Mogu Mogu Onigiri Shop — Restaurant in Rosemead

They had pretty short hours focused around lunch time, so I had trouble making it here before they closed for the day. I was finally able to stop by during the week after a doctor's appointment maybe 30 min before their 3 pm closing time and pick several different onigiris that were not yet sold out for the day.

We went big and ordered several to go:

3x Karaage wrapped in Dashi Shiitake Gohan (Japanese Fried Chicken in Shiitake Dashi Rice) - $4.50 each 2x Spam Onigiri (Grilled Spam with Tare Sauce) - $3.25 each *1x Tuna Mayo (Cooked Light Tuna mixed with Japanese Mayo) - $3.75 5x Grilled Salmon with Shiso Leaf - $4.25 each 1x Mentaiko Mayo with Tamago (Mentaiko mixed with Japanese Mayo with Japanese Egg Omelette) - $4.60 3x Buta Kakuni (Slow Braised Pork Belly) - $4.50 each

I personally liked the karaage, spam, salmon, and pork belly. BF enjoyed the karaage and salmon the most. They have more on the menu that we wanted to try next time, so hopefully we make it early enough before they sell out!

There's parking in the plaza, but it can be a little hard finding a spot since there's not too many spots. The other challenge is getting out, as there's only one entrance to get in and out of off Walnut Grove Ave, so if you need to head north, good luck getting out and beating...

My friend tried and liked this place, so I gave it a try too. They have a slightly different take on onigiri from what I'm used to. Instead of having a small bit of the filling encapsulated in the very center of the rice, Mogu Mogu cuts the center of the rice triangle and stuffs it with the filling, like a hotdog in a hotdog bun.

The salmon onigiri doesn't have any filling as the salmon is integrated into the rice itself as a mixture,so every bite has salmon.

The spam/spam and egg "onigiris" are basically like a spam musubi.

The mentaiko one was super flavorful and is my favorite of the 3 meat-based flavors I tried. The karaage one was really good too and I like the crunchy/soft/moist texture of it. The braised pork belly was a bit dry to me and I would have liked more sauce, but the raw chives had a nice spicy flavor contrast with the savory/sweet pork.

I would come back again for sure, but do note they have limited hours of operation (as of 2024/07/14), it took 5-10 minutes to prepare 6 onigiris, and the free parking lot only has 1 entrance/exit. There are 4-5 dining tables available inside...

Hole in the wall in inconspicuous shopping plaza. Person who took my order was speaking Japanese to person in back who was preparing the food so that was a good sign. I got ama miso, buta kakuni, mentai mayo tamago, and karaage onigiri. A bit larger than onigiri you'd get at Japanese market but much better quality. Sushi rice is so good with the nori when it's warm and fresh. My favorite was ama miso. Crispiness of the rice and the balance of salty from miso and freshness from shiso leaf was good. Buta was a bit dry, probably better when it's fresh. didnt get to try the other as they were for my wife and she enjoyed them. She grew up in Japan so it's a good stamp of approval.

Not perfect, but giving 5 stars bc I think this place deserves support! Definitely worth checking out if you like onigiri and...