📍Japan Hiroshima Miyajima
Famous snack on Miyajima | Incredibly delicious momiji manju 🍁⛩️

On the Omotesando shopping street in Miyajima, there are many shops selling momiji manju, and most of them have been automated. Watching the machines make the maple leaf-shaped buns is very therapeutic 🤩

This shop is the most famous, Momiji-dō. Besides selling freshly fried momiji manju, they also offer delicately packaged non-fried souvenirs, but be careful as their shelf life is not long.

🍁 Freshly fried momiji manju (¥200):
You queue to use the ordering machine for payment, then after receiving your ticket, you go to the counter to order your flavor directly from the staff.

If the flavor you want happens to be sold out, you'll receive a maple leaf-shaped number tag and wait a bit.

I didn't have high expectations when I first tried the momiji manju, thinking it would just be a filled sponge cake 😆 but I was blown away when I finally tasted it!!
The warm, freshly fried texture, the outer shell was incredibly crispy, and the filling to shell ratio was just right—not too sweet, very delicious 😋
I ended up ordering all five flavors to try 😂 (sorted according to my preference):

🧀 Cheese: First place! The cheese is melted, blending into the cake, giving it a slightly salty overall flavor, very tasty.

🍋 Setouchi Lemon: A rare sour flavor, it pairs well with this type of sponge cake and the crispy outer texture.

🍵 Matcha: The filling has a thicker texture, and the matcha flavor is quite pronounced! Not sweet.

🧈 Custard: A typical cream flavor.

🫘 Red Bean: Although it’s not as sweet as other red bean fillings in Japan, the greasy feeling from the crispy outer shell is a bit too strong.

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Would I visit again: Yes!

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Notes:
🔸 Freshly fried momiji manju only accepts cash.
🔸 The souvenir packaging can use various payment methods.