Boulangerie Soga: Imabari’s 6:30 a.m. Bakery for Egg Sandwiches and Pão de Queijo, Open on Sundays
Boulangerie Soga is a long-established neighbourhood bakery in Minamikoge-cho, on the south-eastern side of Imabari, about a kilometre from the cherry-tree embankment of the Tonda River.
It opens at 6:30 in the morning, and it closes on Wednesday and Thursday.
That last detail matters more than it sounds.
Rilio no Pan, the old bakery that sits on the cycling route to the bridge, closes on Sunday, which is exactly the day most visitors are riding.
Soga is open on Sunday morning, and one reviewer who dropped in on a Sunday put the crowd down to how few bakeries were open that day.
Why it is worth knowing about
This is not a bakery on the Shimanami cycling route, and it does not pretend to be.
It sits in a residential district, and the people going in and out at seven in the morning are locals buying breakfast.
The reasons to make the short detour are practical ones.
It opens before almost anything else in town.
The prices are low, and that is the single thing reviewers agree on most.
And it is the only bakery in Imabari where the author of the original Japanese article has ever found pão de queijo, the small chewy Brazilian cheese bread.
What was bought here, and how it tasted
The author, who writes the Japanese-language restaurant articles on this site, went in at about seven o’clock one Sunday morning to buy breakfast for the family.
Even at that hour, customers were coming in one after another.
The smell of butter reaches you outside the door, and gets stronger the moment you step in.
There is a counter in the middle of the shop and tables along the walls, and the bread is laid out across all of them.
Sweet rolls, savoury rolls and sandwiches share the space with French bread and the pão de queijo.
The photograph at the top of this article shows what came home: an egg sandwich, a ham cutlet sandwich and three pão de queijo.
The egg sandwich had a full, fluffy egg filling that sat well against a light, buttery bread.
The ham cutlet sandwich had a cutlet of just the right thickness, and the sesame in the bread gave it a proper bite.
The pão de queijo had the chew that defines them, and they came in more than one flavour, including one with chocolate chips and one with blueberry.
Which is which, the author wrote, you will have to find out by eating them.
At the time, most items were in the range of 150 to 200 yen and the small pão de queijo were about half that.
Prices will have moved since, but the recent reviews below suggest the shop is still on the inexpensive side.
The author still buys the pão de queijo whenever they are on the shelf, so if you see them, that is the recommendation.
What reviewers keep saying
Read through the reviews on Tabelog and the same points come up in almost every one of them.
The first is price.
Four items for around 860 yen, and the phrase “the friend of ordinary people in this neighbourhood”, is the tone of the most recent review, and older ones say the same in different words.
The second is the dough.
Reviewers repeatedly describe the bread as chewy and springy, and more than one draws the conclusion that the baker’s work is careful and honest rather than showy.
The sandwiches, especially the egg and the ham-and-cucumber, and the curry bread are the items people name most often.
Several reviewers say they grew up buying bread here, which is the kind of thing you hear about a shop that has been in the same place for a long time.
The complaints are minor and consistent.
The car park in front of the shop holds only about three cars.
Go in the afternoon and the shelves can be thin, so the early opening is not just a curiosity but the right time to come.
Getting there
The address is 4-5-28 Minamikoge-cho, Imabari.
The building is plain grey concrete with a small red sign, and the opening hours are painted on the window.
By bicycle from JR Imabari Station: roughly 3 km, about 12 to 15 minutes at an easy pace, heading south-east away from the port.
On foot from Iyo-Tomita Station (JR Yosan Line): about 20 minutes. Iyo-Tomita is one stop before Imabari coming from the Matsuyama direction.
By car: there is a small car park in front, but it is tight, and a large vehicle is a real squeeze.
If you have not picked up a rental bicycle yet, the current situation is set out in Renting a bicycle in Imabari (2026).
Fitting it into a morning
The natural pairing is the Tonda River, which is about a kilometre further along the same road.
In late March and early April both banks of the river are lined with cherry blossom, and the embankment has no gate, no ticket and no car park, so it is best reached on foot or by bicycle.
Buy breakfast at Soga at half past six, walk or ride to the river, and eat under the trees.
The full picture of the blossom is in The Tonda River cherry blossom.
Outside blossom season, the same plan still works as a quiet start before heading north through the town to Imabari Castle and on to the Shimanami route.
If your day is the bridge and you want a bakery that is actually on the way, Rilio no Pan is the one to aim for, but remember that Rilio closes on Sunday, which is when Soga becomes the answer.
The whole of the Imabari side is summarised in The complete Imabari guide for Shimanami Kaido cyclists.
Frequently asked questions
What time does it open? 6:30 in the morning. Small shops do change their hours, so treat this as a guide and check before you set out.
What day is it closed? Wednesday and Thursday. Two closed days in a row catches people out, so check which day you are planning to go.
Is it open on Sunday? Yes. That is the day Rilio no Pan on the cycling route is shut, so Soga is a useful alternative.
Can I sit down and eat there? Plan on taking the bread away. Nothing in the original article or in the reviews describes an eat-in space.
Is there parking? A small space in front, roughly three cars. Come by bicycle or on foot if you can.
Will they have pão de queijo? Not guaranteed. If they are on the shelf, buy them.
How much should I expect to spend? Reviewers report a handful of items for well under 1,000 yen.
Other food nearby
Imabari’s best-known dish is yakibuta tamago meshi, roast pork and a fried egg over rice, compared across the three old-guard shops in Imabari Yakibuta Tamago Meshi: the three classic shops compared.
For noodles, Imabari ramen is the clear, iriko-dashi style local to the city, while Kyoya is the quiet residential-street chuka soba shop that fills up from the moment it opens.
Original article in Japanese: 「ブランジェリーソガ」美味しい正統派の老舗パン屋さん｜今治ランチ隊が行く！
