Mocu Mocu

They have closed on the end of May already. I visited 5 –6 times here but felt that all the workers were not professional. I often visited after 1pm. I don’t see nobody in the hall way so I say Hello? Hi. Hello?, then a waitress finally came from the back & said Oh…
Nobody says Thank you when I leave. I mean nobody has the mind to say Thank you.
Because they never worked at restaurant.
Ramen wasn’t hot enough. Lunch’s Onigiri rice wasn’t cooked as it should be.
Miso soup taste like just a hot water
My waitress didn’t bring soy-​source for my Sushi /​Sashimi till I asked.
All worker’s seems like don’t have any restaurant job experience before & they were not trained as restaurant worker at all.
I don’t think they had a manager to educate workers, watch customers, say Hello or Thank you etc.
According to my friends who visited here a few times, Okonomiyaki chef was the only professional chef.
One day when i was there, a customer next to me was trying to pay with tab in his hand & looked like wanting to leave but all the workers were in the kitchen doing iPhone.
My friend just finished to eat but I was still eating. 5 seconds later, a waitress came to my friend asking if he needs any desert.
No workers had guts to try to survive, try to be better as possible as they can.
To me, I felt like they already gave up at some point in the middle of their dream.
Two owners were very good artists but they didn’t know how to handle restaurant business.
They’ve never been watching their workers right in front of their eyes because most of the time, they were living in Japan.
I miss mocumocu’s mood though…
sad…

I was told by the waiter that Friday 5÷27÷16 was the last day
I had ordered the Hiroshima-​yaki (Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki). Which consists of a thin layer of crêpe on the bottom, pickled ginger, cabbage, ramen noodles, bacon, okonomiyaki sauce, orange sauce (forgot that Japanese name for it), and bonito flakes. Very delicious and filling. Its closing! Where else will I fulfill my okonomiyaki craving?!
Also had gotten the matcha bosco obanyaki. Very yummy!

I came here with my boyfriend around 5:30 on a Thursday for some snacks and it was really quiet. Upon walking in, I felt really welcomed by the cute décor and the friendly waitresses.
I found it strange that they were promoting their mochi ice creams so much (two pages of repetitive flavors) to find out that they didn’t even have any mochis in the store because they haven’t ordered them yet. I was disappointed but brushed it off as my eyes danced over all the other cute looking desserts on their menu. My boyfriend and I ordered two of their salmon rice balls and the obanyaki trio plate to share. They were kind of stingy with the salmon so I felt like I was mainly eating rice and seaweed. The obanyaki trio plate was definitely new to us. Their presentation was really nice and we like the fact that they incorporated two flavors into one piece. They came out warm so it’s probably best to have it inside the store! We had the maple syrup batter with sweet azuki & mint chocolate, matcha de bosco, and yuzu flavored apple compote and custard cream. The dessert itself was rather bland.
Overall, a cute place to try if you’re in the neighborhood but not worth going out of the way for.

Review is for the obanyaki — it had red bean filling with a piece of mochi in it. The green tea filling was still warm and gooey when they served it. I ordered it to go and watched them make it on the spot. So definitely eat it fresh when it’s warm! Delicious and reasonably priced treat.

The food here was a mixed bag for me.
I loved the fact that delivery was prompt and they got my order within a reasonable amount of time. I ordered the obento box and didn’t really have a clue as to what was exactly in it. Turns out I had a mix of chicken and shrimp tempura (score!). The tempura was good but very small. The chicken was more substantial but honestly I wasn’t that impressed by the flavor or the dry texture of the meat. The accompaniments within the bento box (2 salmon rice balls, a few pieces of smoked salmon, a slice of cooked salmon, some pumpkin, edamame and string beans etc.) were good. The meal also came with a small salad (which was fine) and a bowl of cold edamame soup that tasted like ice cold green sludge (or ice cold split pea soup). That was pretty disgusting, but maybe it was just a personal preference and not necessarily an issue with the soup itself.
Either way it was a generally okay experience but I wouldn’t say it was a home run by any stretch. Maybe the next bento box will offer a different surprise.

The food itself is good — it was my first time trying okonomiyaki and my boyfriend who’s lived in Japan for six years gave it a pretty solid verdict.
So why the two stars?
Restaurants are judged on more than just the food. Their presentation, service and atmosphere are all important.
The hostess was REALLY quiet we couldn’t hear anything she was saying to us (there were only about seven people in the restaurant at the time, so it wasn’t loud at all) and when we were ready to order, we waited 10 minutes until my boyfriend went to her and said we’re ready… Only for her to say «I’m busy right now. Give me five minutes.» What?!?
We ordered an appetizer to share before our okonomiyakis, and it never came. When we got the bill, it wasn’t on it but we just gently told her we had ordered an appie, and she just looked at us stone-​faced. Not a good reaction when you forget your customer’s order.
We also had to stand up and serve ourselves water because no one came around, and only after we did that did they start coming by our table more often.
Now, these things can be petty things when eating out to make a big deal over. But the fact that the restaurant wasn’t even busy, and there were multiple, unrelated things that were done poorly, I think they deserve two stars at best.

Japanese style obanyaki here probably is the best in city but they take forever to make them. We wait for at least 20 mins for 3 obanyaki. If you are in a rush, this is not a place for you.

20 minute wait for three obanyakis. I got the $ 11 combo. With tax, the total came out to be $ 12.98. All in all, they weren’t worth the money in my opinion. The obanyakis I got were:
MAPLE SYRUP BATTER WITH SWEET AZUKI & MINT CHOCOLATE (4.5÷5) = Green color on the outside. The obanyaki was dry, but the mint chocolate ganache center was perfect to balance the dryness of the cake.
YUZU FLAVORED APPLE COMPOTE & CUSTARD CREAM (⁴⁄₅) = The obanyaki is brown colored and tastes like cinnamon and the custard cream tasted like apple sauce. I liked that the obanyaki wasn’t at all dry and was moist.
MATCHA DE BOSCO (Matcha Cream, Mixed Berries) (³⁄₅) = This was was green on the outside and wasn’t my favorite; the mixed berries tasted tart like hibiscus… I’m not a berry person so I am quite biased.
I believe the obanyakis are best eaten in store on the premises because they come out fresh and hot! Do not take them out because they’ll taste stale.

Interested in this spot since it opened — an intriguing selection of pastries and Okonomiyaki (a pancake style dish with sauces/​toppings).
Empty on a Tuesday evening, got seated immediately. Very comfortable chairs and an inviting setting, huge pluses. After going over their involved menu, settled on the Shoyu Ramen ($ 12), and a Cucumber Mint cocktail ($ 9). Cocktail is certainly refreshing, yet can barely taste the sake inside. After a bit of a wait, the ramen finally came out in a large bowl — flowing with ramen noodles, boiled egg, and pork slices. The broth is flavorful — would have preferred it way more spicy — the chili paste they provide gives an okay kick, though didn’t spread too well in the mixture. To end the night we split the Frothy Chocolate ice cream ($ 3.95) and a Sweet Azuki ($ 2.75). The azuki pastry is dry until you hit the hot filling, which makes it better. The ice cream is surrounded by a rubbery/​jelly like coating; an odd combo though the ice cream is delicious.
I like the different options at this restaurant as opposed to your regular Japanese spots. Overall the food is only okay, though the environment is great for a dinner date, especially with the friendly service.

If you are looking for Japanese sweet or calm restaurant, here is the place.
If you are looking for Japanese food, here is not the place.
Apptizer takoyaki came up after I ate main dish.
Obanyaki is a nice.

The only reason why I found this place was because it was right around the corner from Totto Ramen. My party of 5 decided to get a hot drink while waiting for our seats to be ready at Totto. Our party all ordered either the hot matcha latte or the cappuccino. We also ordered the sampler of three obanyaki to share. When we arrived around 8pm, there was only a handful of customers so we were surprised it too us so long to be served. The obanyaki was the first to come out. They were quite a disappointment because they weren’t hot and the shell and filling of the sweet was not the best. It took another 15 minutes to finally get the matcha lattes. And then it took around 25 minutes to finally get the cappuccinos. The drinks were all luke warm and not great. If it weren’t for the freezing temperatures that night, I don’t think I would have stepped in here. I really want to like this place, but they need better execution of their food and better service.

This place has the best dessert! Obanyaki is my new ‘must have’ treat. Crunchy on the outside, lots of flavor on the inside. A must try!

I saw them featured on Unique Sweets for their obanyaki (filled pancakes), so fellow foodies, you know how excited I was when I stumbled upon this place.
It’s a casual restaurant spot, so I might’ve seemed a little strange only wanting a coffee and an obanyaki (oh well). I ordered the Matcha de Bosco, a green tea cream + berry filled pancake.
Their matcha cream is silky and rich, but not overly so. The tart-​sweet, smooth berry filling next to it complimented well. The batter was not what I was expecting, as it’s more …“rubbery”, sturdy? then I imagined. But I think this helps keep the pastry from falling apart, which I imagine it would if it was a more delicate cake enclosure (or maybe it wasn’t fresh? I can’t tell). These desserts are not too sweet and leave you feeling light.
Providing me steamed milk on the side, for my coffee, was also a nice touch.
Service was notably very kind. The ambience is simple, clean modern, but comfortably so. Seems like a good place for lunch.
Unless you (like me) get excited about eating at places on TV, Mocu Mocu isn’t worth going out of the way for… but enjoyable if you’re in the area!

Tried only the spicy bam tam. It was decent but not memorable.
The biggest issue was service. I almost waited 20 minutes for my order only to find out that it was given to the wrong table. Mind you there are about 8 – 10 tables with only maybe 3 tables filled. How does that happen?
Waited another 10 minutes for my order. Not sure why they labeled it spicy. It wasn’t spicy at all. Which makes me think they got the order wrong. They did nothing to alleviate my distress which was disappointing.
In any case, I don’t think I’ll be visiting again.

I really, really wanted to like this place. The décor was nice, it wasn’t crowded, and the food seemed to have a lot of potential. I had just returned from Japan a week before, and was already missing the food from home. I met at Mocu Mocu for dinner with another Japanese friend of mine, eager to try the restaurant.
Unfortunately, right after we ordered, things started to go downhill. While the server was nice and attentive, the matcha latte I got was WAY TOO SWEET. Then, my friend got her miso soup. Upon looking at it, we already thought it would be bland — the color was off. But when she tried it, she said it tasted like warm seawater. I make miso soup at home all the time and it’s not that difficult to make a good one — this was not a good sign for the restaurant. Then her bento box came. Everything was bland — it even smelled like airplane food. Nothing was seasoned well, the rice in the onigiri (rice ball) was hard and crusty, and we couldn’t even tell what some of the dishes were — again, we are both Japanese, and we lived in Japan most of our lives. To top it all off, the shrimp was undercooked and the salmon, which I believe was supposed to be sashimi, was half cooked. (And not in the aburi kind of way — just that it was placed next to something warm for a while and parts of it got cooked accidentally.)
Then it took about an additional 20 mins for my dish to come. The place was practically empty, there were only about 4 other people in the whole restaurant, and how it took so long after my friend’s dish came is a mystery to me. I first received my miso soup, which I immediately inquired about because mine was even LIGHTER than my friend’s miso soup, which she had already said didn’t have enough miso. I asked my server, «what is this?» because it was clear broth. She insisted it was miso soup, even though she herself said that it was weird that the color was so clear. Then I got the hiroshimayaki, which was not great — bland overall, not enough sauce, and just the pork was overly salty.
I’ve never (not once!) been to a restaurant where I thought the food was bad enough to not eat and to get a refund, but this was a place where after all the things that happened, one after the other, I could not justify paying for my meal. So my friend and I told the server all of the issues that we had with our entire experience, and she actually agreed with all of our problems and asked us to repeat it so she could write it down to tell the chef. She even touched the onigiri and agreed that the rice was very dry and hard. She asked us if she could get us a substitute for our meal, and we told her that we quite frankly did not want to eat at the establishment, and so she went to ask her sub-​manager if she could refund us.
The response was what made me decide that I would write this bad review on Unilocal.The sub-​manager apparently told her that we could be refunded for our meal, but not for our drinks, «since there was nothing wrong with them». Since we just wanted to get out of there at this point, we agreed to pay. But nobody came to give us our check, so we went up to the register area at which point the sub-​manager looks at us and goes «Do you want your check? The drink were ok, so.» No apology, no we hope you come back and try us again, just telling us to pay for our drinks. The server was much more apologetic and hard-​working than the person in charge.
Honestly, I will never go back to this place and I would recommend that you don’t either. If my friend ate the shrimp or salmon, she could’ve gotten sick. But even without that, not one part of the meal was enjoyable, and we left to go to a different restaurant where we had a much, much better experience.

Mocu Mocu is a place that’s tucked in to a quiet neighborhood. I came here on a rainy day for dinner and there was just one other pair of elderly women eating next to us. As we ate, more and more people started coming in, but the atmosphere itself was relaxing and their simplistic décor was a nice touch.
I ordered the takoyaki balls as our appetizer and the okonomiyaki combo and I have to say that it was not up to par with others that I’ve had in the city. At st. marks specifically they have a store that makes it much better, quicker and cheaper to be honest. I do have to mention though that they only had 1 chef that day, however it literally took 30 minutes for the okonomiyaki to be served to us. Another group who ordered it as well ended up getting too frustrated and complained and decided in the end to just leave without it. For dessert, we had the matcha de bosco obanyaki, which had matcha cream and mixed berries filling. The combination of the matcha cream and berries didn’t quite work for me since the berries were much more fragrant and stronger than the cream, so it was imbalanced and completely covered the taste of anything else.
Overall, this is a nice spot if you want to just come for a relaxing meal with a friend and don’t mind too much about the food or how promptly you will be getting your food — just as long as you’re not starving!

I love this place! I’ve been here twice and both times the place was clean, quiet, we got seats immediately, the service was friendly and good, and the desserts are good. I’ve had almost all of Mocu Mocu’s Obanyaki: Matcha de Bosco (matcha cream & mixed berries), Ujikintoki (mochi, matcha cream, and adzuki), Mint Coco, and the summer special open face Lychee Mochi Ice Cream with Adzuki. I think my favorite so far is the Mint Coco. They are all good and not too sweet, and I call them «American-​style» Obanyaki because there are so many different flavors in one Obanyaki (but then again I haven’t lived in Japan in 10 years so who knows what the trends are there now). The coffee here is also good.
I have not eaten any of the savory dishes here but think this is a great dessert spot that I would go back too.

This restaurant is one of the few I know with an «A» for hygiene inspection rating. The food is simple yet good (not extra), the décor is stylish and the atmosphere is relaxing because it’s not crowded and the music is not loud.
The only issue I noted for me was the service. Some dishes take longer (maybe 20 – 30 minutes instead of 10?) but the waiters are so nice and accommodating that it’s not that bad.
Definitely worth checking, I’ll rather go there than wait 1h at toto ramen.

This place slides from 4 starts to 5 since my first visit.
First time at the place: it was very new, and empty on a weekend night. We were seated right away and got small glasses of water. I got the G set, which was the traditional okonomyaki (i forgot what the actual dish was called), which you can choose to have pork (free) or take the pork out. My entire group got the G set.
Prep took longer than expected — i think it was a solid 20 minutes before we got the food. Considering there was no other customers in the store, that was slow. Also, they messed up one of the dishes — they forgot to take out the pork for one of my vegetarian friends.
But looking past that, the actual food was delish. The okonomyaki looks super big but if you cut it up you see that there is a layer of diced up cabbage below, which makes the portion look much bigger. I’m not complaining, the veggies were good complements to the otherwise salty okonomyaki (not overly salty, but salty because of the sauce). The baked sweet potatoes on the side are SO GOOD. The spicy mayo dip went so well with the sweet potatoes. I would have given the place a four star rating had i written the Unilocal review before my second visit.
Second visit: went on a sunday night and this time the tables were half full. I think this place is picking up traction now. Anyhow, we were seated right away again and was promptly given glasses of water like last time (side note: I think they could do a better job of refilling the water if they’re going to continue to use such small water glasses). This time i had the daily bento box. For $ 12, the bento box is a steal — refer to the pictures but it’s a whole variety of food and flavors that you can taste in one sitting. The onigiri is quite big. The miso soup was a bit sweet, which i found strange, but it was good anyways. I think i’ll probably ask for the miso soup without any sweetening next time since i know now.
Overall i think this place warrants a 5 star rating for the food, the décor, and price. I know it’s a walk from the subway if you don’t live near by but if you’re willing to go to Gotham West, you should try out this place too.

In a sea of sushi spots, Mocu Mocu provides a much-​needed shot of fresh Japanese flavors in Hell’s Kitchen. Coffee and bento boxes? Yes, please. Did I mention they’ve got booze and sweets? That’s a winning combo I haven’t seen in the neighborhood since Kyotofu[1].
Their menu isn’t complicated, but the way the menu’s presented at the counter can be. If you’re a first-​timer, the choices can be a intimidating. Ask questions, and the welcome staff will steer you in the right direction.
Their baked okonomiyaki makes for a satisfying lunch. I went for the pork belly, which went well with the oshinko pickles. The accompanying white bean and pork sausage miso soup was my fave, hearty, with light spices. On the side salad was a citrus-​y vinaigrette that I couldn’t get enough of.
Stop by the library next door, grab a book, then swing by Mocu Mocu for a latte and snack[2]. Bring a friend, bring a date, or bring your family.
[1] Anyone else remember them?
[2] Use common sense and don’t loiter for hours.