Japanese convenience store icon gets a whole new look.

Japanese convenience store food has become well-known around the world for its quality, and the product that’s received some of the highest praise is the humble egg sandwich from Lawson.

Ever since Anthony Bourdain sang its praises on his Parts Unknown TV show, where he described it as “unnaturally fluffy, insanely delicious, incongruously addictive”, and went on to say it has an “inexplicable deliciousness” on Twitter, people have been keen to try the sandwich that made the American chef wax lyrical.

Now, though, the egg sandwich, which Bourdain also called “pillows of love“, is getting a new look, with the chain saying it has reduced the price but increased its filling by about 20 percent from 22 April.

In the current climate of rising production costs, how on Earth could this be possible? We decided to investigate the claim to see what was going on, while hoping that the change wouldn’t upset the perfect balance of the iconic egg sandwich.

To start, we secured the old version of the sandwich on 21 April, the day before the renewal, paying 300 yen (US$2.10) for it. The next day, we bought the new version. The package on the new variety has a “新発売” (“New Release”) sticker on it, and the price is 279 yen, so we can confirm that the “lower price” part checks out.

So what about the size? Well, at first glance, the egg salad filling in the new version does look thicker. However, the old version looks slightly bigger for some reason, so it’s time to get weighing.

▼ With the packaging, the old version weighs 127 grams (4.5 ounces).

▼ The new version weighs…128 grams, so it was one gram heavier.

Hmmm. This was curious, so it was time to get more precise by pulling out a sandwich slice with the filling attached and weighing it.

▼ Old version: 43 grams.

▼ New version: 45 grams.

It was a subtle difference, but there was no denying that the new version really did contain more egg filling then the previous variety. However, when sitting them together, side by side, on a plate, there was a noticeable difference.

▼ Old on the left, new on the right

The bread in the new sandwich was slightly shorter in length than the old previous version, suggesting that the chain had reduced the amount of bread in the sandwich while increasing its filling.

In an attempt to truly test the amount of filling in the sandwiches, we tried to remove the entire filling to weigh it, but that proved to be difficult, as the soft bread began to come off as well, which would’ve skewed the results.

The true test of the new sandwich would be in the eating, though, so we decided to move on to the taste-test stage. As we’d now deduced that the new version has a slightly different bread-to-egg salad ratio compared to the previous version, we were concerned that the new proportions might have an effect on the flavour of the iconic sandwich.

Biting into the old version first, we enjoyed the familiar satisfying flavour of creamy egg salad filling and fluffy, pillowy white crustless sandwich bread. Some convenience stores only fill their sandwiches toward the end that’s on show, but Lawson fills theirs evenly to all the edges, which is part of what makes them so delicious.

The new version is also filled to all edges, but how would the taste compare?

After taking a bite out of this one, we felt ourselves whispering “Wow!” as it was incredibly different. We weren’t expecting the difference to be so noticeable but it was, with the flavour of egg salad bursting through on the palate from the very first bite.

After tasting it, we can say with absolute confidence that the “20 percent more filling” claim is true. The old one was good, but this one feels richer and more flavourful, and although the egg salad filling seems to taste slightly different, it’s not an issue as it’s genuinely tastier.

Although we were nervous about Lawson’s bold claims when the difference in weight seemed barely negligible, after trying the new sandwich, we can say that the chain really does deliver more filling at a cheaper price point.

We don’t know how they managed to do it but they have, giving us more for less while making the whole thing even tastier. With egg being the top-ranking sandwich for the chain, especially amongst foreign tourists, where demand for it at airports and tourist sites is 14 times higher than the national average, Lawson was walking a tightrope by daring to make any changes to a good thing, but thankfully they pulled it off.

If anything, the new version will make you love the egg sandwich even more than you did before. And if Bourdain were here to try the new version, we have a feeling that he would still describe the sandwiches as “pillows of love”, made by the chain he expressed so much affection for.

Related: Lawson
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