It’s no lie that here at SETHLUI.com, all of us are huge fans of Japanese snacks. That’s why we had to pay Mellow Pan, at Our Tampines Hub a visit when we found out about its unique offerings.
Some of you may be strangers to the Japanese treat, Melon Pan, but think of it as Bolo Bun’s Japanese equivalent, and it’ll seem less foreign. The concept of the Melon Pan is the same as that of the Bolo Bun: a fluffy bun with a crunchy cookie top.
At Mellow Pan, they take it a step further by turning their Melon Pan into a casing for gelato, and also into burger buns.
Mellow Pan offers a variety of gelato flavours for you to choose from, including more unique ones, such as Avocado, Snow White (sweet cream), and Honeycomb.
The ice cream sandwiches come in three sizes: Kids ($5.80) with one scoop of ice cream, Small ($6.80) with two scoops of ice cream, and Large ($7.80) with two scoops of ice cream as well but in a bigger bun.
Every ice cream sandwich comes with pieces of rusk, which are essentially slices of crunchy twice-baked bread. These rusks serve as pseudo spoons which we used to scoop the ice cream.
We opted to try the Small Melon Pan with Avocado and Hokkaido Milk-flavoured gelato first.
The bread portion of the freshly-baked Melon Pan was soft and light, while the cookie top was buttery and crumbly, with crunchy bits of sugar. This made it more enjoyable for someone who isn’t a huge fan of bread, like me.
The Hokkaido Milk gelato wasn’t anything special by itself, but really complemented the other flavours very well without being overpowering or making the whole thing excessively sweet.
The buttery, slightly salty rusks also contrasted well with the smooth, creamy gelato. The combination of the rusks and the gelato turned out to be our favourite part of the sandwich.
We also couldn’t resist trying the Kids Melon Pan with Tiramisu gelato.
If we were to choose between the Avocado gelato and the Tiramisu gelato, we’d pick the former. It wasn’t as sweet, so when we ate it with the already sugary Melon Pan, it wasn’t cloying.
Another thing that impressed us was the amount of ice cream that went into each bun; our buns were stuffed with so much ice cream that it was close to impossible to eat the sandwiches without getting melted ice cream on our hands.
We couldn’t leave without trying the savoury rendition of the Melon Pan sandwich, so we tried the Teriyaki Chicken Mero Burger ($5.80). When you make your order, you’ll be given a choice between ketchup, mustard, and chilli sauce. We went with the chilli, which wasn’t too spicy.
The burger comes with a piece of teriyaki chicken and slices of lettuce. I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into the burger as the combination of the savoury chicken with the sweet Melon Pan made me crave for more. It’s a must-try!
On a slightly random note, Mellow Pan also serves Teriyaki Wings (five pieces for $5). These were extremely tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wings are baked to order, so do note that you’ll have to wait approximately 10 minutes for your wings to be served.
To conclude our meal, we tried the Yuzu Sorbet Float ($4.90), which contains yuzu syrup, carbonated water, and a large scoop of yuzu sorbet. A word of caution: the yuzu sorbet was sourer than we expected, so brace yourself before you take a sip.
Not interested in the ice cream or the burger? Mellow Pan sells their Melon Pan separately in both Small (one for $2.60, five for $10) and Large (one for $3.40, three for $9).
So, if you’re feeling a little adventurous with your ice cream sandwiches, or are bored of mundane fast food burgers, make a trip down to Our Tampines Hub to give Mellow Pan a try!
Expected Damage: $5 – $10 per pax
