I have been wanting to try the cute Japanese lunch set from Hanamizuki Café for a while. I finally got the chance to visit over the weekend. It is a cute little spot, with simple while exterior and menu displayed on a wooden crate-looking sign. Having some green against it made it extra inviting.
The inside is kind of small, but with a very high ceiling, it feels bigger. Also, bright white walls and ceiling and light-colored wood makes it look more open too. I liked the simple interior with small or not invasive decorations.
What kind of decorations? Mainly some kind of cute phrases wither painted directly on the walls, or made into art pieces on backboard with chalk. They all match the atmosphere well.
They have table seating on the left, and counter seating to the right. They have WiFi, so they had few people working on their laptop at the counter while enjoying their lunch. It is always nice to have WiFi…even if you don’t need it. Knowing that they have WiFi somehow put your mind to ease.
With the wall facing the street being mostly window, it has lots of natural lights coming in, even with the scaffolding around the building. They have one round table with four chairs around it, but this one was not so popular. It was a bar table that are too small for four people to sit and eat. And, seating at regular table is more comfortable (to me) than high table with a bar stool.
At the back of the restaurant is where the ordering counter is located. This is not a “waiter” service kind of place, so you need to go to the counter to order and pick up your food. They are mostly pre-made, so it is really fast.
We were there for their Rice Ball Combo, which you can get at a discounted price during lunch time (11am – 3pm). Lunch Special Rice Ball Combo ($11.00) comes with choice of two rice balls, choice of miso soup, choice of sozai-side dish, and Japanese pickles. If you choose “Premium Rice Ball,” they are 75 cents extra each.
For the first set, we chose Sukiyaki Rice Ball and Ume Rice Ball. For miso soup, we chose Mochi Miso Soup, and Okra as the sozai-side dish. Look at this beauty… what a set! Sukiyaki Rice Ball is one of their Premium, so the total came to be $11.75. Now, the lunch special set used to be much cheaper, but with the increase in rent, it is understandable that they had to raise the price. I love the wood tray and plate, it is so cute and has that special warmth to it.
The Japanese pickles was similar to coleslaw, but more vinegar flavor. It had some thinly sliced cucumbers in it too, which was nice. Okra was marinated in soy-based dashi with bonito flakes. Refreshing and tasty.
The rice balls are kind of small, individually wrapped in saran wrap to ensure the shape and easier handling. Mochi miso soup comes with Mochi-gnocchi, arugula, black peppers and extra-virgin olive oil. It is not regular miso soup out there, and it was really tasty. They had around five mochi-gnocchi in it, very fluffy, light, and really tasty! I really enjoyed the soup. The miso flavor was not so strong, so it is not to fight against other flavors. A little bit of bitterness from arugula and sweetness of Mochi went great with the soup.
Sukiyaki Rice Ball is made with Japanese premium beef, burdock root, konjac and scallions. It was packed with flavor, good amount of beef and other ingredients evenly distributed in the rice, you get full taste of everything with every bite. It cost $3.95 if you just get this rice ball, which is really expensive to me, but the quality is really high. Ume Rice Ball is made with plum pickles, salted seaweed, nozawana-pickles and dill pickles. This one was really good too, great combination of plum flavor with seaweed and pickles flavor. Really comforting, good amount of salty-ness, which gave great contract against sweet Sukiyaki rice ball.
For the second set, we chose Unagi Rice Ball and Hawaiian Rice Ball, Kinoko Miso Soup, and Edamame. Since both Unagi and Hawaiian are Premium Rice Balls, the total came out to be $12.50.
Edamame was nice and fresh, with just the right amount of salt. Very plump and addicting. These rice balls were both in rectangle shape, not triangle. Again, they were both wrapped individually.
Kinoko Miso Soup is made with Japanese mix mushrooms and Sprouts, and it had a good amount of mushrooms in there, even though I couldn’t pick up enough for the photo. This was more earthy, homey, comfortable flavor. Light but deep, simple yet satisfying.
Unagi Rice Ball is made with cooked eel, white sesame, pickled san pepper and wrapped in bamboo leaf. I thought it would have a large eel in the middle, sandwiched by flavored rice, but I was wrong. It had small pieces of eel mixed in with the rice, same as beef in Sukiyaki Rice Ball. That was ok, but I didin’t really see much eel pieces in it. The rice itself had really great flavor though, with the sweet sauce used on cooked eel. If you purchase this rice ball alone, it is $4.25 each! It is difficult to think one rice ball can cost so much, but this is not a typical rice ball, but a gourmet rice ball. But then again, I don’t think I would come here and get individual rice balls at this price…
Hawaiian Rice Ball is made with Hawaiian teriyaki-spam, semi dried tomato, chili and nori-seaweed. Very interesting… I heard about spam rice ball for a long time, but I never actually tried it until now. It was meaty and flavorful. I am not a fan of spam, but this one was really nice. I also liked the flavored rice, the bit of spiciness went great with the spam. This one, individually will cost $3.95.
For dessert, we got Green Tea Roll Cake ($6) to share. This one was not a regular roll cake, the kind that you make by rolling a sheet cake with cream. This one, it was a tube-shaped cake filled with green tea cream! My goodness! It was wrapped in cellophane, and looked just wonderful, I could not wait to bite into it. It was soooo fluffy, airy, great green tea flavor. It was dessert heaven… They also have chocolate and vanilla flavor, I might have to try them all the next time.
They had some baked goods like sliced Earl Grey pound cake individually wrapped for sale. I love Japanese food and especially Japanese sweets, so they were very tempting, but I didn’t try them this time. They also serve sake, wine, and beer, which is interesting! They are open in the evening, so that is a great addition for customers who wants to get some R&R with sake. For those of us who just want to appreciate the food, they have free water section, which is great.
The bathroom is all the way in the back, located to the right of the ordering/pick up counter. There is only one uni-sex one. It is not too small, but the toilet is somehow placed all the way against the wall, leaving the middle of the bathroom open… I don’t know why… And the hand dryer was not working well, it only comes on for like a second or two at a time. I was not able to dry my hands with that, and they didn’t have any paper towels. Hopefully they will get that repaired soon.
The staffs were ok, not friendly or anything, but polite and efficient. They got our food quickly, it only took a few minutes from ordering to getting the lunch sets in our hands. It is a very cute, cozy spot, with great lunch set. I might want to go back again to try other flavors, before the prices go up again. And of course, those roll cake or two…!
Hanamizuki Café – 143 W 29th St, New York, NY 10001