Mochigo — Restaurant in Berkeley

In hopes of a chewy, springy, maybe a little greasy and warm mochi donuts and mabye getting in some polyphenols with an Ube frosting, I ordered a plain mochi donut, an ube mochi donut and then, since I love hot Cheetos, I decided to splurge on the Hot Cheeto, nacho potato hotdog.

First off, the donuts are cold, so the ample grease used in creating them adheres to the roof of your mouth. Yuck.

If you order one donut rather than a pack of donuts, the donuts come individually packaged in clear plastic boxes that are unlikely to ever be recycled. Gross overkill.

The one benefit, to me, is that the texture of the mochi donut is much more enjoyable than a standard flour donut. I liked the donut texture and the fact that the batter itself was not too sweet. On balance though I’m not coming back for another cold one of these. If it were served warm and in paper, I might consider buying another plain one. However, at $3.50 each, I feel like it’s not a great value.

Second, instead of Ube in this frosting on the Ube Mochi Donut, it’s ample Red Dye #3. You can tell from the look of the frosting, which is too dark to be Ube, plus the bitter taste of Red Dye #3, (that is still legal in Ca in food coloring) that they make it purple with dye, not with Ube. I’ve not tasted Red Dye #3 since I was a child. If nostalgic for a heaping helping of carcinogens in your food, this is your spot!

When I read Nacho Cheese in the description, I assumed a savory cheese mixture. In fact the cheese is a sort of white velveeta mixed with a sweetener. Short of a roach, I can’t imagine a worse surprise next to a hot dog than the sweetness I would expect in a cheese danish. The red powdery stuff on the outside tastes nothing like Red Hot Cheetos. It was just decoration. The mashed potatoes that are packed around the hot dog and deep fried are studded with French fries. All of the potatoe mixture has a hint of sweet. It’s clearly something that came out of a deep freeze, having been assembled at a factory. I feel like I am eating pretend, plastic food, like in a display. I could not eat it. Waste makes me sad but the idea of getting sick from this grossness makes me sadder. So, it went into the compost bin. The only redeeming feature of this item is the well designed, adorable and compostable box that it comes in.

The only time you might see a human when in this store is when employees, who are slogging back and forth from freezer to deep fryer may trudge past the kitchen door. Other than that, you order at a kiosk and your food just appears, with your name on it (even tho I only gave them my phone#) on the counter.

Don’t be fooled by the cute, cheerful, clean looking exterior of this business. It could not be more depressing. Even tho I ate just a bite of each donut and a bite of the weird hot dog thing, I still feel icky from it. If you listen to your body, it will tell you...

Saw this place opened up while I was driving down my usual route. Wait time was pretty decent, didn't take forever like a lot of reviews I saw said it did. I ordered at a self serve kiosk and got my order within 10 minutes. I got the matcha milk tea with boba. The boba itself was pretty overcooked and almost mushy, but I'm giving them a pass for now since this store is fairly new. So I'm hoping in a few months time, their boba quality gets better lol

For the mochi donuts, I got fruity pebbles, churro matcha, and blueberry funnel cake. The texture of the donuts themselves were great! Crispy bite and chewy center. The fruity pebbles was my favorite. The blueberry's flavor was a bit more subtle. I couldn't taste the churro matcha flavor at all.

Overall, the place is alright. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt for now and hope the quality of their stuff will only improve in the future. I'd love to come back and try...

Was taken aback by the empty store front with signs but no displays. Idk if they’re just robbery cautious or what but visited because of locational convenience.

Ordered a dozen - was ready in under 10 min Altho no status update was given and there was no staff. 5 stars for the donuts - they’re better than Mochill or any of the other competitors/places I’ve been to within the state. The glazes were really tasty and not too sweet (I got 8 diff flavors, favorite being Guava and Fruity pebbles). Donuts were super moist and springy without being greasy. It was a huge hit for the party I bought them for with both people who are mochi-nuts and ppl who’d never had them before....