Osaka-Ya — Local services in Sacramento

3.5 STARSThe flatmate as well as I went to Nijiya Market when I spied some mochi. Made a decision to grab a diverse box from Osaka-Ya for $6.99. I tried them later that day on Tuesday, July 3rd around 4:30 pm. * GREEN MOCHI: Mochi infused with a Japanese natural herb called Mugwort, The inside include sweet smooth red bean paste (Koshi-an)* PINK MOCHI: Typical sweet Mochi outside with pleasant whole red beans on the inside (Tsubu-an)* WHITE MOCHI: Typical pleasant Mochi on the outside with sweet smooth red bean paste on the inside (Koshi-an)* Kiku: Mochi with a pleasant smooth white bean paste (Shiro-an) and covered in pleasant clear glazeI tried the kiku first. I liked the flavor, but I discovered the glaze didn't hold up well. It made the item a little melty in structure. The mochi itself was really pretty. Pink with an environment-friendly leaf type design. I tried the eco-friendly one following. A great refined sweet taste. As well as the green tea taste went well with the red bean. In general, I did discover the mochi too soft, so they were missing out on that wonderful light eat. Or else, I truly suched as the flavors of the items I've attempted so far.Maybe the mochi experienced from transportation time? Or perhaps they were remaining at the marketplace for as well long? However I did discover the texture a touch mushy. I did take pleasure in the taste as well as look of the pieces, so rounding up to 4...

I'm very happy to have found a mochi-specialist shop. I really love seeing the beautiful mochi desserts on display, along with other Japanese (and Hawaiian-Japanese) snacks around the shop. The window outside sells shaved ice as well. Such a cute store!

Red Bean Mochi (4 out of 5): We got three flavors, Hikicha (green tea with whole red bean), Shiso (purple with smooth red bean), and Inaka (white with whole red bean). Of these, I liked the Shiso the best. It had smooth red bean which I enjoyed more than the whole red bean, and it consisted of the chewy mochi we are all familiar with. The other two were not mochi, but a more breaded exterior (like halfway to a moon-cake exterier), though they were still good.

Shaved ice (4 out of 5): We got pink lemonade and lime. As others mentioned, the extra small is a pretty decently good size. One big drawback is that they allow only one flavor per snowcone, which we did not quite understand why. The flavors were decently good, above average. Perhaps next time we will splurge for extras to make it a true japanese-style shaved ice.

A drawback to this place is that there's no good place to sit or eat, or even garbage cans to dispose of cups when finished. So instead, we walked a couple blocks down to a park...

This is THE BEST local manju shop in California and quite possibly the best outside of Japan. This is the place to go for Japanese sweets. I like Osaka-Ya better than Fugetsu-Do in LA, better than Benkyodo in SF, better than Shuei-Do in San Jose, and better than Two Ladies Kitchen in Hawai'i. Not only are the flavors here delicate and well balanced, they also don't leave the mochi and manju slathered with katakuriko (potato starch) which is necessary for the making process, but not pleasant to touch or eat.

My favorite manju are the Sakura, Shiso and Kinako. My partner loves the kinako bites which are small cubes of plain mochi covered in kinako (roasted soybean flour). I also love the peanut butter filled mochi. They have smooth and crunchy varieties as well as chocolate peanut butter and a double chocolate (chocolate filled chocolate mochi!) which is decadent and made with fancy-tasting chocolate.

Weekends can get busy here, but there are things they only make on the weekends like they only make butter mochi on Saturdays. They also have specialty manju they only make around Girls Day (March 3) and Boy's Day aka Childrens Day (May 5). In the summer the snow cone window opens and you can get Japanese style shaved ice. Street parking is free and usually...