Onigilly Japanese Gourmet Rice Balls

A novelty food more then anything else.
After watching animé since my wee years and seeing all these wide-​eyed characters munching away on onigiri, I was like, why not give it try? They are stationed outside my school every Wednesday anyways, amirite?
Honestly, it’s a meh from me. I felt like I was eating a bland-​ish over sized slab of sushi with less ingredients. I do appreciate what they are going for here though — a healthy, organic alternative to several other nearby food stands. But when it comes to taste and cost, Onigilly simply does not stand out enough to my taste buds. Their «flavors» are hardly featured — most of the onigiri consists of the brown rice. And even then, the brown rice was inconsistent, dry in some places and too moist in others. And guys, onigiri is pretty damn small. If you are expecting something to fill you up, expect on purchasing at least three.
I have tried the Miso Tuna, Spicy Shrimp, and Teriyaki Chicken. All three were okay I suppose, with Spicy Shrimp being the most tolerable. Tuna is on the dry side, chicken is on the over saucy side.
The workers here are super pleasant though. The girl taking the orders was so sweet and smiley. Just wish the food induced the same mood for me. :(
EXTRA NOTES: They accept credit cards with a minimum purchase of $ 6. Buy the three onigiri combo pack for $ 8 to receive extra sides of edamame.

It’s a bit pricy. Boyfriend wanted it while we were at off the grid: upper haight the first time we went.
It was pretty good. I mean I dont think I’ve ever had a legit one so I can’t tell you if it’s super original tasting, but being japanese, the boy liked it. Got the spicy tuna one. Pretty good.

First things first, I loathe the name of this food cart. Onigilly? Really? Why don’t we just open the kimono, shall we? Egad, I hate that expression. That faux-​Asian accent of using ‘R’ instead of ‘L’ is almost as bad as the revelation I had when Jamie W. pointed out to me that Osha was «Ah so!» spelled backwards. And now that Kim Jong Il has kicked the bucket, I get to hear his Team America anthem, «I’m So Ronery», where he wails that «dere’s no one, just me onry, sitting on my rittle throne». They should have just called it the Rice Ball and turn their food cart into a big rice-​inflected bubble.
I’ll try to overlook the putrid name since my mom used to make onigiri all the time when I was a kid. It was easy for her to grab some cooked rice and mold them into big wedges. Truth be told, I was never a huge fan because she would skimp on the filling which was inevitably something pickled and sour. However, the purveyors of this food cart are smart to replace traditional Japanese ingredients with tekkamaki-​type fillings like Spicy Shrimp and Miso Tuna (see photo). For three bucks each, I personally found them a bit overpriced, but the quality is good even though it more resembled a pita pocket with nori instead of lavash. If you’re sensing a shrug from me, you would be right… or should I say light?
FOOD — 3 stars… gourmet onigiri, bit pricey for the ingredients involved
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… it’s a modest cart with (ugh) that name
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… nice and quiet
TOTAL — 3 stars… made me miss my mom

Fun, tasty, and always a couple of vegan options, Onigilly is rad!
These little triangles use brown rice, which I prefer over white, and I think my favorites are the eggplant and the ume. The flavors were great, and 3 triangles with edamamae was pretty filling.
I ate these on their own with a tiny squirt of sriracha, but I can understand the request below for soy sauce. However, since these are hand-​held items, wouldn’t that make them fall apart?
I love that the menu rotates, and will be going back here as often as I can make the trek!

Off the Grid– Fort Mason Center
I like sushi, so I wanted to try an onigiri (rice ball).
The onigiri consisted of brown rice topped with your choice of filling and wrapped in seaweed– healthy. I ordered mine with unagi. It was lacking in flavor. It needed more unagi and less rice.

Bleh. I like onigiri so I was expecting alot. I just wanted a small snack so this was perfect.
$ 2 for the tuna miso which initially seemed reasonable til I saw how small it was. OKAY it’s not super small but it is a bit small for $ 2… I’d pay maybe $ 1.50 for it.
TASTE: it was cold… I think it would have tasted better if the rice was warm. I think it was brown rice so it tasted healthy. (not in a bad way, I like the texture of brown rice, personally)
Did not taste too much of the tuna miso and it was kinda dry. Wish it melded in better.

Wednesdays have always been my favorite weekday, and thanks to Onigilly, they’ve just soared to an all-​time high!
My health-​conscious co-​worker introduced me to the Onigilly Samurai Snack truck at the Wednesday Civic Center farmers market, and now I can’t stop thinking about those tender triangles of gooey rice and saucy filings. I had the eggplant and spicy shirmp, and immediately regretted not ordering more. Onigilly really is the perfect, healthy, on-​the-​go lunch, and for less than $ 3 a pop, they’re the best bargain at the market. Order up a few and pat yourself on the back for being so darn healthy, frugal, and satisfied!
Oh, and did I mention they whip up these fresh snacks in mere minutes, AND they cater? Oh, how I wish my office would throw a Samurai Snack party. I dream of Onigilly.

TERRIBLE EXECUTION!
I’m no ball expert, but I’ve had enough onigiris to know what one should taste like and Onigilly’s version ain’t it.
Today, the Onigilly cart was at the Heart of the City’s Farmers Market (Civic Center) so I thought I give it a try. There were 4 types of Onigiri’s available:
*Ume (plum): $ 1.75
*Hijiki (black seaweed): $ 1.75
*Marinated Eggplant: $ 2.75
*Spicy Shrimp: $ 2.75
CC’s accepted with a $ 6 minimum.
I ordered the Marinated Eggplant and the Spicy Shrimp which took about 7 minutes to make.
Though I like Onigilly’s idea of using brown rice as a healthier alternative, it lacked stickiness and was warm which wilted the seaweed turning into an unappetizing elastic mush. One bite into the onigiri and the entire seaweed wrap came off and was extremely chewy. They should have provided the seaweed separately from the onigiri which is what they do at Japanese markets. This way you can wrap the seaweed around the onigiri right before eating so it can maintain its crispness.
Normally, onigiri is filled but Onigilly tops their onigiri with the fillings making it messy to eat. Though both the marinated eggplant (savory and sweet) and spicy shrimp (creamy with a fiery kick) was good in flavor, there was literally a teaspoon of filling. For 3 – 4 bites of rice and barely any filling, $ 2.75 per an onigiri is overpriced especially when you have to eat at least 3 onigiris to get full.
There’s never a line at Onigilly at Off The Grid. NOW I know why…

Nice marketing. we walked by at Off the Grid and I was intrigued by what I called «sushi samosas».
What we got was a stale, flavorless lump of rice wrapped in old seaweed. We got the Spicy Shrimp and kept wondering, «where is the shrimp??». We finally found a couple of those tiny ones (like the dried ones you buy to just make your soup look pretty but have no flavor). The rice was dry and old. At least they had the spicy Japanese mustard adding some hint of flavor. There was pretty much nothing else to this.
The one star is for the miso soup that at least warmed us up on the chilly SF night. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Onigilly makes onigiri, a japanese on the go snack food suitable for long journeys. it’s a pyramid shaped a rice ball that can be garnished with many types of stuffings,.
locale: sf street festival (⁸⁄₂₇)
sampling: geisha box: with plum, shrimp paste, and egg plant. onigri. (8) with edamame beans
–edamame beans were the most tender ever tasted
–geisha box was «topless» no cover, just a french fry paper tray.
(does this make it sexier?, didn’t think so)
–lots of plain tasting rice, not much filling.
temaki:
–price of onigiri seems to have gone up
–clover bakery’s onigiri (san jose) tastier, cheaper.
–kind of disappointing, maybe a off day having to make so many…

I am continually impressed by Onigilly.
I’ve been making a weekly tradition of heading over to the Heart of the City’s Farmer Market every Wednesday.
Despite being bombarded with a wealth of different aromas and enticing food porn everywhere around me at the farmer’s market, I’ve found myself continually gravitating towards the Onigilly stand.
If you’ve never tried an onigilly before — I highly suggest remedying that. Onigilly is a traditional Japanese food made with brown rice and gourmet filling wrapped with seaweed.
Onigilly as a business is pretty much a two person operation. A very efficient one at that. I’ve rarely had to wait more than five minutes from my order.
I’m hooked on their vegan — House-​marinated Eggplant Onigilly — basically Japanese eggplant marinated in house dressing, as well as their most straightforward onigilly which is essentially just rice, seaweed, sesame and salt. Both when doused in siracha sauce are cheap, filling, delicious, and primarily healthy.
Trust.

pretty declicious stuff. I had the miso tuna and the hijike tuna. both were excellent!
You really need 4 – 5 of them to make it a real meal.

I tried their onigiri last night at the Off The Grid Upper Haight & I wasn’t too thrilled. There were only a few items on the menu so I thought they must take care to attention of their food.
Nope. My bf & I ordered a Spicy Tuna onigiri for $ 3. Not too bad right? We took our first bites out of it and were surprised at the quality. The tuna, to me, was literally Bumble Bee Tuna straight out of the can with a spicy mayo sauce mixed together and thrown on a ball of rice. Sigh.
I didn’t mind the size because I was saving room for more food because there were so many other food trucks, but maybe I was expecting too much? I don’t know.

You have got to try this, especially if you are a Sushi Lover!
Onigilly is pronounced «Oh-Knee-Ghee-Lee»…This is a traditional Japanese food made with Brown Rice and some type of filling (Chicken Teriyaki, Spicy Tuna, Teriyaki Salmon, Unagi, Eggplant… and more), wrapped in Black Seaweed.
I had the Teriyaki Chicken which is a baked chicken with sweet soy sauce, topped with spicy sesame seed. This is not very spicy, but just enough to give you a little kick. The spices do not stay in your mouth. The Chicken, soy sauce, brown rice and black seaweed tends to compliment each other making this a very tasty snack or meal.
These guys sell their stuff off a cart in several locations. I was at Justin Herman Plaza when I tried this out. They usually have with them 2 to 4 different flavors of Onigilly. They usually carry a Vegetarian and a Seafood version also.
They also had Miso Soup.
The price was $ 3.00 per Onigilly… I thought it was a little bit on the high side, but I have to say it’s nice to have tried this. It makes a good snack before your next meal. You can also make it a meal in itself.
Food off a cart… this is the one to try! 4 Stars because it’s yummy!

I must say, I had high expectations for this cart given all the great reviews from fellow Unilocalers.
Hubby picked up both the miso tuna + hijiki onigilly for us to try and sadly, we were both disappointed. :(The concept itself is great, especially incorporating brown rice into the onigiri, but both onigilly lacked filling and the seaweed was soggy.
I don’t expect them to be as good as the ones we had in Japan, but at least somewhat comparable to ones found in Japantown. Sadly, that was not the case, I think we’ll just stick to getting our onigiri from our usual spots or make our own.

Onigilly (onigiri) aka «The Original Samurai Snack» is the best thing ever and pretty tasty to boot!
My first chance meeting with Onigilly was at OTG Haight and I was drawn to the simple set-​up and not to mention that each onigiri was $ 2.75. Score!
That day they had 2 choices: miso tuna and hijiki (vegan). I ended up getting the miso tuna and it was delicious! Brown rice (usually not a fan) never tasted so good!
I was bummed that I didn’t go back for more after having only 1. I could probably eat 3 in one sitting!

I saw the cart for Onigilly on the way from Embarcadero Bart Station heading toward the Ferry Building. It’s by Justin Herman Plaza on the Right side where all the art & craft stuff is.
Their definition: «Onigilly is a traditional Japanese food made w/​brown rice & gourmet filling wrapped w/​sea weed.»
Individual Onigilly $ 2.75; 2 for $ 5. Meals: Geisha box $ 6.75; Sammui $ 7.75; Add Miso Soup to Full Meal: $ 8 – 9.
I got:
2 Onigilly for $ 5 a la carte. I got Hijiki — black seaweed filling & Wasabi Tuna. I liked the wasabi tuna better, more filling & tasty. Hijiki just ok. I paid Cash.
I liked that it had brown rice for my fiber intact of the day.
Good healthy quick eats.
Hrs:
M-​F 11:30−2p or when products sold out.
Blog:

Such a cute idea, a cart filled with samurai snacks, a.k.a. onigiri (they call it onigilly) made with brown rice, savory gourmet fillings wrapped in seaweed. At Off the Grid, they had 4 kinds of made-​to-​order onigilly ($ 2.75 each, with discounts for higher quantities), miso soup and beverages.
Onigilly flavors: teriyaki chicken, spicy shrimp, house marinated eggplant, hijiki seaweed salad
* Spicy shrimp onigilly: a brown rice triangle with tiny cooked shrimp, scallions and tobiko in spicy aioli. I liked the filling but the rice fell apart way too easily (I’m used to onigiri that holds together). The aioli added a nice level of mild heat. Brown rice doesn’t seem to be sticky enough.
I think of onigiri as the perfect portable snack but if the rice falls apart, it makes for a messy snack for a wandering samurai.
Cash only

ONIGIRI! How can you not love Onigiri? It’s like finger food, you eat it on the go, and it’s delicious. I mean, it’s essentially a Japanese sandwich, which also happens to be two of my favorite types of food!
Finally got to try Onigilly at OTG after hearing about them from friends, and I was not disappointed. Wasn’t all that hungry since Onigilly happened to be at the end of trip around to all fo the vendors, but I had seen people eating them along the way, so I tried to save some room just for them.
Trying to keep it light, one of my friends and I both decided to order the Miso Tuna onigiri (cooked tuna and a miso sauce/​aioli with rice wrapped in seaweed). It might not have been the most traditional sort, but it was still pretty damn good. I’m not a huge fan of tuna that’s been cooked through, but this was great. I’ll admit that I kept having thoughts of tuna salad in my head though, but that quickly went away with my first bite. Oddly, I was really impressed that their rice turned out pretty well considering that it was all being done at a food stand (not even a truck). In particular, I was really curious if I was going to get hard, undercooked rice or gloppy, overcooked rice. Fortunately, I got neither.
Hopefully I’ll be able to try some of their other offerings, but if not, I’m perfectly content with getting decent onigiri at OTG!

10.12.10
I’m back :)
So I get my dose of Daily Candy via my work email. The title was «A Snack Fit for a Warrior». And they called me a warrior. I’m a sucker for sweet talk.
So I took a stroll to the Justin Herman plaza on Friday, but failed to locate their truck. Gave up after a short while and grabbed a crêpe instead. We saw people with the boxes, and I stared on with envy. We got up the nerve to ask where they got such a delight. They pointed at the only direction I didn’t walk to. FAIL.
Back I went today, with a vengeance. I ordered the lunch box, three onigillys, edamame plus japanese pickle for $ 7.
Today’s variation:
1) Spicy Shrimp — Cooked shrimp with tobiko (flying fish roe) dressed in spicy aioli
2) Miso Tuna — Cooked tuna dressed in miso aioli
3) Hijiki (Vegan) — Hijiki (Japanese seaweed) with shredded carrots
I just wish it fed me enough to last through the afternoon. But they did call it a snack, not lunch.