BRUG Bakery

Been here twice. The second time we were here we didn’t get to try new things because it was near closing time with not all pastries being available. Therefore, we only tried a total of four different pastries.
The not so good…
–potato pastry (forgot the exact name): was not too fond of this one. It had a whole potato in it. The potato was small but still made it very difficult to eat. I’d would have enjoyed it better if the potato was mashed instead.
–egg bowl: looked good, but tasted just ok. I’d probably skip it next time I’m at the bakery.
The very good…
–snow croquette: so yummy! one of my faves for sure. As I stood in line, I was a little iffy about this pastry because it looked so plain. I was even looking for a sauce assuming that the pastry would more likely be bland because of its plain appearance. But, I was really glad I took a chance with this one because it was pretty bomb.
–corn and ham roll: another bomb pastry and another one of my faves no doubt! It’s basically having thick corn chowder sitting on top of a fluffy pastry.
Just like many other bakeries, they do have a wide variety of pastries. Some are sweet, some are savory, or a combination of both even. However, there a good number of pastries that are unique to Brug Bakery. A must try if you find yourself at Shirokiya.

Mochi cube ($ 2.50): bread on the outside with red bean and mochi inside. I really liked the combination of bread and mochi. I wanted more, right after I finished the last bite.
Portuguese sausage ($ 2.50): I ate this one for breakfast and it was still good. The omelette inside the bread was a nice surprise. This was a perfect breakfast food!
Yakisoba bread ($ 2.50): my least favorite of all 3. I didn’t really care for its bread. The yakisoba was just okay.
4 stars!
Brug Bakery is yummylicious!

I received a message from Mr. Alberto of the BRUG Bakery saying that he is very sorry to hear what happened to us previously. Apparently, the lady we talked with before was not the manager. Mr. Alberto was being very polite and sincere with his apology and we were relieved to hear it. We will definitely come back to this bakery. Thank you Alberto!

I was just told that they «just ran out» of their soup bowls and she «can’t do anything about it.»
Nice.
Talk to all your former customers that way? Maybe that’s why we don’t come back.
Btw: great soup in the food court. And try Saint Germain for bread. Their brioche is amazing!

Nice little Japanese bakery inside of the Shirokiya at Ala Moana Mall. I really enjoyed getting some of their meat filled breads and eating that on my flight back home to the mainland. I’m always sad leaving Hawaii to head back to the unfortunate reality of drought filled California, but enjoying the last few bites of a bread from BRUG makes it a little bit easier to transition to the harsh reality.

After being ripped off for coffee elsewhere in Ala Moana Center I stopped by for something reliable.
I debated whether to have the bacon epi or the vegetarian kitaguni foccacia. I settled on a pumpkin mochi cubed anpan filled with Tokachi azuki and a plain mochi ball. This was so satisfying I ended up buying two more for later.
I like the reliable consistency and taste of their sweet and savory products.
If you get their between 8:00am and 10:00am you can but any single item and get a small cup of coffee for a dollar. That’s a good value.

Pros
Pastrami and Cheese Focaccia: This was more of a European style bread because of the harder and chewier bread recipe they used. It was my favorite at Brug Bakery, you get your delicious bread, some cheese, and some meat from the thinly sliced pastrami.
Milk France: It was a miniature size version of a french banquette with a condensed milk spread in the middle. It was a delicious version of a creamy french bread and well worth the extra 30 minutes at the gym.
Cons
Potato Bomb: It was bread filled with cheese, bacon, and a whole chunk a potato. Thought it would be good but the huge chunk of a potato didn’t work well for me.

3 words…
EPI BACON BREAD!
Man is this addicting? I finally found some recipes online. I’ll try to make this at home. When St. Germains was in Shirokiya they had the epi bacon, but they also added grey pupon to the bread. I liked their version better, but Brug is a close second.
It’s a must have if you’re at Shirokiya!

Visually appealing/​unique/​cuteness factor 5 stars!
I really wanted to love this place but unfortunately nothing tasted as good as it looked.
I mean, I know this is a bakery, but for the prices they charge they could put a lot more topping and/​or filling (and less bread!) — especially for the savory selection. The majority of the bread was also very chewy with not much flavor. I could imagine if you are lucky enough to get what you want right out of the oven it would be worth it, but not when it’s been sitting for while (which is the majority of the time). Also every time I go more than half of the selection is empty… mid morning and afternoon times.
My choices:
Pumpkin shaped/​filled panpkin (what lured me in lol) — the pumpkin filling is excellent! But the bread was way too chewy. so I just ate the filling lol.
Portuguese egg roll — this looked delicious but the egg was not what I expected. It was really hard and more like solidified egg white, I couldn’t eat it. If it was regular egg I would have devoured it.
Onion roll — the best bread, really soft and fluffy, but there was hardly any toppings!
Ham and cheese calzone — too much bread, if it were straight out of the oven I could imagine it good, but mine was cold.
Egg bowl — it was ok but not much flavor, the tomato sauce tasted watered down.
In all honesty, I know they are known for bringing in their ingredients from Japan and that’s why it’s pricy — but if they just sourced locally they could sell more and probably make them tastier… I really doubt you would be able to tell the difference.

Great for a snack or small meal. Tons of pastry selections. With the closing of Panya in Ala Moana this is the only left worth going to (though Panya is close by outside of the mall).
Enjoy the An Pan, Onion/​Cheese Loaf to name a few. There are better out there, but this is convienent while you shop.
I heard theirs soups but I stick to the baked goods.

This is my hubby’s favorite bakery. Mine is located right next to it. Both bakeries are located in Shirokiya at Ala Moana Center. Brug sells more bread items, whereas the other bakery carries more cake items. I’m just not a bread person. However, this place sells soups, which is right up my alley. They have 3 different soups daily.
The day that I went, I picked up the tuna panini, egg bowl, dry kase and a bowl of portuguese bean soup. Everything tasted ok. My husband likes the dry kase. He gets it every time. It’s white bread with a sweet cream cheese coating. My son ate the tuna panini and liked it. The egg bowl that I got was dry, even though it consisted of marinara sauce and bacon.
The soups that were offered that day were portuguese bean, cream of broccoli and french onion. I liked all 3 and had a hard time deciding. I went with the portuguese bean. To my dismay, it was rather watery with hardly any meat in it. I like mine thick, like the one at Zippy’s or Punahou Carnival. It was overpriced at $ 3.95 for such a small bowl. The bowl was tiny.

Bacon Epi — Wheat Stalk Shaped Bread with Bacon:
Chewy, chewy, give your jaws a workout chewy leaf shaped bread entwined with a strip of bacon and its bacon drippins running throughout.
Very plain. Very simple. Sometimes simplicity is all you need.

My favorite items are their bacon epi (SMELLS AMAZING TOO) and their potato bomb. I highly recommend those be on your to-​get list!!!
They open early but not everything is out yet. I would say, visit between the hours of 8:30 — 10:00 AM. Once they run out of certain things, it’s gone. :(
They’re not the warmest, in terms of customer service, but there are some gems of employees there. Usually I get a bit frustrated when dealing with them, especially since I got the run-​around during the holiday season in which they told me to come back the next day before 5 PM and the loaves they said they would have were not there. The employee there then told me to come back the following day around 9:00 and they would have fresh loaves. I went at 8:30 (since I work at 9 AM) and they weren’t out yet but the employee there was amazing and told me she’d reserve me one. I was relieved since the loaves were part of my holiday gift baskets! :)

Burg bakery has plenty of baked goods! The smell of fresh bread always makes me hungry! They have a lot of sweets, sugary coated donuts, melon breads, & small slices of cake. If you’re craving something more savory their chicken pesto bread is good! Or their Sukiyaki beef pan is amazing too. In the mornings from 8am till 10am they offer a cup of coffee for $ 1. That’s right, just a dollar. It is brewed by the curb (a coffee shop). The later you come the less of a variety there is because everyone else picked up their favorites!
If there is a line they ring you up immediately when it is your turn. However if there isn’t a line you have to greet them or snag their attention somehow because they’re usually focused on packing the bread or doing something else.

Having just returned from a trip to Sapporo, we were suffering from some severe food withdrawals — in particular, Japanese bakery treats and especially Hokkaido ice cream. Fortunately, there’s Brug Bakery in the Ala Moana shopping center (ground floor of Shirokiya) to satisfy some of our cravings. Although they don’t sell Hokkaido ice cream here :-(they are a Japanese bakery (from Hokkaido).
While we knew it wasn’t going to be exactly the same as we would find in Japan (you just can’t replicate the quality and freshness of the ingredients), it was close. They had the melon pan that are popular, as well as many other sweet and savory items.
We tried the cream cheese bomb (excellent), an pan (very good) and walnut bun (??? — ok).
Unfortunately, we came later in the day and many of their items were out. We’ll make it a point to stop by earlier to try their other offerings.

It’s been a long time since I wrote a review but I had to write one for BRUG! I love it here! They are inside Shirokiya by the entrance closest to the Macy’s Starbucks. It’s nice and clean but the smell is what draws you in. One of the employees looks like a young Jennifer Lawrence! When you see her, you’ll know who I’m talking about.
Ever since I came back from Thailand, I had no cravings for anything here until I came to BRUG. It reminded me of some of the tasty baked goods I had when I was back home. My recent favorites are the Custard Pan and the Yogurt Bread. This is now one of my favorite bakeries in Honolulu! Make sure to get the stamp card when you’re here. You’ll come back again because you’ll be addicted so it will come in handy ;)

They are located at the old saint germain bakery location inside shirokya. Needless to say brug bakery is a unique bakery because of their selection! They have items such as egg bowl, chocolate pizza, croquette pan, and donuts. Although if you want to have a wide selection, it’s best to come early (I mean early). They open at 8:00 and if you were to arrive around 11:00 you would find almost half of their stock wiped out (yikes) this place really shows how the early bird gets the worm.
They also have soups, cakes, and beverages. Although the workers seem to be in a limbo; I stood at the cash register for a good 3 minutes and the worker aimlessly gazed out to who knows where until I waved for his attention (it took me 3 tries to pin him)
Pricing: reasonable for good quality bread (: It’s a perfect place to go for a quick snack on the go.
Recommendations: Brug curry (served only on fridays and saturdays!) onion bread (if you don’t mind smelly breath afterwards) & the bacon epi (perfect for sharing with others since it’s a pull apart bread!)

BRUG Bakery is a bakery that replaced the longstanding Saint-​Germain Bakery on the ground floor of Shirokiya about a year and a half ago. BRUG originates from Hokkaido, Japan and are known for their German and European style breads. Their pastries are typical of what you would find at bakeries in Japan specializing in Western baked goods.
I stopped by BRUG as I wanted to grab a few baked goods for my flight later that night back to the mainland. The baked goods are definitely a step up from Saint-​Germain in price and in quality.
The pastries are self serve. So you grab a tray and tongs to pick out the ones that you want. I wish they would put some sort of cover on the pastries. I saw flying bugs hovering around the pastries due to the sweet aroma.
To the middle of the space are tables in which their special offerings are located. Their discounted baked goods and seasonal items can be found there. At the end of the pastry case is a refrigerated case which is where you can find their packaged sandwiches.
I picked out three items for my trip. Grabbed the curry beef pan ($ 2.50), dry kase ($ 2.25) and a verbier ($ 1.25) which was on special. By the time I ate the first pastry, it was half a day later. The rest were eaten the next morning. My impression is that these pastries are best eaten as soon as possible.
The curry beef pan has the right texture of chewiness. Not a whole lot of filling though. It was cold by the time I was eating it and felt like a reheat was needed. The dry kase which is like a cream cheese toast pastry was the most affected by air travel. The breading was pretty dried out by the time it was consumed.
The last pastry of the three, the verbier was by far the best. The verbier which is basically a sweet bread kept the best overnight. It was still reasonably soft and would have tasted even better with a reheat in the microwave. I regretted not getting more of the verbier when I had the chance.
There are not many European style bakeries in Hawaii, so BRUG stands out. Though I feel that there are much better bakeries here in Seattle offering similar goods to BRUG. If you are looking for a pastry, BRUG is worth a visit. Though I would advise you to eat the pastries here while they are fresh. They don’t seem to keep good very long.

This review will be short and sweet because there is not much store to review.
This bakery is a cubby hole in the Shirokiya vastness downstairs.
Wife has been raving about a «fruit sandwich» since I can remember.
We found these in the back of the store pre-​packaged.
It is exactly what it says, a fruit sandwich.
There are three per package.
The first is mandarin orange, the second is kiwi and strawberry, and the third peach and pear.
All are in heavy cream and in between two slices of pill’wy white Japanese family bread sans crust.
Just think peaches and cream with soft bread.
It is sweet, a little savory, refreshing, and probably the best/​strangest dessert you’ve had in a long time unless you were born in Tokyo and eating these things your whole life.
The cashier girl was a gem. She probably was trained at Mana Bu’s with her robotic little girl hello kitty greeting and mannerisms.
Each sandwich is $ 5.50, but you have to buy two. That is not a store requirement, but one is not enough!

With the variety of food choices upstairs, this bakery easily is overlooked by shoppers in Shirokiya. Located in the department store’s ground floor, this is one of two or three food stands NOT in the vaunted food court. Stopping here before leaving the store, our window shopping became a buying trip.
Here’s what I had:
1) Tomato clover (
) — Very good savory choice. Not salty nor sour.
2) Portuguese sausage roll (
) — least favorite as it was on the greasy side.
3) Dry Kase (blueberry) (
) — think French toast with blueberry jam.
These made for excellent afternoon snacks after an active day. If I was home, they’d make great overnight breakfast pastries. Like the previous tenant St. Germaine’s, grab a tray and tongs and walk along the bins as you choose. The cashier was very nice and efficient, surprising since it was only his third day of work. Smiles for a quick and easy shopping trip and for those hunger pang solving treats. Will be back.