Japanese grocery stores in Canada

General Canada notes: Vancouver has a large Asian population.

T & T Supermarket is a nationwide Chinese/Asian supermarket chain.

Alberta

T & T Supermarket
Chinese and English web site
See store locations and hours for Alberta stores here.

British Columbia (Vancouver, Victoria, etc.)

Fujiya Japanese Foods
912 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC (604) 251-3711
112 1050 W. Pender St., Vancouver, BC
Tel: 604.608.1050
English web site
Also at
113-3086 St. Edwards Dr.
Richmond, BC
Tel: 604.270.3715
Also at
3624 Shelbourne Street
Victoria, BC
Tel: 250.598.3711
They say they deliver orders over $100 for free in the downtown core, and for a fee elsewhere. However you have to call them to order: 1.877.8.FUJIYA (385492)
Comments: "I can’t personally vouch for the Richmond and Victoria locations, but the Vancouver locations always have what I’m looking for and more. Many of our grocery stores have Asian sections but the products are always more reasonably priced at Fujiya than anywhere else. Besides packaged products, they have a fresh fish section and a counter making sushi which is extremely fresh and cheap. (Because we’re on the coast?) I was a little reluctant to give out the downtown location address because it is my favourite place for take-out sushi (not that I eat it every day) but it is super busy every lunch hour. They get twice daily deliveries from the main store of freshly made sushi and the line-up is out the door every day starting around 11:30 and doesn’t thin out until after 1PM. Crazy! -(julie)
"Lots of Japanese groceries that are hard to find anywhere else. Here’s the website" -(Maria)
Komatsu Japanese Market
140-1855 Kirschner Road
Kelowna BC Canada V1Y 4N7
Tel: 250 862-9338
Comments: "A small Japanese grocery store, Komatsu has many basic Japanese ingredients and has a freezer section with specialty ingredients such as thinly sliced beef, fish, gyoza, and daifuku. There are no fresh vegetable/fruit items, but they do have pickled daikon, sushi ginger, miso paste, konnyaku noodles, and other fridge items. They also have a sushi kitchen in the back; the store has some pre-made sushi meals in their fridge unit or you can order sushi made for you fresh. They also have some older manga and video tapes all in Japanese only. Prices are relatively good, slightly on the higher side." -(Nat)
Oriental Supermarket
2575 HWY 97 N
KELOWNA, BC. V1X-4J5
Tel: 250-762-2395
Annoying Flash-only auto-music-playing web site in English
Mon-Sat: 9:30am-6:00pm Sun: 10:30am-5:00am
Comments: "Recently moved and renovated, the Oriental Supermarket has tons of ethnic food items! Mexican, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese. Large freezer section, a good sized fresh grocery department, lots of dry goods and a sushi bar that makes the only good bubble tea available in Kelowna (that I know of). I blew over $60 the first time I visited the store after their renovations. One warning, however-ALWAYS check the expiration date on food products from this store-I have, on more than one occasion, unpacked my goods at home only to realize that I have to throw one or two things away. Prices at this store are considerably lower than Komatsu, but the products are most likely not as fresh, so keep a sharp eye." -(Nat)
T & T Supermarket
Chinese and English web site
See store locations and hours for B.C. stores here.

Ontario

Korean Food Market
16 Parkdale Avenue North
Hamilton, Ontario
Tel: (905) 312-8989
Comments: "they offer a very large number of Japanese items." -(Valerie)

Toronto area

PAT Spring Garden Market
63 Spring Garden Av (off Yonge St, just North of Sheppard Av)
North York, ON M2N 3G1
Tel 416-226-5522
Comments: "Korean market with a good selection of sushi fixings" -(ghamina)
Galleria Supermarket
7171 Yonge St (North of Steeles Av)
Thornhill, ON L3T 2A9
Tel 905-771-1474
English and Korean web site
Comments: "Another Korean market with a good selection of sushi fixings, including sashimi" -(ghamina)
MITS Toronto
585 Yonge St
Toronto, ON
Tel: (416) 962-4860, Fax: (416) 962-4868
Japanese web site
Groceries, manga, video rentals, used Japanese books, manga _kissa_ (a cafe where you can sit and read manga...) with wireless intenet, package delivery service center for sending stuff to Japan via Kuroneko Yamato
Sanko Japanese Foods and Gifts
730 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario
Tel 416-703-4550
Mon, Wed-Sat 10:00am - 7:00pm, Sun 11:00am - 6:00pm, closed Tue
English and Japanese web site
Comments: "Great little store. They sell tea sets, rice cookers, dried foods, frozen foods, fresh foods. Lots of variety. It’s in a very busy area. There is street parking, but there are also two or three spaces especially for the store." -(kelly)
T & T Supermarket
Chinese and English web site
See store locations and hours for Ontario stores here.

Toronto also has a Japantown (J-Town) mall.

Newfoundland

Asian Variety Store
159 Water Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland
Tel: 709-726-1698
Comments: "Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesia items, food as well as a small selection of decorative items and fresh sushi on certain days." -(Izumi)

Nova Scotia

Heiwa Oriental Market
7018 Chebucto Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tel: 902-455-8383
Comments: "Primarily Korean, with some Japanese food, too." -(anon)

Québec

Montreal area

Ja Mae
2116 Boulevard Décarie
Montreal, Quebec
Tel: 514-489-9777
Comments: "Korean, with many Japanese products" -(anon)
Miyamoto
382 Victoria
Montreal, Quebec
Tel 514-481-1952
English and French web site

Is your favorite store not listed? Let us know the details in the comments! (When the information from a comment is incporated into the main article the comment is deleted, to keep things neat and all.)

(Last updated on Feb. 9 2008)

Filed under:  japanese ingredients shopping equipment and supplies

Comments

Name: Wasabi at Home
Address: 202-99 Osborne Street, Winnipeg
Phone: (204) 475-1828
Fax: (204) 284-8887
Hours: Mon-Sat: 11 am - 8 pm, Sun: Noon - 6 pm

I find it next to useless though - they don't carry items like Bonito flakes or dashi powder - very spare and geared more to take home.

Where is it possible to find dashi granules and bonito flakes in Winnipeg? I've been looking for dashi everywhere.

Name:Japanese Market Suzuya
Address:5317 Lane Street,Burnaby,B.C.
Phone:(604)685-7119
On-line store:www.suzuya.ca
Japanese food shipped anywhere in Canada.

Fumiya Japanese Food Store. 5926 104 St Nw, Edmonton, AB T6H 2K3 - phone 439-4201

Canakor Foods, 3116 Parsons Road, Edmonton, AB (780) 463-5458 (Japanese and Korean items)

Other Asian food stores will have the occasional Japanese item but the larger selections are probably at the two listed here, or at T&T.

Address: 199 Augusta Ave, Toronto
Phone: (416) 921-1328
Little Tokyo, in Kensington Market, carries Japanese goods of a large variety. They have various Japanese dishes, food, snacks, and drinks.

Just to let everyone know, I passed by this shop today and unfortunately it has closed down period. I was dissapointed but walked over to MITS which is interesting.

Name:Japanese Market Suzuya
Address:5317 Lane Street,Burnaby,B.C.
Phone:(604)685-7119
On-line store:www.suzuya.ca
Japanese food shipped anywhere in Canada.

My family has been shopping here for over a year and are delighted with the selection and the friendly service. The store has a good variety of packaged and frozen grocery items as well as refrigerated pickles, cold green tea, juice etc. Best of all they have recently added authentic Japanese-style breads - everything from an-pan to melon-pan to taiyaki - which are available fresh each morning when the store opens (except on Sundays).

I was just in Vancouver on holidays and visited the amazing (to me & my mom, but not so much to my husband!) 2-floor Daiso store. Almost everything there is $2, and they have loads of Bento boxes and supplies (not to mention every other household item you could ever need!). One of the boxes I bought for $2 I have seen for $20 in a shop in Ottawa!

Here are the contact details:

Unit 1080, 2030 Aberdeen Centre
4151 Hazelbridge Way,
Richmond, BC, Canada V6X 4J7
Tel: 604-295-6601

See www.DaisoCanada.com for more details! :)

In Montreal, in the Gallerie du Parc mini-mall, the small supermarket Eden has many Japanese products. It's nicer than Miyamoto, with a greater selection of some things and the prices are lower (Though still higher than I'm used to)! It's convenient to the McGill Ghetto and the Plateau. I don't work there or anything, I just go there a lot. They also have loads of organic foods.

Hi there, is there any Japanese grocery stores in Ottawa ? thanks.

i would like to know where is a japanese store

in Ottawa Canada??

Win Tai Market
1137 Ogilvie Road
Ottawa, ON K1J
613-744-2880
Open late (9pm, I think)
no website

The best Asian store in Ottawa with the largest selection of Japanese groceries! Carries staples (wide variety of Japanese rice, too), vegetables and frozen food. The store is in the East end, St-Laurent exit towards the mall, then right on Ogilvie, two blocks on the left. There's plenty of parking, or a 15 minute walk from the St. Laurent bus station.

The T&T Supermarket is a pretty awesome superstore on West Hunt Club road - you can't miss the big green sign. It's right by the river/airport.

It's a very large Asian supermarket with hot food, sushi takeout, fresh fish, live crabs, fresh baked goods, lots of produce, spices, and all sorts of other stuff. They even have a toy store with lots of Nintendo and Gundam stuff!

It's mostly Chinese and Korean but has all kinds of Japanese products - Wasabi, seaweed paper for sushi, every type of rice and noodles you can imagine and lost of Asian vegetables.

If there is another store in Ottawa, I'd love to know.
T&T should get added to this sites list for sure.

London Oriental Food Market
250 Commissioners Road West
London, ON N6J 1Y3
Canada‎
(519) 649-5443‎

Has Korean proprietors, but carries a good selection of both Japanese and Korean products. They'll also make an effort to acquire any item you might want that they don't currently carry.

For Toronto, Tap Phong has lots of dishes, bento boxes etc. 360 Spadina Ave, south of College. And even better, they are doing 20% off all Japanese items. Also sushi mats (<$2), soba mats, etc. Also have rice cookers, many choices.

Visited Sanko on Queen St W, great selection at decent prices for the grocery section.

Gerrit

I'm amazed Konbiniya is not on this list. It is part of a small Japanese centre which includes a reading library and other services for the Japanese community. Konbiniya has possibly the best selection in the area for snacks, sweets, gum, and the small boxed collectible anime figures that come with a piece of candy. As well they have a great product line of Japanese groceries and convenience foods such as cold sushi (we even found freshly made dango last time we shopped there). You can easily find Konbiniya in the bustle of Robson St. shops because of the distinctive large boxes of pocky on the front of the building.

T&T has just opened a location in Ottawa, I'm sorry to see Ottawa isn't on the Ontario-section list at all!

Hi,

I just want to list 2 groceries that sell some japanese products in Québec City

Épicerie orientale Mai Thanh
125 St Vallier W
Quebec, QC G1K 1J9
(418) 522-2989

and

Épicerie Lao-Indochine
538, avenue Des Oblats,
Quebec, QC G1N 1V6

thank you!

We just moved to QC and the only asian store we found to be ok is Toyo on chemin st loius. I was disappointed by the poor selection at some of the other stores i visited.

Thank you so much for posting these stores! I found this site yesterday and just visited those stores today. We bought several frozen foods and fresh veggies. I'm hoping to recreate some of our favourite dishes from the wonderful Japanese restaurants in Vancouver. *sigh* I soo miss fujiya and T&T!!

Anyway, we really liked the variety at the Epicerie Lao-Indochine... it's better than the other general asian food stores here! The Japanese section is not that big but they at least have the basics. Maybe some day a Japanese grocery store will open up here.

Thanks again!

Ottawa Stores

T & T is located out near the airport. Great selection, but prices are a bit higher than the norm for some items. Particularly staples.

Bronson and Somerset to Rochester and Somerset (and beyond)
All along this street are a half dozen or so great little markets all competing for your dollar. They have a wonderful mix of products available, most will carry Japanese Staples but ask for help in finding them as they are not exactly that well organized. Because of the large volume of stores prices are often much more competitive than at the big box. And all of the stores will offer deals from week to week. One warning is to ALWAYS CHECK the expiration date of any Imported product in Canada. As I will often find myself passing over my favorite brand of miso or wakame because it expired half a year ago at this store. Just check the lables closely.

Montreal, Quebec there is:

Korean Food Store
6151 Rue Sherbrooke O
Montréal, QC
H4B 1L9
(514) 487-1672

Japanese and all Asian ingredients

I have found another one in Montréal, Québec (Canada) :

Japanese and Korean grocerie store
2109, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest
Montréal, QC H3H 1M6

I want to point out that the link for J-Town in Toronto is incorrect.

It should be:
http://www.jtown.ca/
and also in English,
http://jtown.ca/index_e.html

Although, the Map Location and Sushi shop links on their homepage are also incorrect.
Also, the physical location is hard to spot unless you're familiar with the area. Google Maps doesn't have an updated image of this area (maybe why the Map Location link isn't working).

It is on the North side of Steeles Ave., and if going by the current Google Maps, I think the driveway to get to J-Town is the second one east of Woodbine, that says Don Valley North Toyota and has the big glass-windowed high-rise straight ahead. It has a traffic light now for easier access by car, so if I'm wrong about which driveway, just remember to look for the first traffic light east of Woodbine.

Sunrise market in Vancouver has a good selection of japanese staples and snacks. The tofu there is especially cheap and fresh - they make it there. :)

300 Powell Street
Vancouver, BC

H-Mart is the biggest Asian food retailer in North America with 44 locations(and counting). There are 3 locations in Vancouver area. one in Coquitlam, one in Downtown, and one in Langley. They sell Korean, Japanese, Chinese grocery items and more. It is one stop shopping heaven for asian food lovers. Go to www.hmart.com or www.hmart.ca for more information.

Nakagama Grocery in Lethbridge AB, is full of goodness. Not far down the same road heading west, is a wine store that stocks several brands of sake, including, amongst the predictable brands, Demon Killer. While Nakagama has a good selection of Japanese essentials, it's worth noting, that Asian Supermarket on the north side, though Chinese based, is very well rounded and stocks many Japanese (and other Asian) staples and ingredients.

For newcomers to Lethbridge (like me,) the Japanese garden Nikka Yuko on Mayor Magrath is pretty, and nice to visit. Lethbridge was the site of a Japanese internment camp during WW2. I gather that many Japanese families stayed on in the area aafter the war, greatly enriching the cultural fabric of this windy city.

Peace and Love,

Nakama

In Windsor, Ontario:

Enchie Organic and Japanese food
http://www.enchie.com/

Windsor Korea Market
550 Pelissier St
Windsor, ON, N9A4L1

Suzuya mail order is down for the moment, is there anywhere else in Canada that ships, or is willing to ship here?

Montreal

Marché Hawaï
1999, boulevard Marcel-Laurin
Saint-Laurent, (Québec)
Tél. : 514 856-0226

On y trouve tout le nécessaire pour préparer des plats asiatiques, des pousses de bambou au lait de coco, en passant par des fruits comme le mangoustan et des galettes de riz.

Le marché Hawaï offre d'innombrables variétés de riz, dont le riz de la nouvelle récolte. Il s'agit d'un riz parfumé et tendre, un peu plus collant que le riz moins frais. Pour faire du riz frit, Sue Quash recommande donc de prendre du riz ancien, qui ne collera pas.

Thank you for this link! I know all the other Montreal stores but this is a new one. Can't wait to visit it.

In Winnipeg, there is the Lucky Supermarket. It covers food products from all over but has a decent Japanese aisle. The only thing I couldn't find there was miso, which I now get from Superstore.

Lucky Supermarket
1051 Winnipeg Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0S2
Tel: 204-272-8011
Fax: 204-272-8012
http://www.luckysupermarket.ca/

Sakura Japanese Grocery & Cafe

(250) 388-3636
Downtown
1213 Quadra Street
Victoria, BC V8W

This is an address to a Japanese grocery store in Victoria. I find their prices are good compared to Chinatown. : )

I'm in a very small town with next to zero access to Japanese or Asian food of any kind (unless you count a very small sushi restaurant.).

My husband and I love making our own ramen and enjoy using asian dishware so if at all possible, I'd love a website that could deliver anywhere in Canada. It'd be even MORE fantastic if the website delivered Chinese or Japanese style breads. We'd be very very grateful.

In addition to the PAT in North York, there is also the main location downtown: PAT Central. It is at 675 Bloor St West (near Christie TTC Station). Their phone number is 416-532-2961, and the hours are Mon-Sat 9am-10pm, Sun 9:30am-9pm. Website URL is here: http://www.patmart.net/pat/downtown. Bonus: in the cooler months, there is a taiyaki stand inside PAT - something I never thought I could find outside Japan!

Anyway, I just wanted to add that to the list of Toronto locations. There is also Lucky Moose in Chinatown, which has some of the best prices on things like tofu, wakame and noodles. I'm looking forward to trying the other places on the list!