Uwajimaya began as a family-owned market in Tacoma that provided down-home meals for the many Japanese people drawn to Washington’s shores for work in the fishing and timber industries. Today, its flagship store is in Seattle’s Chinatown, and has stretched out to consume a few city blocks with residential and retail units in the Uwajimaya Village. The unstoppable juggernaut hit Beaverton in the late ’90s, and every now and then, rumors of its plans to invade Portland’s Old Town Chinatown are bandied about town, to mixed reactions.

On the one hand, the store is lovely, with much less of the distinctive, challenging squid-and-tripe smell that other Asian markets tend to possess. (It’s not a Pan-Asian market—this is strictly Japanese.) And while it’s cheaper to get your goods at Fubonn Supermarket, Uwajimaya’s selection of products is of generally superior quality. Plus, service is much friendlier and more helpful. Shelves are well stocked, and there are none of the chaotic boxes and plastic wrappings lying around that you often see at Fubonn. Did we mention that it’s a bit more expensive over here? Well, it will show, thank goodness. You’ll find top-notch Japanese chef’s knives and hundreds of brands of Japanese noodles. You’ll find bulk frozen ikura (smelt roe), and you can choose your nori from dozens.

You’ll see it in the tanks of live, healthy-looking seafood; the attractive selection of meats, which includes locally raised, hormone-and-antibiotic-free beef and chicken; and in better-quality housewares. The sake selection is absolutely fantastic—better than at any wine or liquor store in the greater Portland area.

We never, ever sanction sushi from a grocery store—even at gourmet fancy-pants places. It’s so often just a bland, pointless rendition of nigiri and maki, and here it’s only slightly better. The grab-and-go udon is actually quite passable, but what’s actually delicious is the food at the excellent Hakatamon (reviewed separately). That store can be entered directly from the supermarket.

There are things here that you’ll find almost nowhere else in the US, like a huge Japanese-language bookstore. There’s something a little cold and corporate about Uwajimaya. But we look at it like this: sometimes you want the heart-racing thrill of uncertainty and discovery in your Asian vacation. For everyone else, there’s Uwajimaya.