Skip to main content You are hereHomeJust Hungry reference handbooksJapanese grocery store listJapanese grocery stores in EuropeJapanese grocery stores in the UK and Ireland Japanese grocery stores in the UK and Ireland We do have some listings for Ireland in the comments below...I'll incorporate them in here soon! General UK notes: Obviously the vast majority of Japanese and Asian groceries are located in and around London! Comments: "A nicely laid out mini-supermarket with a prepared food/bento section. Prices are generally a little higher here than at the Rice Wine Shop." -(Loretta) Centre Point Food Store 20-21 St. Giles High Street Tel: 020 7836 9860 Fax: 020 7240 1702 Korean and English web site Comments: "Japanese and Korean store. Conveniently situated near Tottenham Court Road station, this good sized grocery stocks most of the common Japanese staples. Staff are friendly and very helpful with any Korean food questions you might have." -(Loretta)

London W1D 7ED UK Tel: Multiple: See website English and Japanese web site e-mail: foodshop [at] japancentre [dot] com Comments: The same company also operates a Japanese/Asian food cash and carry. They also run their own Japanese bakery, a ramen shop, and a lot more! See their website for more. This is where I get most of my mail-orderable Japanese groceries, since shopping from them is cheaper even if I add the shipping cost from the UK to France. Unit B Alpha House, 158 Garth Road, Morden Surrey, SM4 4TQ Note: This is a mailorder only operation A fairly new store (opened in 2014 I believe). This page lists the countries they ship to in Europe with tariffs. Next day delivery on the UK Mainland. Prices are competitive with Japan Centre. I have bought from them a couple of times already and have been happy with the service. SOHO, LONDON, W1F 9UA Comments: "I feel great loyalty to this store. Although small it has an excellent selection of groceries and consistently good prices.

Can be accessed with a wheelchair (a squeeze but possible)" -(Loretta) According to the site they will delivery to the UK mainland (though their site is all in Japanese...) 136 Golders Green Road Comments: "Not Japanese, but Seoul Plaza in Golders Green has a decent range of Japanese stuff. And looking at their website there are 3 branches in New Malden, one in Cambridge, and one in Bratislava (!). Not been to any of the others but I expect they also stock Japanese food." -(Alice) (below is still unformatted - working on it!) Fairly pricey, but centrally-located and has a bigger range of Japanese food than the Chinese supermarkets nearby. 14 Gerrard St, London W1D 5PT Chinese but has a seperate Japanese section, as well as a decent selection of fresh produce. Prices are about as good as you’ll get in London, especially if buying in bulk. Haven’t been since they finished the remodelling of the Cricklewood store, and never been to the others. I usually visit every couple of months to stock up on basics in bulk, much easier to drive there (plenty of free parking) than to try and lug 5kg bags of rice back on the bus!

Tel: 020 8450 0422 Fax: 020 8452 1478 Tel: 020 8688 4880 Fax: 020 8688 8786 375 Nechells Park Road Tel: 0121 327 6618 Fax: 0121 327 6612 Tel: 0161 832 3215 Fax: 0161 833 2798 Comments: "Same deal as Wing Yip. Only been to the Park Royal store, didn’t like it as much as Wing Yip so only been the once. pre made sushi riceCan’t remember how much Japanese stuff it actually had either but there was some!"order sushi grade fish online A406 North Circular Rdbamboo sushi roller target Hoo Hing Commercial Centresushi no suki online

There is also Oriental City, which I’ve never been to and the many Chinese supermarkets in Chinatown which have some Japanese stuff and fresh produce. There used to be a lovely little Japanese shop called Unohana in Golders Green (opposite the tube station), it closed for renovation according to the sign in the window but now seems to have closed for good. cooking sushi rice ukIt was quite expensive and didn’t have a huge range but did sell ‘sushi-quality’ fish and decent ready-made sushi and bento boxes. sushi online dfIf it ever reopens I will post about it.sushi in ottawa market25 January, 2008 - 17:29 Oriental City - Colindale (North London - UK) Address: 20 Station Parade, Uxbridge Road, Ealing Common W5 3LD

1 Goldhurst Terrace, Finchley Road NW6 3HX web site in English Unit 5 Wyvern Industrial Estate, Beverley Way,New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4PH 36 High Street, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4HE 126 Malden Road, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 6DD 91-93 Mill Road, Cambridge, CB1 2AW Besides Wing Yip (see above) There is a small Korean grocery on Bristol Rd., near Selly Oak station, which also carries Chinese and Japanese groceries. japanese ingredients shopping equipment and suppliesThe Debrief: Because Itsu's too expensive - so which supermarkets actually offer up the good stuff? Sushi always looks prettier and more inviting than the usual assortment of sandwiches, salads and wraps in the ‘to go’ section of a supermarket. Also, it is just about the only item that is not easier or cheaper to make yourself at home. However, while there is excellent and delicious sushi, there is also horrible and sometimes slightly disturbing sushi, especially if you’re buying on a budget.

So, in an attempt to settle the question once and for all which supermarket sells the best sushi packs I committed myself to a week of supermarket sushi for lunch at my desk, all in the name of journalism. In my notes each lunchtime, I decided that I needed to take in factors such as price, how many pieces in the pack and overall appearance as well as flavour to determine which store truly is the best lunch option. I also thought it might be a good idea to consult an expert first as to what we should be looking for, and what to avoid when selection our lunchtime sushi snacks. So, what should you be looking for when selecting your sushi? According to Mike Lewis, the Group Executive Chef at YO! Sushi, 'ideally the sushi will include some fresh ingredients, not just smoked or cooked fish or just vegetables. If it does, it is a pretty good indicator that the sushi was not made that day.' As well as what to look for, apparently the shorter the shelf life, the better the sushi, and a good pro tip to keep in mind is to remove your sushi from the office fridge about half an hour before you plan to eat it — eating your sushi at room temperature enhances the flavour.

If your sushi is too cold, you won’t be able to taste it properly. Several things worried me about the appearance of the Asda sushi selection I grabbed for lunch. The main staple of supermarket sushi seem to be maki rolls and salmon or prawn nigiri, and the salmon did not look a very nice colour, and was smoked. I know maybe I’ve got too high standards, but I get highly suspicious of any sushi made with smoked salmon, even if it does make sense from the supermarkets point of view. The pack also included a smoked mackerel nigiri. So how did it taste? I’ve been told on numerous occasions that the most important thing about sushi is not the fish, that it is the rice. This rice I think was the worst of the bunch; it reminded me of that cheap white stuff with the horrible after taste that put me off practically anything it was served with for school lunches. The bad smoked salmon, as predicted, was not good. And a special mention needs to go to the maki roll made with smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives.

Is the idea to put people off eating bagels for life? The mackerel turned out to be suspiciously spongy. A beacon of shining light came in the form of the crab(stick) roll. It just tasted like sushi. While soy is just an accompaniment, and the ginger is just a pallet cleanser (I’m afraid I can’t rate the wasabi as I can’t stand it, though every pack seemed to contain the same brand) I feel they need commenting on. The soy was good (kudos for the little fish shaped bottle), and the ginger was also perfectly serviceable, with just the very lightest whiff of the artificial. It may be cheap, but that does not necessarily mean that you should eat it. In the name of science I tried to buy similar sized sushi packs so I could compare them properly, but in my local (big) Sainsbury’s I could only get a medium fish pack. They do however sell a large ‘fusion’ sushi pack for £3.50.The rice in Sainsbury’s sushi actually tastes good, and there's not too much of an overpowering flavour from vinegar.

It makes a good base for the prawn nigiri, where the fish was nice and plump, and the whole thing had a good overall flavour. As for the various maki rolls kicking about, the little cucumber ones were not overly exciting. The prawn ones were actually really good, and the larger, cooked tuna and red pepper roll, while not traditional, was actually a very good bite. However, the whole pack let itself down yet again by using smoked salmon (a slightly better quality smoked salmon this time, but still!) and by including a smoked salmon and cream cheese sushi roll. I know fusion is all the rage (there is a Korean sushi joint in Covent Garden I keep on meaning to check out because it looks delicious), but if you take away the word ‘sushi’, who would ever agree that putting smoked salmon, cream cheese and rice together would be a good idea? If you get to know which pieces are good and which are less than ideal, and look at the various selections available, Sainsbury’s sushi is totally a viable lunch option.

While this is the most expensive sushi pack in this feature, if you look at how many pieces you get and the size of the pieces, it is actually not any different in piece per pound value than you get in Asda. And it was the sushi selection I tried that looked the most appetising.Something else worth noting is you get what you pay for; the sushi may be more expensive, but the fish is fresh and not smoked. This greatly improves all of the nigiri, though the prawn version was slightly flavourless without the addition of soy, and and unorthodox addition of a piece of Waitrose’s far superior pickled ginger. The salmon was lovely and fresh, how you want your sushi really to be. As for all the various maki rolls, the standard ones were very, very good, but when they branched out a bit into more imaginative offerings, things got a little more average. Waitrose is my favourite, and probably what I’d recommend as the gold standard in supermarket sushi. In the middle of eating my Tesco sushi selection, I spent a fair bit of time seriously considering who would come out on the bottom;

I honestly did not think that it could get any worse than Asda’s offering. First, shall we focus on the positives? Tesco is the only supermarket who provide chopsticks in their sushi offering, so that you won’t have smelly, fishy fingers all afternoon. However, the rice is very dense and actually makes every bite taste rather sour, and a lot of the maki rolls look more than slightly slimy. On a lighter note, while the orientally flavoured sweet chilli roll was rather unexpected, the flavour was not all that bad. Honestly, I would not recommend Tesco sushi; I ended up throwing my half eaten tray out and buying a baguette for my lunch instead. When you work out how many pieces you get for how much money, M&S sushi is bloody expensive! However, while none of the fish was fresh, it all did have good flavour. They even used good quality smoked salmon. This sushi is made with good rice, and while I was upset it did not come in a little fish shaped bottle, the soy was delicious. They also provided some pretty impressive fresh ginger that did not even have to come in a little packet.