Nijiya Market Mountain View Store — Restaurant in Mountain View

Called at 9 am to see when their restaurant opened. Male employee on the phone said the restaurant opened at 8:30 am. I drove and spent precious gasoline looking for hot food at their restaurant, only to be greeted by a sign that said the restaurant was open at 11 am. I asked the attendant at the restaurant cash register and she said the restaurant was open at 11 am. The cashier said the one who takes the phone calls is the manager. I called again to see why the manager of all people would lie to me about when their restaurant opens. The female manager who received the call not only defended the previous misinformation from their employee, they also did so with a downright shoddy excuse. She said that Nijiya calls the refrigerated ready made bento section the "restaurant" and the actual restaurant the "hot deli". That's a hot excuse right there. Their own restaurant cashier referred to the place as a restaurant. Who in their right minds would say call and aisle of refrigerated onigiri a "restaurant"? The blatant lie and general unapologetic attitude of the managers working at Nijiya, who apparently lie to customers for fun, has destroyed my trust for this business. Unfortunately I cannot, in good conscience, buy goods at this...

I've been here twice and both times I have been very satisfied. I really like their premade rolls and bento boxes. I've tried the California roll and the salmon roll and both were fresh. My favorite is their bento box with rice, the large masago, and raw fish or raw scallop. It's so good!!! I love how the large masago burst in my mouth!!! So salty and good with rice.

The second time I came here I decided to grab some fried food from their togo counter. I got half a pound of their fried calamari and 2 crab croquettes. YUM, the fried calamari was so good..I wish I got a whole pound!!! The crab croquettes were good too..very creamy and savory. It's different than anything I've eaten before.

I come here when I'm in the area..I hope I'm in the area more often so I can stop by this market to try their other stuff!!!

Side note I like the size of this market..not too big not too small. In and out..and if I want to browse around it's not too big. If you are in the area and want some Asian...

16 years later, still consider this a nifty little place. Used to drop in for bento box lunches when I worked on Castro in the early 2000's. Visited maybe 10 years later and the same Mexican staff cashiers! Amazing. Oddly, these days, perhaps they received complaints or just wanted to go more authentic, but those familiar faces are now gone. The bento boxes appear to have more variety these days but also seem more commercial. Ginger now in plastic packets inside the boxes, kinda like how shoyu comes in those single serving packets. Times change, I guess, and so does the bento box experience. The place seems small, but there is no shortage of selection. Japanese junk food, several mochi brands, fresh fish and meat, produce,... with all these options, one can make this place their primary grocery store. Regularly see Japanese clientele, so I can only assume the Nijiya Market brand must be...