Mochi Dessert Cafe

Originally named Mochilato – a portmanteau of mochi and gelato – Mochi Dessert Cafe has occupied the same space in Irvine’s Heritage Plaza since August 2007, offering visitors an alternative to more traditional ice cream shops (Cold Stone, Wanderlust) nearby. Since early days, the cafe has taken a different path than most, combining its own homemade gelato with desserts from other vendors, notably including mochi and baked goods from the LA-based inventor of mochi ice cream, Mikawaya, and cream puffs from the wonderful Japanese chain Beard Papa’s. Today, Mochi uses a vinyl tent to define and cover an outdoor seating area, as well as advertising merch from brands including BTS, BT21, Smiski, Sonny Angel, and Tokidoki – shelves with plushes, blind boxes, and cute food/drink vessels line the wall immediately across from the ordering counter.

With seating for around 50 people inside, Mochi would almost certainly feel too large if all it was selling were mochilatos, which now are labeled “mochi ice cream” on signage offering “buy 5, get 1 free” deals for the $2.50 pieces. We tried six of them, including mint chip, black sesame, yuzu coconut, passionfruit, coffee, and jasmine boba – some flavors commonly available in supermarkets, others not. None was great, but we preferred the first two-thirds in that list to the last two, which were even less flavorful, and all of their frozen cores were already melting within two minutes of being served. We’d sooner spend less for better mochi ice cream from upper-tier supermarket freezer brands such as GreenHat or Mikawaya), and at similar prices to Mochi’s, we strongly prefer Mochicreams from the J. Sweets stores inside Mitsuwa.

Thankfully, the cafe’s other items were better. Twelve homemade gelatos and sorbets include mostly familiar flavors – coffee, pistachio, vanilla bean, milk chocolate, raspberry – plus a few less common ones, such as black sesame and injeolmi. Our “small” waffle cone ($7.50) with scoops of Thai tea and Nutella banana was more like medium-sized, and entirely satisfying: stronger flavors than in the mochis, and given their larger scoop sizes, a superior value, too.