Omusubi Gonbei — Restaurant in New York

I had been craving Onigiri for years. 5 Years to be exact and I was not willing to give in to just any place that served rice balls. On a whim, I gave this place a try and was not only surprised but I was absolutely floored.

Their selection of konbini food is like nothing I've experienced in the US. There's both sweet and savory. They have a "supermarket" section full of all the ingredients that you'll never find in the international sections of your local grocery store. And not just that, but you can find the ingredients at an affordable price. For example my local grocery sells oyster sauce for $6 a bottle in Brooklyn. I can get a better brand, in a larger size, for nearly half the price here.

Now the food. It was both delicious and filling. I've seen other reviews of people talking about coming here to pick up things on their lunch break and I wish I could be so lucky to have this place near my work.

I bought the fish cakes, the bomb, the salmon, and shrimp onigiri.

The fish cakes were my absolute favorite and I'm going back tomorrow to stock up. I did see another reviewer saying he did not like these and I can say that it definitely comes down to taste preference. I loved them. If you're not a fan of sweet don't get them, but they are not crazy sweet. If you've had General Tso's, it not nearly as sugary. Just a different taste profile for fish if you're an American. I also love ginger and the ginger was definitely coming to the front of taste.

The Onigiri was a mixed bag but not at all bad. My least favorite was the salmon. Still great but not the best of the bunch. I wouldn't call it underfilled but I would have preferred a bit more filling. The shrimp onigiri was my favorite. No complaints at all and the pyramid shape was perfect for dunking in a sauce (if you want to).

The bomb which are large super stuffed rice balls were great too. If you're in a rush and just need one thing, id recommend this. It was filling...

I went here to get onigiri after craving it for around a week. The food I ate here was SO GOOD. First, the store isn’t too far of a walk from the Grand Central station when you go inside the store looks to be pretty small, and although it is small it’s bigger than when it first appears. The photo shows I ate while I went around in Manhattan. I got shrimp tempura, ume, eel, salmon, chashew pork (I’m unsure of the spelling), spam musubi I believe it’s called, and some more stuff. Almost everything I bought was under 5$ and came up to 34$. And I can stay without a doubt that the food is most definitely worth the money. The shrimp tempura was delicious. The ume I believe it is, wasn’t really my thing but that’s not the fault of the food. The staff were very nice and that store was very clean and well taken care of. Normally, I don’t write reviews for places I’ve gone, but this is how good at this spot is I had to write about it. One thing I want to really highlight is the takoyaki octopus balls, they were near the middle of the store I was curious so I got them. now, of course, this is up to personal taste for but for me these things literally had me yelling with how good they were and I’m not even joking. The texture was very nice. It was chewy. The sauce was good. The stuff that was on It was delicious. The inside had like a small piece of octopus in it. All around one of my favorite things for that store and will definitely be buying the next time I go. 10/10 this store...

Omusubi Gonbei is a takeout-only place that specializes in making Japanese rice balls (omusubi) filled with various ingredients from fish (e.g. salmon (cooked), spicy tuna, grilled eel) to seafood (e.g. fried oyster, shrimp tempura) to vegetables (e.g. mustard greens, kelp) to the miscellaneous (e.g. nattō, Spam). The rice balls are made daily and use high quality rice (currently from Hokkaidō), so you can really tell the difference in quality from the omusubi at other places. When I got there, they had just started stocking up the display case, so my omusubis were warm, super fresh, and delicious.

The omusubi at OG are also significantly bigger and heavier than others, so one or two make a very filling snack/meal. They offer both white rice (hakumai) and brown rice (genmai) versions which is nice. Prices range from $2.30 to $4.60, so it’s pretty affordable. They also sell Japanese fried chicken nuggets (karaage) which aren’t bad, but it’s not the main attraction.

Omusubi Gonbei is located inside Katagiri Japanese Grocery, and payment for the omusubi is made with the grocery store cashiers. The grocery has a wide range of Japanese drinks and snacks, so you can easily supplement your rice balls with additional items (e.g. drinks, dessert) and then pay for everything at once. If you are looking to eat very good omusubi for a reasonable price in the Grand Central area, Omusubi Gonbei might be a...