Japanese Taste Reviews 232

Everything was fine. Delivery was quick and the products well packed. I appreciate using a reliable delivery service and a flat rate shipping costs.

Many products in the online shop have competitive pricing. The selection of products is very good o think.

I read some negative reviews before but my experience was fine and based on this I can recommend this shop

Scam. Wish I had checked this before using them. Tracking doesn’t work. Item is gone/missing somewhere in Shenzhen China.

Spent over £100 on this fraud site. Someone is laughing on the other side

I received the parcel in good condition in 12 days after I had made my order, except one pack of cookies will be expired in less than two weeks that I can’t send it out as a Christmas gift. It will be better if the seller could show us the expiry date of the food. Most bad reviews are about the unexpected custom/import tax. My purchase amount does not exceed the related limit in my country and I did not need to make any extra payment upon receipt of the parcel. Maybe the seller could advise the customers to be aware of the import tax limit at the checkout page.

Avoid this company!! Wish I had read the trust pilot reviews before ordering a Chitose Kettle, but I was sucked in by their 2 x 5 star reviews on their website.

We were after a fast boiling stainless steel kettle for our induction hob, having ruined our Le Creuset stove top kettle as the ceramic coating broke down and became rusty. We contacted Japanese Taste by email and they were really helpful at first advising which of their products had coating inside versus which were pure stainless steel.

Unfortunately we then purchased the Chitose kettle and when it arrived it was very lightweight and cheap feeling. It felt the same as those cheap camping kettles which cost an eighth of the price. We used Google translate on the Japanese instructions which clearly showed that the kettle could only be used on a medium or low heat (the same as our original kettle).
Whilst this was frustrating we still believed that JT were a legit company and contacted them about the discrepancy between their website description versus the actual product description. They took weeks to respond and were really rude and dismissive. They said that they did not accept that 'low to medium' heat doesn't equal a fast boil. We have timed it and it takes 10 minutes to boil enough water for 2 cups of tea, not fast in my opinion!!!!
In the end they said we could pay to ship it back to Japan, but as other Trust Pilot reviews have stated they might then say they can't refund due to 'import taxes'. They also referenced their 2 x 5 star reviews as proof that the kettle is of high quality. I pointed out that I had submitted a 1 star review which hadn't been published, so how could we be sure the 5 star reviews are genuine?

So now we are stuck with a very expensive and useless kettle, and £88 out of pocket. I've never dealt with such terrible customer services, and the non publishing of genuine reviews on their website is a farce.

I wish I could give zero stars. I made two separate orders on different days, intentionally keeping each under $75 to avoid customs fees. I paid shipping twice, but Japanese Taste combined the orders into one package without my consent, listing them under a single receipt. This caused me to be hit with customs and FedEx fees, totaling $63 on a $141 order. When I reached out, they apologized but refused to cover the fees they had essentially created. Beware before buying from this site they show little to no regard for their customers.

Japanese Taste really needs to improve its process when problems occur by offering a redelivery if no response. This review could have been avoided if they had contacted me via the same email address I'd made the order from and/or had the package company contact me for redelivery or had them update their tracking chain to say 'message vendors' or something. Now I am down ~ 100 euros with nothing to show for it. I've felt like such a Karen through this process and I apologise to Simon who had to deal with my frustration but regardless, the outcome is the same. They did not prioritise a fair solution. I have now contacted EU trading standards.

Below is a summary of my experience with the company:
Payment made: 6th September
Package Sent: The package was dispatched and scheduled for delivery on 20th September.
Delivery Attempt: FedEx attempted first delivery a few days later (22/23rd?), but I was not home.
Notification Email: I received an email from an unidentifiable address, which appeared to be phishing and ended up in my junk folder. This email requested a response within three days, failing which the product would be destroyed. During this period, the FedEx status remained " running late", which I was using to track the package so I assumed the package was still en route. I did not see the notification email until I reached out on the 15th October to find out where the package was.
Invoice Received from delivery: On 1st October, I received and paid an invoice from FedEx.
Contact Attempts: On 15th October, I contacted the company to inquire about the package status. I also reached out to FedEx the same day and was informed that the company had requested the package be destroyed rather than stored or re-delivered.
Resolution Offered: The company offered store credit as the only recourse, which I have declined in favor of a monetary refund. This request was denied.
Confirmation: FedEx confirmed today (23/10/2024) that the package has indeed been destroyed.

I bought a pan, Chitose Japanese Iron Non-Stick Frying Pan (IH Compatible) 26cm. It supposed to be made of high quality iron. However after using once, the surface of pan covered with rust. I am a housekeeper for more than 20yrs, have been using numerous pans, but I never seen any rust in any other pan. The customer service told me wash it well. They did not think it is serious issue and sent a cleaning instruction. The company did not offer any refund. OMG. I wish I can attach photos here

You will need to pay custom duties! CRAZY!

Great products and smooth delivery right to my door :) Highly recommend! Especially I like their aodjiru goods.

Import duties and VAT tax on the order over the taxable amount, and the way shop dealt with it post factum is a disgrace, never use this shop, there are plenty of decent good shops around that are clear and honest on those things. I wish I would never order from this shop. All one needs is tax warning from the moment it attracts taxes. Better use RAKUTEN (Japanese Amazon) and use some services of the Japanese assisting company for that. Half cheaper and NO taxes. This shop prices as if the UK tax inclusive retail prices are comparable!

Terrible experience, it's been 2 months now and I didn't receive my order yet, they shipped my order with Fedex, and no updates about the status of my order, it was me who notify them with the delay, Fedex contacted me for more information and after that, they marked my order as delivered although I didn’t receive anything

I bought a Donabe that they have described as induction compatible. When I received and tested the product, it was not working on my induction stove. After approaching the seller, they mentioned that the item isn’t defective so nothing can be done and I could use the product in the oven. I have explained to them that I have received the item in perfect condition but it was a false advertising on their part to sell a product that doesn’t work on induction stove. There were no replies since. Really disappointed since I have spent about 100 euros.

No one picks up the phone. I had placed an order less than 5minutes prior and needed to cancel it. But they are slow to respond and have still not heard anything back.

Will change my review once it is done.

I ordered from Japanese Taste on April 22, 2024, the delivery was out May 3rd. It arrived shortly after that. I had ordered a few sauces, kitchen scissors, and tea. Everything was in perfect condition - and tasty, too! The scissors are fantastic.
I will order from them again.
(Unlike other reviewers, we had no problems with the shipping or extra fees for customs.)

Ok so I ordered from this site before I read the reviews and got pretty nervous about delivery time. I ordered on July 14th and needed the package delivered before July 31st because many of the items were meant to be gifts. I paid for expedited shipping (6-9 business days) to make sure it could get to me in time with some wiggle room to spare.
On July 17th, my order was still processing so I reached out to their customer service via email and chat. The person on chat was pretty prompt and let me know that my order is being processed and it would be 6-9 business days. He didn't really give me any new information, but I guess there was no new information to give. My email was answered on July 19th with similar information.
I finally got shipment information on the July 22nd, but was still kind of nervous about getting my package in time since it was coming from Japan (I'm in the US). Surprsingly I received the package the next day though (July 23rd)! Well within the 6-9 business days promised.
My items all came nicely wrapped with no damage.
Overall good experience. I think they could really improve their reviews if they added information on processing time during check out. If I had known the 6-9 days included ~5 days of processing time, I think I would have been less nervous about waiting to receive shipping information. Can't really say anything negative besides that. Simon was the customer service rep who helped me over chat and email and he was very patient with me lol

I have placed three orders with this company. I did not have any issue with my first two orders. Shipping was quick and the products arrived in excellent shape. However, there was an issue with my third order placed in June of 2024. I ordered 8 Biore sunscreens. 6 of those were in the current or newest packaging and the manufacture date on the bottles indicated that they were fresh. However, the two Biore Skin Protect Anthlizm Milk sunscreens in my order were very old. The packaging was not the current packaging. The manufacture dates stamped on the bottom of the bottles were 20190107 and 20181218 so these sunscreen were manufactured over 5 years ago. My understanding is that sunscreens are good for 3 years from date of manufacture and these were over 5 years old. I contacted Japanese Taste and they said they would check with Kao. They then told me that Kao said the sunscreens never expire and are good to use as long as they don’t have a foul smell. I know a bit about cosmetic chemistry and would not feel safe using a 5 year old sunscreen. I told the seller this and they said they would check again. They said Kao once again told them the same thing. I threw the sunscreens out. Lesson learned. I will not be doing business with Japanese Taste in the future. I will let the readers of my review decide whether they want to risk getting 5 year old sunscreens by buying from Japanese Taste.

Placed an order which I returned due to extremely high custom fees, which they neglected to mention. They never refunded even one euro from the 85 euros I paid them, with the lame excuse that it cost them more money to get the parcel back! Outrageous! Liars!

So far - bad. 2 days after placing an order get an email asking to confirm "i indeed made the purchase". Do so, get responce that order had not even being worked on. Now is day 4 since making the order, i paid extra for 3-6day delivery, and the order is not shipped. Will chargeback if no response or timely delivery. Will update review if things change.

upd - jul12, still not shipped. Order was placed on July 7, and paid for 3-6day delivery.

upd - jul 21, order received. Promised a refund of the shipping fee, but have not received the refund yet. Updating review from 1 star to 3 because the products were packed really well and arrived perfect.

Order to London, UK. Delivery all good, items all good.

Price is already 2-3 times more than Japan, but it also does NOT include any customs or taxes.

At the end one pays 3-4 times more for the goods.

I would not recommend the site, unless it is the only source of shopping in Japan. There are plenty of sites to assist shopping on Rakuten Japan.

Japan Taste is lowest rating for price and customs taxes that are not explained.