Bakery Shop Epi: Imabari’s Cheapest Handmade Bread, Open from 6 a.m. and Sold Until It Runs Out
Bakery Shop Epi is a small, old-established bakery in Gohon-cho, in the residential south of Imabari, and it opens at six in the morning.
It is closed on Tuesdays.
The notice on the shop door gives the hours as six in the morning to seven in the evening.
The other thing to know is written on the shop’s own listing: it closes when the bread has gone.
That is not a marketing line.
It is the single most useful piece of information about this shop, and the rest of this article is mostly about what it means for the time you turn up.
Why it is worth knowing about
Epi is not on the Shimanami cycling route, and it is not a destination bakery with a queue outside.
It is a neighbourhood shop with a pink awning, a hand-lettered sign and room for maybe two cars beside it.
What makes it worth the short detour is the price.
When a local news site went round every bakery in Imabari, it found most of Epi’s bread at about 140 to 150 yen each and described the shop as the cheapest in the city, even after a price rise.
Another local article, two years later, noted that most of the savoury and sweet breads were still under 200 yen at a time when ingredient costs were climbing everywhere.
For a cyclist or a traveller on a budget, a bakery that opens at six and sells handmade bread at that price is a genuinely practical thing to have on the map.
Come early: this is a shop that sells out
The original Japanese article was written after a visit at lunchtime on a Saturday, and the loaf bread had already gone for the day.
Reviewers describe the same pattern over and over.
One arrived at about two in the afternoon and found only two kinds of sweet bread left on the shelves.
Another came just before one o’clock and reported that what was left was down to a handful of items.
A local write-up from a midday visit said about half the bread had already been sold.
Here is how it actually works, and this comes from a member of the shop’s own staff, who explained it to the author of the original Japanese article this month.
On a normal day the shelves hold up until around noon, because the baking continues through the morning and the racks are refilled as they empty.
During this year’s Obon holiday in mid-August, that broke down.
The shop was busier than the staff could remember it being at that time of year, the restocking could not keep up, and the bread was gone by around ten in the morning.
So the honest guidance is this.
On an ordinary weekday you have until roughly midday.
In a holiday week, or if there is something specific you want, come in the morning and come early.
What to buy
The bread in the photograph at the top of this article is a melon pan, the sweet bun with a cookie-dough crust scored into a grid that is a fixture of every Japanese bakery.
Epi makes the old-fashioned kind.
The crust is crisp, the inside is light, and it is not very sweet, which is exactly what the author of the original Japanese article was after.
There is no melon cream hidden in the middle and no soft glazed finish, both of which are common in newer versions.
The other thing bought that day was a camembert bread.
Cheese breads in Japan tend to come in two forms, one with cubes of cheese baked into the dough and one filled with cheese cream, and this is the second kind.
The filling tastes close to melted camembert, and the author’s verdict was that you end up rather covered in cheese, in the best sense.
Beyond those, the shop’s range is the everyday Japanese bakery repertoire done cheaply and well.
Local write-ups mention an egg bread, a mushroom cream stew bread, a minced-meat cutlet bread, a custard sandwich with almonds, a croissant-melon hybrid, and a bun filled with sweet potato and adzuki beans.
Recent reviewers name a ham-and-egg cutlet sandwich, a burger with a proper hamburger patty and egg filling, and a triangular cheese pastry with almonds.
The loaf bread has its own following, and one long-time customer wrote that it is fine-grained and springy enough to eat without toasting.
The spaghetti bread
Japanese bakeries almost all sell yakisoba pan, a bread roll split and filled with fried noodles.
Epi is said to make a spaghetti version instead.
The author heard about it during the visit but it was not on the shelves that day, which is the sort of thing that happens at a shop that bakes what it bakes and stops when it is finished.
If you see it, you have found something that even the local food blogs have not managed to photograph.
Getting there
The address is 2-5-25 Gohon-cho, Imabari.
Coming from the Komeda’s Coffee branch and heading towards Go-bashi bridge, it is on the right, behind a pink awning with the shop name on it.
By bicycle from JR Imabari Station: roughly 3 km, about 12 to 15 minutes at an easy pace.
On foot from Iyo-Tomita Station (JR Yosan Line): about 1.5 km, roughly 20 minutes.
Iyo-Tomita is one stop before Imabari coming from the Matsuyama direction.
By car: there is a sign at the side of the shop and space for about two cars, so it is tight.
If you have not picked up a rental bicycle yet, the current situation is set out in Renting a bicycle in Imabari (2026).
Two bakeries in one morning
Boulangerie Soga is about 1.4 km east of here, also opens at 6:30, and closes on Wednesday and Thursday rather than Tuesday.
Between them, the two shops cover every day of the week, and both are early.
Riding from one to the other takes a few minutes, and it is a reasonable way to spend the first hour of a day if bread is your thing.
From Soga it is about another kilometre to the Tonda River, whose banks are lined with cherry trees that flower in late March and early April, described in The Tonda River cherry blossom.
Buy at six, ride east, and eat by the water.
If your day is the Shimanami route rather than a slow morning in town, the bakery actually on the way north is Rilio no Pan, which also sells sake manju, a local speciality.
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? Six in the morning. Small shops do change their hours, so treat this as a guide and check before you set out.
When does it close? Seven in the evening according to the notice on the door, but in practice the shop closes when the bread has sold out, which can be much earlier.
What days is it closed? Tuesday.
How late can I leave it? Around midday on a normal day, according to the shop’s own staff. In a busy holiday week it can be gone by mid-morning.
How much should I expect to spend? Most items are around 150 to 200 yen, and reviewers report leaving with three items for about 700 yen.
Can I sit down and eat there? The shop is small and the bread is for taking away.
Is there parking? Space for about two cars beside the shop.
Is there an English menu? Expect none. The bread is laid out where you can see it, and pointing works perfectly well.
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: 【ベーカリーショップ エピー】郷本町の美味しい老舗のパン屋さん｜今治ランチ隊が行く！
