Coppe Pan Japanese Bakery

COPPE PAN BREAD rolls have been a staple for Japanese people since World War II when they functioned as food rations. The bread is soft and fluffy as a result of its high percentage of water, and sweeter than your average Western loaf of bread. At the Japanese bakery of the same name, archetypal street food dishes – from gyoza (dumplings) and takoyaki (octopus balls) to chicken karaage (fried chicken) and yakisoba (stir-fried buckwheat noodles in a sweet and savoury sauce) – are sandwiched into those pillowy white bread rolls known as ‘pan’.

The bakery is a winding curvature of food in the basement of Melbourne Central. An okonomiyaki cooking station and a free filter coffee outpost for those who order more than two items jostle for space with extensively labelled sweet and savoury pan. You can choose to sit in the small confines of the restaurant or the wider food court, or you can take your pan to go. It’s no environmentalist’s dream with all its plastic packaging, but it does have vegetarian options for those on the climatarian diet, from the agedashi (fried tofu) pan to the tamago (sweet egg omelette) pan.

It’s chicken, in particular, that hits the ball out of the park no matter which way it’s fried at Coppe Pan. Squares of crustless white bread sandwich thick wedges of panko-crumbed, deepfried chicken in the chicken katsu sando, with wholegrain mustard and a cabbage coleslaw adding a welcome freshness to the satisfying yet light snack. Meanwhile, glossy, teriyaki-glazed chicken retains its crispness in the teriyaki karaage pan.

‘Fried’ is the nature of the game here, with the deep-fried, pankocoated bun in the curry pan a perfect vessel for the aromatic and comforting ground Wagyu curry sauce within. The fillet o’fish pan does itself a disservice, however, by evoking the comparison to Macca’s. Creamy, soft scrambled eggs provide a sweet counterpoint to impeccably fried, high-quality fish.

Some renditions are more successful than others. Coppe Pan’s overly doughy takoyaki isn’t as palatable at room temperature as when it’s served piping hot, and the yakisoba pan is a double injection of sweetness when paired with the already sugary bread.

The same bread used in the coppe pan is lightly fried and dusted with matcha powder in the agepan matcha – it has the crunch of a doughnut.

But don’t limit yourself by only sticking to pan, despite the name. The strong ribbon of fat running through the pork belly in the spicy togarashi-dusted pork rice burger is offset perfectly by the generous slathers of kewpie mayo. Meanwhile, the moist, spongy and light matcha tiramisù will make you forget how little stomach space you have left. Although it’s a dessert, it contrasts with the strikingly sweet pan and is one of the more savoury things we try. Good news for coeliacs: it’s gluten-free.

Office workers in the vicinity should count their lucky stars that Kyoto-born chef Yutaka Kurimoto, together with owners Charles Pai and Keiichi Watariguchi, have resurrected a popular emblem of Japanese food culture just outside one of Melbourne’s busiest train stations. Sonia Nair