You Can’t Miss This Popular Mochi Shop in Hilo
For almost 30 years, Two Ladies Kitchen has been selling a colorful array of Japanese mochi and manju.
“You’ve never been to Two Ladies Kitchen?”
I couldn’t hide my shock.
My co-worker had been to Hawaiʻi Island several times, and she had never once stopped at the famous mochi-ya on Kīlauea Avenue in Downtown Hilo.
I didn’t think that was possible.
I can’t recall a single trip to Hilo, the sleepy town on the island’s northeastern side, without a stop at Two Ladies. For nearly 30 years, this little shop has been selling arguably the best mochi in the Islands.
The colorful mochi at Two Ladies Kitchen.
Photo: Catherine Toth Fox
Mochi is a Japanese dessert made of sweet glutinous rice flour. It’s considered a celebratory food, traditionally eaten at New Year’s and on special occassions. Today, though, and especially in Hawaiʻi, mochi is eaten year-round and is often filled with something sweet. Like sweetened azuki beans, fruits, peanut butter and chocolate.
Two Ladies Kitchen has about 30 different varieties of mochi, stuffed with everything from marshmallows to grapes to brownies. The shop also sells manju, a Japanese baked pastry.
Workers hand-shape and -fill the mochi at Two Ladies Kitchen in Hilo.
Photo: Catherine Toth Fox
About four years ago, two longtime workers bought the business from the original owner, Nora Uchida, who decided to retire. (Uchida, who had been an elementary school teacher, started the shop with her aunt, Tomi Tokeshi, and mother, Sachi Kishimoto in 1996.) Co-owners Emerald Tuares and Clyde Ebanez have kept everything the same, though they have added some new flavors—and plan to introduce more, too.
Like for Valentine’s Day. All month the shop is selling heart-shaped mochi filled with creamy caramel shortbread cookies—a totally new flavor.
Heart-shaped mochi filled with creamy caramel shortbread cookies at Two Ladies Kitchen.
Photo: Courtesy of Two Ladies Kitchen
One flavor the pair is definitely not messing around with is the shop’s famed strawberry mochi—a fresh whole strawberry surrounded by hand-mashed sweet azuki beans, encased in pillow-soft, handmade mochi. It’s the most popular item at Two Ladies, and you have to order it ahead of time.
The strawberry mochi is the shop’s best seller.
Photo: Catherine Toth Fox
The mochi is made from scratch. The fillings are made from scratch. And Tuares says she doesn’t plan to change that.
So here’s your cheat sheet:
- Order ahead, especially if you want strawberry mochi.
- Make sure you’re not planning to visit the shop on Sunday or Monday; it’s closed.
- The mochi is perishable. You have to eat it right away. The strawberry mochi, in particular, won’t last two days.
- Don’t refrigerate, as the mochi will get hard.
- Try something different! The Oreo- and brownie-filled mochi are addictive, and the fruit flavors are fun. Try pohā (cape gooseberry), which are grown on the island.
Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday. 274 Kīlauea Ave., Hilo, (808) 961-4766.
