Mochinut - Fort Lee — Restaurant in Fort Lee

I've been seeing pictures of these snazzy looking donuts for a few weeks now and thought it best to investigate the situation this past Friday. I was already in the area for lunch at Hiram's Roadstand and noticed this particular Mochinut location was only a few blocks away from that. The street it's on almost feels like a back street rather than a main street, if that makes sense - in the immediate vicinity, there's a lot of apartments and backs of businesses versus storefronts. I parked just across the street, which at that time of day was metered. I suspect it wouldn't have been too difficult to locate free spots, but I'm not particularly interested in reconnaissance missions when it's below 20 degrees out. RIP quarter. Anyway.

I can't speak for the other locations, but this Mochinut seems to exclusively handle to-go orders - it's a bit cramped in there (and there were two other customers who came in before me) with no seating options. Based on the display area, the donuts are the stars but they also have what looked to be other Korean-style food options, notably corndog variations. Since I was in the early stages of digesting two chili weenies, I went straight for the donuts.

There were probably 20 options or so (definitely more than you'd get at, say, a Dunkin Donuts), ranging from chocolate-y flavors to fruity, and a bunch in-between. I have a weak spot for the recent cultural emergence of Fruity Pebbles as a viable topping on everything, so I ordered two Fruity Pebbles donuts, one with a more vanilla topping and one with a more strawberry topping. I was also intrigued by the concept of a pineapple guava flavor, so I snagged that as well. They had a 3 for roughly $9 deal, so these are a little pricier than mainstream donuts.

My favorite turned out to be the pineapple guava. It was a unique taste, kind of zesty, sweet and tart at the same time. The Fruity Pebbles ones were good too, but a more predictable flavor. The texture is really interesting - because they're using a rice cake flour, it's definitely lighter and chewier than a typical donut. I ended up eating all three at once and didn't feel disgusting afterwards. I'd probably be sugar crash-catatonic on my recliner for a few hours if I had binged that quantity at a Dunkin.

Definitely a recommend, especially if one of these locations isn't out of the way for you. Based on my review of the website, it looks like they're dramatically expanding locations particularly in the Bergen County area so you may stumble across a Mochinut without even trying...

If I could leave less than one star I would. I'm so disappointed because the food items were great and looked nice but the way I was treated made me feel embarrassed and demeaned. I am still in shock hours later. I go with my 2 friends to order (there were other customers however they were all near the door still deciding on their order) once my friends and I decided on our orders we went up to the counter after asking the other customers if they were in line. My friend started her order but they didnt have the mochinut she wanted, she asked for another they did not have that either so she was deciding what else she would want keep in mind I had yet to order. As soon as the other customers walked up we were told to step to the side and we were taking too long in the rudest way possible. The lady working behind the counter shooing us with her hand. The customer behind us asked if I had ordered, before I could even answer the same rude lady said yes she did. I looked at her and said no I haven't ordered yet she looked annoyed. I started ordering and she was complaining about how the three of us all ordered a donut and she had to bag them separately. To my face. I'm sorry it's not convenient to you but please do not express your displeasure in such a rude way. Either way I was continuing my order and she told me to continue it at the counter. Not a problem if she wasn't saying it in such a dismissive way as if she didn't have time for me. I completed my order and when I went to pick it up they didn't even look at me. When the customer who was behind us went to pick up his order they spoke to him kindly and even offered him a loyalty card. I was not even a step away when they said this. I was not offered anything. I was talked down to, demeaned, and dismissed. I genuinely think it is because I wear the hijab. If she was having a bad day she would've been the same towards the other customers however it was only towards me. I completed my order in a minute max. I'm never coming back here again I drove quite a ways because I heard this place was good. The younger worker was nice however very soft-spoken and kind the older one was...

Mochinut opened at the end of September. We were excited to try Mochinut’s donuts. It is inside a Korean bakery.

Although Mochinut menu shows tons of flavors (24 flavors!), but they only offer a handful of flavors a day at this location. I don’t know if this is how they are planning to operate, as they are small shop, or they are just testing out different flavors until they can get all the flavors sorted out? It seems that they offer different flavors at each location, which is fun!

We got there when they opened, and they didn’t have any mochi donut… We asked the staff, and she told us they will be ready in 30 minutes. We decided to take a walk for 30 min to kill time. After 30 min, we were told they will have all the flavors ready in another 30 min… So, we killed time for total of one hour, and went back. They finally had five flavors, plus “plain”. And the flavors were different from advertised on their social media. Two of the flavors they advertised, Black Sesame and Matcha, were not available, which we were very disappointed about…

Well, what can you do? We got all the five flavors that they did have for this day. They sell them by three, six, and a dozen. They placed the mochi donut in the plastic container, which are more of less airtight. With the heat and steam coming out of the donut, I don’t recommend the container to be closed for too long. Otherwise, they get too much moisture from the steam, and get soggy quick.

The coating was more sugary than anything, without big flavors. The donut itself was good, fluffy and chewy in a good way. Not as chewy as other mochi donuts places. The only one that we really liked was Coffee donut. The flavor of the coffee was really present, not bitter but not overly sweet, just right.

Overall, it was not worth waiting around one hour outside in the cold for...I prefer the ones from Mochimochi inside Mitsuwa...