Japanese convenience store brings rice balls back to 100 yen

As onigiri prices continue to rise everywhere else, Lawson Store 100 stays true to its name.

There’s perhaps no better example of the frustrating inflation that’s taking place in Japan than what’s happened to convenience store onigiri (rice balls). It wasn’t all that long ago that you could get simple varieties for not all that much more than 100 yen (US$0.65), but they’ve become pretty much impossible to find at that price point. Even at Lawson Store 100, the budget-friendly sub-brand of the Lawson convenience store chain where most items are priced at 100 yen, onigiri prices had been raised to start at 120 yen.

This month, though, Lawson Store 100 apparently took another look at the name on their doors and decided to reduce the price of five types of onigiri, salmon, tuna mayo, kombu (kelp), mentaiko (spicy cod roe), and beef mayo, back down to 100 yen.

This isn’t a temporary sale or promotional campaign, either, but the new standard price for those five varieties. Always thankful for any company trying to save customers some cash in these tight economic times, we headed out to see if the quality of these 100-yen onigiri holds up.

We rolled into our local branch after 11 a.m. but before noon, and with lunchtime looming, they had sold out of their current stock of 100-yen mentaiko and beef rice balls. There were still salmon, kombu, and tuna mayo available, though, so we snagged one of each for taste-testing purposes.

We noticed two things right away. First, these onigiri have no nori (seaweed) wrapping. Though nori isn’t something you’ll find on all onigiri, it is a pretty common ingredient, and its absence here could be considered a cost-cutting measure. On the other hand, nori isn’t really the main attraction, even among passionate onigiri fans, and the unpredictable ways the seaweed can crack or tear as you bite through it often results in little bits of it falling and making a mess, or managing to get stuck in your teeth in places where it’s practically impossible to trace the path they took to get there, and equally difficult to dislodge.

As such, we’re willing to give Lawson Store 100’s 100-yen rice balls a pass for their lack of seaweed. Our bigger concern was that, because of how the stickers on the wrappers are placed, we couldn’t tell how generous, or skimpy, the fillings were going to be prior to opening one up.

Thankfully, it turns out they have a respectable quantity inside. These aren’t particularly hearty onigiri, but neither are they disappointingly light on ingredients. If we’re buying a convenience store’s baseline onigiri, this is pretty much the amount of filling we expect, so we’ve got no complaints on this front.

We started our taste test with the salmon onigiri, and were immediately rewarded with a perfectly satisfying mix of robust fish and salt in the flavor profile. The rice was nice and fluffy too, and if anything the lack of seaweed gave more room for the rice and salmon to dance on our taste buds for a crisp, invigorating sensation.

Next up was the kombu onigiri, which was just as impressive, with a decent amount of filling and an enjoyably rich flavor.

Two stages into our taste test, Lawson Store 100’s 100-yen onigiri weren’t just good when taking their price into consideration, they were just as satisfying as their counterparts from more expensive convenience store chains. Eager to see if they could go three-for-three, we opened up the tuna mayo…

…and not only was this as good as what rival chains offer, it’s arguably even better! The balance here is on the creamy side, and if that’s your preference, this is an onigiri worth recommending even completely disregarding its low price.

With convenience store onigiri having gotten so expensive that they’ve disappeared from many people’s thought process when their stomachs start growling, it’s great to have a chain that’s working to bring them closer to what they used to be, and we’re definitely going to have to try the remaining two varieties of Lawson Store 100 100-yen rice balls when we come across them.

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