Rice Wine Shop

This is the only Japanese grocery shop on central London that isn’t a total rip off. Anywhere that sells kewpie mayonnaise for only £3.50 gets a thumbs up from me. I appreciate things like that. The stuff they sell for lunch isn’t great but it’s not a sushi restaurant. Go up Shaftesbury avenue to Yoshino for ready made takeaway, and stop whining.

If you’re looking to expand your tired weekday lunchbreak repertoire beyond the likes of Pret, Eat, Itsu ect. — you’ve found your place.
The sushi is cheap and cheerful, fresh and tasty. And there’s a whole lot of it. But, wait, there’s so much more on offer! Whether it’s kitsch Japanese sweets, sake, value packs of frozen edamame or unknown desserts with super smiley packaging — Rice Wine Shop has it all.
Sure it’s not gourmet, but then it’s £2.28 for six pieces of spicy katsu chicken sushi. What a BARGAIN.

In my huge sushi tour of Soho, this place comes out lowest of the low. Eeek. I feel so bad saying that!
The pre-​packed sushi is awful. I actually left half of mine; the salmon just tasted off :(
Full disclosure: I haven’t tried the actual produce — so that might be nice.

Now, I do like using rice wine in my cooking. It brings a certain richness to Chinese cooking and sherry is often substituted but it’s nice to use the original ingredient
Despite its name, the Rice Wine Shop doesn’t specialise in rice wine. Instead, it’s a pretty generic oriental food shop. It’s located a little away from Chinatown but it’s close enough that I would recommend making the short walk to access a much greater variety of goods
It does carry some pre-​packed sushi options but once again, you are literally in the heart of an area which can offer you the whole gamut of Japanese sushi options from conveyor belt dining at Kulu Kulu to a greater variety of pre-​packed options at the Japan Centre on Lower Regent Street

Love it. Sushi for lunch … always a favorite. More so in the summer. its a bit of a walk from my office, but its worth it. I’m actually a sushi vegetarian. As I don’t like the fish or the seafood I normally have a very limited choice when it comes to sushi, but this place is giving me options … and I love it dearly because of that. Maki with avocado, sushi rolls with chicken, goyoza with vegetables … to name only a few. I like them all and I always buy too much. Best part: even then I rarely get to the £6 barrier, which I put up for myself when it comes to lunch.

You know how sometimes you look at a friend of the opposite sex when he’s changing a lightbulb or unblocking your sink and you’re all like «omg, how did I never notice you before? You are amazing. I love you». And then you start thinking — how have I known you for all these years and never noticed how beautiful you are? Or thought about what you can offer me? And how good we’d be together? Why have I wasted all these years? WHY!!!
Well that, in a nutshell, is how I felt this lunchtime when a colleague dragged me along to the Rice Wine Shop. It’s literally five minutes from my office but I’d never set foot in the place. I’ve been working in Soho for four years and yet before today I was unaware of its existence. And now I can’t stop thinking about it and just how perfect we are together. Why? Because they offer the loveliest sushi for the most RIDICULOUSLY low prices that it makes me cry with happiness and propose actual marriage. Six pieces of eel roll for £1.88? A box of edamame beans for 78p? ARE YOU INSANE??? I freaking love sushi but normally avoid it like the plague for the simple reason that it’s so damned expensive. Apparently this is a London-​centric issue though, and in other countries it’s cheap as chips (HAHAHA. Chips. As in fish and. GET IT?). And it ought to be considering the core ingredients are lots of rice, a corner of cucumber and a sliver of fish. Yeah ok, the place looks like a tiny supermarket stuffed to the brim with random packets of unidentifiable stuff and ok, its outward appearance is shabby at best but come on people. When you’re in love you overlook this kind of thing. If you don’t overlook it then frankly it’s not love. And this is love, folks. This is the real deal.
So on our first date I allowed my greedy eyes to take control of my more discerning stomach and buy two packets of 6-​strong sushi (and these are large pieces, people. None of that bite-​size Tesco’s rubbish. We’re talking three mouthfuls at the very least per succulent chunk) and said edamame beans and it came to a grand total of £4.54 and I was literally forcing it down at the end because it was just *that* good but I’d bought way too much for my body to handle. Freaking amazeballs. There is surely no better sushi value in this city. And I didn’t even have to queue.
Now I just can’t stop thinking about that place. It’s love. We’re meant to be together. How many calls is too many? Should I declare my intentions? When will he tell me that he loves me as much as I love him? Is it too soon to talk about cohabitation? Marriage? Children? I LOVE YOU RICE WINE SHOP. I may just live on the doorstep and be done with it.

The Rice Wine Shop is a wonderful place to buy Asian groceries but the thing that really stands out is the take-​away food. The sushi the cheapest I’ve ever seen and it is excellent. I’ve tried a wide range of the prepared food and never had anything that I wouldn’t describe as great. If I tried to explain how I feel about the Carrot & Gobu Kinpira it would sound like an exaggeration it isn’t !

This is a great place for sushi on a budget (sounds a bit unnerving, i know). Having lived in New York for a while, i’m used to having easily accessible, tasty, and reasonably priced sushi available… that is sadly not the case in london. The takeaway sushi here is by no means fantastic, but for the price (£2 for a 6 piece roll) it is damn good. The fish is always fresh, and it definitely hits the spot when in need of a quick/​cheap sushi fix. Ideally, if the weather is good, i’d recommend going around the corner to Golden Square to eat it there on one of the many benches.
As for Japanese groceries, i haven’t bought much there, but the selection isn’t bad (especially for such a small place) and the prices are typical for japanese grocery shops.

It’s a confusing name for this shop. I would have passed it by had it not been for their window which was packed up to eye level with teas.
I came here on a weekday around5pm and it was amazingly packed with people and product. They have the kind of foodstuff you may find at convenience store in Japan so no produce but they have a ton of cupboard food stuff. Like sauces, noodles, ramen, snacks, rice, teas, other seasonings. They do have a fridge section that had japanese drinks, pickles and tofu.

This is your one-​stop shop for packaged Japanese food. If you’re looking to cook your own Japanese cuisine at home or throw a make-​it-​yourself sushi party, here is where you can go to pick up sushi rice, wasabi, ginger, and yes, rice wine vinegar.
Or maybe you’re just looking for your fill of pocky or other adorable snackfood. Here’s where you’ll find it.

I walked past this little shop yesterday with some colleagues and thought it looked interesting. It’s a small Japanese supermarket selling various Asian products.
What I hadn’t noticed when I walked past yesterday was that it has an open fridge packed full of sushi, dumplings and other tasty treats that are all freshly made. Not to mention being INCREDIBLY cheap!
I used to buy sushi from Tesco because it was cheap but now I’ll be getting it from here because not only is it cheaper than Tesco, it’s fresher and tastier too!
BIG thumbs up to The Rice Wine Shop, I’m sure I’ll be visiting again soon!

Rice Wine Shop is an excellent place to get Japanese food, beverages and cooking ingredients. It is one of the cheapest Japanese supermarkets in London, about 10 to 15% cheaper than most. And it is fairly well stocked so it can be a one-​stop shop for me! I can practically get everything that I need, tofu, noodles, seaweed, sake, rice, curry paste, etc.
The shop is quite small though, you have to know what you want to make shopping easy otherwise you will have to squeeze through fellow shoppers while browsing and thinking of what to get through the narrow aisle!