Japan Centre Ichiba is your one-stop shop for all your Japanese food needs. Tak Tokumine founded Japan Centre Group in 1976 and they have not looked back since. These days, they are seen as the go to for Japanese goodies. The Westfield branch has Europe’s largest Japanese Food Hall inside it. A must when you’re in Westfield London.
Initial impressions were good. From the outset, it looks like a big store with a variety of options. Nice, clean and spatious. There’s all the usual sections: drinks, snacks, noodles, crisps and even hot food. However, I have to say that after exploring it, it seems a little underwhelming in terms of options. I have visited East Asian supermarkets that were far better in terms of options e.g. Tian Tian Market and the one next Bang Bang Oriental too. Nonetheless, I’ll mention some of the good finds you can get there.
Snacks
The first thing that caught our eye was the famous Kewpie mayo (if you haven’t tried it… oh you HAVE to!). We had seen these cool Japanese jelly sweets that we had seen on their social media. These were out right at the front. We got the yuzu and peach flavour ones. To be honest, they were quite underwhelming. Very subtle in flavour. The other thing that excited me was the pineapple bun: I absolutely love these, but unfortunately most places include lard in them. This one does not!
Matcha
The one impressive section here with a vast amount to choose from was the matcha section. There was so much variety. So much so that it can intimidate and overwhelm a novice like myself.
Drinks
This was probably the most disappointing section as usually there are so many wonderful and unique drinks to choose from. Here there wasn’t that many.
Mochi
The Mochi section was decent as expected. There’s a variety of mochi to choose from and the fresh type of mochi too (which is the type I love).
Overall
I feel I’ll need to revisit to explore it properly and check out their hot food section too. Also, they’ve got the super trendy (especially out in America and Canada) mochi doughnut, which isn’t available anywhere else!
Getting there
Parking: Westfield London car park
Nearest Mosque: Masjid Daar us Sunnah
Nearest station: Wood Lane or Shepherd’s Bush
