Dochi
Recommended by: After our Donut Factory review posted, a reader tipped us off to another doughnut(actually a mochi doughnut) place that opened in the International District called, Dochi.
Description on the Dochi’s website: Mochi donuts are a pleasant cross between the sweet and chewy Japanese rice dessert and the classic American fried donut. As you bite into the dochi, you will feel a slight crunch on the outside with a soft, and chewy center. They’re glazed with our many exotic flavors and delicious toppings you won’t find anywhere.
Neighborhood/Type: ID (International District)
Address: 600 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
What we ate/drank: Cookies & Cream w/ Cookie Butter, Ube Glazed, Matche Oreo, Strawberry Shortcake
Comments: Very similar to when hot spots like Cinnaholic and Snowy Village first came to Seattle, there were massive lines, long waits and a billion Instagram posts when Dochi opened. Dochi opened in August of last year and now that 6 months have passed, we figured that it was safe to go now without the waits. Our hunch paid off. When we went this past Friday afternoon, there were only a few people ahead of us. A far cry from a line out the door and down the block as you can see in the attached video below.
Dochi is not from LA, not from SF, not from NY, nor Hawaii, but a transplant from the hotbed of Japanese food, Orlando FL. Orlando?!?! Yes, you read that right. This combination of Japanese mochi and the American doughnut originated in Orlando.
Dochi is actually located in the food court of Uwajimaya. It’s actually in the location of a former takoyaki stand, so that tells you how small it is. For those of you not from Seattle, Uwajimaya is the defacto Asian market in Seattle that’s been in business for close to 100 years. It’s a small little stand and only open Thurs – Sun. Their hours on Sat and Sun are 12pm – 6pm and Thurs and Friday are 11am-2pm, so you have a limited time frame to come here.
The small booth has three workers – order taker, packer and cashier, so the line moves pretty fast.
On the day we went they had four choices available- Cookies & Cream w/ Cookie Butter, Ube Glazed, Matche Oreo, Strawberry Shortcake. Our understanding is that the flavors are always changing. Each dochi is $3 and $16 per half dozen. We got 2 of each flavor, so they charged us for a half dozen and two additional dochi.
The dochi come in a Tiffany blue colored box, which upon opening you see, “You Deserve This”. Genius marketing implying that this is a special treat. This is not a flimsy box either. It’s pretty sturdy, which also adds to the feeling of the dochi being something special.
The main differences between the dochi and your regular doughnut is the texture and it’s unique shape. Dochi is not like a cake or raised doughnut. It’s crispy on the outside and very chewy like mochi. Although it’s chewier than a cake doughnut, we’ve never had mochi doughnuts and were expecting it to be really chewy and gooey like regular mochi.
We really love the shape of the dochi. It’s like 8 doughnut balls that are connected together. You can either eat it as a regular doughnut or tear it apart and divide the 8 little doughnut balls to share. This design is great for our daughters. We can tell them that they can have three balls which is basically 3/8 of a dochi and they can easily measure it out for themselves.
It’s a little food stand, so the dochi are not made on site. If you have the opportunity, microwave them and it’ll make your eating experience much better. If they open a real brick and mortar location with a kitchen, these would be great fresh out of the oven.
We had about 10 taste testers who ate portions of the 8 doughnuts we got. Here are their cumulative rankings:
- Matcha Oreo
- Cookies & Cream w/ Cookie Butter
- Ube Glazed
- Strawberry Shortcake
As mentioned, we love that you can easily portion out the doughnut due to its shape and the taste of the doughnuts are fine. Is it better than Top Pot, Mighty-O, Tempesta, General Porpoise Doughnuts, Half N Half Doughnut Co or The Donut Factory? Nah. Would we wait in line for 15 or more minutes? Nah. Would we make a special trip to the ID(International District) and deal with traffic or parking for it? Nah. But Dochi will definitely be a regular stop whenever visiting Uwajimaya for groceries and I think it’s uniqueness does make a good pick up for out of town guests.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: N/A – It’s just a stand.
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.00
Overall: 4.35
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
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- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: We discovered that the owner of Dochi is the brother of the owner of goPoke down a few blocks. We really enjoy the poke there, so it’s time for a revisit and review.
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