Mochi-ya Ren — Restaurant in San Jose

Mochiya-Ren is located inside Mitsuwa, specifically past the checkout stands to the left when you enter. Mochiya-Ren replaced Matcha Love. I'm probably in a select minority that didn't care for Matcha Love...don't miss it one bit. I thought it was pricey and not all that good...sayonara! I was intrigued when Mochiya-Ren replaced them. I got excited at site of the Fresh Fruit filled mochi (Daifuku), then I saw the price...yikes! $5 for tiny piece. My benchmark for such treats was a place back in Oahu and also street carts in Tokyo; twice as good and two thirds the cost. This isn't close...it's just OK. Good luck finding anything comparable in the area tho...if you do let me know...PLEASE!!!  PRETTY PLEASE...

Sweet Tooth: ~ Kuromitsu Kinako & Hojicha Soft Serve Swirl - 4/5 Kuromitsu Kinako was a seasonal or new flavor at the time of my last visit. Unfortunately they were not doing samples, so I had to purchase it to try it. I chose the swirl just in case it wasn't any good...as I'm familiar with the taste of Hojicha and enjoy it. Happy to say I wasn't let down... earthy, woody, brown sugar flavors. I believe it's roots stem form Okinawa.

~ MATCHA PANNA COTTA - 5/5 This was brilliant! Tiny little cup, but excellent: not too sweet, not too bitter, good Matcha flavor, silky smooth texture with good Mochi and the sauce just adds to it. My fave item here!

~ Strawberry Pannacotta - 5/5 Another brilliant Pannacotta...bravo! Ample strawberry flavor that doesn't taste artificial, silky smooth texture with Mochi and Strawberry sauce that complements it so well!

~ CHEESECREAM MATCHA SHAKE - 5/5 Brilliant Matcha shake. Get the larger size, it's only a few cents more. Mix it up and enjoy! Not too sweet, the CheeseCream adds that bit of savoriness...delish!

The menu keeps expanding and the items get better. I'd stop by if I'm in the area, but probably won't go out of the way to...

This place took over the old Matcha Love (which was bomb btw) inside Mitsuwa Japanese Market. We ordered the matcha mont blanc soft serve and hojicha soft serve.

The matcha mont blanc (the noodly looking part) is room temperature and had a red bean filling texture and flavor with a hint of matcha. The texture is smooth and soft which kind of plays with your mind if you think it's cold or think it would be ice cream-like. The ice cream flavor itself was quite off. It had no matcha flavor to it whatsoever. It had notes of coffee-like flavor. It was a very different and confusing flavor that I couldn't hone in on, but it was nothing I've tasted before especially for it being matcha flavored.

The hochija was roasted alright. You can for sure taste the roastedness of the flavor, but it tasted like a combo of coffee and chocolate. Or another flavor that crossed my mind was a roasted tootsie roll lol. My friend said it tasted like a type of roasted bean.

We all had the same verdict, neither my friends nor myself enjoyed the flavors of this establishment. The pictures on the menu and kiosk were deceiving, the sizes of the cups were smaller in person.

Bottom line: 1 star for creaminess, overpriced for the size, flavors are confusing.

(IG:...

Dear Mochi-ya, Everyone talked so much about you. You had so much hype. I had such high hopes for your fruit mochi, and had been waiting to try this for so long, but it was a COMPLETE let down. 😭☹️ Talk about a HUGE disappointment… the first bite was the saddest because we discovered there was red bean paste in between the fruit and mochi layer. Normally all of the separate parts would be good, but the red bean completely masks the refreshing taste of the fruit and throws off the balance of the entire bite. I really hope that they don’t always serve fruit mochi with red bean, because it really ruins the taste. Mochi-ya, I wanted to love you, but you really sprung that red bean on me. I feel like I got catfished.

Readers, be warned — the fruit mochi is not as life changing and delicious as you would think, especially if the red bean paste is there. It just is not...