We stopped at the Moriya Service Area during a day trip to Kawaguchi city in Saitama Prefecture. The SA was only an hour drive from our place in Mito. It was nice to stop and break up the trip. The SA was very large and modern. The parking capacity was on par with some of the other large SAs we’ve been to.
Moriya Service Area Food Court
Near the entrance to the main building there was this helpful advertisement that detailed the seasonal specialties that were being offered. Inside, there were a number of restaurants arranged in a food court style setting. It was a little early, but we decided to grab lunch. We decided to split a chicken katsu egg bowl from Chicken Sanwa (鶏三和) and a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki from Yakisoba Botejyu (焼きそば ぼてぢゅう). We ordered at the counter and received a buzzer to notify us when our food was ready.
Moriya Service Area Food Review
In the meantime, we found a place to sit and took advantage of their complimentary Tea Service. A little while later our buzzers went off and we picked up our food. The chicken katsu egg bowl from Chicken Sanwa was delicious. The egg had a seemingly fluffy texture and had soaked into the rice nicely. The chicken katsu retained a small amount of its original crispy texture and had good flavor. The Hiroshima style okonomiyaki from Yakisoba Botejyu was really good as well. The white sauce on top was a bit of a surprise and we’re still not quite sure what it was. Whatever it was, it melded deliciously with the okonomiyaki sauce and made everything it touched delicious. The abundance of red ginger gave it a nice kick. We would happily get both again.
We finished up and returned our trays to the appropriate counters.
Delicious Strawberry Daifuku
As we were walking around, we noticed these flyers on the tables. It turned out they were having a one day special promotion. The promotion was if we purchased over ¥2,000 in goods and/or services, we would receive a special Moriken calendar. Moriken was the mascot of the nearby city of Moriya. The mascot was a dog that wore a frog costume. In addition, if we became their friends on the Line app, we would also receive a ¥500 gift voucher. Luckily, our receipts added up to just over ¥2,000. We were able to get both the Moriken calendar and the ¥500 gift voucher.
We looked around and decided to use the gift voucher on some delicious looking strawberry daifuku. There were two options to choose from. There was the tsubuan which was bean paste that included the bean shells and koshian which was bean paste without the bean shells. Koshian was by far our favorite, so we decided to get a set of two. The ¥700 daifuku were only ¥200 after we used the coupon.
Before heading out we stopped off at Moriya Bakery. We saw their Mt. Tsukuba bread on the way in and were intrigued. They said it was their most popular bread, so we decided to give it a try. The bread was supposedly in the shape of Mt. Tsukuba which was the most famous mountain in the region. The bread was really good. It was very soft and the cream was rich and dense. It was almost like a denser and creamier whip cream.
Moriya Service Area Facilities
The outside restrooms were super clean and modern. They also had a nice selection of vendors inside who sold a variety of other fresh snacks and treats like dorayaki (two small pancakes with sweet bean paste in the middle), kamaboko (steamed fish cake on a stick), and many others. On the far side of the SA they also had a shop selling locally grown produce and there was this shrine dedicated to their mascot Moriken. It was wishing for traffic safety. They also had a standalone Starbucks which had a pretty long line.
Final Thoughts
We really enjoyed our time at Moriya SA Inbound. The food was both reasonably priced and delicious. All the facilities were modern and clean. It’s only an hour from our home, so its unlikely we would ever spend a night in the car at this SA. If we had to, for whatever reason, we would feel comfortable doing so.
More to Come…