By the Lee Brothers and childhood best friend Jeff Kim at Pixlcat Coffee & Butter Mochi — the first butter mochi café in the United States, baking seven flavors fresh every morning in San Francisco and Boston.
Pixlcat Coffee — the first butter mochi café in San Francisco. Seven flavors baked fresh every morning at 519 Clement Street in the Inner Richmond.
If you’re looking for butter mochi in San Francisco, you’re looking for Pixlcat Coffee. We’re the only café in the city — and one of the only cafés anywhere — built entirely around butter mochi and specialty coffee. Not a coffee shop that added mochi to the case. Not a bakery where it’s one item among twenty. Butter mochi is our thing. It’s what we do, every day, seven flavors deep. If you’re new to it, read our complete guide to butter mochi → /what-is-butter-mochi/
What Makes Pixlcat Different
San Francisco has a few places where you can find a piece of butter mochi. What you won’t find anywhere else is a café that was designed from the ground up around the pairing of butter mochi and coffee. Every flavor Dennis Lee develops gets tested against our coffee program. The food and the drinks aren’t separate menus — they’re one experience.
We bake seven flavors fresh every morning at our Clement Street location:
Classic — The original. Butter, coconut milk, vanilla. The butter mochi that’s been at Hawaiian potlucks for generations, made the way it’s supposed to be made.
Chocolate — Rich cocoa folded into the mochi batter. Dense and fudgy without losing the signature chew.
Matcha — Ceremonial-grade Uji matcha from Japan. Earthy, slightly bitter, and one of the most popular in our case.
Ube White Chocolate — Our bestseller, every single day. Ube — a purple yam from the Philippines — gives this a natural violet color and a sweet, nutty flavor. The white chocolate adds richness.
Black Sesame — Toasted black sesame ground into the batter. Nutty, savory-sweet, and deeply aromatic. The one people who don’t like overly sweet desserts reach for.
S’mores — Built on our Classic base with cinnamon and chocolate chunks, topped with a torched meringue that captures that charred marshmallow flavor. No actual graham cracker or marshmallow — the flavor is all technique.
Breakfast — Bacon and cheddar in butter mochi form. Savory, salty, and rich. The one that changes what you think butter mochi can be.
All seven flavors are naturally gluten-free. Butter mochi is made with mochiko — glutinous rice flour — which contains no gluten despite the confusing name. No substitutions, no workarounds. The recipe has always been this way.
The Coffee Program
We serve Four Barrel Coffee’s Friendo Blendo espresso — a medium roast blend with chocolate and caramel notes that we chose specifically because it pairs well across all seven mochi flavors. We also serve ceremonial-grade matcha lattes for non-coffee drinkers.
If you’re visiting for the first time, pair a Classic butter mochi with one of our signature dopo panna lattes — available in flavors like ube, honeycomb, black sesame, mint chip, and strawberry.. That’s the foundation pairing — the one that shows you exactly why butter mochi and coffee work together. If you want something more approachable, the Ube White Chocolate with a vanilla oat latte is our most popular combination.
Who We Are
We’re the Lee brothers — Dennis, David, and Daniel. Before Pixlcat, we spent nearly a decade running Namu Gaji, a restaurant the SF Chronicle called “the city’s most representative restaurant.” We operated our own two-acre farm in Sunol. We served food covered by the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, and every major SF food publication.
When Namu Gaji closed in 2021, we carried twenty years of professional cooking into a new format — the first butter mochi café. Dennis created every recipe. David runs operations. Daniel works behind the scenes on strategy. Same family, same standards, new obsession.
Read our full story here.
Why San Francisco Is the Right City for Butter Mochi
Butter mochi started in Hawaii, but San Francisco might be the best city on the mainland for it to take root. The city has one of the highest concentrations of specialty coffee drinkers in the country. It has deep connections to Asian and Pacific Islander food traditions. And it has a food culture that rewards quality ingredients and maker-driven businesses over chains and franchises.
The Inner Richmond — where our Clement Street location sits — is a particularly good fit. The neighborhood has been a destination for Asian cuisine for decades. It’s home to dumpling shops, dim sum restaurants, Hong Kong-style bakeries, and now a butter mochi café. When we opened on Clement Street, the neighborhood understood what we were doing almost immediately. Butter mochi made sense here in a way it might not have elsewhere.
San Francisco is also where we’ve been building for twenty years. We opened Namu on Balboa Street in 2006 — just a few blocks from where Pixlcat is now. We sold Korean tacos at the Ferry Building Farmers Market before “Korean taco” was a category. We operated Namu Gaji in the Mission for nearly a decade. Pixlcat on Clement Street isn’t a random location — it’s a homecoming.
Butter Mochi vs. Other Mochi in San Francisco
San Francisco has several places that serve mochi-style products, but it’s important to understand the differences.
Mochi ice cream — frozen ice cream wrapped in a thin mochi skin — is available at many dessert shops and grocery stores. It’s a different product entirely from butter mochi.
Mochi donuts — fried rings made with tapioca starch blends — have become popular at various shops and boba tea spots across the city. The texture is chewy but the format, flavor, and experience are completely different from butter mochi.
Warabi mochi — a jelly-like Japanese confection made with bracken starch — is served at some matcha cafés in San Francisco. It’s traditional and delicious, but it’s not butter mochi.
Butter mochi is baked, not fried or frozen. It’s made with mochiko (glutinous rice flour), butter, coconut milk, sugar, and eggs. The texture is dense and chewy with crispy caramelized edges. It’s a Hawaiian tradition with Japanese, Filipino, and Portuguese roots. And at Pixlcat, it comes in seven flavors paired with specialty coffee.
If you came here searching for “mochi in San Francisco,” now you know the landscape. If you specifically want butter mochi — the baked, chewy, coconut-rich Hawaiian kind — Pixlcat is where you want to be.
Visiting Pixlcat on Clement Street
Address: 519 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
Hours: Monday–Friday 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Saturday–Sunday 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond, between 6th and 7th Avenues on Clement Street. We’re part of the Clement Street corridor — one of San Francisco’s best neighborhood shopping streets, home to dozens of independent restaurants, bakeries, and shops.
Getting here:
- Muni: 38 Geary or 38R to 6th Avenue & Clement. We’re a one-minute walk.
- Driving: Street parking available on Clement and surrounding blocks. Metered until 6pm on weekdays.
- Biking: Bike rack directly outside. And our own parklet.
What to expect: A neighborhood café with a display case of seven butter mochi flavors and a full espresso bar. Inside, we have four two-top tables, a counter with two seats, and a corner bench with a mini round table that fits four. Free wifi and electric outlets along the wall for charging phones and laptops. Outside, our parklet seats about six. Most people grab a coffee and a trio box or a 6-piece tasting box and settle in — or take it to Golden Gate Park, a ten-minute walk south. We’re a quick stop before or after visiting the de Young Museum, the Japanese Tea Garden, or the California Academy of Sciences.
Ferry Building Saturday Market
We’re also at the Ferry Building Farmers Market every Saturday. We’ve been at the Ferry Building since 2009 — back when we were serving Korean tacos at Namu, long before Pixlcat existed. It’s one of the longest-running vendor relationships at the market.
Gift Boxes
We offer gift boxes at our Clement Street location — a 3-piece box ($15) and a 6-piece tasting box ($29). The tasting box lets you choose up to six flavors. It’s the best way to try everything or to send butter mochi to someone who’s never had it.
Nationwide Shipping — Now Live
Pixlcat now ships butter mochi nationwide from Boston via UPS ground (Mon–Wed) — order at pixlcatbuttermochi.com. BYO 6-piece boxes start at $39, with 12-piece at $78. Assorted boxes are available in 6/12/18-piece sizes ($39/$78/$117), and Party Platters at $120. Choose from six flavors: Classic, Chocolate, Matcha, Ube White Chocolate, Black Sesame, and S’mores. Follow @pixlcatcoffee and @pxlbuttermochi on Instagram for new flavor drops and seasonal launches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the best butter mochi in San Francisco?
Pixlcat Coffee at 519 Clement Street in the Inner Richmond is the only café in San Francisco built around butter mochi. We bake seven flavors fresh every morning and pair them with Four Barrel specialty coffee.
Is butter mochi gluten-free?
Yes — all seven of Pixlcat’s butter mochi flavors are naturally gluten-free. Butter mochi is made with mochiko (glutinous rice flour), which contains no gluten despite the name. Note that we are not a dedicated gluten-free facility.
How much does butter mochi cost at Pixlcat?
Individual pieces of butter mochi are $5.50 each. Gift boxes are available — 3-piece box ($15) and 6-piece tasting box ($29) at our San Francisco location.
What flavor of butter mochi should I try first?
Start with the Classic if you’ve never had butter mochi. If you want our most popular flavor, go with the Ube White Chocolate — it’s our bestseller every day. Pair either one with an espresso or latte.
Does Pixlcat ship butter mochi?
Yes — Pixlcat now ships butter mochi nationwide from Boston via UPS ground (Mon–Wed). Order at pixlcatbuttermochi.com. BYO 6-piece boxes start at $39, with 12-piece at $78 and Assorted 6/12/18-piece options at $39/$78/$117.
Can I order butter mochi for an event or catering?
Yes — reach out to us at our Clement Street location, email us at hi@pixlcatcoffee.com, or contact us through Instagram to discuss catering and large orders.
More About Butter Mochi
New to butter mochi? Start with our complete guide: What Is Butter Mochi?
Want to know how to pair each flavor with coffee? Read our Barista’s Guide to Pairing Butter Mochi With Coffee.
Curious about gluten-free options? All seven flavors are naturally gluten-free. Read more: Is Butter Mochi Gluten Free?
Looking for our Boston location? Butter Mochi in Boston — Charlestown
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