Sakuraya stocks a variety of packaged foods and flavorings for all Japanese cooking. They have Golden Curry at a fair price, it is smoother than Glico, but costlier. Large selection of Japanese rice here. A large refrigerator stocks all the drinks you could desire. As the other postings mention, there are no perishables here, so travel elsewhere for your veg and meats. What you will find here is everything you need for cooking Japanese style meals. This is a cute, kind of hokey atmosphere. And way better pricing than the downtown Japanese stores. Worth the trek over to Broadway.
Ayaka H.
Place rating: 4 Los Angeles, CA
For Sakuraya to call itself a Japanese supermarket is quite misleading. Sakuraya is without any produce, refrigerated, or cooked foods. Most of what Sakuraya carries are instant foods, or processed packaged foods, which make it quite limited, and the selections are not enough. What I did find interesting was that there was a variety of Japanese rice. Other than that, a good place if you want instant noodles, snacks or seasonings for your cooking. Lastly, I still give it a 4 star rating for its very good price. A lot of the items are cheaper than any other Japanese stores in Vancouver.
Tabi N.
Place rating: 4 Vancouver, Canada
It’s super small, but they do have things needed for everyday life as a Japanese person in a Canadian city. I find staff more friendly than fujiya, but they don’t make lunches. So everything you buy are ingredients to make your own lunches and dinner. Plus they have a munchies isle.
Bryan T.
Place rating: 4 Burnaby, Canada
Love this place. The selection may not be the best. But they do make up for it in the pricing. You can find most of your Japanese cooking needs here. What I can’t find here I’ll go elsewhere next. The salesperson says to keep the price down they don’t do advertisements and keep minimal staffing which is fine with me since things here are so much cheaper then Fujiya.
Felicity D.
Place rating: 3 Vancouver, Canada
Clean and well lit. Friendly staff. Sadly, the selection is really limited.
Simon K.
Place rating: 4 Vancouver, Canada
How many times I’ve driven right past this place without even knowing there was a supermarket located above another supermarket came as a surprise when my sweetie was sitting in the passenger side and pointed out this place, sometimes two sets of eyes are better than one, and in this case it was. It’s that cultural difference that attracts me to these type of places, and the Japanese have this uniqueness when it comes to their products, it’s probably the packaging, but I will say this, they get it right and I love coming to stores like this. You have to come up a flight of stairs, and I found this odd at first, but you make do with the room your using, and they got the top half, as the bottom floor has a Korean market. No one was in here on this day except the lady that was running the joint, she was very nice and greeted us, and the first thing we noticed was the sale display right at the front, bottles of mirin at a very good discount. My dear wanted a bottle, but didn’t want one that big, and the lady working there brought her to look at their other sizes and compared price, she still went with the bigger bottle as it was cheaper than a small, and I can say she was very helpful and made us feel very comfortable shopping here. Things are clearly labelled here, and there is a good variety, I did not notice any produce or cooked foods, or I may have just missed it entirely, but this place has your packaged needs covered. It’s good to know that there are alternatives to Fujiya, and this would be one of those places. I found the prices resonable, and there is a ton of parking on the street.
Grace M.
Place rating: 3 Vancouver, Canada
This supermarket is a little local gem. It has a small selection of goods, but it clean, bright, and the staff are lovely.
Quan H.
Place rating: 4 Vancouver, Canada
Another alternative store to downtown Robson’s Konbini or Richmond’s Izumiya. I was done shopping at Kim’s Mart for some bibimbap sauce when I spotted the ad for a Japanese grocery/convenient store next door. You go up these stairs and face a heaven of Japanese snacks, seasonings and souvenirs. The one guy manning the entire store was really courteous, even to a couple of people walking around poking at items and not actually buying. After checking the prices to some specific items, I’d say that it’s a bit cheaper at Fujiya or Konbini, but if you live closer to this location, the price difference isn’t that substantial. Yay, new place to supply my matcha powder needs~
Kelly C.
Place rating: 5 Richmond, Canada
I love this place! Very reasonable prices, very convenient. Perfect for all your Japanese cooking needs. :) Things go on special often, and they frequently have new products in, so it’s always exciting to stop by.
Cream J.
Place rating: 5 Vancouver, Canada
Warm welcome! it’s grand open, so there are not so many people. The price are reasonable and many goods are cheaper than T&T supermarket and downtown’s Japanese market! i think i’ll go again next time.
Lauren L.
Place rating: 4 Vancouver, Canada
Just opened Nov 11, 2011(11÷11÷11) right above the Kims Food Mart on Broadway. At first when we went in, we thought this was a Nishimoto retail outlet. Nishimoto is a large importer of Japanese foods and it seemed that almost everything was branded Nishimoto. We were wrong. It was Mr Kim from Kims Mart who opened this Japanese supermarket. Great idea! Now here is a place where you can shop for both of Asian foods. Korean downstairs and upstairs, Japanese. Sakuraya is still a work in progress but there are quite alot of Japanese groceries you can buy there. Japanese brown, mixed, white, Sushi grade, sweet rice can be found there. All kinds of Japanese soysauce. There is even a brand of soya sauce that is owned by the Japanese Emperors wifes family. $ 10 on sale, all organic, very good quality, normally $ 15. I’ll post a picture of it soon. It’s almost like what Konbiniya has to offer downtown, but this place has ample street parking, parking in the back and it’s not a hectic crazy market place, so you can shop without the stress of having to go downtown or Richmond. I hear that they will put in a Japanese food court type place there as well. Kawaii Japanese staff are there to greet you and help you out with any question you might have about the stuff they sell. Very polite and courteous service. We ended up buying two kinds of Japanese Genmai(brown rice) there. One was a full grain brown rice and the other had a small mix of sweet brown rice. It’s amazing how mandy different types of rice there are on the market. Could you guess all 1000 + types? And I thought Sachi would have had the FTR for this place. hehehehe.
