According to a recently approved business license, Mochinut — an international, fast-casual restaurant chain known for rice-flour donuts — plans to open a new location at 2929 Shattuck Ave. The Berkeley address was previously home to The Kebabery, which closed on October 8th.
The upcoming Berkely location is a continuation of the chain’s rapid Bay Area expansion. In addition to the new Berkeley shop, there is a forthcoming location at an undisclosed address in Palo Alto and a second outpost planned for San Jose in the Westfield Oakridge mall — with its first at 100 N Almaden Ave. Mochinut has also recently opened at 185 Pelton Center Way in San Leandro.
The Mochinut website attributes the craze surrounding the restaurant to the mochi donut — a donut made with rice flour, a recipe from Hawaii, that is a combination of American doughnuts and Japanese mochi. The website says, “there is a sticky addictiveness to each bite, a textural element that is completely different from yeast or cake donuts.” In addition to the unique recipe, the donuts are uniquely shaped, “made of a connected circle of eight dough balls.”
On the US menu, there are 25 flavors of mochi donuts, as well as hotdogs, boba drinks, and soft serve, but offerings vary by location.
An opening date has not yet been announced for the Berkeley location. What Now San Francisco was unable to contact a company representative by the time of publication.
