The hottest viral baked good has made its way to San Francisco.

While salt bread, also known as “shio pan”, originated in Japan, it has become especially popular in bakeries across South Korea in recent years. From my research (and now experience), salt bread is like a hybrid between a dinner roll and a buttery croissant where the flavor is rich and slightly salty while the texture is pillowy soft with a crisp golden bottom. Tano is a pop-up inside the downtown location of Paper Son Coffee during the weekdays (currently only Wednesday through Friday) where they sell various flavors of salt bread along with other pastries. Owner Isaac Taitano takes inspiration from different Asian cuisines while also incorporating his Guamanian background. Although they’ve been operating for over a year, I wasn’t about to wait in an early morning weekday line but I was able to preorder their “everything box” at a Sunday pop-up they held in Albany. What luck!

Various Salt Breads: Plain; Everything Seasoning with Cream Cheese; Japanese Curry with Kabocha Squash and Carrot; Black Sesame; and Ube.

Since this was my first time trying salt bread, I started with the plain and it was executed beautifully. The bread was pillowy and soft with a crisp salty bottom. The flavor was mild but buttery in the best way. I really enjoyed it (though I do love all types of bread). To be honest, I preferred the three savory salt breads over the two sweet stuffed ones but that’s mostly because I’m not the biggest fan of ube or black sesame. We ended up giving the sweet ones away.

Inside The Ube Salt Bread.

Other Pastries: Sticky Toffee Red Bean Banana Bread; Sesame Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie; Strawberry Shortcake Cookie; Ube Cream Puff; Pineapple Scone; Ginger Scallion Chinese Sausage Scone; Sticky Rice Butter Mochi; and Gollai Hagun Suni Focaccia.

Out of the other goods we tried, some were hits while others were misses. Starting with the highlights: the focaccia was excellent. Super airy and squishy with a tangy sourdough flavor I loved. It was topped with Guamanian inspired braised coconut turmeric spinach, pork tocino, and crispy shallots. While I enjoyed the toppings, Tommaso wasn’t the biggest fan (though he did like the focaccia itself). The moist red bean banana bread was another standout especially with the red bean toffee sauce and toasted pecans. Both cookies were stellar and the cream puff was nicely executed as well. The scones were fine but we both agreed we’ve had better. The only pastry we both disliked was the sticky rice butter mochi. While the butter mochi itself had a great texture, it lacked flavor and the addition of a heaping mound of sticky rice on top felt unnecessary. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it leaned into a mango sticky rice concept with more pronounced flavor. Regardless, this one didn’t land for us.

All The Goods.

I’m glad I finally got to try Tano’s unique offerings especially without having to wait in line (preordering is key). Overall, Tano lives up to the hype with its creative take on salt bread and Asian inspired pastries. While not every item was a standout, the quality, originality, and thoughtful flavor combinations make it worth seeking out whether you’re a longtime fan of shio pan or trying it for the first time like I was so my rating is an 8.5/10.