A note on the words: a malasada is the Portuguese-Hawaiian yeast doughnut, fried without a hole and rolled in sugar; Leonard’s is the Honolulu bakery that made it famous, and the puff is the version filled with cream after frying. Agepan, mentioned in passing, is the sugared fried bread of Japanese school lunches, and Angel Cream and Angel Custard are filled doughnuts from Mister Donut that most people here grew up with. World Porters is a shopping complex on the Yokohama waterfront. Prices are as of July 2026, as listed in the shop at the time.
Leonard’s, Yokohama World Porters on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Those of you with a sweet tooth, thank you for waiting! It is Hangover Meshi time!
This time, to Leonard’s, inside Yokohama World Porters!
Are malasadas — those fried doughnut things — not rather in fashion at the moment?!
I have a vague sense they had a moment once before, or perhaps not. At any rate, I had heard that malasadas, the Hawaiian sweet, are delicious, but I never felt there were many places selling them. And then I happened to hear that World Porters has a Hawaii zone, and that the first Japanese branch of a Hawaiian malasada specialist is in Yokohama!
One has no choice but to go!
Yokohama World Porters! In fact this was my first time inside. Coming in through what I take to be the main entrance, Leonard’s is right at the far end of the building, the exact opposite side!
And, being a weekday evening, it is empty lol At weekends the line is enormous!
If you want a zero-minute wait, weekday evenings are the answer!
Malasada, sugar / cinnamon sugar: 250 yen
Malasada puff, custard / mango cream: 310 yen
So there are malasadas and malasada puffs. The malasada is a plain fried doughnut with nothing inside, while the puff has cream in it, it seems.
Leonard’s menu
Menu
No cream; plain, rolled in sugar
Same dough; cinnamon on the nose before you bite
Cream piped into the fried dough through a hole
Mango cream in summer (with fruit pieces; until it runs out)
Drinks menu
Drinks menu
Drinks menu
※ Prices as of July 2026
And a quietly pleasing detail: pairing a malasada with a drink takes 20 yen off. Sugar (250 yen) with Ceylon iced tea (260 yen), for instance, comes to 490 yen together. If you are eating them fresh from the fryer in the shop, take the set without hesitating.
This time I decided to take them home as a gift. Three sugar and three custard. They fried them there and then and wrapped them while they were still warm.
Thinking about it now, I should have eaten one on the spot…
And here is what I found on opening them carefully at home^^
Oh, that looks good!
Straight in. Mm — the sugar one is a soft, airy fried bun!
Far softer and better than the ordinary agepan I remember.
The sugar is more restrained than on an agepan too, so it is not too sweet. Rather like an Angel Cream with a slightly plumper, oilier outside.
And the custard puff — well, this is an Angel Custard lol
Not identical, mind: the malasada has a stronger sense of having been fried, and the dough is chewier and softer. But the family of flavor is very close to Angel Custard and Angel Cream.
So — malasadas are good after all. You could easily manage two in a row.
To put the conclusion first: the shop’s advice is to eat them the same day. They sell them fresh from the fryer, so the lightness of the dough falls off the longer they sit. If they are a gift, the surest thing is to work backwards from the time you will hand them over.
Three tips for carrying them home. First, do not close the bag or box too tightly — steam is the enemy, and sealing them makes the sugar on the surface dissolve and go sticky. Second, fifteen seconds in the microwave once they have cooled — they will not come back to fresh-fried, but a good deal of the softness returns. Third, be careful about heating the puffs — only the cream inside gets hot, so puffs are safest eaten at room temperature.
Incidentally, at weekends the line is enormous and I could hardly buy any; I managed it on a weekday evening. If you are buying to take home, that is the window to aim for.
My first malasada!
I wonder what the shops in Hawaii are like. The same, perhaps?
Chains that arrive in Japan often shrink their portions. The originals may well be a size larger! And more to the point, I wish they would open in Tokyo and not only Yokohama! Next time I am in Yokohama, if I remember, I shall buy some to take home.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Leonard’s, Yokohama World Porters (Donut / Bashamichi Station, Minatomirai Station, Sakuragicho Station)
Tabelog takeout rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
