# Europe Forum > Travelling & Living in Europe > Benelux >  Japanese & Chinese food in Brussels

## Maciamo

My wife was fairly anxious about not finding all the ingredients she used in Japan for cooking. But apart from a few not so important stuff, we were able to find all we needed for both Japanese and Chinese cuisine in just a few supermarkets.

For Japanese products, head for *Tagawa Supermarket*, located Chauss&#233;e de Vleurgat, 119 - 1050 Bruxelles (just at the crossroads of Avenue Louise and hauss&#233;e de Vleurgat, on the 93 or 94 tramway lines, or 38 or 60 bus lines).

You will find :

- various kinds of Japanese rice
- various kinds of Japanese sake
- Japanese vegetables (satsuma-imo, daikon, renkon, hakusai, etc.)
- fresh and frozen fish and seafood (maguro, unagi, hotate, ebi...)
- ramen, udon, soba
- many kinds of cup ramen
- frozen prepared dishes, frozen gyoza, miso soup, etc.
- kimchi, umeboshi, natto, takuan, nori, hijiki, miso, etc.
- green tea (in leaves, powder, bags and cans)
- Japanese sweets, sembei, omochi...
- various kinds of Japanese sauces (for yakitori, yakiniku, sukiyaki, teppanyaki, and of course many varieties of soy sauce), mirin, Japanese vinegar, ajinomoto, shijimi, etc.
- Japanese drinks (Calpis, Suntory coffee in cans, etc.)

Tagawa also has an adjacent 2-floor shop selling only Japanese magazines, manga and books (all in Japanese). All the magazines are the latest ones. Japanese(-speaking) residents in Belgium can even subscribe there to be sure not to miss the favourite ones.

For all kinds of Asian food products (Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indian...), the huge Kam Yuen Supermarket (between "Bourse" and "St Catherine" metro stations) is the best choice. This is the place to find anything you can't find at Tagawa, especially for vegetables, tofu and Chinese sauces, and even more sorts of cup ramen and noodles. There a few other Chinese and Thai supermarkets around Kam Yuen if you want to compare prices.

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## RockLee

Let me add "Haruchan" to that list! Quite cheap compared to "Tagawa".

Haruchan
17 Rue de Begonias 
1170 Brussels
Tel:02/660.06.66

They even prepare sushi-dishes you can take off :)

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## Minty

I think the situation is similar in France, I canft find certain ingredients I want to make for certain Japanese, Korean or Chinese dishes too. With Thai foods I never have trouble, probably is because there are lots of Vietnamese and Cambodians here and Cambodians eat a lot of Thai foods I think.

There is a Paris supermarket here in Strasbourg, not run by Chinese but Cambodians.  :Wink:  And two other Asians shops I know run by Vietnamese.

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## Maciamo

I have made a list of Japanese restaurants in Brussels, with comparative ratings.

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## Duo

Which one is your favorite mac ?

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## Maciamo

> Which one is your favorite mac ?


Izakaya and Mitsui were the best so far. I still need to try about 20 of them.  :Relieved: 

One thing that disappointed me almost everywhere (apart from the two above-mentioned), was the very simple decoration (as basic as it can get, even by Japanese standards), and the not-so-friendly service. Interestingly, service is one of the things they can do best in Japan, but in Brussels I got the worst service of any restaurant all categories in Japanese restaurants owned by Japanese people (e.g. Takezushi, Yamayu Santatsu). Ironically, when the staff was Chinese (e.g. Mitsui, Sushi) service was better. I will comment more on that once I have tried more places.

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