Mushinan – Great Japanese Dessert Restaurant In An Unbelievable Location!

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Japan has been dubbed as the place for being tech-y, anime, all the odd things, its passion for minding others, and obscure stuff. This one is no different and I found this experience one of a kind. As an avid culinary adventurer, I went to try a dessert place that is located in the most odd place possible and somewhat concealed. Concealed in my opinion because you would not recognize this place as a restaurant. I could not believe my eyes. Okay, this dessert place is great topping it with the location. Because itwas jaw-dropping-ly out of this world which in my opinion, added to its character. I am talking about Kamakura Mushinan, also known as Wadazuka Mushinan 和田塚 無心庵. I even did a yelp review because I want more people to know how awesome this place is.

I highly recommend that you visit this place if you’re in the Shonan coast or maybe doing a day trip to either Kamakura, Yuigihama, or Enoshima. These cities are all in Kanagawa Prefecture! In fact, it was one my stops on my Kamakura-Enoshima day trip.

Mushinan Restaurant

Mushinan is a dessert restaurant in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture which serves amazing traditional Japanese desserts served with a cup of tea that looks over an amazing garden scenery. You can reach this place from Kamakura station by taking the private line Enoshima Railway. Get off at Wadazuka Station and… Guess what?

It’s Out Of This World Because…

You’ll see the entrance of the restaurant right away from the train station!

It is unbelievably crazy how this restaurant is right beside a train station. Like, LITERALLY BESIDE IT. When you get off Wadazuka Station, it’s right across (make sure the train have left and there’s a sign that do not cross when there’s a train) from it. Very convenient. Could not believe it for a second. Growing up in the West and knowing there are strict policies and guidelines in building establishments, being RIGHT BESIDE a train station won’t work. Permits, health and safety, parking so many things to account for. Definitely won’t fly in Canada so when my friend and I got off the station and walked across the train tracks and said: ‘Here we are!’ I said ‘What? This is it?’ with a face of unbelief.

Very Traditional Japanese Setting Interior

Open daily from 10:00 – 17:00, when you enter the restaurant, there’s a huge giant pot decor displayed in the middle of the foyer where you take off your shoes. You will be greeted by the usual ‘Irasshaimase!’, asked how many people, and ushered to a seat. All seats overlook this amazing lush well-maintained garden thanks to the open head to ceiling window! You can walk around the garden while you’re waiting for your dessert or after to burn off those sugar.

From the start of your journey coming into the restaurant all the way to seating on the tatami floors then ordering on their menu with pictures leads us to…

The Japanese Desserts

This place is known for nicely decorated Japanese desserts using top Japanese ingredients like matcha, red bean, traditional fruits, and so on.

Food, most of the time, will be covered with a lid so this can be a fun game! It always is for me. There’s the ‘tada!’ surprise moment when I open the lid to see the contents of my food. Kaiseki and omakase meals are known for this thus more fun because I guess what type of dish is inside e.g. a rice dish, noodle dish, egg or is it fish?

And tada! My Japanese dessert. Red bean paste with mochi and fruit in the middle paired with cold tea. Red bean is a very popular ingredient in Japanese cuisine so it’s everywhere. The mochi was nice and chewy complimented with the sweetness of the red bean. It’s the perfect combination! Perfectly made glutinous rice balls you can enjoy in one bite. The red bean paste is mildly sweet that you can so easily finish the whole bowl without realizing it. It was so soothing! What a dessert to cool me off from the Japanese summer heat! Finish off the whole meal with the glass of tea.

Here are the tabelog details to know more about Mushinan if you want more details. Tabelog is a popular review service in Japan, similar to Yelp.