar to $3.25 for vanilla cream or pistachio. If you want something to take home, the Japanese milk bread loaf is $12.25 and keeps well for toast the next morning.

Japanese bakeries run on a simple system, and Andersen follows it. Take a tray and tongs from the stack near the entrance, choose from the open shelves and glass-fronted racks, and bring the full tray to the counter. Staff bag each item separately, which matters for the cream sandos and the fruit pastries. Do not handle bread with your hands, and do not put items back once you have picked them up with the tongs.

The busiest time is the weekend afternoon, when families come into Japan Center for lunch and shopping. The shelves are fullest in the morning, so go close to opening if you want the full range of flavored melon pan. Andersen also takes orders online through its website for pickup, which is the safer route if you need a dozen rolls or a whole loaf for a group.

There is seating in the mall corridors, but it is shared and fills up on Saturdays. Many people buy a bag of bread here and carry it outside to the plaza instead.

Andersen is in the West building of Japan Center, the shopping complex that has anchored Japantown since the 1960s. The same building holds Kinokuniya Books, a large Japanese bookstore that is worth half an hour for its stationery and magazine floor. The Kinokuniya and Kintetsu buildings are joined by a bridge over Webster Street, so you can wander the whole mall without stepping outside.

Step out to Peace Plaza between the buildings to see the five-tiered Peace Pagoda, a gift from Osaka, Japan. From there, walk north to the pedestrian block of Buchanan Street, where small shops sell ceramics, snacks and gifts. The two together make an easy hour with a bag of melon pan in hand.

Address: 1737 Post St, inside Japan Center West, San Francisco, CA 94115. Phone: (415) 757-0004, as listed on the company's ordering site. Hours: Monday to Friday 10 am to 7 pm, Saturday 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, and Sunday 9:30 am to 7 pm.

Prices quoted here come from Andersen Bakery USA's online menu at andersenbakeryusa.com: melon pan $3.50, anpan $3.75, salt bread $3.25, curry pan $4.65, strawberry cream sando $6.99 and Japanese milk bread $12.25. Japan Center has a public parking garage, and the 22 Fillmore and 38 Geary buses stop within a short walk. Ask Karpo for more Japantown bakeries and tea shops nearby.