Far East

Far east has a lot of Chinese/​Asian grocery items. I think they mostly emphasize Chinese ethnic food. Although the store is not as clean and spacious as county market, the prices are lower. The aisles are really narrow! if you’re claustrophobic, you’ve been warned!
Despite some drawbacks, I will continue to come here for my grocery needs.

various kinds of food can satisfy my needs but the quality. You will often buy expired food and food without expiration date. Cannot imagine the poor quality of some food. They just put expired food at the most obvious place on the shelf.

Great place to get a variety of fresh authentic Asian groceries. The meats and vegetables are pretty fresh but I would be cautious with their packaged sauces. Taking a close a look at the ingredients before buying would help. I would avoid excessive amounts of monosodium glutamate (MSG), and any suspicious artificial sweeteners or colors. Far East also has a variety of other items that I couldn’t identify, but
I will have to say that they can clean up the place a bit, and the outside could also use a paint job, but I wouldn’t really worry about this affecting the food which is always stored and packaged well. They have a large walk in fridge and freezer at the back that they use to restock the display shelves.
Another minor complaint is that they only accept cash, but that isn’t that big of a deal since you wouldn’t buy too much at a time there. The cashiers are also really generous, they often round down the price so you don’t have to go scrambling for loose change. The staff also let me exchange my rice when I picked up the wrong kind even without the receipt.

Just left the store, great employees. Produce was awesome! Got a durian today. Going back tomorrow with my husband. Lots of stuff to choose from here.

All right, I need to modify that glowing review I wrote a while back. First, if you’re looking for Korean food, this is not the place. So correction to my last review, you won’t find everything you need. That’s not the reason why I’m giving Far East 2 stars. The last few times I’ve been there, there were crates of raw meat left out, unrefrigerated. I’m not sure what is going on with that. I know that when I leave meat out for a few hours, it won’t be fully thawed. But that’s just for personal consumption. There’s got to be something banning this sort of thing. Even if there isn’t, this is an unsavory practice as a business. Who knows how long the meat has been left out. Perhaps they’re letting certain items thaw so that customers can cook immediately after purchase, but now I’m just justifying their behavior. I would avoid the meat. And I would avoid the produce. Most of the produce looks fine, but I purchased some garlic and upon opening them, they had already grown sprouts. Too old. Too old. Far East, you’re worrying me. You get to keep a star for your shelf items. Check those expiration dates though.

This grocery has quite a variety of Asian condiments, vegetables, meats, seafood, noodles, desserts, canned food, sauces, dried food, and all types of sundry. It actually has the biggest selection of asian food and variety compared to the other Asian supermarkets in Urbana and Champaign area. You can find anything from Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, to Indian, Indonesian, and Korean products.
I like the assortment of vegetables and fresh noodles that this place has to offer. The products in this place are reasonably priced. You should check out their Facebook — they update their special products like perssimons, moon cakes, and blue crabs on their Facebook. I’ve been shopping in this store for more than ten years and have continued to remain a faithful customer because I do not believe that there is another asian supermarket that rivals this store.
This is really not the typical supermarket, its a hole in the wall and its a ma and pop shop that has grown a little bigger over the years, its locally owned and its a family business.

Really don’t recommend to shop in this store. Lots of foods are expired and still on the shelf for sale.

I cant.
My family «lovingly» refers to this place as the crack house. I refer to it disgustedly as the crack house.
I just dont trust this place. Apparently they have awesome produce but I can’t even bring myself to go inside. I went in once and lasted less than 5 minutes. It was FILTHY and smelled so rotten I wanted to vomit. I said something to my sister and she was like «thats because they have seafood in boxes on the floor.»
Let me repeat that … They have seafood. In boxes. ON THE FLOOR. Shouldn’t that shit be in a cooler or something?
Also, they make up their own prices for things that don’t have a label. My sister went there yesterday to pick up some noodles. She decided to buy a small mango as well, and she told me that the cashier looked at the mango, looked around, and just punched in the same price as the noodles. What probably should have cost her $ 0.79 cost her $ 1.69.
They only accept cash, probably because they make up prices as they go. Something is fishy about this place, and it’s not just the nasty floor crabs.

Great place to get Asian Food!

They are so helpful in here… I walk in and say,” how do you fix this. or what do you do with this” and they tell me. awesome

Far East is very close to my sister’s apartment. When I helped my parents move her in I said to them, «what’s with that creepy crack house back there? Are you sure this is a safe street?» My sister nodded in agreement and gave a funny look. My mom said «it’s an Asian market, they probably have THE BEST produce around.»
Well, mom knows her stuff. Yes, it’s creepy from the outside. Yes, it’s a little weird smelling when you first walk in. But the produce and authentic Asian things are SPOT ON. I bought produce and drove it home to Chicago. That’s how good it was.
They also have all of the condiments your at-​home-​Asian-​cooking-​heart desires. Curry pastes, chili sauces and oils, sriracha, marinades… you can cook Asian food every day for the rest of your life.
Let’s not even start on the candy. Yan Yan. Pocky. KOALA YUMMIES. I die.
CASH ONLY so be prepared for that.
I wish I lived in between Far East and World Harvest!

I’m from the Mid-​Atlantic area (greater Philadelphia) and this Asian grocery store was adequate but not amazing. The cash-​only policy is annoying, and the shelf organization is possibly the worst (as well as the narrowest) I’ve ever seen, including Philly and NYC Chinatowns. For example, why are frozen dumplings and frozen baozi in freezer cases on the opposite sides of the store? I also wasn’t a huge fan of their frozen/​prepared foods selection, which tends toward the sweet rather than the savory. It shouldn’t be this hard to find basic pork-​and-​vegetable steamed buns that can be reheated in the microwave. I also picked up a bottle of soy sauce at random and was later told by my mother that it was poor quality.
But, for all these flaws, the store does serve my needs for Asian-​specific cooking ingredients and has a convenient location on my way home from work. The young woman who usually works at the cash register speaks perfect English and knows where everything is (nonsensically) located, which is a plus.

This has got to be my favorite grocery store for Asian goods. They have pretty much everything, and I’m always tempted to try new things. I really like cooking so I’m always trying to find new things to mess around with in the kitchen.
Stepping into the store, you may feel overwhelmed with the variety and amount of goods in the store. You also get a waft of that Chinese grocery store smell.
The selection of vegetables is very good compared to the other grocery stores around town. They regularly have veggies that many of the other grocery stores don’t carry in addition to what the other stores have too.
They have a wide selection of soy products, pickled goods, spices, noodles, rice, frozen goods, and all kind of sauces from all over Asia.
While I never buy meat here, they seem to have a lot like duck, chicken, pork, beef.
The selection of fish is pretty good. There are many kinds of whole fish and filets. What’s really nice is that the owners of the store know their fish very well. I can pull out a random fish from the freezer to ask them and they’ll give me the name of it and how to cook it to perfection.
I feel like every time I got, which is mostly weekly, there is something new that shows up among the regular items. It could be interesting fruit, seafood, packaged goodies, etc.
But the best thing of all are the owners. They are extremely nice and helpful. They always ask about how I am doing and let me know any new interesting things going on with them or in the store. they also give good recipes and recommendations. It’s really cozy and I feel so invited every time. I am sad that I’ll be done with college soon and will be moving. I wish I could take the store with me.

Absolutely my favorite Asian market in C-​U. Good for staples like big ol’ bags of rice and frozen dumplings as well as for stranger stuff like yellow bean paste and tamarind juice.
The family who runs the store is always helpful when I need assistance navigating their packed aisles. The owner is vegan and she’s been stocking more and more faux meat products which is AWESOME! Their fresh food section has been getting better and better with each visit, too.
Cash ONLY, don’t forget! And they look a little uninviting with the concrete exterior and tiny house-​door but inside it’s a wonder land.

Because of a yucky spoiled-​produce experience at Am-​Ko, I have to say that Far East wins. Of course, they’re not exactly close competitors, as their stock reflects differing ethnic focuses (Korean versus Vietnamese & Chinese, as far a I could tell?).
We found a few fun packages goods, but what we were really looking for — Taro pancake mix — was, sadly, missing. I asked an employee just to double-​check, and got a mostly incomprehensible jumble of broken English which basically amounted to «I’ve never seen that before, and you won’t find it anywhere in town — or Chicago for that matter.» If you’ve never seen it before, how exactly are you so confident that I won’t find it anywhere between Chambana and Chicago? Interesting approach.
Being a long-​time west-​coaster, I’m spoiled by the Asian groceries in my area. But this spot does ok.

I describe this place to my friends as a concrete box with a door. As far as décor goes, you shouldn’t expect anything above that. Walking through the door is disorienting as you’re automatically blasted with the smell of dust and slightly stale packaged goods that seems ubiquitous in Asian grocery stores. «Where… where am I?», you think as your eyes roam over the ceiling high shelves stuffed with godknowswhat, looking for some sort of organization or way to navigate the narrow aisles. You’re in Asia, my friend.
Appalling appearances aside (awesome alliteration, amen? ^_​_​^), Far East is pretty well stocked with Asian necessities, considering it’s located in the middle of Illinois. I even managed to find my favorite jasmine honey green tea there, which was a pleasant surprise. Prices are reasonable but its a pain that they only accept cash or check. (Typical Asian establishment rule, I know, but I’m still complaining.)

Extremely dilapidated, inside and out, but the shelves and boxes are a treasure trove of cheap, fresh eats. Employees are friendly and will help carry heavier purchases (like sacks of rice) to your car.

I admit that the grungy appearance of Far East might deter most shoppers, especially as its window-​less, brick exterior bears little resemblance to the welcoming storefront of most American grocery stores. Some other customers have accused the store of being «dirty.» However, Far East is not much different from the local markets in the Chinatown areas of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, or other metropolitan areas.
Other stores in town (e.g., Amko, Lee’s Market, Green Onion, etc.) specialize primarily in Korean and Japanese groceries, but Far East offers cooking ingredients for other areas of Asia. The shop boasts an impressive selection of different noodles (not just ramen), fresh produce, beverages, and necessary sauces for cooking many Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese dishes. Where else in town can you find fresh lemon-​grass, Kaffir lime leaves, Thai eggplants (golf-​ball-​size and green), and Chinese leeks?
Some of the staff might seem hostile, but I would suggest approaching the teenagers who work there if you have trouble, as they are very friendly. After describing dishes I want to cook, I’ve often received helpful and honest recommendations from the owners about the right ingredients to purchase.
The best time to pick up groceries at Far East are Thursday evenings or Fridays because these are days when they receive fresh shipments of produce, bakery goods, and snacks. Sometimes they even have a box of live crabs available for adventurous eaters!

UPDATE: The reviews on here are for the FAR EAST grocery store. The address above needs to be corrected to 105 S. 5^th Street (because the Far East Grocery has moved here). This mystery took me about three days to solve, because the address above is now a restaurant, so I thought there was a back area grocery area.
FAR EAST Grocery has a huge variety for such a little place. They sell amazing dumplings there, and they are friendly to «white people» (K.H.) as long as you are respectful to them not obnoxious.

The first thing one notices about this grocery store is that it looks more like a crack-​house from the outside than anything. Actually, I’d passed it many times before without knowing it was actually a grocery store!
Inside, it’s not much better in that it’s pretty dark, musty, and just makes me feel dirty.
Their aisles are narrow and things are somewhat organized and categorized, and despite the fact they probably have the most variety of all the Asian grocery stores, you’ll probably spend a lot more time looking for what you want than anything else.
Price-​wise, they’re okay, but I don’t know if they take credit cards or not… I get the feeling that they may not.
To summarize:
Pros: Lots of variety, relatively inexpensive
Cons: Dirty, can be difficult to locate what you’re looking for
This is the Asians’ Asian grocery store.