Tokuyamatcha & Onigirazu Bar

This is one of 3 places I always make sure to visit when I am back in New York. I dream about their Chicken Karaage Garlic Chili Oil Onigirazu on a monthly basis. It is perfectly flavored, well-seasoned, texturally diverse, made-to-order, and a good balance of protein, carbs, and veg. It is also a great portion of food to either split or eat yourself, depending on how hungry you are. My tip would be to go with a friend, get two onigirazus, and split them. The setup of this store is nice because you can watch your food being prepared right in front of you. And the employee uniforms are cute. It comes pre-split and beautifully packaged to show the cross-section, so the experience from start to finish is perfect. Everyone I've recommended this place to has loved it and I will continue giving this establishment all my money because there is nowhere else I'd rather put it. Their miso tuna avocado onigirazu is also a solid option but the karaage one is truly extraordinary. I really do not think you can go wrong with any of their offerings. It's clear they are doing something right because everyone in the restaurant smiling, laughing with joy, or saying "wow" between each bite. Next time I come back (which WILL be happening), I will need to try their matcha, as the color looked vibrant.

The creamy matcha is so incredibly top tier!! I am convinced it’s the best thing to order here. The beef sandwich was really good!! I wish the filling went a little bit further to the edge so that you’re not left with a big bite of rice at the end but it’s great. The sandwiches are filling but I could easily eat the whole thing. Don’t expect seating on the weekend (one table outside) It’s a great gluten free friendly option.

Ordered the Salmon and Shiso Onigirazu and the Japanese Fried Chicken with Yuzu Ponzu Scallions Onigrazu. Great to get two to share between two people. They’re served cut in half and densely packed. The Salmon and Shiso Onigirazu was made of cooked salmon flakes, shiso (perilla leaves), rice, lettuce, Japanese mayo, and sesame. This was a well balanced sweet and salty sandwich with prominent salmon flavor and the crunch of the lettuce. The Japanese Fried Chicken with Yuzu Ponzu Scallions also had a kick from the chili peppers. This one had a spicy kick after each bite that was pleasant. This is a great option if you’re a big fan of scallions as they use a generous amount and the yuzu zest cuts through the scallion to undertone them. The chicken in here is small bite size clumps seasoned well with a light teriyaki flavor. Both of these sandwiched between beds of warm, soft rice made these very filling meals. Line was not too long around lunch but the chefs here really take their time preparing these meals so be prepared to sit on the side. There is some tight seating inside and a large bench outside. The interior is very calm and bright with a peaceful atmosphere, not loud at all. Service was very mannerful, methodic, and kind.

I would recommend the onigirazu but not the matcha. I tried the hibiscus and creamy matchas and both were lackluster. The hibiscus overpowered the matcha and the combination of flavors was not appetizing. The creamy matcha was just a thicker consistency and half of the cup was filled with ice. It did not have any cream top like the photos show; it was just a single thicker consistency drink.

Awesome look, might have had a bad experience because a rookie was making my food. Tuna miso and salmon avocado, not much spice. They left all the ponzu and yuzu off my fried chicken.

I came for matcha and ended up getting both the ramen-ish and tokuyamatcha latte. They were FIRE. Matcha was rich and flavorful, the ramen-ish was really unique and just simply amazing. Will revisit.

Tokuyamatcha & Onigirazu Bar is a nice place to get a quick snack on the go. The onigirazu are freshly made to order with a nice variety to choose from, the service is friendly and relatively fast, and the shop itself is clean and inviting. There are few seats in the shop to stop and enjoy your meal and if you’re feeling like eating a little more than just onigiri, there are also drinks and desserts to enjoy. It’s a good place to get a quick snack to enjoy on the go.

Delicious onigiri with a great variety of fillings, and the match is authentic and delicious. One thing to note is since they make every order by-hand there is usually a bit of a wait between ordering and actually getting your food, but it’s worth it.

4.5 is pretty accurate. This cute Japanese onigirazu and matcha shop is awesome! So glad I dropped by this past couple weekends. A simple Japanese storefront, the interior very much adheres to a clean, minimalist aesthetic found in modern Japanese design. Light wood panels with white marble countertops, straight lines. The space is a 15x15 square room, a main bar with seating for 6-7 encircles the prep area where 3-4 employees make all the onigirazus and tea and coffee drinks. Other than that, the room is accented by a tall burnished frame mirror on the left, a bouquet of flowers placed on the corner of the front bar countertop, and their logo centered on the right wall as you walk in. Most of the business here is for takeout, since there are only 10ish counter seats available. First time here I had a hojicha latte with oatmilk $7.13 including tax. It comes unsweetened, foamy on top, a mild roasted taste. I appreciated its smooth, creaminess though missed a hint of sweetness--the second time I was there I did hear the staff ask another customer whether they wanted a drink sweetened so I guess I'll request that next time. Second visit I got a California roll onigirazu with extra boiled egg $10.45+$1.00+tax and tip=$13.34. It took about 10 minutes for the food to be ready at around 1:30pm on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Essentially onigirazu is a large rice ball wrapped in nori (dried seaweed) with fillings inside--this one had imitation crab, avocado, lettuce, mayo with a hint of wasabi, plus the egg I added for extra protein. Delicious! Saw a couple people order one of the meal sets that comes with your choice of onigirazu and combos of steamed edamame, miso soup, and/or candied sweet potatoes; looked yummy. I would love to return and try some different onigirazu!

4/5 I've been twice and ordered different sandwiches that were both delicious; however, they are VERY hard and messy to eat. It kind of detracts from the experience because it's falling apart in your hands. Wish the sandwiches were wrapped/cut in a different way to be more enjoyable. But other than that I think it's tasty!

I had to get one last meal in the Big Apple before returning to good ol' Texas (sigh). The Flatiron location is Tokuyamatcha's second spot; based on pictures, this one is more spacious than East 6th Street but still pretty tight. It was fun watching them prepare the food and drinks! The ambiance was calming and minimal; quite comparable to other Japanese establishments. My friend and I ordered two onigirazu (we split them to share) and their special Toukuyamatcha Latte. - Miso Tuna (4.5/5): I was almost convinced not to order this, but I'm so happy I trusted my gut instinct because I loved this order, and my friend also agreed. There was no weird fishy aftertaste, it was the least messy to eat, and the seasoning was tasty with a subtle ginger (?) taste. There was a rich, creamy taste (likely from the mayo & avocado combo) when I bit into the onigirazu, but it wasn't overwhelming, luckily. - Japanese Fried Chicken, Kaarage with Mayo (additional egg was ordered) (2/5): This was a miss for my friend and me. The Kaarage could've been crispier, and the flavor lacked quite a bit; just plain & underwhelming overall. Also, because the chicken pieces were bigger than the tuna, we agreed that this onigirazu was messier because the contents kept spilling with every bite. - Toukuyamatcha Latte (4.5/5): It was expensive, but after taking a sip of the ceremonial matcha, the Toukuyamatcha Latte was a good investment! You can request to make it sweeter (with honey) upon ordering, + request a milk alternative such as oat. This one has a more roasted, grassy taste, almost like Hojicha; I was iffy initially, but adding their simple syrup on the countertop helped a lot with flavor! Overall, onigirazu was very rice-heavy, and they skimped on protein, but I understand that it would be hard for the food to stay intact if there were less rice. Still, this was NOT filling, so it'd be more appropriate as a quick bite rather than a full meal (I came for breakfast). It is a little on the pricier side, but I am intrigued by their other options and would return.

The onigiri are delicious here and the tea was decent (maybe it just doesn't travel well), but it takes forever to get served your food or even get your order taken. I'll get food from here again, but in the future I'll get delivery because the in-person experience isn't that great.

Finally tried this place! It's a small store tucked away in Flatiron. Not many seats inside so be prepared to wait a bit to eat in or take out. I like that you can watch the staff make your matcha/onigirazu with the counter seating. We ordered two onigirazus to share: the Salmon Avocado and the Japanese Fried Chicken Kaarage with Garlic Chili Oil: - Salmon Avocado (7.2/10): Not bad, but not great. I wish there was a bit more flavor because I thought this was overall a bit bland. (Perhaps some spicy sauce would've enhanced it?) - Japanese Fried Chicken Karaage with Garlic Chili Oil (7.6/10): Honestly really good flavor! Despite it being flavored with chili oil, I thought this wasn't too spicy. My one complaint is that this was super greasy from the chili oil. Also, fried chicken was very juicy! I would recommend this one for sure. Fair warning, each onigirazu is somewhat small so I think it's less fitting as a proper meal (moreso just a snack). This place is good for a quick grab and go snack if you're in the area.

I ordered online and it was ready by the time I got there! The seating area is pretty limited, so probably better to just order it to-go. I've never had onigirazu before, but picture a rice patty sandwich wrapped in seaweed. I would say it's an easy meal to eat on the go but these are pretty filled so it got really messy pretty quickly. My favorite was the chicken karaage with garlic chili oil! They're also quite filling, so I'd recommend splitting one with someone if you want to try something else.

Best matcha latte in NYC. They use ceremonial grade matcha and don't skimp on it. Such great quality. Loved the ramen onigirazu! Perfect snack. They have some counter seats inside, but I saw people mostly grab and go. They make everything fresh as you order!

the hojicha was good (and would come back for it) but the onigiri was pretty disappointing tbh. the ingredients were stuff you could pick up at the grocery store and it was kind of annoying that it fell apart so easily, not to mention the ratios of ingredients felt a bit off. :( disappointing but at least the drink I got was good

Heard about the location in East Village but glad to see that they have one in Midtown as well! Overall really fresh and the matcha is super high quality. The onigiri's are super flavorful and filling. They do take a while to make them so it might not be a super quick lunch but for the freshness it's worth it! Delicious and the matcha is unbeatable.

Got this delivered for work lunch a couple of times a while back. Cannot rate about the service since I wasn't the one placing the orders. Never been to the physical location either. The onigirazus were not delicious, the meat is a mixture of dry and soggy at the same time. The matcha drinks tasted off. Would not be ordering from here again.

Ever been to KiraKira? an odd question to pose to New Yorkers, since it references a place nearly 6800 miles northwest on the other side of the Bering Strait, and even in its native home it's a hole in the wall. A relatively new wall and that's a fairly large hole it's attached to, but it's actually something that keeps me up at night in NYC, mostly because I have a hankering for it. KiraKira is a Yokohama based company selling rice balls (Onigiri) to local hospitals, unversity campuses and corporate cafeterias around the Tokyo bay region and they had a single directly managed retail location near the Tokyo Monorail terminal at Hamamatsucho. Thanks to the Tokyo World Trade center redevelopment (and consequently the reconstruction of the Monorail terminal) the original shop re-opened 2 years ago at the new Tokyo WTC complex (one of the newer developments in the area due to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics) - it's on the south building ground level facing Sagatani Sobaya. KiraKira was famous for being a favorite grab-and-go for flight crews and travellers heading to Haneda (the monorail is, along with Keikyu branch line one of the 2 major rail lines for that airport) as it was fresh, cheap and open early on weekdays. Nowadays it primarily serve the office workers inside the World Trade center complex as it is a little further from the Tokyo monorail terminal. The Onigiri? Tasty and served by friendly obas and obachans. It also reminds me a bit of Tokuyama Matcha and Onigirazu. Well, maybe it's its inherent Japanese-ness and its attention to detail. So when it comes to matcha, you generally look at teas sourced from 3 areas - Shizuoka 静岡 which is near Mount Fuji, Uji 宇治 near Kyoto, and Sayama 狭山 in Saitama which is north of Tokyo. According to a Japanese folk song 色は静岡、香りは宇治よ、味は狭山でとどめさす - or "Shizuoka for the color, Uji for the fragrance and Sayama for the flavor". Of course, the song did originate from Sayama tea pickers so there's some bias here. Uji is fairly popular due to Kyoto being a popular tourist destination. Sayama teas tend to be roasted in a kiln to make Hojicha (what the Japanese tend to prefer for daily drinking along with Oolong from Southern China), and both Shizuoka and teas from Kyushu (Western Japan) are well represented in craft matcha blends from the likes of MatchaLab or Tadaima. Tokuyama uses Shizuoka matcha which tends to have a slightly salty/umami, vegetable-like flavor, and it's whipped using an electric whisk. Personally I found it to be okay, but I am not a major matcha fan - I prefer ice cold Hojicha or Konacha myself. Their real payoff is the Onigirazu. So what is onigirazu? Think of a Japanese riceball, supersized until it's about the same as a sandwich, and stuffed with Japanese food favorites. It could be like teriyaki, chicken curry, or gyudon (Japanese braised beef bowl), or kara-age (fried chicken) or even something like your usual bowl of ramen ingredients. the original Tokuyama matcha bar location in the East village was actually a side gig for Tokuyama Takahide 徳山隆偉, a hair stylist hailing from Osaka (he has a salon in Shibuya, one in Azabu (Tokyo), one in the Upper west and one in Tribeca), but considering how the Onigirazu bars turned out, I think Taka stumbled upon a good thing. The Onigirazus are freshly made (not premade and cold with the alien nori wrapper) and fairly tasty as I tend to grab a pair to go walking with the missus (she would say that the cooking is better at the midtown location versus the alphabet city one) and service is decently friendly. It's good fuel to grab for the walk from midtown all the way across the Queensboro bridge to Astoria and beyond. Personally I like the karaage with the garlic umami oil, but the honey teriyaki chicken curry one is also great. Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, the Onigirazu bar took over what used to be Kaylee's creamery. I swore that I got ice cream here not that long ago. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The ramen one was so good! Perfect snack before yoga :) decently priced too and plenty of options

I've never heard of this spot before but their onigiriazus intrigued me. The space is small and it's really for to-go orders. There are some stools to sit at though if you really wanted to eat right away. The service was a little slow, but it was fine because I know they were making it on the spot. I was intrigued by the Ramen-ish, which is filled with pork belly, scallions, bamboo shoots, hard boiled egg, seaweed and chick broth flavored rice. Not going to lie, it did look smaller than I expected, but the price is still not too bad for the amount of stuff in it. It did get messy to eat, but it was all in all a good meal for lunch. I will definitely want to go back and try their matcha and maybe a different onigiriazus.

Went on a Saturday definitely was not too busy, had a short line. However, my order of two rice balls took 50 minutes! There was 4 parties ahead of me, all orders of 1 or 2 rice balls. Was watching the chefs make one and it averaged them 10 minutes/rice ball. I understand they might be training, which seemed like it. I would've given it 3 stars however, the rice balls themselves were quite lackluster, especially for the price. Tried the teriyaki chicken and fried chicken one and both were pretty bland. There's many stores in the city that sell rice rolls for much cheaper and much more flavorful.

I tried the Japanese Fried Chicken with Garlic Chili Oil Onigirazu and the Salmon Avocado Onigirazu, both of which were delicious and packed with flavor. The Japanese Fried Chicken was crispy and the chili oil luckily wasn't too spicy for someone like me who doesn't tolerate spice well. Of the two, I liked the fried chicken with garlic chili oil onigirazu more because I felt that it was more worth the price and the ratio of chicken to rice was better. I will say that the portion sizes felt a bit small for the price, leaving me wishing for just a little more. The highlight of the meal, though, was undoubtedly the Tokuyamatcha Latte and the Premium Matcha. The matcha lived up to its reputation as the highest grade--smooth, rich, and with no bitterness. It was an expensive treat, but the quality and experience made it worth every penny. The restaurant itself is on the smaller side, with very limited seating, so it might not be the best spot for large groups. That said, the space is cozy, clean, and thoughtfully designed, creating an inviting atmosphere. The staff's warmth and welcoming demeanor made the visit even more enjoyable. This place offers a truly authentic Japanese experience, from the high-quality matcha to the flavorful onigirazu. The quality of the ingredients and the care put into each item made it a worthwhile visit.

Ate some yummy onigiri at Tokuyamatcha and Onigirazubar today! It's a small establishment with no indoor seating. There's a bench outside the restaurant, but that's it. That said, it's meant for takeout. It's decorated very simply, but still gives off an authentic Japanese vibe. Ambiance rate 6.5/10. The staff are nice. The service was moderate meaning it took about 15 minutes to make 3 sandwiches. Service/staff rate 8/10. I ordered ... 1. Ramen-ish: This had a really great savory ramen flavor. I enjoyed the mix of ingredients it came with. However, the pork belly tasted ok, nothing special. Rate 8/10. 2. Japanese Fried Chicken Karaage with Garlic Chili Oil: The chicken tasted amazing being it was nice and tender. Its spicy flavor was a great addition to the dish. Rate 9/10. 3. Japanese Fried Chicken Karaage with Mayo: This tasted average being it was just regular fried chicken karage with simple mayo. Rate 7/10. *for all of them, I wish they added more filling instead of rice considering I felt that there was a higher rice to filling ratio.* Overall, I would definitely come back here to try their other options. They were filling, delicious, and affordable!

Super slow service (took 25 minutes to make one onigirazu and I was the only one in the store!) and the thing itself is almost entirely rice. I got the spam one and the amount of spam in it was almost negligible for $14!!!! I don't usually write reviews but this was egregious

This is definitely the best matcha in the area. They have ceremonial matcha and actually make it properly. I will say the second time I went the flavor was off - I have a suspicion the server may have addd sweetener even though I didn't mention to but maybe I was supposed to specify unsweetened. It was good enough the first time that I'm willing to go back soon to see if it was just an off day!

My daughter and I had a Ramen onigirazu and Tuna miso avocado onigirazu, and they were amazing! The Ramen onigirazu has a very unique ramen like taste with chashu, naruto, egg, and seaweed, and was amazing. It's like having ramen rice on the go! Miso tuna avocado was equally great with all the ingredients balanced out well. Onigirazu were super cute, healthy, and filling. Coming back again soon!! Thank you.

Fresh and delicious!! Loved the tofu vege Matcha was perfect. Cant wait to try all the rest. Will be back.

Really great matcha and the food is healthy, flavorful and delicious! Can't wait to try more of the items!

Delicious. Never disappoints! I've had the spicy chicken and the beef. They take their time and make sure you meal is wrapped nearly. So good. Go try it for yourself .

first time trying onigirazu and i was defffffinitely not disappointed. it was SO delicious, and the portion size was filling (i even had half left over!) the staff were very kind and the vibe of the place was chill considering it was a friday evening. 100% planning on visiting again the next time im in new york!