Nothing is as good as the original but New York’s three best Japanese egg sandos are as close to home as they get.
I recently became the most annoying person you follow on Instagram, which is to say, I visited Japan for the first time. Despite the effusive praise heaped onto it from Anthony Bourdain as well as everyone I have ever met, I was still rocked to my core by the simple, seraphic drugstore egg salad sandwich. In Tokyo—and then in Osaka and then, still gripped, in the mountains of Yamagata—I cycled between Lawson’s, 7-11, and Family Mart, unable to commit to one subtle variation of the thing which was, in any iteration, so blissfully full of mayonnaise that it was almost analgesic.
When I returned, I continued to flourish in the role of “a person so unbearable, you wish you hadn’t invited her to your drinks-thing,” meaning I began to prattle incessantly about how you can’t get anything quite like the drugstore egg salad sando here in New York City. I won’t bury the lede; I was humbled and overjoyed to receive dozens of recommendations for the most accurate renditions across the city. Behold, my top picks.
1. Takahachi Bakery
For less than $4, this hulking shokupan roll split down the center is more like two drugstore egg salad sandos in one. Size aside, this TriBeCa-bakery-specimen could be the real thing, with enough mayonnaise, soft-boiled yolk, and finely chopped white to coax the filling closer to the texture of mashed potatoes than to anything resembling a devilled egg. While you’re there, pick up a loaf of the sliced shokupan for your freezer, and a spicy tuna-mayo bun for the road.
Takahachi Bakery, 25 Murray St, New York, NY 10007.
2. Patisserie Fouet
At this Japanese-French bakery near Union Square, chef Yoshie Shirakawa applies her signature elegance to the simple sandwich, with fluffy slices of bread twice as thick as most other versions around the city, as if to remind us that excellent milk bread is a feat of sculpture as much as anything else. The result is a plush swaddle for a peppery, soft egg salad that might be even better than its torchbearer.
Patisserie Fouet, 15 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003.
3. Postcard
This newly opened Japanese bakery around the corner from where I live in the West Village, from the Masa-alums who own hand roll restaurant Nami Nori, would top my list if I were ranking off of looks alone. And its filling is a pretty close ringer. But while the chunky slices of bread swathing the egg salad are delicious—the recipe took the baker Taka Sakaeda six months to perfect—they are perceptibly stiffer than the shokupan white whale I’ve been chasing. Because his bread lacks gluten, Sakaeda adds egg whites to give structure, which means that (unlike with a traditional shokupan, which is moistened by a roux-like paste called a tangzhong) as Sakaeda’s bread sits out throughout the day, it loses a bit of moisture.
Postcard, 31 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014.
Honorable Mention: Cafe Zaiya
The location of Cafe Zaiya within the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya near Bryant Park produces an egg salad sando that is a nearly identical dupe to the one you’d find at a drugstore in Tokyo, if only you bring it home before diving in to peel back one of its slices of bread, so you can add a touch more Kewpie and salt.
Cafe Zaiya, 1073 6th Ave, New York, NY 10018.