Strawberry Cones

CLOSED.
Stopped by the Galleria Mall yesterday and noticed the Strawberry Cones stand is gone. I even asked the Beard Papa store to confirm. It was only a matter of time. I still miss the old San Gabriel location. Their food was tasty and they made the pizzas very well! My favorite was the teriyaki mochi chicken pizza with a charcoal crust. Hopefully, another location will pop up with ninja pizzas made right!

A friend of mine recommended this place so I was eager to try this place.
Long story short, the first time I tried to eat here I epically fail. The cart pretty much looks like it is close, but there is a note by the cashier that says push the buzzer button for service. Gahhh! So I learned the second time I remember to give them a buzz.
Order from the cart, but the pizza will be baked in Beard Papa’s kitchen.
My friend and I decided to try one of the Fall Four Seasons pizza which is four of their speciality pizza in one. Can’t really beat that, being able try four types of pizza!
I really like the Wild Salmon. The salmon is tucked under the melted cheese and it tastes sooo good, and with the asparagus. Yummmmm.
The Teriyaki Mochi Chicken (no mayo) is different… But good! It is an unique creation and I admit sounds kind of disgusting, but surprisingly flavorful.
The Margarita Pizza is pretty typical.
I can’t remember the other pizza, but it included edamame and shrimp. Tasty Tasty =)
I would definitely come back to try some other unique pizza combos. This pizza cart puts pizza on a whole new level. Pizza will never taste like overkill again.

Even though I am a pizza connoisseur, somewhat of a purist, I am always open to new tastes and out-​of-​the-​box :-) approaches!
Well this experiment did work for me. While some varieties are surely borderline, most were delicious and innovative.
The dough could be improved upon, but «ninja» variety, which is black dough, was actually quite nice, thick, and chewy; definitely a different pizza experience, but tasty nonetheless!
While I couldn’t eat the heavy pizzas all the time, every so often it fits the bill and hits the spot :-)
I wish they had a pesto pizza though; I think it could go nicely with so many of their interesting toppings.

Favorite pizza joint ever. Pricey, but that serves to dissuade you from indulging too much, which is a good thing if you twist it and look at it in a distorted way, like I do.
I like the ninja pizza with salmon and avocado. Mochi mentai is also pretty good, but I’m a fish sort of guy and I don’t mind the mild fishiness of the cooked salmon.

We just had the Vegetarian pizza here for lunch today and it was great. We were a little surprised when the veggies were served in their own separate container with dressing but we put it all on top ourselves and it was really good.
I thought the service was fine, rang the doorbell, ordered and it took about 20 minutes as the sign said.
I had been to the Strawberry Cones in San Gabriel before, tried the Teriyaki Mochi Chicken minus the mayo and the Ninja Six Cheese and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Some reviewers mentioned mayo and pizza don’t mix, but I didn’t have to try it to know that. They still have a lot of different offerings than most pizza places.
The only problem I’ve had is they seem to close at random hours sometimes, a little earlier than they post.

I recently tried the salmon avocado ninja pizza, that was tasty too, but still didn’t beat the teriyaki chicken one. Next time I’m going to try the 4 seasons pizza :)

I would totally come here again and bring people here solely because of their uniqueness compared to other pizza places in the United States.
Strawberry Cones isn’t a sit-​down pizza joint or anything; in fact, they are on a cart outside of Beard Papas and they use the Beard Papas kitchen. Pizza + milk tea + cream puffs (not mixed together, of course) is such a great combination.
I’ve tried two pizzas here: teriyaki mochi chicken (definitely one of the more popular ones) and the salmon pizza.
I would soooo get the teriyaki mochi chicken pizza again, but I would probably pass on the salmon pizza next time. The salmon pizza was just waaaay salty, but the teriyaki mochi chicken pizza was perfect. I loved the stretchiness of the mochi as it was all warm and nice on the ninja, dark crust. I expected more seaweed on that pizza (based on a picture I saw), but it was tasty anyways. I can’t wait to try more of their varieties!
The prices of these pizzas are on the high end, but I guess they don’t really have a competitor around the area, so it makes sense and whatnot.

The name «Strawberry Cones & Pasta» is as whimsical as its Tokyo style pizzas and pasta. Located inside the Little Tokyo Plaza, you’ll find the Strawberry Cones & Pasta kiosk across from Beard Papas (you know… the Japanese Cream Puffs). If you don’t see anyone standing at the kiosk, walk inside Beard Papas and tell them that you want to order a pizza. The owner of Beard Papas is also the owner of the pizza joint. He will come out and take your order.
Expect a long wait to get your grub and expect to eat inside the mall. We waited a good hour until our pizzas and pastas were delivered to our table. The wait was worth it for freshly made food.
I shared the California Walnut & Raisin Pizza. It seemed like a wild card concoction of walnuts, raisins, and cheeses such as Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, and Romano. It’s actually the best vegetarian pizza I’ve had without the veggies. The sweet sprinkling of powered sugar and meaty walnuts gave this pizza a unique twist of sweet and savory. I also enjoyed the squid pasta. The tender slices of squid and the dried roe are an awesome combination with spaghetti. Love it, love it, love it!
I’ll be back again for more pizza and pasta at Strawberry Cones & Pasta. Now that I know that their also next to Mikawaya, I’ll make sure that I eat my mochi ice cream first while I wait for my pizza and pasta from Strawberry Cones & Pasta.

YAY TO STRAWBERRY CONES!
After not going here for quite some time, my friend and I had the munchies and decided to return here. The last pizza we had, my friend wanted to get it again, the Ninja Mentai.
The first time ordering it a while back, I wanted to a half and half, but the lady behind the counter explained that the pizza is always split in half, because it’s two different pizzas, a four-​cheese kind and a three-​cheese with tomato.
So yummy, and brings back fond memories of me barely finding about this place. The sucky part is that they still haven’t changed the Four Seasons pizza; it’s still stuck on Winter and Spring, which kind of blows, because I wanted to try the Summer and Autumn American versions.
Also, the seating outside Beard Papa changed; no more tacky metal chairs, but it’s been replaced with Ikea-​ish chair, probably thanks to Paulette, since the color scheme of the chairs went with the theme.

I have been really wanting to try this place since the San Gabriel Location closed it’s doors. I really did not know what to expect coming here so I asked the cashier what people order most.
We ordered the Teriyaki Chicken Mochi pizza but with the Ninja crust. For the most part the pizza sounds better then it taste. The pizza is suppose to be with the original crust not ninja. I think that is what really threw the taste off. The mochi and ninja crust are too soft, making the pizza very mushy in your mouth. If I had ordered the pizza how it was meant to be ordered, it would taste better (my fault).
I will come here at a later point to try again, but maybe the four season pizza.

If you only like traditional tasting pizza, this is not for you. We were fascinated by this place when we saw it in the Little Tokyo ghostmall coz.1.)… its called Strawberry Cones for Gods sake (when we asked the woman working there why it was called Strawberry Cones all she said was that the pizza was «soft like a strawberry». There was no further explanation.) and 2.) the sort of epic looking black crust ninja pizza. Its right across from Beard Papas, where they cook the pizza and you have to press a little button to alert them that youre there. It takes about 15 – 20 minutes for the pizza to bake so you can go to Giga Gifts while you wait.
The pizza itself is different, but tasty. We always get the 6 Cheese with Ninja Crust and mochi (we tried avocado once and didnt like it).The mochi is the best part, it gets really melty and sweet against the cheese. The crust is chewy and delicious. Its great if you wanna try something new.

I can say a lot or I can say a little.
In this case, simple will do the trick:
1. HORRIFIC SERVICE — completely f’ing disinterested in you, your pizza, and existence itself.
2. Pizza was kind of terrible in taste. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing but I tasted 4 types and all were very off putting. I actually spit out that mochi one. Wow. Nasty. With warm mayo or something. A culinary disaster.
3. Price was 13 something for a 1 man pizza, and a small man at that.
4. No «thank you» — nada. They need someone to train their people here. When you sell someone a gross overpriced pizza, at least say «thanks» cause brother, it ain’t happening again!
Fix your bloody service people! And the taste of your pizza.
Evidently they did fix their Rodent problem which I believe caused them to close both Beard Papa and this joint for a week or so.

My sister wanted to try pizza with mochi, so we went to Strawberry Cones. No strawberries and cones here, but it is a cute name. Haha.
We had the salmon and avocado pizza with a ninja crust and the teriyaki mochi pizza.
We were starving when we came in, so we scarfed down our pizzas. Mochi on a pizza is pretty interesting, but they really are nothing to write home about. I would only come back here if my best friend or husband insisted on trying Japanese style pizza… a request I won’t be expecting from them.

This place sucks. Korean owned Japanese Pizza? Seriously.
Read the reviews. They moved from San Gabriel to DTLA and did not pay folks. WTF. I would get a lawyer. ASAP.

I went to meet my sister for lunch in Little Tokyo. She was telling me about this place called Strawberry Cones that served pizza and pasta. I was like, «Wuh?!»
So me being the adventurous type, I tried out a slice of the teriyaki and mochi pizza with salad. I have to say that the seaweed strips and mochi kinda go together and the dough was decent. The teriyaki had a nice amount of flavor without being too sweet. I could recommend this place for people who are not dead set on their NY or Chicago-​style pizzas. I prefer Two Boots, but I like to try different stuff, so I can appreciate Strawberry Cones.

How do I say this nicely? The service was terrible, and the food was even worse… and that’s putting it nicely.
I probably should have read the reviews for the Downtown location in more detail before going to the restaurant, but I was expecting at least a restaurant storefront with designated tables and chairs. What I found was a kiosk (similar to the make-​up counters that you see in the mall where there are the pesky sales associates that insult you and your appearance in order to make a sale), with a woman sitting on a stool behind the counter. The woman clearly saw that we were interested in placing an order but she proceeded to ignore our presence completely… even getting up and walking into Beard Papas without making any contact. It was as if we were interrupting her personal time as she clearly chatting on the phone instead of doing her job.
Once we finally got her attention, we decided to order a Teriyaki Mochi Chicken Pizza, and another order of half salmon and avocado, and half fish egg pizza (not sure what it was called). I was completely disgusted. I was with a group of friends, some of which were Japanese and needless to say, we were all speechless and not in a good way. My stomach hurts just thinking about the smell from the pizza — I’m sorry but smoked salmon and avocado should not be put on a black crusted pizza. It not only looked disgusting, it tasted like crap.
Now I understand why the other store in the SGV shut down. You can probably expect this one to shut down shortly thereafter give the fact that we were the only ones there during lunch hour on a Sunday.
Despite all the excitement that we built up for this restaurant, I left completely lack-​luster and in need of a carbonated beverage to wash down the so-​called pizza.
Food — I just threw up a little.
Service — What Service?
Ambiance — You call that ambiance?

I hate to be the party pooper, and a one rating is drastic, but these pizzas were not for me. It’s not just the taste, but the drink selection and the prices. And despite the one rating I’m giving it, I’m not saying keep away. The taste is certainly different, and if you are an adventurous eater, I actually encourage you to try it. You might like it a lot as do the previous Unilocalers for this location. After all, there are over 200 locations in Japan, and the handful of locations in North America seem to have a cult following, so a lot of people do like their pizzas.
Now, then, I love pizza so much, I’ll gobble up frozen pizza like it was a gourmet meal. I just don’t eat much traditional American pizza for health reasons. So, when I read about Strawberry Cones in the newspaper, I had to try it out. Especially since it sounded like a health food. I mean a rice flour based crust, seaweed, and a category of pizza with chikutan (bamboo charcoal) crust. And it was more like eating health food than pizza.
I had a slice of a teriyaki mochi chicken and a slice of the mochi mentai ninja pizza.
Starting off with the teriyaki mochi chicken. It looked interesting. I took a taste of the chopped seaweed. And it was very good. They use the sweetened seaweed. Then I took a bite of the crust. Not for me, but I could handle it. I love mochi. It goes great with ice cream; it goes great with red bean paste; it’s great for New Year’s Day. It does not belong on a pizza. Nor does it go well with chicken. The crust/​chicken/​mochi pretty much dominated the flavor, the mayo and the cheeses didn’t come into play and the seaweed couldn’t save it.
But I was really looking forward to the ninja pizza with the bamboo charcoal crust. Eat pizza and detoxify my body at the same time. Wow. However, the crust tasted as advertised: like charcoal. And not only could I not finish this pizza, but I had to get a pint of unsweetened green tea at Marukai up the street to wash out the taste. As far as the toppings, a little more flavorful than the Teriyaki mochi chicken, I suspect because of the fish roe, even though I picked at it and couldn’t find any, the saltiness indicated it was present. Same deal as the Teriyaki Mochi Chicken Pizza with the mochi. It does not belong on a pizza, and the seaweed could not save this one either.
Here’s where the ratings really drop to a one for this location. The drink selection was woefully short, not just the cart, but Beard Papa’s doesn’t have the widest selection of drinks, either. Second, and I understand these are unusual and expensive pizza toppings, but they were $ 4.50 a slice. With tax and the drink I bought at Beard Papa’s, it came to over $ 12.00 for two slices of pizza and a drink.
Again, the taste was very interesting and way not for me. But, it really is certainly worth a try for adventurous eaters. Just go in with very neutral, not with high expectations like I did. And if you don’t like it, you can treat yourself to a cream puff at Beard Papa’s. Their cream puffs are amazing and easily a five.

«I haven’t met a pizza that I didn’t like»
Ok, my friends say I’m too lenient when reviewing pizza places BUT I love pizza!
After seeing the menu (and plastic pizzas on display) I was excited to try a Strawberry Cones pizza. Wow! I had a salmon & avocado pizza with a thin ninja crust. I loved it.
There are so many pizzas on the menu that I want to try.
Thank you Strawberry Cones for opening near me!

The little tokyo mall is a strange place. At least that’s how I describe it to others. It’s not a popular destination given it’s a good block away from where everyone associates Little Tokyo to be. But if you venture off the beaten path and walk the block and some change you’ll be treated to some really unique dining experiences.
For example Strawberry Cone Pizza. Which I must say has nothing to do with Strawberry and cones. In fact, when talking about Pizza from here I think it’s only fitting that you remember that one song from the old Ninja Turtles Live Action film:
Go Ninja
Go Ninja
Go!
Go Ninja
Go Ninja
GO!
Go Ninja
Go Ninja
GO!
GO GO GO GO!
Ninja, Ninja Pizza!
Yes, that’s right. While they have some really strange stuff on the menu, the one to try is the Ninja Pizza.
Now I’m not sure if they named it that because it has a black bamboo charcoal «Chikutany» pizza crust or because when it hits the table, like a good ninja — It vanishes. But for whatever reason it’s called that it’s one assassin you want to hire as it will throw a ninja star to you hunger.
I tried the Mochi Mentai — which just sounds wrong on so many levels with the toppings consisting of Mentaiko, Mochi, Mayo, Chopped Seaweed, Mozzarella and Romano cheese. But surprisingly it was actually pretty tasty.
The other pizzas sound equally as confusing as to how they came to be. Failed science experiment or just a matter of ooze falling on a batch of ingredients mutating it to what will be called an amazing Pizza join in the middle of the walk away of this mall’s entrance.
Truly a strange and unique Pizza going experience that you should try at least once. It’s a total shell shock to your system on how good it is.

Just came back from lunch at newly opened Strawberry Cones inside Little Tokyo Shopping Center. I called in my order around 11:45am and was told my pizza would be ready by 12:15. I thought that’s a long time to make one medium sized pizza but when I got to their booth, I saw that their business hour starts from 12 noon. I’m happy they took my order despite this but they should consider opening earlier because I know some people take early lunch to beat the lunch crowd at noon.
I ordered #2 Mochi Mentai Ninja Pizza. I’ve never had Chikutan pizza before but I knew I can’t go wrong with the combination of mochi+mentai+mayo+cheese+nori and I was right! It was so good. The salty-​cheesy flavor of mentai combined with mochi texture was oh-​so satisfying. The thin crust Chikutan pizza crust had a nice gentle crunch at first but soon, the texture turned dense and the texture became similar to that of flat bread. Which I thought was also good.
Also, I had a side order of chicken karaage. At $ 3.75 for 6 pcs of medium sized karaage, it was pretty flavor and quite a steal.
In case you don’t see any staff inside their booth, Strawberry Cone’s kitchen is located inside Papa Beard so just go inside their shop and while you’re there, treat yourself with Papa Beard’s delectable cream puffs too.
Oh, and this branch doesn’t offer pasta :(