Sacramento dessert shop with ties to old Japantown serves $5 treats all summer
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
About the Writer
Brianna Taylor covers affordability on The Bee’s service journalism team.
On a quiet block in Southside Park sits one of the oldest remnants of Sacramento’s Japantown, a destination for shaved ice and authentic Japanese confections.
Osaka-Ya Wagashi — or just Osaka-Ya — was established in 1963. A statue of a black bear dressed in a vest, pants and belt holds a “welcome” sign over its head and miscellaneous sticky notes line a wall behind the dessert counter.
The small Japanese storefront on 10th Street sells homemade manju and mochi, but it’s probably most well known for its seasonal snowcones.
When the weather heats up, the family business opens the window to its summer-only shaved ice operation. Inside, workers juggle orders of snowcones as well as ice cream, freezes, floats and fruit shakes.
Sacramento Bee reader Yvonne Choong — who suggested I try the shaved ice as part of my $25 affordability challenge — and her two kids Arie and Henry are longtime customers. On hot days, the Natomas resident said it’s common for people to squat near the window while they wait for their orders because “it takes a while.”
Yvonne and her husband Joel moved to Sacramento from the Bay Area in 1999, missing the capital city’s booming Japantown on L, O, Third and Fifth streets by several decades. Japanese offices, churches and markets lined the streets from the 1900s to the 1940s until they were demolished and replaced by Capitol Mall and skyscrapers.
Some businesses crammed onto Japan Alley — 10th Street, from T to W streets — but it was never the same.
For Yvonne, it’s enough.
She and her family frequent the businesses surrounding Osaka-Ya, which had various locations around Japantown dating back a century. Yvonne visits Taiwan Best Mart at 2219 10th St. for lunches that are “hard to find” and Binchoyaki at 2226 10th St. for Japanese-style barbecue.
“It’s like a little Asian block right there,” she said.
How I spent my $25 budget at Osaka-Ya
When I walked up to Osaka-Ya’s dessert window in the afternoon on a late July Monday, there were 11 people in front of me and several others waiting for their orders.
Location: 2215 10th St., Sacramento
Yvonne’s go-to is a small pineapple-flavored snowcone with a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom for $7.75.
“So good on a hot Sacramento summer day!” she told me.
I opted for a small sour-apple-flavored cone for $5. It took roughly 45 minutes to get my order. In the meantime, I explored inside of the shop.
My time at Osaka-Ya
Packaged snacks including wasabi green peas ($2.25), curry-flavored shrimp chips ($3.55) and kaki peanut ($5.78), crescent-shaped rice crisps and peanuts, line shelves on the right side of the store.
A handmade sign labeled “sushi on vacation” is taped to an empty refrigerator.
A variety of freshly-made mochi and manju, sweet cakes made with rice and wheat flour and filled with bean paste, are stacked in a glass cabinet. They’re the first things you notice when you walk into the shop.
“I think all of their mochi are really good,” Yvonne said.
“It’s very fresh, it’s a nice texture.”
After a brief introduction to the confections by a worker behind the counter, I chose:
Kiku - Pinked flower-shaped mochi with white bean paste filling
Sakura - Purple mochi with diced edible cherry leaves and red bean paste filling
Kinako - White mochi dusted with roasted soybean powder and red bean paste filling
Prices range from $1.95 to $2.25, depending on the color of the cakes. My total came to $6.08 after fees.
For peanut butter lovers: There are containers of nut-filled mochi at the front of the shop near the counter.
A worker told me I missed the rice balls.
I eventually made my way outside to wait for my order. “No. 63, small sour apple,” a worker shouted as she handed me a snowcone drenched in bright-green candied syrup.
Is Osaka-Ya affordable?
You can definitely do it on a budget.
The snowcone portions are large for the price.
Standard shaved ice is priced between $4.50 and $9, depending on the size. Kintoki, shaved ice with sweet red beans, is slightly more expensive and comes in two sizes: Small ($7) and large ($8.50).
Those with a sweet tooth will pay more for extra syrup and red beans, ice cream, mochi, powdered tea and condensed milk.
Inside, none of the confections or packaged snacks cost over $10. In total, I paid $11.08 for one small snowcone and three pieces of mochi.
Remember: Snowcones are cash only, according to a handwritten sign posted to the seasonal window.
Thank you for the suggestion, Yvonne! I’ll definitely be back.
Hours: Osaka-Ya is open on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Tuesday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Shaved ice sales start in April.
