Where to find Japanese and Asian groceries in Malta during a long stay

There is no dedicated Japanese supermarket in Malta — no single shop where the whole aisle is Japanese brands, like the Japan-centres in London or Düsseldorf. What Malta does have is better than the directories suggest: a few broad pan-Asian supermarkets that stock the everyday Japanese staples — miso, tofu, rice, soy sauce, seaweed — plus one genuinely Japanese online shop for matcha, tea and kitchenware. For a long stay, and especially a summer of language school when home cooking starts to call after a fortnight, that mix covers most of what you will actually miss.

This guide sticks to the shops trading now (checked July 2026): what each is good for, where the gaps are, and how to get it all delivered.

Key facts

• No single Japanese supermarket exists in Malta yet — you build a Japanese kitchen from a few pan-Asian shops plus one specialist.
• Wenzhou Asian & Latin American Supermarket is the big one: six branches across Malta and Gozo (as of 2026), broadly pan-Asian, with a dedicated miso-and-tofu section alongside rice, sauces and frozen goods.
• Grab and Go (San Gwann) is the newer store most guides miss — open daily, roughly 9am–9pm, and on Wolt.
• Asia Food Store (Gżira) is listed as trading, but its own website is down (Account Suspended as of 24 July 2026), so ring ahead on +356 7980 6416 before a special trip.
• j-okini is Malta’s one dedicated Japanese shop — online since 2017, strong on matcha, loose-leaf tea and teaware, with free Malta delivery over €35 (as of 2026). It is not a grocer, though.
• Delivery is real, not theoretical: Wolt reaches the pan-Asian shops; j-okini uses its own courier.

The short answer: four real options, not one supermarket

Type “Japanese grocery store Malta” into your phone on arrival and here is the honest picture. Malta is a small market, so no one runs a full Japanese supermarket the way bigger European cities do. Instead there are four realistic options — three broad pan-Asian supermarkets (Wenzhou, Grab and Go and Asia Food Store) plus j-okini, an online shop that is properly Japanese but built around tea, matcha and kitchenware rather than groceries — and most long-stayers combine two or three. The table sums up what each is for; the sections below go shop by shop.

The thing to understand first is the gap between “pan-Asian” and “Japanese”. The supermarkets are pan-Asian: Filipino, Thai, Korean, Chinese and Malaysian products, with Japanese items mixed in rather than filling their own aisle. Miso, tofu, short-grain rice, nori and soy sauce are easy enough to find. The wide range of specific Japanese brands you take for granted at home is not.

Option	Where	Best for	Delivery
Wenzhou	6 branches (Gżira, Mosta, St Julian’s, Sliema, Buġibba, Xewkija/Gozo)	Everyday pan-Asian staples: rice, soy, miso, tofu, noodles	Wolt (some branches)
Grab and Go	San Gwann	Pan-Asian staples and snacks	Wolt
Asia Food Store	Gżira (ring ahead)	Pan-Asian pantry; check it is open first	In person
j-okini	Online (Malta)	Japanese tea, matcha, teaware, bento, gifts	Own courier, free over €35

Wenzhou: six branches, and what’s actually Japanese on the shelf

Wenzhou Asian & Latin American Supermarket is the one to know first. It has grown fast: from one or two shops to six branches — Gżira, Mosta, St Julian’s, Sliema, Buġibba and, since 2026, a first Gozo branch at Xewkija. The Gżira store is handiest if you are staying around Sliema or the harbour, and opens long hours, roughly 9am to 10pm (check the day before a late run, as hours shift).

The name sets the expectation: this is an Asian and Latin American supermarket, not a Japanese one. Its own listing names imports from the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, China and Malaysia — Japan is not singled out. But the Japanese basics are there in practice: a dedicated miso-and-tofu section, plus rice, sauces and marinades, seaweed and beancurd, and a decent frozen range. For everyday cooking — miso soup, rice, a stir-fry — Wenzhou will usually see you right. On Gozo, the new Xewkija branch saves you the ferry across to Malta just to buy soy sauce.

Asia Food Store, Gżira: worth a phone call first

Asia Food Store sits on Triq Nazju Ellul in Gżira, minutes from the Wenzhou branch, and independent directories list it as trading with the usual pan-Asian range — sauces, noodles, snacks and canned goods across Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Filipino lines — open Monday to Saturday 9am to 7pm and Sunday 9am to 4pm.

Here is the honest caveat, the kind a plain directory listing will not give you: the store’s own website, asiafoodstoremalta.com, was returning an “Account Suspended” message when we checked on 24 July 2026. A dead website is not proof of a closed shop — the store still appears in current directories and on Facebook — but it does mean you cannot browse or order online, and it is reason enough to ring ahead on +356 7980 6416 before a special journey. Treat it as probably open, but worth confirming, rather than a sure thing.

Grab and Go, San Gwann: the option most guides miss

Grab and Go is the store older “Asian food Malta” articles tend to skip, because it is newer, going since 2020. It is in San Gwann, on Triq Carmen Mallia, with generous hours: open daily, roughly 9am to 9pm. Reviewers single out how clean and well-run it is — not always a given in this category — and it carries the same broad pan-Asian range, a reasonable home for rice, noodles, sauces and snacks.

Two practical notes. San Gwann is inland, so unless you are nearby, think about how you are getting there: an easy stop by car, less so on foot. And Grab and Go is on Wolt, so you can have a shop delivered instead of travelling at all.

j-okini: Malta’s dedicated Japanese shop (and it delivers)

If what you miss is specifically Japanese — good matcha, proper loose-leaf tea, a decent donburi bowl or a bento box — j-okini is the answer, and the option no directory surfaces. It has traded since 2017 as a Malta-based online shop dealing only in Japanese products. Its heart is tea: matcha grown and stone-ground in Uji, near Kyoto, and air-shipped to Malta, alongside sencha, hojicha and genmaicha. Around that sit teaware, kitchen knives, tableware, incense, furoshiki and gifts.

Set your expectations correctly, though. j-okini is a specialist, not a grocer. You will not do your weekly food shop here — there is no miso, no rice, no soy sauce. What it does is the one thing the pan-Asian supermarkets cannot: genuine, high-quality Japanese tea and kitchenware, delivered to your door, free over €35 within Malta (as of 2026) — easy to reach with a tin of matcha and a bowl. For a Japanese resident who can find rice and miso locally but not real Uji matcha, this completes the picture.

Getting it delivered, and one long-stay shortcut

You do not have to visit any of these shops in person. All three pan-Asian supermarkets are on Wolt: Wenzhou (Gżira and Mosta) and Grab and Go have Wolt storefronts, so a shop can arrive in about half an hour, much like a takeaway. j-okini runs its own delivery instead, free over €35 within Malta. Between them, “have it delivered” is a real option here — handy without a car, when you would rather not carry rice and bottles home, or would sooner call a Bolt or eCabs for the trip back.

Two things worth knowing for a longer stay. If you order from a Japanese specialist abroad, mind where it ships from: a France-based shop such as Nishikidori posts across the EU, and because that is an internal-EU delivery, there is no customs surprise on arrival; order direct from Japan, though, and you may pay import VAT or duty when the parcel lands. And the low-tech trick many long-stayers swear by: pack the few things you cannot replace — a favourite miso, your usual furikake, a good curry roux — in your suitcase on the flight over from Japan. Local shops cover the basics; your bag covers the specifics.

One last reassurance: you need no Maltese to shop here. Staff are used to international customers and English is spoken at the counter, so asking where the rice vinegar lives is no trouble. And because this corner of the market moves fast — Wenzhou added a sixth branch only recently, and a rival’s website has gone dark — it is worth checking a shop is open before a special trip.