Japanese food shopping in London

Last Friday I went to the Japan Centre on Piccadilly which has a Japanese supermarket in the basement. A Japanese friend of mine invited me to go along with her and translated for me (you can do without translation if you know what you want/need, but I'm a novice in the Japanese kitchen, so it was great having a my friend guide me round). My Japanese favourites at the moment: udon noodles and any other thick noodles I can find. I bought some miso-soup base last night, so I'm going to try to combine these two into some tasty miso-udon noodle soup.

Some addresses for Japanese food shopping in Central London:

* Arigato on Brewer Street (Soho), which has all the basic Japanese foodstuffs you'll need, plus a small restaurant area.

* Japan Centre Food Shop on Piccadilly (West End), in the basement of this very popular place there's a supermarket, slightly bigger than Arigato. Again all the basics you'll need, including a nice sake collection, and take-out sushi. The restaurant on the ground floor is supposedly quite nice too.

* Minamoto Kitchoan on Piccadilly (West End), a little bit further up from the Japan Centre, on the other side of the Street. Sells beautifully packaged Japanese confectionary (Wagashi), a feast for the eyes and tongue. The shop interior is breathtaking and sweets are like little works of art. Their website has a history of these beautiful sweets.

Another stop on a Japanese shopping trip in London is the JAL Igirisuya on Hannover Square. This is a store intended for Japanese tourists who buy their London souvenirs here, but they've also got a small section with Japanese food and utensils, and a sushi restaurant.

If you're looking for a great Japanese restaurant, head over to the Baker Street Tube Station, exit on Baker Street, cross the street, and head into the small shopping area to visit Nambu-Tei (reviewed here). I went here with a group of Japanese friends and we sat down in our of their special group-rooms downstairs, which felt like we were in Japan proper. Since I didn't do my own ordering (and bumbled around with my chopsticks, I definitely need more practice), I can't really recommend any specific dishes, but I remember loving the tempura, yakitori and udon noodles. Not cheap, but certainly not expensive either.

If you're looking for bowls or chopsticks, Loon Fung supermarket in Chinatown can help you out, not only do they have a wide variety of Chinese food, but they also stock Thai, Korean, Indian and Japanese food and utensils.