The classic Japanese snacks onigiri and taiyaki are available in Buffalo at last, thanks to a father who couldn’t say no to his daughter. Since he’d already gone that far, he started making ramen with housemade noodles.

Matthew Zayas’ daughter Luna got a taste for taiyaki in New York City. The fish-shaped waffles, filled with chocolate, custard, or red bean paste, are sold warm by the bag by street vendors.

Zayas and his partner, Chiara Moslow, opened Konbini at 500 Washington St. this summer. In Japan, konbini is the abbreviation for konbiniensu sutoru, “convenience store.”

Their space is on the Washington Street side of The Lane on Main, a block-long corridor of small businesses like bookstores and vintage clothing merchants whose other entrance is 523 Main St. 

“Luna wanted to do a lemonade stand for like, years and years and years,” said Zayas. “She’s turning 10 this year, so this past summer, we just said, ‘Okay. Let’s do this lemonade stand.’ And she says, ‘Dad, we should sell taiyaki at the lemonade stand, because there’s nowhere to get taiyaki here.’” 

So Chiara bought Luna a taiyaki machine for the lemonade stand. At pop-ups across Buffalo, they found an appreciative audience in a taiyaki-free city.

Guess whose idea the onigiri were. Japan’s favorite snack is a rice ball studded with sour and salty fillings like pickles, vegetables, or fish, in a sheet of nori, dried seaweed. Then Zayas added ramen, making the broths and noodles himself. 

Ramen in miso, tonkotsu, tantanmen, and more styles are $17-$20. Onigiri with pickled plum, mushroom, tuna, and more are $5. An order of four taiyaki, with matcha cream, nutella, or red bean paste inside, are $5.

Five days a week, they offer onigiri and taiyaki. On Friday and Saturday, Konbini serves ramen soup and noodles, all with fresh housemade noodles. Beware: This is not fast food. Konbini can only boil one serving of noodles at a time. But it is food worth waiting for.

He started learning Japanese at eight or nine. His uncle’s wife was Japanese, and they spent time in Japan. Then his mother, a Spanish teacher for 30 years in New York City schools, gave him bags filled with cassette tapes and books being phased out in their Japanese program. 

Zayas taught himself how to read and write hiragana. Then his family hosted Japanese exchange students he could learn from. Which is how a Brooklyn boy with a Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother from Puerto Rico could speak fluent Japanese as a teenager. 

He studied international trade at University at Buffalo, and got his first job because of his language skills. Now fluent in Japanese, Spanish, French, with workable Mandarin and Hindi, Zayas’s day job is as a business problem-solving consultant whose six languages and can help manufacturers navigate international trade issues.

By night, Kombini.

Zayas’ plan is to get a noodle-making machine from Japan, and a bigger coffee roaster to handle the coffee he sources in the Dominican Republic and brews up in Buffalo. In the meantime, “We need a bigger space,” Zayas said. “We are hitting up against the capacity of this kitchen. So we only do ramen Fridays and Saturdays.” 

If you know of a Buffalo space available where he could cook, say, two servings of ramen at the same time, please email Zayas at matthew@diversely.nyc. In the meantime, customers can order ahead by messaging Konbini through its site or its Instagram.

Konbini, 500 Washington St., konbinibuffalo.com

Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, plus 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Friday, noon-7 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday, Monday. 

REVIEW: “Friends and family” nights are how restaurants test kitchen and service crews before showtime, opening to the public. In 15 years of restaurant criticism, I’ve never offered a review based on previews, because restaurant crews usually need time to adjust to real pressure. Mira, the broadly Mediterranean restaurant that opens to the public Nov. 6, is the exception. It has all the ingredients to become Buffalo’s next great restaurant. (For patrons, on Thursday.)

EGG-STRAVAGANZA

Deviled egg creativity was on display Saturday as the 2025 Deviled Egg-stravaganza brought detail-oriented cooks and hungry egg fanciers together, backed up with dinner from Southern Junction.

Gold leaf, Spam and seaweed, caviar, tzatziki, and tamarind sauce were among the ingredients that I’ve never before imagined as deviled egg appropriate. I would have added Doritos, but those go with everything, naturally.

Here are your champions: 

Best tasting: Team 1, Beef on Wegg, roast beef, horseradish cream

Best classic egg: Team 10, Dragon Eggs, straight-up excellence

Best “not an egg”: Team 1, Gimme S’more, graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate

Best presentation: Team 2, Devils Advocate Roll, rice, egg, flying fish caviar, black sesame 

Judges’ choice: Team 12, Thai son-in-law Deviled Eggs, fried eggs in tamarind sauce

Aunt Madonna’s Special Selection: Olympian Overture, gyro, tzatziki, feta cheese, green pepper, cucumber, pepperoncini, roasted red pepper, pita crisp 

The Most Eggsemplary Deviled Eggs in WNY, overall crown: Team 1, for the second year in a row. There is an eggcellent chance of a 2026 Deviled Egg-stravaganza, so if you just had a better idea for a deviled egg, jot it down, and get to the laboratory.

ASK THE READERS, PART 1: A reader is looking for a place that serves dinner on Thanksgiving Day. If you know of any places that have said they will offer dinner for Thanksgiving 2025, please drop me a line at andrew@fourbites.net.

ASK THE READERS, PART 2: “I have been buying gingerbread houses, characters and even ornaments from Wolter’s Bakery for decades. As you know, that bakery with authentic German roots has closed. Any ideas about where I might find freshly-baked (in WNY) gingerbread houses this year?” Please email suggestions to andrew@fourbites.net.

ASK THE CRITIC

Q: I’m getting deep into mixology and want to go to a bar that has a wide variety of high quality alcohols and knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful bartenders. Somewhere I can sit down and talk about the ratio of gin vs. vermouth in a martini, a place that has chartreuse on the back wall. You feel me? What spots would fit that, preferably one that won’t charge an arm and a leg. 

• Dominick M.

A: Here’s some people worth talking to – cocktail informers, not just mixers. Tony Rials at Waxlight Bar a Vin, honored by James Beard two years in a row for how its beverage program meshes with its cuisine. Danny Dispo at Hydraulic Hearth, a tiki bar specialist who can talk rum for days. Ashley North at Marble + Rye knows not just cocktails but ingredients, and can help you find something you actually love to drink.

On the budget note: Marble + Rye has the most financially accessible high-end cocktail happy hour in the city.

More reading from Michael Chelus:

• Service begins on 11/6 at Mira  [Four Bites]
• Dalfonso’s Italian Imports has opened in its new Allentown location offering sandwiches, small plates, pasta and more [Buffalo News]
• Francesca asked where lunch downtown has gone [Buffalo News]
• Mario’s Bistro & Brews is moving to a new location in Orchard Park [Buffalo News]
• Bar-Bill Tavern will soon open a new location in Ellicottville [Buffalo News]
• George told us that we can now find a Ukranian specialty on Buffalo’s West Side [Buffalo Rising]
• Francesca also told us how Parmed gives Liberty Hound a new life for winter [Buffalo News]
• Brian’s Buffalo Beer Buzz told us about the return of Cask Fest to Mr. Goodbar on 12/4, the 21st annual Holiday Valley Beer & Wine Festival on 11/8 and more [Buffalo Beer League]
• Mr. Galarneau wrote about the best Thai dishes in Buffalo that are found at Tiny Thai [Four Bites]
• Nietzsche’s is hosting its third annual Existential Chili Cookoff TODAY [Buffalo News]
• Newell visited a new bar in Allentown – Labryinth [Buffalo Rising]
• Wayland Brewing Company and Buffalo Bros Burgers are teaming up to takeover the Lilly Belle Meads taproom in Lancaster [Buffalo Beer League]

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