Photo: Kisa Toyoshima

5 best cafés in Tokyo for Japanese mochi desserts

These cafés and dessert shops make the best chewy mochi rice cakes in the city, from sweet daifuku to savoury dango

Friday 24 May 2024

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You don’t have to have a sweet tooth to find joy in mochi (sticky rice cakes). A traditional Japanese delicacy, mochi can be sweet or savoury, and are especially popular on special occasions such as New Year. They come in a variety of shapes and textures, from light and refreshing, like mochi ice cream and jelly-like warabimochi, to thick and chewy, like daifuku mochi filled with red beans and grilled shiratama (sweet rice dumpling).

Whatever you’re craving, we've found five cafés and sweet shops in Tokyo where you can enjoy mochi in its many variations, along with a cup of tea.

RECOMMENDED: Step back in time at Tokyo's best old-school Japanese coffee shops

Mad for mochi

Kanmi Mitsuya

Cafés
Asakusa

Photo: Kisa Toyoshima

Locals queue up at Kanmi Mitsuya in Asakusa to get a taste of its delicious shiratama dango mochi. The mochi is freshly made daily and comes in different flavours — kuromitsu kinako (black honey and roasted soybean powder), mitarashi (sweet soy sauce glaze), zunda (sweet bean) and matcha.

One plate (¥980) includes five mochi balls of a single flavour, but you can upgrade it to six mochi balls with two flavours (¥1,130). For an additional ¥150, you can add red bean paste or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Every order comes with tea and a side of kanten jelly topped with a seasonal syrup.

You can also take some mochi home from Kanmi Mitsuya’s takeout store, which is located just a few minutes away.

Japanese
Uguisudani

Photo: Kisa Toyoshima

Gekko Mochi in Uguisudani is one of the few cafés in Tokyo where you can fill up on mochi as a meal. While the dishes may be simple, they boast hearty slabs of mochi made with akarimochi, a type of rice from Aomori prefecture that has umami and sweet flavours. The rice is pounded over 400 times by hand to give it a smooth and stretchy consistency, and it’s made fresh daily.

We recommend going for the donburimochi (¥2,400), which comes with three mochi balls inside a bowl with soy sauce glaze. You’ll get condiments on the side including seaweed, grated daikon radish and your choice of wasabi or irigoma (grated sesame seeds) to dress your dish. The set even comes with an additional mochi that you can choose from three flavours — a grilled mochi with soy sauce or kinako (roasted soybean powder), or a sweet mochi that’s usually filled with a seasonal sweet bean paste.

Note that you can only order set meals at Gekko Mochi, so come here with an empty stomach. But if you are still feeling hungry, you can always ask for more mochi at an additional cost.

The shop also specialises in tea, so you’ll have the opportunity to try its special hojicha tea. Otherwise, swap that out for buckwheat tea for ¥100 or a non-caffeinated millet tea for ¥200.

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Mican Club

Cafés
Harajuku

Photo: Mican Club

Mican Club is a traditional Japanese sweet café that’s particularly popular for its Angel’s Tear, a purely transparent warabimochi jelly that resembles a water drop. The warabimochi is made with agar derived from seaweed and served with plenty of kinako (roasted soybean powder) and brown sugar syrup.

Mitarashi dango is another popular mochi dish at Mican Club. You can grill shiratama (sweet rice dumplings) on a small charcoal grill in front of you, and pair them with three of your favourite sauces from the 11 types available on the menu, such as yuzu kosho (fermented yuzu and chili), cinnamon and sour plum. If you don’t feel like cooking your own dango, you can order one of the two sets pre-prepared by the chef, featuring Hokkaido kinako or Mican Club’s special seasoning.

Don’t let the price decide for you, as desserts here are set at ¥1,300. Except parfaits, which are ¥1,500.

Shinjuku-Sanchome

Photo: Oiwake Dango Honpo Shinjuku

Oiwake Dango Honpo Café in Shinjuku is well known for its incredibly large variety of dango rice dumplings. Dango is served on a stick (three dumplings per stick) and can be ordered individually or as part of a set, which includes two sticks (from ¥748) with the sauce or topping of your choice.

The café’s most popular options are mitarashi (sweet and spicy sauce, ¥226 per stick), koshian (thick bean paste from Hokkaido, ¥216 per stick) and anmitsu (agar with brown sugar syrup from Okinawa, ¥453).

There are savoury options, too, like sour plum and seaweed (¥345) or shichimi seaweed (¥226) dango. The shop is worth repeat visits as new limited-time flavours are often added to the menu. You can eat-in or order for takeout.

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Kyoto Saryo Suisen Shinjuku

Shinjuku

Photo: Kyoto Saryo Suisen Shinjuku

Originally from Kyoto, this matcha café offers sticky Uji matcha warabimochi (bracken starch jelly) and is certain to satisfy both green tea and mochi lovers.

Saryo Suisen’s warabimochi are served hot or cold and you can choose a stronger matcha for more bitterness. It comes in a set with a pot of tea (gyokuro hojicha or sencha), shiratama (sweet white rice dumpling), red bean paste, kinako powder and kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup).

The classic warabimochi set costs ¥1,280 (or ¥1,480 for a stronger matcha flavour). Other options include a bitter matcha soft cream and warabimochi covered in kinako (roasted soybean powder, ¥1,280), or strong matcha warabimochi in zenzai (sweet red bean soup, ¥1,100).

You can accompany your meal with matcha beer (¥960) or an exclusive 3D matcha latte (¥880) with the design of your choice.