Just Hungry

Jusco in Chatswood (NSW) is no longer there, sadly. :(

There is another one in Mandarin Centre, actually, but I forgot its name. I will be in Chatswood today so I’ll try to check. :)

Hello! ^_^ I live in New Zealand and I accidentally found your site! Please keep up the good work!

In:
Auckland -
Japan Mart (Retail Shop)
75 Anzac Ave. Auckland, New Zealand
http://japanmart.co.nz/

Wellington -
Unit K, 175 Rongotai Rd. Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand

Christchurch -
56 Newtown St. Bromley, Christchurch, New Zealand

Hope that helps with the update!~ ^_^

Hi~ I really love this site cause I get to try all sorts of new recipes and they taste delicious!
Anyway I made a few holiday trips to Melbourne before and I did try to find some major stores that sell Japanese food. I failed cause I couldn’t find any, but hopefully this small piece of information will help! ^__^

I haven’t found any major stores that sells heaps and loads of Jap food, but you can find SOME ingredients such as buckwheat noodles [Soba in Japanese], thick egg noodles [Udon in Japanese], dipping/sauce/soup for soba or how ever you can call it [Tsuyu in Japanese], and some tools used to make sushi; they’re usually found in Melbourne’s major grocery stores, like Coles and Safeway, and most of them would have an Asian Grocery section, so that’s where you get it. Really simple food to get, but it’s still better than nothing.

So mainly if you want to find most Japanese ingredients in Melbourne, try to find SMALL convienent chinese, japanese and korean, and sometimes vietnamese grocery stores, which you can find in the CBD [Central Business District] itself you can find some around the city and also Chinatown [Located on Little Lonsdale St.], also some suburbs right near the city you can find some stores selling jap food, such as Richmond.

Usually most asian grocery stores have quite a variety of groceries which specialises in Asian groceries, and you can find quite a bunch of Japanese ingredients and tools. The only problem with shopping for food in the city itself, that it’s quite expensive! Don’t get me wrong, it’s usually much more expensive to shop for things in the city rather than the outer suburbs. But then again, Melbourne’s things are not cheap…

For cheaper and more variety to shop for Japanese food, you will have to go to the outer suburbs of Melbourne. As for me, I stayed at the southern eastern suburbs, so I did my shopping at suburbs which are mainly asian suburbs, due to the fact that those suburbs was populated with asians. You will find more asian grocery stores in suburbs like these, and they’re cheaper to buy compared to buying in the city, and also they have more variety.

So, the main suburb which I used to do most of my asian shopping is Box Hill, and also in Box Hill you can also find vietnamese and korean and chinese groceries, since Box Hill is mainly a chinese suburb. Some other suburbs near Box Hill would also have asian grocery stores, but I prefered Box Hill cause there was much more to shop for.

I hope you find this helpful. Happy shopping!

Tokyo Deli at 418 Glen Huntly Road Elsternwick is a good Japanese specialist in Melbourne, they also have a kitchen where they prepare fresh food to eat in or takeaway.

There is one big Japanese store that i know of in Auckland called Japan Mart.
http://www.tokyofood.co.nz/
That is the website that owns Japan Mart.
I ahve not yet been there but have heard good things of this shop.
Lots of range and good prices.

Here are more details for Japan Mart

Japan Mart
75 Anzac Ave
Auckland
0064-9-377-2226
0064-9-373-5081
info [at] japanmart [dot] co [dot] nz

This is a brilliant shop - it’s the retail outlet for one of the main Japanese food importers in NZ. They sell food and cooking supplies.
:)

There is a small asian grocery shop in the Knox shopping centre with a reasonably good section of Japanese products. It’s near the marketplace on the lower level, tucked around a corner from Lennard’s chicken.
Cheers

Foodville in Johnsonville, Wellington is a Korean food shop but has quite a good range of Japanese foods. There are quite a few Japanese food stores around (mostly ‘Asian’ but with some Japanese), it’s quite possible to get almost anything you need. I’m growing mizuna, shiso, daikon and gobo at the moment too, just ordering seeds from local garden stores.

I just recently visited Christchurch in December. Kobe-ya is the best place I found for Japanese groceries. For New Zealand the selection is quite good. I brought back several packs of pickles with me. Cheap Asahi beer. There is also a Japanese bakery in Gloucester Archade. They have cream pan, anpan, curry pan, melon pan, dorayaki, cafe-ole pan, etc. It was heaven. Brought a backpack full of those too when I returned to Auckland.

For Auckland:

I've been to Japan Mart in Auckland once. The store is huge. This is the retail location for Tokyo Foods. Take alot of money with you because you can get carried away.

There is also a good alternative store where you can get the basic Japanese condiments, tofu, konyaku and good fresh oriental veggies in Glenn Innes. They also have a selecion of Korean foods too. Sorry can't think of the name but it's across from the train station next door to the Hong Kong Takeaway place next to McDonalds. The meat selection there is great too and very good prices.

For rice, Pak N Save at Sylvia Park has 10 kg bags of Wonder Rose rice from California. I've tried the rice grown in Australia and found it lacked in starchiness. Sort of like eating old rice.

There is a little Korean shop on Cambridge Terrace in Wellington CBD which sometimes stocks some Japanese food, but mostly prepackaged stuff.

Opposite Pak N Save in Kilbirnie there is a Chinese supermarket which has basic Japanese cooking essentials.

Dixon Street in Wellington CBD has a Chinese supermarket as well which has frozen goods and a large range of Japanese snack foods as well as cooking essentials.

Yans Supermarket in Hopper Street (Wellington CBD fringe) has a small and expensive selection of things like mirin, sauces, sushi pockets, etc.

You can find a lot of the cooking basics in the "Asian" sections of Woolworths.

There is also a Korean shop in Wellington CBD on Dixon Street near the corner of Victoria Street which often has a few Japanese items as well - also they tend to have fresh mochi which is delicious... rather expensive there, probably due to location.

But there's nothing like the Auckland shops, so if you go to Auckland, STOCK UP!!!

AUCKLAND

Japan Mart has moved, no longer on Anzac Ave, one store in Newmarket and a second store at Sylvia Park, for details check website:

http://japanmart.co.nz/

Japan Mart is expensive but the only source for some items. For basics however I tend to shop at the ubiquitous Korean stores, so much cheaper and the quality is good. Surprising how many regular supermarkets have ingredients suitable for Japanese cooking, though a bit more expensive can be convenient.