Cupertino's New Japanese Supermarket Is Built Around Tonight's Dinner

Stevens Creek Boulevard now has two full Japanese supermarkets. Tokyo Central at 19750 Stevens Creek Blvd. closes at 9 p.m. Hashi Market at 20558 Stevens Creek Blvd., in the Crossroads Shopping Center space Sprouts used to fill, stays open until 11. Hashi gives three large kiosks and a full wall to ready-to-eat food, stays open two hours later than its older neighbor, and got its top grade from early reviewers for a katsu bento from those kiosks. All three point Hashi toward the evening meal.

Hashi has been open about five weeks. Here is how it got there, what it sells, and where it fits in a Cupertino grocery week.

An opening that was big by local standards, smaller than the Bay Area's biggest

Hashi opened at 10 a.m. on Friday, October 9, 2026. SFGATE reported that people started lining up at 7:30 a.m. The line ran out the door and filled the parking lot, and about 1,700 shoppers came through by the end of the day. Cashiers rang up roughly 300 transactions an hour for most of the morning. Uzumaru, a local Yosakoi dance troupe, performed out front. The Mercury News also described hundreds of people waiting Friday morning, with some holding out for promotional gifts.

Other Asian supermarket debuts in the Bay Area this year drew bigger crowds. SFGATE counted about 8,000 people at Tokyo Central's February opening at Emeryville's Bay Street mall and 10,000 at H Mart's March opening in Dublin. T&T Supermarket also opened in San Jose in June. Hashi's 1,700 is a fraction of those totals. Still, a line wrapped around a former Sprouts lot surprised the company. "I'm from New York," Ava Liu, Hashi's head of operations, told SFGATE. "We have lines, but not like this."

Hashi started in New York, opened its first store there in 2024, and had six locations in the city before Cupertino. It describes the Crossroads store as its first West Coast location and its California flagship. Liu gave SFGATE a short reason for the location: "it's a central place for California. Apple is here. Everyone knows it." The City of Cupertino noted that the opening drew coverage from SFGATE and USA TODAY, and Mayor Kitty Moore welcomed the store to town.

What fills 20,000 square feet of the old Sprouts

The store covers about 20,000 square feet. SFGATE's walkthrough described a grocery that runs from imported snacks and pantry goods through produce, seafood, meat and sake. The parts that set it apart sit at the two ends of the store:

• Three large prepared-food kiosks selling chicken katsu bentos, curry bowls, salmon teriyaki and A5 wagyu rice bowls at $26.
• A full wall of sushi rolls and nigiri boxes along the far right side of the store.
• Hokkaido products, including beef, rice, cheesecake, premium chocolate and melons priced at $59.
• An in-house bakery and two full aisles of lifestyle and beauty goods, with brands such as Senka, Canmake and Bonbory.

There's no indoor seating. El Estoque, the Monta Vista High School student paper, pointed this out in its October 30 review. With nowhere to sit, everything at the kiosks is food to carry out. SFGATE called the grab-and-go section a boon for nearby tech workers and for De Anza College students down the road.

Hashi's evening plan comes from its New York stores. Before opening, operations manager Justin Li told KRON4 that freshly made sushi in Cupertino would be 30% off after 8 p.m. In SFGATE's opening-day story, Liu said the markdown would begin soon and that it had worked well in New York. A store that cuts sushi prices at 8 p.m. and stays open until 11 is counting on business after the dinner hour.

Where early reviewers landed

The El Estoque review rated Hashi 3 out of 5 overall and called it a strong contender among Bay Area Asian markets, mainly for its fresh seafood. The reviewers' conclusion was that the food section is a good place for a convenient Japanese lunch, while the bakery and desserts had not reached the same level yet. Their highest-rated items:

1. Katsu bento box, $13.99, rated 4 out of 5. The reviewers said the pork stayed crisp after sitting, praised the tamagoyaki and seaweed salad sides, and noted a packet of curry sauce included. They called it great value.
2. Mochi assortment, $5.99, rated 4 out of 5. Three pieces, with the red bean filling singled out as the best part of the tray.
3. Sake donburi, $21.99, rated 3.5 out of 5. The salmon got strong marks, and the reviewers said it stood out against typical store-bought sushi. They thought the bowl had more rice than fish.

Two of the three highest-rated items are ready-to-eat meals from the prepared-food side of the store, and the reviewers' overall praise went to the seafood.

How the two Stevens Creek stores split the day

Tokyo Central's own description of its Cupertino store is about range: "one of the widest selections of Japanese products in the nation," from fresh food and everyday groceries to snacks, sake and imported goods. Hashi stocks plenty of that too. Its edge is in the hours and the kiosks.

Both stores open at 8 a.m., so either works for a morning trip. Hashi is the only one of the two open after 9 p.m.

The holiday schedule makes the difference larger. Tokyo Central lists shorter 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours on Thanksgiving Day, which falls on November 26 this year, and the same hours on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. If you're planning to pick up sashimi or a sushi platter for a holiday table, check Hashi's holiday hours on its website. The site lists catering among the store's services, along with seafood, meat and imported Japanese groceries.

Cupertino is the first of several Bay Area stores

Cupertino is Hashi's first West Coast store, and more Bay Area locations are in the works. SFGATE reported that the company bought three Chinese grocery stores operating as Marina Grocery in Milpitas, San Mateo and Union City. Hashi's website lists all three as renovating. Liu said the company is adding Japanese products at those stores to gauge demand before deciding whether each becomes a Hashi Market or carries another brand from its parent, Toyo Group. Some of the Milpitas store's signage already uses the Hashi name, and it has added signs for Fujiissa, the matcha and soft-serve kiosk that is popular in the New York stores.

The company's national plans vary by outlet. Li told SFGATE that Hashi plans 15 more stores by the end of 2027, including some in Massachusetts and Colorado. USA TODAY listed planned locations in Chelsea, the Upper East Side, Brookline, Cambridge, Aurora, Milpitas, Union City and San Mateo, with no opening dates.

The rest of Stevens Creek's fall openings

Hashi wasn't the only new food business on Stevens Creek this fall. The City Manager's Newsletter of September 30, 2026 reported that Jingege & YaoYao, a Chinese restaurant, opened in late August in a 4,370-square-foot space at Marketplace, 19628 Stevens Creek Blvd. It's listed as open daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The same newsletter said Specialty's Café & Bakery is planned for the former Le Boulanger space at 20488 Stevens Creek Blvd., where tenant-improvement plans have been submitted.

Jingege & YaoYao, the Specialty's plan and Hashi's Crossroads store all line up along the same stretch of Stevens Creek. Of the boulevard's two Japanese supermarkets, Hashi is the one that stays open after 9 p.m.

At NOOPUR GUPTA, we track openings like Hashi's because a new store with late hours changes everyday errands for the people who live nearby. If you'd like to talk through what the latest changes along Stevens Creek mean for your part of Cupertino, schedule a consultation.