There was a time when bread — a household pantry staple — was not bought off virtual stores and websites. Instead, the ritual of buying the perfect loaf involved a visit to the local bakery to check on the softest one, or even better, a cycle vendor with bags full of warm bread and buns.
It is this nostalgic memory that drew Neha S Nirmal and Nischal Vasant Meethal to launch Fillo Bakes, a moving bakery in Bengaluru. The duo come with years of experience in the F&B space, and collectively founded former brands including Couch Potato (a chain of QSRs), Elements Bistro (a continental restaurant in Mysore), before launching Fillo Bakes, a 100% vegetarian Japanese-inspired bakery, in December 2025.
The travelling Japanese bakery
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“Growing up, many of us remember the warmth of local bakeries: the smell of fresh bread in the evening, picking up pav for dinner, or buns for tea. We realised fresh food is something that Indians love and fresh bread was our focus so we decided to keep Fillo Bakes direct-to-consumer with our moving bakery,” says Neha, the brand’s director, who oversees product development, R&D, and kitchen operations.
The travelling bakery concept, she says, brings that nostalgia back — fresh bread reaching neighbourhoods directly. “Like households subscribe to milk from homegrown brands, we believe bread can become a similar daily staple,” she adds.
A selection of anpans
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The Japanese-inspired menu is “intentionally tight, texture-driven, and technique-forward”, and has something for everyone. The signature offerings are the shokupan and soft milk breads. “We focus heavily on softness; that signature Japanese ‘fuwa fuwa’ (pillowy) texture. Precision hydration, fermentation timing, and dough handling are non-negotiables for us,” says Neha, adding that the Japanese baking influence shows up in the restraint in sweetness, and texture.
Chocolate anpans
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Other baked goods on the menu include the savoury karepans (gochujang-glazed sweet potato, ratatouille with summer vegetables, etc.) and flavour bomb anpans. “Our karepans are crisp on the outside, cloud-soft within. While inspired by traditional Japanese curry bread, we’ve developed fillings like umami-forward vegetables, and slow-cooked fillings. As for the anpans, they are soft buns filled with fresh cream in flavours ranging from chocolate to banana biscoff,” she explains. There are also toasts (milo, banana biscoff, strawberry cream), pies and strudels (Japanese-style vegetable curry, paneer in a tonkatsu sauce, mushroom, apple compote, to name a few).
A fruit sando
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This Japanese influence comes from their travels to Japan and other parts of Asia, “and from a quiet obsession with precision baking”, says Nischal, COO, who heads operations, consumer strategy, and community building at Fillo Bakes. “We were deeply struck by how soft, milk-based breads are cherished as part of everyday life there: not as indulgences, but as staples. There was something unexpectedly familiar about it. In India too, many of us grew up loving pav, milk bread, and local bakery loaves,” he says, adding that the discipline in Japanese baking was an inspiration.
Cinnamon twists
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Taking us through the trial phase, Nischal calls it a “rigorous and humbling” experience. “We realised customers were intrigued by breads that felt familiar in format but unexpected in filling. Texture consistency became our biggest differentiator, and people returned because the bread felt different.” Neha adds that prior to launching, they sent multiple batches out to over 300 customers, many of them first-time tasters, to gather honest, unfiltered feedback.
A shokupan at Fillo Bakes
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Special Arrangement
“Early on, we realised that softness was non-negotiable. Even a slight density in the crumb structure was immediately noticed. Achieving that signature Japanese-style pillowy texture in a 100% eggless format took far more refinement than we had anticipated. Hydration levels, fermentation timing, flour blends — everything was tested repeatedly,” she says, adding that their biggest breakthrough was the eggless shokupan.
Currently travelling across the city (in slots through the week) the duo are taking pre-orders via their website and WhatsApp. Once an order is received, the dough is prepared, proofed, hand-rolled, and then baked in small batches. Nischal recalls how, at one of their pop-ups, a Japanese musician tried their karepan with an Indo-Chinese paneer tonkatsu filling. “He paused after the first bite, smiled, and then ordered a fruit sando. For us, that was powerful validation.”
Strawberry cream toast
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Special Arrangement
Going forward, the duo are planning to create a permanent experience space alongside the moving bakery experience. “We are looking at expanding our neighbourhood subscription clusters, look at savoury innovations including limited seasonal karepan drops, and take the travelling bakery concept to events and weddings with curated offerings,” concludes Nischal.
Details on fillobakes.com/
Published – March 08, 2026 04:35 pm IST