Yaoya-San in El Cerrito

My favorite place to go for Japanese grocery (especially hot pot ingredients and eggs), bentos, onigiri, rolls/makimono, side dishes, various sweet and savory buns, breads, desserts, etc… and household items. I’ve been shopping here for about 15 years and am always amazed at the selection. Now that they took over the adjacent store space that used to be a Japanese dollar store, the shopping experience is even better with the wider aisles and modernized displays for refrigerated and frozen goods. The staff is friendly and helpful. Many are at least bilingual. I also love that most of the people at the register know how to pack the items efficiently into your bags taking weight distribution and whether an item is refrigerated/frozen or not into consideration (like they do in Japan). Lastly Moser Square where Yaoyasan is located has plenty of parking too.

One of my favorites for years. It’s a combination Japanese grocery and retail goods store that also carries some ready to eat foods. The store is not large but carries many essentials. Folks here are helpful and friendly. Easy parking outside.

This is my go-to Japanese food store in Berkeley/Albany. I prefer it over Tokyo Fish because I’m more likely to find parking and it isn’t so cramped and busy inside. Prices seem the same between both — some are cheaper here and cheaper there. Of course for the good bargains you have to go to the South Bay.

I found this a couple weeks ago. I was looking for some Japanese snacks.I was pretty ecstatic about seeing this place and a lot of their offerings.Good selection of foods and snacks. A lot of options for ramen, from instant to cook your own to pre made to cook. So happy to find this place.

Great quality Japanese food and beverages. There are a variety of Japan-imported seasonings, snacks, drinks frozen food, and appliances. I made some really tasty and fancy ramen noodle with the ingredients purchased at this store.

Nice place with lots of Japanese good. Seems pricey but mayber everything does right now, so nothing against them. I went around 4:30 pm so prepared food maybe was a bit less. They had some of the foods I fondly remember from growing up though. Nice to support family-owned businesses too.

Great selection of Japanese foods, drinks, kitchenware, and more. The staff was very helpful and courteous as well.

Small but its got all the essential, authentic Japanese stuff. Very cool place to visit and good price!

I loved this place until they accused me of stealing. Nothing was said, not my fault the dummy in the back labeled the meat wrong. They didn’t even tell me it was the wrong price before ringing me up for 5x the amount. I had to say something. You can’t tell me a Japanese person would so brazenly call out another for stealing w/ out being absolutely positive of it. So I don’t think they’re all Japanese at Yayo San. Which would make some sense as to how I was treated.

I love this store! Tons of fresh produce, meats, fish. All kinds of awesome snacks and ready to go drinks and meals like sushi and donburi, as well as grocery basics. They have a selection of Japanese beers and sake, dishes and kitchenware, a beauty section, frozen food/fish. Staff are friendly and its just such a nice shop