Marukai Market

It’s great to have a Marukai on the web side. However, compared to the Torrance store this one feels a little junky. Even though it has much of the same Japanese merchandise, aisles are smaller and floors are a little less clean. The parking lot is small and hard to navigate but I’ve always found parking.

Their prepacked sushi is fresh, not restaurant quality, but better then most prepackaged sushi I’ve had. Your almost guaranteed to get a better deal here then you would at Whole Foods or Ralphs. I wish they closed at ten instead of nine.

Smaller Marukai than the location I’m used to San Diego. The don’t have as great a selection as larger grocery stores but plenty to choose from. The store also somehow feels dusty and cluttered. Nonetheless, I bought some reasonably priced «fancy» grade rice.
The parking lot layout is horrendous so be very careful driving around and parking. The spaces and aisles are tight and some of the parking spots are at awkward angles. You can easily hit a car from the other row backing up if you aren’t careful. The asphalt also need to be repaved.
A bit of a funky store, but the Japanese groceries are worth going back for.

Their chirashi bento is bomb so 50 points to Marukai.
They always have my favorite aloe juice. Mitsuwa «sometimes» has it so easy 50 points for Marukai.
OH most importantly, Marukai’s drink section is colder. Mitsuwa has their temp too low that the drinks come out kinda ehhh cold whatever. Marukai’s is like you’re quenching a year long thirst and everything is perfect and all that nonsense from your boss today disappears. So 150 points to Marukai.
⁴⁄₅ only cause Mitsuwa has Santouka ramen. I’m sorry.

Marukai is my favorite Japanese market, not necessarily for groceries but their huge and fresh instant food selection, including the $ 7 Chirashi bowls! Plus, there is a wide selection of bentos, sashimi, sushi, rolls, sandwiches and omusubi, larger than both Mitsuwa and Nijiya. Their frozen drink section has like 50 varieties of everything, coffee, teas, juices, etc. They also carry some craft Japanese beers, not just the standard Asahi/​Kirin/​Sapporo mix. There are a handful of Japanese whiskeys too, which are fairly rare. Also, their frozen dessert selection includes several types of matcha green tea and black sesame ice cream, another rare and delicious find.
I think the grocery prices are probably on the high end, but you come here for rare Asian finds, not bread and bananas. Only knock is the parking gets pretty tight so not the fastest place to make a pit stop.

I love Marukai but this location is getting three stars because of the amenity. Parking situation in this location can improve, they are so tiny and I always feel like I am going to get a dent on my vehicle. I will not drive my Boxster to this market because of that reason. Even my tiny mini cooper barely fits in that spot. I also dislike the location, it is near underprivileged area and I do not feel safe driving around on Pico Blvd. Other than that, you can find a lot of Japanese Grocery items. I usually purchase seafood and specialty items as in Calpico (Drink) and Japanese snacks.

RECOMMENDED. Not the best Marukai experience I have had, but certainly one that I return to on occasion. The other day I was looking for a wine to bring to Thanksgiving and Marukai was not my first choice but since I was there I thought I would see what I could be find. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU 2015. On sale at that. I picked it up along with several food items and a Kirin Light.
Most of the food items were 20% off because it was rather late in the day and they were the type of thing that freshness is required. I enjoyed them.
I found this weird lazy egg toy for a friend. Haven’t opened it yet, one of those blind box mystery things. Should be a lark.
Overall the wine selection was … I think just that beaujolais. I suppose I could have asked my father if it would be okay to bring a sake to Thanksgiving Dinner but I ended up shopping at multiple stores that night. Time is such a luxury.
The first time I visited this location parking was an issue. I don’t exactly remember the reason. There is parking underground, so keep that in mind.
I realize in retrospect that I started out with a negative sentence which could turn people off when in fact what I mean is that in the back of my memory I have these nostalgic memories of another Marukai that was phenomenal. I have inserted the capitalized RECOMMENDED in case people cannot be bothered to read this far and encounter my explanation.

First time here and I’m loving the store products because it’s so difficult to find king car drinks and so much more. The only problem is that some of the items are so pricey like for example the rice crackers were like $ 4.98, come on back on the island this are imported goods and they still sell lower than $ 2.00 and mind you Saipan imports goodies from foreign countries. I know for sure that foreign imported goods are pricey but sell on our island not too pricey. But you know what cost price for every country is different. I gave it a four star because it’s my go to green tea flavor place from now on and I love that they sell the aloha soft drinks.

Nice little Marukai located near Pico & Bundy very close to the 10 freeway. We stopped in real quick for some green tea kit-​kats and green tea oreos after watching my Niners on Sunday Night Football at a nearby bar. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they closed at 9pm on Sundays. That worked out for us. The entrance to the parking is a little narrow and poorly designed I thought. I totally agree with Maggie C’s assessment of the parking area. At least parts of it are covered so that’s nice. Not sure if its usually the case but having arrived there 30 mins prior to closing, all the lights were shut off in the covered parking area. It was really dark. Seemed like a safety and security hazard to me. It almost made us wonder if they were still open cause it was so dark. We found that to be peculiar.
Was a little disappointed that they didnt have any other international kit-​kat flavors besides the green tea. Other Marukai’s I visit frequently have at least 2 or 3 other flavors to choose from. I was about to buy some portuguese sausage, a hawaiian breakfast staple, but I found the $ 5 price tag and only 2 brands to choose from to be a little too pricey. I declined on getting the Zippy’s chili frozen packs from Hawaii as well.
I dont know. I usually cant control my spending when I go to Marukai but it wasnt the case at this one. It’s smaller than the other ones I’ve been to. I’ll try and swing by the next time I’m around there. Maybe with more time to browse all the aisles, I’ll find some things to purchase.

LOVE this shop. While imprisoned behind the Orange Curtain, Mitsuwa was my Japanese go-​to, but up here, it’s Marukai.
The tuna– and egg– salad sandwiches are so ghetto (read: wonder bread) but oh-​so delish. The ones at Nijiya don’t even come close. Meaning, they’re terrible.
The ones down the road at Mitsuwa are finger-​lickin’ good but twice as expensive. And trying to get down that one mile of Centinela can take forevvvvvvvvver.
But I digress.
This Marukai has everything I need: sake, Kewpie mayo, green tea, my fave Calbee chips, Pockey, and lots of kitschy Japanese bits for the house that make me homesick. I LOVE TINY TRASH CANS!

OK lets get real here… I grew up in Hawaii and we have a Marukai there, so when I moved (recently) to LA from New York it was really awesome to see the Marukai sign from the freeway… brought back a flood of memories.
— Really good bento style food here
— Their spam musubi is NOT good (dock a star) and would give non-​Hawaii folk the wrong impression, but I love that they have it :-)
— They have cone sushi (inari) mmmm so good, and not TOO sweet but still a little sweet :-)
— Lots of different Japanese drinks, like my Pocari Sweat and also Hawaiian Sun etc :-)
— I love all the other types of musubi they have
— Their bento boxes are really good and are on sale at the end of the day which makes for a great, interesting and cheap dinner!
— Also they have all the cool Japanese pens etc that we had growing up in Hawaii, including really good ball points and Dr. Grip pens! I love it.
I would go here to grab some cool snacks for a long day at the beach. I would also stop here just to see a different kind of market that happens to be in a great spot in this huge city of Greater LA.

This market had everything. The rice balls from this market are pretty delicious. The only downside is that the prices can be a bit on the expensive side and parking isn’t always available when it gets busy.
The workers are all friendly and will answer questions to the best of their ability. You will find random sauces and spices here. A lot of the snacks and ready-​made food are ethnic and not something you will find at a Vons or Ralph’s. It’s worth coming to if you like Japanese food and culture. Aside from food, they also have a small section of clothes, scarves, and toiletries.

My favorite Japanese market! I come here at least 4 times a week for basic groceries, quality bento, sushi, imported Japanese goodies.
I shop at Mitsuwa and Nijiya too but only when I can’t find certain things I’m looking for at Marukai or when I’m close by to them.
Marukai (especially the one in Gardena) has the most variety of food and non-​food products from furnitures, electronics to clothing. Their fish dept has so many variety of fresh fish!
I see some people are writing about their price is not cheap when you have to pay membership fee or Mitsuwa is cheaper… Let me tell you from the experience of the Japanese market expert lol (I’ve been shopping at these 3 major Japanese markets over 12 years, daily basis, Marukai has the lowest price on almost everything compared to other 2. You have to pay annual member ship fee of $ 15, renewal is $ 10. But they give you 10 x $ 1 off coupon, so basically your membership fee is only «$ 5» if you use all the coupons. Mitsuwa pricing is fine too, but Nijiya is the highest of three.
Recently Marukai was bought by Don Quijote, largest Japanese discount chain store. So far 2 Marukai locations (West Covina and Costa Mesa) turned into Tokyo Central, 2 more locations to open next month (Gardena pacific store and San Diego) I’m REALLY hoping they won’t change this West LA location into Tokyo Central because the price is higher than Marukai:/

This place is not as cramped as Nijiya Market and the parking situation is a lot better, at least when I went there. They have a wide selection of products and pre-​made foods.
I came here at 6:00 on a Sunday, and a lot of their pre-​made sushi dishes were 20% off. I got a mixed sushi to go and some spam musabi, both for 20% off. The freshness of the sushi was still good, so didn’t seem like it was 20% older which was good since I was a bit skeptical.
I also got some of the pre-​marinated pork and grilled it up the next day. The marinade wasn’t as good as I was hoping. Sort of had a sour kimchee like taste to it. But the pork was still good.
I definitely will come here more that heading to Nijiya since the parking is easier and I always find it a bit hectic driving down Sawtelle

Pretty big and clean Japanese market! I don’t know much about Japanese food, but I was on the lookout for some Thai ingredients and they have a small-​but-​good-​enough Thai section, so I’m pleased. Some cheap frozen mackerel wild-​caught from Norway too!
I was there at 730pm and the bento boxes were going at 20% off; some of the sashimi bentos were even at 50% off. I see another reviewer mentioned that this happens at 6pm, so I’ll try to be a little earlier next time :)
I only thing I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT LIKE was the security guard. He was a biiiiig dude and roamed the store watching intently. After awhile, I started to get the feeling that he was watching ME! I mentioned to my girlfriend (who was with me) that the security guard was creeping me out and she said «yeah, I think he’s following us». Totally lame, big guy. Knock it off.

SCAM UPDATE: so I go home and realize I never got a new membership card. I remember when I resigned up for my membership they told me their computers were down and couldn’t give me a card then or the next time. Then one time I was told that I didn’t need a membership card anymore. Now I’m told that I need to have a membership card or have to pay $ 2 more for a day membership. TOTAL SCAM!!! BEWARE!!! Will be reporting this location to the Better Business Bureau.
Really hard to keep supporting these ethnic markets when there staff is so horrible. Don’t need a security guard to follow us around every time when we’ve been shopping at your chain for years. Obviously the profiling isn’t working for you.
Need to upgrade the system so that if I don’t have my membership card on me, you can just look it up by name or number. Are we in the dark ages? Maybe you already have this system and your cashier is too lazy to move her fat fingers across the keys? Learn how to hire better.
Don’t need to crush all my things into 1 bag, when I bring 3, so that when I get home half of my veggies are smushed.

Be aware!
They sell things that are not fresh!
Just bought some small breads an hour ago, took a bite, OMG, it’s all moldy inside. Gross!
They are not very careful with quality control.

Best deals on prepared meals after around 6pm! Most of the prepared meals are 20% off, which is perfect for dinner. I always end up getting too much.
The one thing that bugs me about Marukai is the darn membership card! I always forget it and they won’t let me use a phone number or even show the card on my phone. I have to either pay the $ 1 for the day membership or not get the sale price :(

One of my favorite local Japanese markets!
They have everything here — beauty supplies, snacks, produce, bento boxes, pastries, and even sushi.
Everything here is great. I come here whenever I need any Japanese ingredients and things are all reasonably priced. For some reason, all of their high end Japanese liquor is cheaper than Mitsuwa. So I highly suggest you buy your booze here instead.
As for parking, you will not have an issue. This particular Marukai is much smaller than the one in Gardena but it is definitely less crowded and much easier to find whatever you need. All of the employees are extremely nice and will be willing to help you find with whatever you need. I recommend becoming a member here as well because it gives you some discounts.

4.5 Stars for Marukai Market on West Pico! I’ve never been to this store until today, as I usually only go to the Western/​Artesia or Honolulu location! This store is a bit smaller, has ample parking, and has just about everything that the larger stores have.
I needed to purchase some quality fresh fish for the New Years and decided to go to Marukai. I pulled up this location on my handy-​dandy Unilocal application. Badaboom. (Althought I got Marukai and Nijiya mixed up). I found it! I found parking right when I pulled into the lot (my biggest P.I.T.A.). I was on my way!
The sushi /​prepared foods section was absolutely BARE. Almost 90%+ of the prepared foods /​sushi /​donburi was gone by 2:00 p.m. on ¹²⁄₃₀. Of course, it was the New Year celebration rush! But I spy with my Hawaiian Eye — hand rolls for only $ 1.68 each!!! (This would have cost close to $ 2.75 at Nijiya!) I got one each of Natto with shiso, hamachi and green onion, and toro with green onion. WINNER! They were delicious.
I walked past the liquor section because 1) I don’t drink, and 2) there was a very large security guard standing at the rack intimidating people walking by. … No thank you, I won’t be needing a sample today!
The fish section was pretty bare, as expected. I was lucky to score one slab of Tuna from Japan @ $ 12 a tray, three pieces of black cod fillets @ $ 12 a tray, and fresh salmon from Canada $ 10 a fillet. SCORE! There was one other fish that I would have purchased — monk fish but it was a bit too pricy for me to put in a yosenabe hot pot.
While getting some fresh Maui Red Hot Dogs and frozen S&S Saimin (6-​pack, you Hawaii people know what I’m talking about!), a very cheery and peppy lady ran up to me (literally ran!) and said Happy New Year and asked if she could help. She did this to at least 5+ other customers in about a 2 minute period! THAT is customer service! Thank you for spreading your cheer. (Sorry I didn’t get your name, as I wasn’t wearing my glasses and couldn’t see your nametag). Lady in the produce section should get a raise!
I also purchased some fresh spinach, mizuna leafs, and daikon radish. All were very reasonable and fresh!
I was in and out in 5 minutes with everything that I needed. Mr Checker-​outer was super friendly and checked me out quickly. Great service!
Product Grade: A–
Service Grade: A+
Worth the Money Price: B (a bit pricey at this location).
Overall Impression: B+