Scottish sandwiches in Hiroo, Tokyo

I’d never heard of Scottish (toasted) sandwiches until I walked past the Deeneys.jp food van outside National Azabu in Hiroo and then saw it in one of the English listings magazines, but have been wanting to try it ever since. We therefore made sure to not have lunch before our next (twice yearly or so) shop at that international supermarket. We had the Macbeth (haggis, cheese, rocket, etc) and Robert the Bruce (chicken, whiskey mustard, cheese, etc) as they sounded the most Scottish/ least normal, and very delicious they were too. It takes a while, but there is a bench to sit on to wait and eat and a park directly opposite with plenty of nice places to sit. No hint of a Scottish accent, but the staff do speak English. Recommended!

They go elsewhere for events sometimes, so worth checking they are in Hiroo and open before making a special trip:

Deeneys.jp Twitter feed (Japanese only)

Deeneys.jp Instagram page (Japanese and English)

Vegemite and Marmite in Tokyo

According to a notice up in Nissin Supermarket, Vegemite is no longer being imported into Japan. It has disappeared from there, Kaldi, etc, meaning that it now only seems to be available on Amazon.co.jp, starting at 1,390 yen! In partial compensation, some branches of Kaldi have started stocking Marmite. The reason I say “partial” compensation is that it’s twice the price that Vegemite used to be and half the size (if slightly cheaper than other places like Seijo Ishii).

See elsewhere on this site for details on all of these shops.

British Christmas food in Tokyo 2016

Updated 4 February 2017

Sources of UK food that I’ve checked this year

Quality Street chocolates 540 yen Sony Plaza

9 Walkers luxury mince pies 225g 1080 yen in Nissin Supermarket, Seijo Ishiin and Meidi-ya

Walkers luxury rich fruit (Xmas) pudding 227g 1512 yen in Nissin Supermarket and Meidi-ya, 1286 yen in Seijo Ishii

McCormick Brown gravy 240g 756 yen in National Azabu, 905 yen in Nissin Supermarket

Lawry’s turkey gravy 27g 270 yen in Nissin Supermarket

Robertsons mincemeat 411g 756 yen in National Azabu, 972 yen in Nissin Supermarket and Kinokuniya

Kraft Stove Top stuffing mix for turkey 702 g around 700 yen in Nissin Supermarket, 810 yen in Kinokuniya, 702 yen in The Garden Jiyugaoka (e.g. in Kunitachi station)

Coleman’s English mustard 451 yen in National Azabu

Xmas crackers, from 2808 yen in National Azabu (the only source I’ve ever found)

Cranberry sauce 529 yen in Kinokuniya, ???yen in National Azabu

Frozen sausagemeat (I guess suitable for making stuffing), around 800 yen for a big pack in National Azabu

Other sources, in approximate order of amount of relevant stuff

Swan and Lion British Deli

Amazon.co.jp

Queen’s Isetan (e.g. in Shinagawa station, just reopened)

see older Xmas posts below for more ideas of places and prices

Swan and Lion British deli, Tokyo

The name sounds like a pub, but in fact it’s a kind of deli with meat pies, chutneys etc.  Take away only, unfortunately, but near the British embassy if you need to go there for any reason.

Website down, but Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/SwanLionTokyo/

British food fair in Imperial Hotel, Tokyo

Rather expensive, but maybe worth a try if you’ve got the cash – the British Ambassador’s personal chef will be there!

https://www.japantoday.com/category/food/view/a-taste-of-britain-at-tokyos-imperial-hotel

Until the end of September.

Waitrose foods almost gone from Tokyo!

If you have a Daimaru Peacock near you, well worth rushing there right now to get whatever baked beans etc they are clearing out, because when I went to what used to be one of the best stores for Waitrose products (in Shibaura) yesterday, they were just down to Waitrose grapeseed oil and Waitrose tinned mushrooms, neither of which was what I was really looking for!

Appears that the reason Aeon put Waitrose stuff in their other stores when they took over Daimaru Peacock was just to get rid of it all as quickly as possible. Just like the story of Tescos and British beer in Seiyu, all goes to show once again that when you see reasonably priced British food in Tokyo, you should buy all you can carry home because it could be gone by this time next week…

All posts just updated

Mainly just a quick edit to get rid of things which have disappeared since so I don’t get people all excited about things which have long gone, but will try to revisit stores for a better update soon. In the meantime, if you find any out-of-date info on the site please let me know on the offending post or here:

Recent British food and drink finds in Tokyo

Updated May 2018. Details on all the places mentioned here elsewhere on this blog and in the sidebar links.

120 Typhoo teabags for an incredibly cheap 700 yen in Seijo Ishii Nov 2019

Vegemite in Kaldi Nov 2019

small jar of Marmite about 570 yen in Kaldi Nov 2019

Rose and Swan pork pie National Azabu about 600 yen May 2018

Twinbird oven, 6000 yen, Amazon.co.jp

Alpen muesli no added sugar 864 yen National Azabu November 2016

Alara muesli 972 yen National Azabu November 2016

Fuller’s IPA 468 yen National Azabu November 2016

HP sauce 950 yen (!) National Azabu November 2016

Sharwood’s mango chutney 561 yen National Azabu November 2016

Marigold rubber gloves 702 yen National Azabu November 2016

Bonnie’s jam 1620 yen (!) National Azabu November 2016

Cottage cheese in Seiyu November 2016

Fullers ESB about 400 yen for a small bottle Daimaru Peacock November 2015

Fullers Honeydew beer about 400 yen for a small bottle Daimaru Peacock November 2015

Belhaven Scottish Ale small bottle 245 yen Seiyu November 2015

Belhaven 90 Shilling Wee Heavy small bottle 245 yen Seiyu November 2015

Belhaven Twisted Thistle small bottle 245 yen Seiyu November 2015

Grandma Wild’s oaty biscuits for cheese Kaldi about 500 yen (October 2015)

Typhoo Extra Strong 80 teabags 862 yen Seijo Ishii (October 2015)

St Austell Proper Job IPA – Warrior Celt, Ueno (September 2015)

Theakston’s XB – Warrior Celt, Ueno (September 2015)

Timothy Taylor Boltmaker and Landlord beers (bottled) – Warrior Celt, Ueno (September 2015)

Cottage cheese and Greek yoghurt – Seijo Ishii (September 2015)

Various kinds of Tetley tea, some for reasonably competitive prices Amazon.co.jp (August 2015)

Waitrose horseradish and various jams Daimaru Peacock (August 2015)

Waitrose cornflakes 500g 516 yen Daimaru Peacock (Jan 2015)

Waitrose nice biscuits 278 yen Daimaru Peacock

Waitrose malted milk biscuits Daimaru Peacock

Waitrose rich tea biscuits Daimaru Peacock

Waitrose chopped tomatoes with garlic and olive oil Daimaru Peacock

British food and drink found up to December 2014 here.

Lots of British food on Amazon Japan

The prices are often crazy, but there are things you can’t get anywhere else I know like Branston Pickle, HP Sauce and Bisto Gravy.

Branston pickle for 1490 yen

Bisto gravy from 799 yen

HP Sauce from 950 yen

44 bags of Walker’s Crisps for 8990 yen (no I didn’t add another 0 by accident…)

Heinz salad cream for 1599 yen

plus plenty of things which you can find elsewhere with some searching like Yorkshire Tea and Marmite.

Xmas turkey dinner in Tokyo 2014

Can’t find many yet – most places are still advertising Thanksgiving (whatever that is). I’ll add more links as I find them.

From the Japan Times.

Roti Roppongi Xmas 2014

Hobgoblin pubs Xmas 2014 (Roppongi, Akasaka and Shibuya)

Don’t bother with these other ones which come up when searching:

Grand Hyatt Tokyo (top Google result, but none of it Anglo-Saxon stylee)

Suji’s (closed!)