First Look: Torori, the Osaka-Born Chain Famous for Warabi Mochi, Arrives Down Under

Not all mochi is created equal.

While most of the mochi you find in Sydney is characteristically chewy, warabi mochi has a pannacotta-like wobble.

Made using starch from a bracken plant – rather than glutinous rice flour – warabi mochi started out as an exclusive dessert in Japan. Today, across Asia, the sweet is widely popular, with several dessert houses specialising in the jelly-like confection popping up – including the Torori franchise, which started in Osaka in 2020.

“A long, long time ago, the high quality of [warabi powder] meant it was really expensive and only the rich people could eat it,” Torori Sydney owner Debbie San tells Broadsheet. “Warabi mochi requires 70 grams [of starch] harvested from 10 kilograms of wild bracken.”

The popular chain has over 140 stores in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, where its star attraction’s jiggle has achieved viral fame. And Sydney’s copped Australia’s first outlet, with a Torori kiosk arriving at Market City in Haymarket last month.

Skip past Paddy’s Markets and head to level two, where you can watch the team slice large, blobby rounds into bite-sized pieces through a window before placing your order.

The team’s focused on replicating the known high quality of the chain’s mochi, using the Torori recipe and top-tier ingredients imported from Japan – under the strict supervision of the team back at the Japanese headquarters.

“Our mochi uses a special powder called hon warabi mochi powder. It’s a simple recipe. We mix the powder with water and caster sugar to give a little bit of a sweet taste,” Debbie says. “You slowly boil every pot, in small batches, and keep stirring it. Then you refrigerate it for 24 hours to make it a bit firmer.”

The silky serves are tossed in wooden crates filled with premium matcha (from a 165-year-old farm in Kyoto), kinako (a fine powder of ground, golden-roasted soybeans) or chocolate powder, before being sliced with a scraper and another generous dusting of your chosen flavour. When you’re ready to eat, pour the accompanying sugar syrup over the top and dig in.

Every bite dissolves on your tongue. And while the mochi itself isn’t overly sweet, it gets a slight creaminess and nuttiness from the toppings.

Torori puts its own spin on bubble tea too, subbing out tapioca pearls for cubes of slurpable warabi mochi.

“It’s a new way of consuming mochi, people like to drink it through a straw.”

Choose from classic milk tea flavours like Hokkaido milk, matcha (with a moat of whipped cream on top) or hojicha. Or, if you’re craving a sweeter treat, go for the Okinawan brown sugar tea.

Since the Haymarket digs are the first for Torori in Australia, the focus is on perfecting a limited menu for now. But more treats – and cities Down Under – are planned for the near future.

Torori Warabimochi

13 Hay Street, Haymarket
(02) 8021 3995

Hours:

Sun to Wed 10am–8pm
Thu to Sat 10am–9pm

@warabimochisyd