As my brother and I were pulling into the shopping center where we’d find Mitsuwa Marketplace, we noticed there was one sign pointing in the direction of the Marketplace itself, while another sign reading “Mitsuwa Food Court” pointed in the opposite direction. After circling around the parking lot the latter pointed us towards, we parked at the market to see if they could tell us where we could find the food court, only to discover upon entry that our destination was nestled right in the back. This misdirection wasn’t their fault, obviously (get it together, sign-fixing person), and we were just happy to be walking toward the rainbow of Japanese cuisines that stood ahead of us. 

The food court consists of three main restaurants: Go Squared, known for the famous street food takoyaki (which are spherical mini-pancakes stuffed with octopus), a ramen place called Santouka, and a restaurant named Misasa that serves a variety of Japanese favorites. They’re placed side by side in the food court, with a few rows of tables directly across. After sitting down and looking at all three places at once, we figured it would be unfair to pick just one spot, and we wanted to be able to enjoy our food without wasting anything, so we compromised to pick one cornerstone dish from each restaurant.

Kitsune Soba (Ryan Najjar)

I picked up six pieces of regular takoyaki from Go Squared, my brother grabbed some miso ramen from Santouka, and I figured we should top off our meal with some of Misasa’s kitsune soba noodles. We were called for each of our orders within 15 minutes, and all that was left to do was decide what we’d be trying first. 

As I was in the middle of a deep, intricate thought process about this decision, my brother had scooped a whole takoyaki onto his fork and dropped it into his mouth without a second of thought. The only sounds he could make for the next minute were “mmmmmmm” and “aaaaaaaaaa,” the second sounding slightly pained. Wondering why this was, he informed me that the balls, while absolutely delicious, were scalding hot on the inside. He let me know this was usually the case with this food, and that clued me into just how much he loved it. Knowing full well he would burn his mouth, he couldn’t even wait or start with a half. 

Inspired, but not fully willing to inflict that level of pain on myself, I cut off 80 percent of the ball into a single bite, lifted it into my mouth, and understood why my brother did what he did. Maybe two to three milliseconds after the larger piece hit my mouth, my fork had reached down to the smaller companion and brought it into my mouth in one fluid motion. This was essentially a savory and umami bomb with the perfect hint of sweetness; the pancake was soft and thick, the octopus was cooked to perfection, and the takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise emphasized the best in each of the ingredients. 

I had to turn my attention though, despite my desire to knock them out then and there, because I had a beautiful bowl of soba noodles in front of me. I gathered some noodles, along with a piece of the sweetened tofu, into my chopsticks and found that the combo brought a unique flavor profile that I don’t encounter often in my day-to-day life. The subtle yet noticeable sweetness paired nicely with the savory broth it swam in, and the satisfyingly chewy soba came together with the tofu even more nicely than I thought they would. Despite the tofu piece being pretty big, and coming with a generous amount of noodles, the bite didn’t feel overwhelming in the slightest. All the textures played well together too, and you got a lot of flavor without much of any guilt at all. My brother had positive feelings too; agreeing with my thoughts, he remarked that they were not only refreshing, but filling without seeming unhealthy. 

We couldn’t get too full, though, because we had a delicious-looking bowl of ramen waiting for us as well. I took the first bite (and all of the pork on accident), and everything that I looked for in a bowl of ramen was right there; the noodles were delightfully chewy, the miso broth was packed with nuanced and forward flavors that played with each other. Even better, the pork had soaked up all of those flavors and become perfectly tender. While my brother (who is “vegan,” by the way) was disappointed I had eaten all of the pork, he dug into the ramen bowl himself and found it was, in his words (shouted across the room as he played a game of League of Legends while I wrote this), “f***king dank, dude.” He later added, after his game had concluded, that it warmed his heart and was thick, as a good miso ramen should be.  

Crispy Cream (Ryan Najjar)

Putting away our trays and rubbing our bellies, convinced we wouldn’t need anymore food at all, we quickly changed our minds once we passed by Hamada-Ya, a bakery sitting right outside the food court. We hopped in line and looked at the many bakery classics they had on offer, such as croissants, donuts and a tempting strawberry shortcake. Needing to eat on the move, yet wanting to avoid overly typical fare, we landed on one treat called a Bavarian chocolate, and another called a crispy cream. 

Munching into both outside of the market, I noticed that the crispy cream wasn’t very crispy at all, rather fluffy and soft (not a problem), and the cream was more of a custard (also not a problem). My brother bit into the Bavarian chocolate at the same time, and he noted that it was lighter than it seemed it would be: decadent and incredibly tasty on top, sure, but not too intense of an experience by any means. I concurred with him once we swapped, and while he isn’t a fan of custard in general, he agreed that the mislabeled baked good was fluffy and wonderful.

Learn more about the market and see what they offer on their website.

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