Fufu’s Fluffy Japanese Sandos Are a Happy Surprise

Haru Shinkai didn’t expect Fufu to be such a hit. When her Japanese sando and drink cafe opened in Sunnybank’s Market Square, the tiny shop sold out in a matter of hours for its first three days. While demand on weekdays has become more manageable, Fufu still regularly sells out of its most popular sandos by mid-morning on weekends.

The menu is a mix of classic Japanese sandos and Japan-ified takes on Australian sandwiches, like a steak sanga made with thin yakiniku-style slices of Wagyu beef and Fufu’s homemade beetroot paste.

The shop’s dual influences collide in its current bestseller. The prawn katsu sando features a panko-crumbed prawn patty, lettuce and fresh dill, topped with lemon zest and Japanese-style tartare sauce. The cabinet of fruit sandos – crustless rectangular slabs of bread stuffed with seasonal fruit and whipped cream – is always empty by the end of the day.

While plenty of Brisbanites would be content to get exact copies of Japanese konbini sandwiches, Fufu has a more exacting approach. Even the most standard looking sandos are given an upgrade. Along with the typical egg salad filling, the tamago sando features tobiko (flying fish roe) and a whole egg with a jammy yolk. Meanwhile, the katsu sando comes with a zippy karashi mustard mayo, house-made tonkatsu sauce and a dusting of shichimi togarashi chilli powder.

Each of the savoury sandos are made to order behind the blue curtains that separate the shop’s kitchen from its counter. “We make everything from scratch, including the bread,” she says. While the minimalist hole in the wall doesn’t have room to bake, Fufu commissions a commercial bakery to produce shokupan from a custom recipe created for Shinkai by a baker in Japan. “No one else in Australia has the exact same shokupan as I do.” Fufu’s bread is soft, fluffy and slightly sweet – exactly what shokupan should be.

The other half of the menu is coffee, made using Seven Miles beans, and specialty drinks made with matcha and hojicha. Three signature serves – a matcha latte, a cold brew coffee and a coconut water – come topped with bright blue spirulina cold foam, which adds a pleasantly creamy, slightly salty note to each drink.

Fufu’s instant popularity surprised Shinkai, who’s spent a decade working in kitchens in New Zealand and Queensland, including Goya Cafe at Broadbeach. “I thought [Fufu] would just be a small local sandwich shop with me behind the counter most days. I really didn’t expect this.”

To keep up with demand and give the Fufu faithful a better chance to nab a sando, the team keeps the menu tight. “The menu is a bit smaller than what we had in the beginning, but we’re focusing on the sandos people like best,” she says.

Fufu
Shop 11B, Market Square, 341 Mains Road, Sunnybank
No phone

Hours:
Daily 7.30am–2.30pm

@fufusando