New Asian dessert shop, Rice Culture, is Virginia’s first taiyaki restaurant, serving “Japanese waffles with a Filipino flair.” After visiting this local spo it is clear that the shop’s stellar reviews are spot on, with its diverse menu options and modern take on traditional flavors of Japanese and Filipino cultures. 

Rice Culture specializes in taiyaki waffles, a fish-shaped pastry with a crunchy waffle-like exterior and soft interior. Though traditional taiyaki contains fillings such as custard or chocolate, this shop has five filling options, introducing flavors of the Philippines and South Asia. These include ube, made from the mildly sweet Filipino purple yam; pandan, an earthy flavor with a hint of coconut; red bean, a nutty, sweet bean paste flavor common in Japanese desserts; as well as vanilla; oreo and nutella. Additionally, they have a savory taiyaki with a bacon and cheese filling.

Though their taiyaki goes great by itself, Rice Culture’s soft serve perfectly pairs with the warm pastry to elevate the dessert experience. In addition to ube and pandan-flavored soft serve, their options include a bitter, rich black sesame flavor, corn flavor, and even an ube swirl, which can be combined with either black sesame or pandan. 

The shop offers various unlimited toppings to go with their soft serve and taiyaki combo, which they categorize as sprinkles and toppers. Conventional sprinkles, oreo crumble, toasted coconut, rice crispies and matcha powder make up their sprinkles selection, while toppers include ube wafers, pocky sticks, oreo cookies and biscoff cookies. These toppings provide the perfect, “cherry on top” garnish to the taiyaki dessert.

As for pricing, a single taiyaki from Rice Culture costs $5, with their taiyaki soft serve combo costing $8.50. Overall, a fairly standard price for a well-constructed dessert. This compared with other local dessert spots, such as Crumbl cookie or Ben and Jerry’s, is a reasonable price, considering the rarity of taiyaki dessert shops in the area. The shop conveniently allows customers to make their orders through self-checkout, touch screen tablets. Some may believe this to take away from the interaction and experience of going out for dessert, but to each their own.

Despite the shop’s currently limited menu options, Rice Culture has a lot to offer with many choices for customization and flavor pairings. Its high quality taiyaki waffles, rich flavors and warm environment make it a must go for those looking for a unique dessert experience.