Cafe Mochiko — Restaurant in Cincinnati

Cafe Mochiko is an absolute gem! We ate there multiple times on our vacation to Cincinnati for their morning sweet and savory pastries and dinner service and each time was excellent!

From the moment you enter the café you can tell you're in for something special. The attention to detail in every aspect of the restaurant is impressive. You can tell the owners put a ton of thought into the aesthetic, which I can only describe as warm, cozy, classy, inviting, and fun. Every time we visited, we noticed something different. The highlight for me is the bar, which is gorgeous and inviting. The vintage VCR and old school CRT TV combo is so much fun and an awesome blast from the past! One time the owners/chefs invited us to pick a movie from their selection which ranged from Die Hard to Pokémon and the kids loved it! There's even a bidet in the restroom, very Japanese and a welcomed surprise. Everything is clean and well organized.

Morning service is casual and fun. Options are savory and sweet pastries and the drinks and coffee are all very refreshing and reasonably priced. The pastries are literally award winning and there are no bad choices in the bunch. The specials change weekly so there’s always something new to try. The pastries are baked to perfection and the creams are seriously next level and truly incredible; perfect sweetness, light, airy, and beautiful textured and flavored. Everything is so good it's hard to pick a favorite but the everything cream cheese bao, kimchi and egg croissants, and strawberry melon pan stood out for me. I highly recommend getting one of each and sharing with friends to try the menu. The shokupan loaf is a must have. Take some home, crisp up a slice on the frying pan with an egg or even by itself; so comforting! Just a heads up, there's nearly always a line but it moves fairly quickly.

Dinner at Cafe Mochiko was a stellar experience every time. Come early if you want a table because all three times the dining room filled up within minutes. The food is super fresh and flavorful, the wait staff warm and friendly, and the ambiance is inviting, classy, warm and cozy. I've been fortunate enough to have access to excellent SoCal food my entire life and I can say with zero hesitation that the ramens, smashburgers, and karaage are some of the best bites I've had in my 40 years on earth; my mouth is watering just thinking about them again as I write this review. Every table ordered the Karaage (japanese fried chicken) and it was no wonder why; absolutely mind blowing how perfectly seasoned and cooked it was. The smash burger is large, filling and seriously satisfying. The milk bun is unreal, just enough bite on the outside and warm and fluffy on the inside. Fries are cooked to perfection. The ramens are the best I've ever had but my favorite was the Shoyu, which was deeply satisfying and highly slurpable. The broth is the perfect blend of umami and sweetness and the noodles are perfect. None of this comes as any surprise since the noodles are handmade fresh with imported Japanese flour and the broth is made with only the best soy sauce, also straight from Japan. The chashu (pork) and egg are cooked to perfection.

The appetizers are no slouch either! You would be fine ordering any or all of them as they each have their own distinct textures and flavor profiles. If you can only choose one, make it the mochi mochi panic, it’s exceptional and I don’t know where else you can get something like it. The broccoli and pickled appetizers both add some freshness and brightness to cut through all the savory options.

Between the welcoming ambiance, outstanding food, and kind staff/service, I can easily call Cafe Mochiko my new favorite restaurant. There's no pretentiousness here, just incredibly satisfying comfort food made by some seriously talented and hardworking chefs. It comes as no surprise that Cafe Mochiko has been recognized by Bon Appetite and nominated for James Beard awards. My only wish is that I was closer by so I could...

My mom sent me a picture of a visually stunning Ube donut that peaked my interest in this place. So glad I got to try it while I was visiting the fam during vacation for the 4th of July. You know something has to be good if a line starts forming 15 min. before the opening. This place is Asian influenced - primarily Japanese and some Filipino. There is a walk-up bakery window in the morning and then they open the dining area for lunch/dinner service. Everyone here is super friendly and helpful.

I'd say 95% of the items you'll see here were 5-star worthy - tasty and visually stunning. Sweet or savory, meat eater or vegetarian, there's something delicious for everyone. But my personal favorites:

➡️ Strawberry Melonpan - great strawberry flavor, light and fluffy ➡️ Earl Grey Chocolate Chunk Scone - soft scone and superb earl grey flavor ➡️ Bacon and Black Vinegar Scroll - great blend of sweet and savory ➡️ Kimchi and Egg Croissant - if you like kimchi, you'll like this ➡️ BBQ Pork Snow Bao - bet this would taste even better warm ➡️ Taishoken-Style Tsukemen - noodles were perfect...only thing I would have preferred is a jammy egg ➡️ Roasted Sprouts - not burnt and well seasoned...bonito flakes are a nice touch ➡️ Broccoli Gomae - assumed these are blanched and then cooled, the sesame works in this dish ➡️ Karaage - not overcooked and a generous portion for the price...get the sprout and broccoli to go with this and you have a meal for 2 people

Interesting note and something I totally dig, all of their packaging for takeout is made from compostable material. As I think about my impact on the environment with regards to takeout, it influences my decisions...I have not ordered takeout from other places due to excessive use of styrofoam or plastic.

But it's not entirely perfect and I think there are a few things that could be improved to really elevate some of the food and experience.

Some of the pastry items can be a little weak on flavor. The Ube croissant was visually stunning but the cream tasted like...cream...I wasn't getting the Ube. Same goes for the black sesame dacquoise...it needed more sesame...and I personally think replacing the white cream squiggle on top with a black sesame cream would have done wonders. Some of the appetizers could use some acid...karaage with some lemon wedges and sprouts with a yuzu aioli come to mind. Water glasses are tiny...I can get thru it in a couple swigs. I'd recommend having empty glass bottles to fill up and leave on the tables...saves your servers time and negates the small glass issue. Interior decor/layout...I'm assuming the inside is still a work in progress. I think with a few tweaks you could keep most of what is in there, delineate the dining from the bakery section, and really make it pop. It would be nice to open up the cafe for the pastries in the morning but I understand that may be a staffing issue. Still, it doesn't have to be full service. Menu...either only post it on Instagram or update it across your sites. The menu on your website is outdated, don't keep it up there if you're not willing to update it. I came for dinner wanting to order one thing and finding out it hadn't been on the menu...

A bit above 4.5, but not completely 5.0 yet. Overall I enjoyed pretty much everything! Sure there are some items that were better than others, but a couple of items really stood out, and it was clear that guests would come for those items. I had both pastries here during the day and dinner here afterwards, both on the same day.

I missed the ube halaya croissant, and I saw people coming in after me, realizing that the croissants were out for the day, promising to come back the next day for them. That made me feel like I missed out. However, the kimchi & egg croissant was pretty good, especially after heated up. Of course, one cannot expect the egg to be runny, which of course would've been even better, but what they had was already pretty good I would say.

My favorite was the mochi mochi panic, with bean sprouts that tasted so much like home, and the housemade mochi having very soft chewable texture yet not sticking to teeth. The dish was flavorful! Another flavorful dish was the tantanmen. I could tell the broth, which was a bit spicy and very rich in flavor, had quite a bit of spice, and the fresh coriander on top, albeit not common in East Asian food, worked out very well. The dish is nowhere near traditional, but it worked out very well and I loved the way they made it.

I enjoyed the kioke shoyu ramen as well. While I actually normally don't eat pork, I do consume chashu pork that's typically found in ramen. Here in Cafe Mochiko, they use the broth to cook the pork, similar to Vietnamese pho in which the broth would cook the beef. The chashu pork was thinner and resembled sliced pork you can find in hot pot a bit more, which was interesting. The broth I could tell had a lot of meat flavor because I could taste the pork in it (the kind that I don't eat which my palate is very sensitive to), and I have attributed it to authenticity.

The katsu sando has a huge piece of pork cutlet in it, and was really great in both texture and flavor, as the sandwiches contained contrast for both, offering a comprehensive tasting experience. The potato salad was also very flavorful, having a sweet yet vinegary type of taste.

This place is located in East Walnut Hill, and there are quite a few food spots around it. While this place doesn't have desserts, Hello Honey is pretty much right next door for those interested in some ice cream afterwards! Oh, and I arrived at 5pm for dinner. By 5:05pm, they were...