Nonaka’s

With great sadness I found out that Nonakas is closing. I will truly miss coming here, best of luck to the owners and hope everything will work out for them, they were vey nice people.

This small, quaint, Japanese shop on the north side of Lodi seems out of place at first in a suburban town — especially whose Asian population is only five percent of the total makeup. Despite this fact, I really hope it fills a niche in the community enough to thrive. Even though Nonaka’s is small, its groceries posses all the fundamentals of Japanese cooking that you would otherwise have to travel deep into Stockton to find. I can’t begin to count the number of times Nonaka’s has saved a meal of mine because I’ve forgotten that I needed an ingredient at the last second.
Added to that, their meals on hand are not bad food at all. It’s not the best food, but it’s competent, bountiful, and very very cheap. It’s the kind of cheap, quality Japanese food I grew up on as a kid and is all but absent from the Stockton/​Lodi area outside of a Buddhist Church fund raiser.
Nonaka’s isn’t a store on par with Sakura in Stockton, but it’s appropriately sized for the community it serves. As long as you go into it with tempered expectations, you would probably like Nonaka’s as well.

I was out of Sweet Chili Sauce, which I use to make marinated Baked Chicken (my own recipe!). I knew Apple Market didn’t carry it anymore based on my last grocery shopping expedition. «Where can I get Sweet Chili Sauce?» I wondered. I knew there was a Japanese grocery, Nonaka’s, which I used to pass to go somewhere else to eat. But I never shopped or eaten a meal there. Might as well try it out while shopping for Sweet Chili Sauce.
Nonaka’s is a family-​owned Japanese restaurant /​grocery store located in the Woodlake Plaza east of Wine & Roses, behind Salisbury’s Market. They’ve been at this location a couple of years now.
Grocery Store (*** $$) —
Apple Marketplace (
), which I thought carried a relatively complete amount of Asian foodstuffs, carries only a third of all the Asian groceries in this little market! The varieties of rice is surprising, and also the vast amount of refrigerated grocery items! I bought my Sweet Chili Sauce ($ 1 more than at Apple) and a jar of Japanese made Towfu (actual spelling!) Cake in Chile Oil (not available at Apple).
Pricing is a little on the high side, but you would have to travel to Stockton to find a better stocked Asian grocery.
For those that might be interested… noticed Nonaka’s carry boxed Mochi (refrigerated) and the Oriental Jelly Candy.
Restaurant (*** $) —
The restaurant portion of Nonaka’s is only a six-​table area where you can consume basically a Teriyaki Bowl type of menu — A Teriyaki Bowl with Rice & Vegetables ranges from $ 4.25 to $ 5.50, Teriyaki Bowls without Rice range from $ 5.50 to $ 8.50.
Sushi, which consists of only Spring Roll, Combo Sushi, and Maki Sushi is only served from Thursday through Saturday. Not very much demand in Lodi, I guess.
Today, I tried their Seafood Udon Noodles in a 6″ diameter bowl with a surprising amount of seafood. A little sweeter tasting than I would like from Udon Noodle Soup, but very good. And I was also intrigued by their Macaroni Salad, which contained Crab Meat — VERY GOOD Macaroni Salad. I asked the owner what the ingredients were to make the Macaroni Salad… I think she didn’t tell me (or didn’t want to) all of the ingredients!
Also met some long-​time locals who lived nearby… Discussed the positives and negatives of the population explosion in Lodi. Love the diversity of shopping now… but the traffic and people congestion and the dearth of farm land!
I own a Jetta TDI (Diesel) sedan for my automotive purposes and I met someone that also owned an older VW Diesel. He uses the leftover frying oil from Nonakas and uses it in his VW as a source of fuel. We discussed the rising cost of automotive fuel in this country and ways to alleviate the financial burden… and he has a nifty one!
All this over Lunch. Glad I came here today.
FYI: Don’t even try to follow the Google Map! I can see why people get stuck in Lodi… it’s because of the Google Maps!