Kissako Tea

It has a cute atmosphere of Japan street tea house. Of course they have to have dango and different kinds of mochi!
$ 2 mitarashi dango — Such a temptation during those time walking around the mall. The savory sweet sauce accompanied by chewy dango… yummm. Their sauce is a tad too sweet for my taste (too much mirin, sugar?) But still hit the spot.
$ 2 sakura mochi — Cutely presented. So so taste.
$ 2.50 anko dango — Filled with sweet smooth bean paste. It’s basically like daifuku mochi on a stick. Soft, but too sweet for me. Heard they also got trio fruit mochi.
Anyway, it’s a cute place to sit around while waiting for your friends or spouses to be done shopping.

Let’s say that I was not impressed at all. The service was quick and the prices for the mochi are reasonable but the mochi itself left a lot to be desired.
We got the fruit mochi trio, berry mochi trio and the sakura mochi. The texture of the mochi was chewy but not too soft, which is good. However, the filing in all the mochis were sickeningly sweet, pasty and all the fruit flavors were very artificial.
Not my cup of tea at all. I would prefer a more refreshing filling that has real fruit taste or perhaps even with real fruit inside (daifuku). Definitely a miss for me.

Pros: The mitarashi dango is delicious $ 2 per stick of 4 small balls of mochi. Nice combo of sweet and salty chewiness.
Cons: The service. The cashier girl spent 10 minutes talking to the French customers in front of me about where she studied French while I waited to buy mochi. I would have left because it was so ridiculous, but I was really craving mochi and was a bit of a drive to Japantown. I don’t really need to know that you took French in high school, then in Southern California, USF and then Quebec. (I also understand French.)
The traditional red bean and Lima bean mochi was a not as soft and tender and a bit hard if I am to believe it was made fresh that day. I think I’ll try Benkyodo next time as waiting and listening to people’s conversation that is irreverent to the purchase while I just want to pay for some mochi is a bit irritating.

tl;dr — It’s a great little kiosk eatery in the west mall of Japantown; their main selling points are mochi and onigiri, both of which are fantastic!
They sell some great snacks for reasonable prices; here are the ones I’ve tried and recommend.
Unagi (eel) onigiri: They make it fresh! Right after you order you can see them in the kitchen assembling the onigiri. These are rice balls covered in a sheet of seaweed and with a light meat or veggie filling. The unagi was very flavorful and for $ 2.50 it was a good value snack!
Mitarashi dango: Four small mochi balls on a stick and covered with a sweet molasses like syrup! Deliciously sweet and the rice had a great soft and chewy texture.
Barley tea: Unsweetened and very cool and refreshing. It has a wheaty taste.

After reading rave reviews, I settled on trying this place out. We were nearby, afterall, right?
I opted for the kushi dango instead of the mitarashi dango because the latter sounded way too sweet for me. I did regret not getting it though, and the line was hella long by the time I changed my mind. I also ordered a spicy salmon onigiri.
The verdict? Immediate regret. Kuski dango was nowhere near benkyodo. I wish I’d never ventured out of that comfort zone. The salmon onigiri took forever because they either a) gave my rice ball to someone else or b) forgot my order. I waited for like 30 mins for that ish. and honestly. Onigilly is wayyyyyyyyy better. The «spicy» in my spicy salmon here was literally just sriracha. It stank of sriracha. Not that I have anything against it, but seriously. they couldn’t have used any other spice to make it spicy?
The little man in the front was super nice, but I would still pass. Head back to Onigilly and Benkyodo!

Accidently walked past this place and decided to look them up on Unilocal and I don’t regret it one bit. Their onigiri was on point, I tried the spicy salmon, unagi, and spicy tuna and they were all delicious. I went back to get more before they closed. The owners/​workers were super polite and sweet, they made me feel right at home and I was smiling the whole time. Not to mention they make everything fresh when you order. Whenever I’m in Japantown I’ll be sure to come back next time! Thank you Kissako!

Got both types of dango (red bean and sweet soy sauce Michu) plus unagi onigiri.
It was okay. Sweet soy sauce literally taste like soy sauce with some sugar in it. Red bean taste like any red bean Mochi so did the onigiri. I would eat it again but wouldn’t go out of my way or wait in line for it

Onigiri comes out piping hot with the seaweed still fresh but there’s barely any filling, spicy tuna in my case. $ 2 for most onigiri. Not a lot of places sell onigiri, Nijiya market sells them cold and often sell out, and Super Mira Market was closed New Years weekend. Great place to grab a snack but I wish there was more filling.
Little café in the Japan Center in front of the store Maido.
They also serve rice bowsl, mochi, and other classic Japanese small eats and drinks.

This place is cute, reminds me of one of those small food stands/​kiosks that are common in Japan. Perfect for those solo eaters who need a quick bite and don’t want to line up at a restaurant. I regularly get their wakame or kitsune udon but the gyu-​don is also pretty hearty. A lot of people buy their onigiris… I found them to be a little disappointing when I first tried it since it didn’t have much of what you would choose as ingredient (salmon/​eel/​tuna/​chicken/​etc.). But I realized that hey, you’re not paying for much, so for what you get it’s fine. Their advantage is serving them warm/​hot — the rice is straight from the cooker. The onigiri won’t be cold/​hard like it would at a supermarket.
I haven’t tried any of their sweets but have seen many people buy it.
Credit card OK for anything over $ 5.

ONIGIRI. GET IT.
Cute triangle shaped rice balls with delicious filling. My favorites are the spicy salmon and unagi (eel).
This small family owned stand is my go-​to food spot at Japantown. The people working there are super nice. So glad that there are still places like this.

Dango, Dango, DANGO! Mochi balls filled with sweet bean, or our favorite, Mitarashi Dango. Mochi balls on a stick with a sweet soy glaze. It’s delicious! It’s our favorite stop in Japantown, and it’s a Must! We’ve been coming here for many years now and this is the best Dango shop around.
Kissako is located under the stairs in Japantown. There are no walls, the seating is out in a sectioned area. Along with the sweets and riceballs for sale, you can dine on some Japanese comfort food.

I love Kissako! I come here several times a week for their amazing onigiris (I recommend the eel), and they occasionally have specials like caneles (the pumpkin canele was delicious — not too sweet yet not too faint) and steamed meat buns. Their barley tea is also a great thirst quencher. The lovely family that runs the place actually converses in Japanese (unlike the non-​Japanese Asians working at Japantown’s Nijiya. it was awkward getting blank looks when I asked a question in Japanese, haha), which is nice.
Kissako is a Japantown staple with the best onigiris in town… except maybe the ones I make myself (kidding).

3.5÷5.
If you are looking for some quick snacks or you were just amazed at everything in J-​town (like me) and wanted to try everything, check out Kissako tea stand. The owner was a lovely Japanese lady and she told me everything in store, even the mochi were handmade by her!
The shop wasn’t much of a store-​front, it was more like a small shack by the stairs and they don’t have much seating. Price was very reasonable and cheap! Other than snacks, the shop also offered lunch menu items such as sushi and bento boxes.
–Mitarashi dango — $ 1.75:
The mochi was super chewy and delicious, glazed with a sweet soy sauce and was more sweet than savoury, I highly recommend it!
–Mochi
I can’t remember how much was the mochi here nor what filling did I get, but I remember I didn’t enjoy it as much. The mochi here was more dry and doughy than the one I got from Benkyodo bakery.
–Umeboshi onigiri — $ 2
The orinigi here was perfectly packed with rice & fillings. With that said, I found the rice to be on the bland side but the sour and salty umeboshi (pickled plum) helped to add some flavor to the rice ball.

Love this small family run business. They make their mochis and taiyaki (two of my favorite snacks) fresh everyday! After a stroll through Jtown and lunch we felt like eating something sweet. And our eyes were caught by the beautiful display of mochis. Couldn’t resist and they also had shaved ice! Win win for the entire family.
Everything tasted delicious, fresh and perfectly seasoned. Love this cute older Japanese couple who serve you the food with a great smile. You can taste the love in their food :)

I LOVE MOCHI, so I decided to give this place a try! I thought this would be a restaurant, but it actually is just a cart in the middle of a Japanese mall.
** $ 5 minimum for credit cards
1. Mitarashi Dango ($ 1.75)– mochi in a sweet soysauce, kind of like teriyaki, but not really. I personally liked this one more than Kushi Dango! The mochi is super chewy and delicious. I highly recommend them!
2. Kushi Dango ($ 2.00)– 3 different color mochis filled with red bean. YUM! If you’re a red bean lover, definitely give this a try! Although I think the different colors were supposed to have different flavors, they all tasted the same to me.
3. Matcha Manaka ($ 2.50)– They didn’t advertise these, but I saw it on one of the Unilocal pictures. Basically matcha green tea ice cream with a chocolate coating around it and inside waffle. Comes in two squares, so definitely shareable! I wasn’t a huge fan of this, because the waffle part tasted like paper. Still a great dessert when I was craving something with matcha flavor!

Freshly made fresh fruit mochi that was yummy. Pineapple, strawberry, and mango filled with white bean. Delicate and fruity and well worth the $ 3.00.
Also picked up the freshly made Onigiri and though it is $.40 more than at the Japanese market, it’s larger and made on the spot. The spicy tuna and salmon are great selections.
Enjoy this quaint spot for good Japanese food staples.

They no longer serve bentos but do have rice and udon. Tried their teriyaki and the chicken was really tough and dry.
Their mochis are still good.

[TL;DR] Mochi heaven!
I’m not a huge fan of mochi and usually pass on the daifuku at Japanese supermarkets (good and convenient snacks, but they are huge and starchy… probably a nightmare for anyone on the gluten-​free low-​carb bandwagon). However the mochi at Kissako Tea are pillow-​soft, subtly flavored, (and photogenic) balls of deliciousness on a stick.
[THE FOOD]
The KUSHI DANGO ($ 1.50) is probably the most popular, understandably so because the trio of dusted pink, white, and green mochi on a stick looks very pretty. Get the right angle and it’s instasuccessfulgram. It’s pretty tasty too, though the green tea one could have used more concentrated green tea.
Photogenic food aside, we asked about their different types of mochi and found out that the kushi dango is imported to Japan, but they made their FRESH MOCHI o. o We tried some of those as well and you could tell it was fresh from the fluffier texture. It came in those crimped paper wrappers like chocolate so dushi dango wins at presentation but the fresh mochi had a better taste.
Another popular item is the MITARASHI dango (mochi in sweet soy sauce) which looks almost exactly like fish balls street food in the pictures. We had to save calories for other desserts in Japantown, but this sounds interesting and savory.
[THE AMBIANCE]
Kissako Tea is easy to miss and we wandered around in circles in the plaza for a bit tracking down the address. It turns out it’s right in the middle of the mall as food stand with a little seating area decorated with handmade naturey paraphernalia such as fake leaves on plastic cups (sounds random but looks nice). There are a few tables, but my favorite is the whimsical wooden bench with the low table and bamboo mat – you can almost pretend you’re having afternoon tea in a zen garden until you remember that it’s in the middle of the Japantown shopping mall.

Sorry Kissako,
With the elimination of your outstanding Bento Box comes the elimination of my good review. You had the best thing going for lunch in Jtown and now– like so many other cool things in Jtown– it’s gone.
Please bring back! Please save Jtown.
Thanks,
Brian

I wouldn’t even consider Kissako Tea an actual store, but more like a little shack located on the 2^nd floor of the West Mall in Japan Center. It’s a quick place to get some snacks on the fly. I wish I had more time to further explore their treats, but I simply ordered a Kushi Dango and that alone was quite good.
I believe they’re also popular for their freshly made Onigiri. The people working behind the counter are super nice and friendly. They didn’t mind me just standing there and loafing around like a buffoon. I noticed they have a few Bento Boxes and some small lunch plates like Curry.
Will definitely explore their ice cream and drink options next time. I actually like to see small shops do well in situations like this. Be careful of the prices though. If you go overboard, I can tell that it adds up. But, I guess you pay for the slightly better quality here and that alone might be worth the price.