Tai Wah Grocery Store

This tiny little Chinese grocery has a nice selection of Chinese ingredients, and a helpful staff if you’re trying to cook Chinese cuisine. Good choice in noodles, sauces, vegetables, and spices. Don’t judge by size, they’ve got a lot of stuff shoehorned into this little corner shop, and it’s not especially pretty. In exchange for not having the Whole Foods overhead (and attitude) the prices are very good, though some of the stuff for sale here just isn’t available in corporate chain supermarkets so there is no direct comparison. Worth a trip for specific ingredients, also definitely worth a stop in if you’re in Chinatown to eat at a nearby restaurant.

This grocery store is very affordable. I was shocked at the high quality and low price of much of their produce. Also, if — like me — you’re used to shopping at Jewel and whole foods, you’ll find the prices on their tea, dried mushrooms, peanuts, and other staples to be insanely low. They also have some cool stuff like dried octopus (although I didn’t buy it because I’m a vegetarian). As can be expected of a store this affordable, they didn’t invest in the interior décor of the place (so I’m deducting one star for cleanliness/​lighting/​appearance). However, this is definitely a place to go if you’re looking for affordable and quality groceries.

I happen to come here often — Why — because my mom is on this root vegetable kick that I don’t know the American name of. She makes this soup with it and requests that I specifically buy it from here because they have the best prices on it. I can’t really argue with that since we did go to probably every grocery store down on Wentworth and Archer. There was even an older man that must be related to the owners here that helped me dig amongst the shavings to look at the other optional sizes to pick the ones I liked best to buy and take home with me. He helped clean off some of the shavings, too. Maybe, I’m a sucker for old people and appreciate however they want to be recognized as useful or helpful. I don’t even get that kind of service at Asian restaurants! Plus, most Asian store staff people seem busy or annoyed when you talk with them. The store seems to have other well priced vegetables although it’s not a large selection. They do sell other items that might be an occasional stock item like blue crabs, and other random things. I’m sure I’ll be back buying more of these root vegetables for my mom, and look forward to the shop people telling me that «dis good one» plant to buy.