Eat

Cafés & Bakeries

Looking for a Hiroshima cafe? We’ve jittered our way across the city to bring you the best stops. Relax and appreciate the sweeter things in Hiroshima at local cafés and bakeries. Admire the steamed milk cat in your latte before you drink him. Enjoy a light lunch of vegan croquettes made with organic vegetables and served with fair-trade coffee. Visit a Japanese boulangerie then spend more time taking pictures of your slice of cake than eating it because it simply looks that good. Find a new appreciation for the changing of the seasons with traditional Japanese sweets, or discover the Showa charm of kissaten—traditional Japanese coffee houses. Our cafe and bakery roundup curates a Hiroshima trip recharge.

cocoron (ココロン)

Cocoron is a bakery located a five-minute walk from JR Saijo Station. Inside the one-story Japanese-style house, you will find dozens of standard breads such as danishes and croissants. There are also many original breads on the menu, such as “Sake-Kasu Campagne,” in which sake lees are kneaded into the dough, making it a popular bakery with many fans from Hiroshima Prefecture and beyond.

Moment of Joy

All the breads made at the cocoron bakery are made using the same brewing water used in Saijo’s sake breweries. The medium-hard water unique to Saijo allows the bread to ferment more slowly, resulting in a more mature dough. One of the most popular breads at cocoron is amazake bread, which uses amazake instead of sugar. The sweet sake, which is derived from the koji used in the preparation of Japanese sake, is kneaded into the bread dough to give the bread its unique sweetness and sticky texture.