Artisan Bakery Near Me in Asakusa: Pan no Pelican, Two Breads Since 1942

Pan no Pelican bakes only two kinds of bread, shokupan and rolls, at 4-7-4 Kotobuki, Taito-ku, Tokyo 111-0042, three minutes on foot from Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza Line. Since a price revision on 1 April 2026, a one-kin loaf costs ¥560 and a bag of ten small rolls ¥860, tax included, and the shop is open Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 17:00. If you want an artisan bakery near me in Asakusa that has refused to add a third bread for decades, call ahead, because this one sells out.

The fourth-generation manager, Riku Watanabe, explains the rule on the bakery's own site. In an age with hundreds of kinds of bread, Pelican makes just shokupan and rolls, only ten items even counting different shapes and sizes, and that style has continued since the shop was founded in 1942, the 17th year of Showa. He adds that the recipes still need adjusting between summer and winter, and that the team works hard to change so the taste can stay the same.

The homepage puts the goal simply: a taste you can eat every day without tiring of it. The company page records a 2017 documentary film about the bakery and a book published the same year, which turned a quiet neighbourhood baker into a destination. The attention has not stopped: the bakery announced that NHK's morning programme Asaichi would feature its bread on Wednesday 3 September 2025, including sandwiches made with ginger by the bakery's cafe.

The narrowing was a choice made after the war. An old interview with the late second-generation owner, Mr Watanabe, reproduced on the site, says the shop first made jam buns and cream buns like everyone else and soon began supplying bread to the coffee shops that were booming at the time. As bakeries multiplied in the neighbourhood in the 1950s, he decided he did not want to compete with them, dropped the sweet buns, and focused on shokupan and rolls for coffee shops and hotels.

His reasoning is quoted directly: if he had ten units of strength, he would rather make one thing than a hundred. He also recalled his father saying that breakfast with fragrant coffee and buttered toast was the best, a line the cafe still honours. The founder had run milk halls and coffee shops before the war and turned to bread after too much coffee damaged his stomach.

Prices rose on 1 April 2026, and the bakery published them in full. Shokupan is ¥560 for one kin, ¥840 for one and a half, ¥1,120 for two and ¥1,680 for three. The open-top yamagata loaf is ¥1,460, or ¥730 for a half, and the menu says it toasts with a crisp bite.

Rolls come in bags. Ten small rolls are ¥860, dense and good plain on the day of baking, then toasted with butter from the next day. Five medium rolls cost ¥660 and have a chewy texture suited to fillings or lunch boxes, five round nakamaru buns are ¥710 and resemble hamburger buns, and five dog rolls, the softest of the range, are also ¥710.

The shop page is clear: items are expected to sell out, so please order in advance. Phone orders are taken Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 15:30, up to a month ahead. For pickup on a weekday, order by 15:30 the same day, and for a Saturday or the day before a closure, order by 15:30 the day before.

Tabelog lists the shop as takeaway only and records no cards, electronic money or QR payments, so bring cash. The listed closing time can come early when the counter runs out, and new home-delivery sign-ups are currently suspended. The bakery has opened on national holidays since September 2023 but closes on Sundays and for summer and New Year breaks.

To taste the bread properly before buying a loaf, walk one block along Kokusai-dori towards Kuramae to Pelican Cafe, the bakery's own cafe, at 3-9-11 Kotobuki, phone 03-6231-7636. Its site says toast is made with custom-built equipment, untoasted sandwiches show off the soft crumb, and the original blend coffee is roasted neither too dark nor too light, in honour of the coffee the founder loved.

A second Pelican Cafe operates at Azabudai Hills Tower Plaza 1F, which also sells one-kin loaves and medium rolls in limited numbers on weekdays from around 11:00 and 15:00, with times varying with traffic from Asakusa. That branch is six minutes on foot from Kamiyacho Station on the Hibiya Line and seven from Roppongi-itchome on the Namboku Line. The original counter remains the place for the full range.

Pelican sits on the Tawaramachi side of Asakusa, away from the busiest temple streets. The bakery lists Tawaramachi on the Ginza Line three minutes away, and Asakusa on the Toei Asakusa Line and Kuramae on the Oedo Line each five minutes away. If you drive, it asks you to use nearby coin parking.

Kappabashi Dogu-gai, the kitchenware street where chefs buy knives, plastic food samples and bakeware, is about five minutes from Tawaramachi Station according to its shopping association, which has already wrapped up its 41st Kappabashi Dogu Matsuri this month. Senso-ji is a short walk east, so a morning loaf, a toast breakfast and a temple visit fit neatly into one outing.

Pan no Pelican, 4-7-4 Kotobuki, Taito-ku, Tokyo 111-0042. Phone 03-3841-4686, orders Monday to Saturday 8:00 to 15:30. Shop open Monday to Saturday 8:00 to 17:00, closed Sundays and seasonal holidays, open on national holidays.

One-kin shokupan ¥560, small rolls ¥860 for ten. Cash only, takeaway only, pre-orders strongly advised. Last year the shop closed from 31 December to 4 January, so check the homepage notices before a New Year visit. Nearest station: Tawaramachi, three minutes on foot.