Dong A Grocery

Dong A feels like the oldest and most adventurous of Pinellas’ many fascinating Asian markets. It’s certainly been down the street from me for as long as I remember. The place is awesomely dirty, with cute ladies squatting shoeless here and there on the floor chopping up veg and cracking open jackfruit. Meat skewers, quails, fried goods are left out in the open air by the register as though you were walking down a Hanoi alley with hawker carts all around you (grab a baggie, help yourself). The place smells wonderful: like fish in parts, like cilantro in others, and sometimes like feet. It’s disorganized and unevenly lit, and sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s actually an item for sale, what’s a store fixture, and what’s someone’s half-​eaten lunch left forgotten on a shelf.
Freezer and fridge cases contain the usual items: a modest variety of tofu, lots of fish cakes and fish balls, frozen seafood (whole frozen mudfish steaks, which are great), frozen Vietnamese desserts, and so on. There’s che and steamed cakes. Racks of takeaway food including housemade rolls, stew, meals, the aforementioned meats, bahn mi, bao, steamed sticky rice bundles. It may look scary but be brave. I’ve enjoyed many a tasty lunch here and never gotten sick. Give your immune system a workout now and then, it can surprise you.
Great prices on veg and pretty reasonable on pantry items. The staff’s friendly, the parking is ample, the location is convenient, and you should really be in there right now scooping glistening quail carcasses into a plastic baggie, whatcha waiting for?

I love this place! Not only is it right around the corner from my house but they always have a huge selection of specialty stuff like birds eye chili, thai basil, lemongrass, and authentic sauces that you can’t find at the big chains. Really good, fresh, handmade food to-​go as well. If you like authentic southeast asian or chinese cuisine this is the place to shop.

We loved this place the moment we walked in the door. It screams authenticity. We wanted squid to make calamari for Christmas, and knew an Asian market would have it. We went to a very nice, well rated, but Walmart-​like one and I refused to purchase from there. We went on a search, and thank gosh this family has stayed true to its business! We even found a Thai Tea Filter! They have soooo many fresh veggies and handmade foods. We will be back!

Most of the criticisms about this place have to do with differences in the way South Asians do things. Anyone who has been to Asia will understand this.
— Yes, it might be «expired»
— Yes, they pick their teeth and wear sandals as they sort the produce
— Yes, the floors might need a mopping
But you’re not at Publix, and Publix doesn’t sell frozen crickets, sea cucumber, a hundred brands of fish paste, or those eggs with the embryo inside, so you just gotta roll with it.
I love this f****n’ place.

A great local market for all things Southeast Asian. The staff is friendly and down to earth and the selection is great. What the store lacks in sterility it makes up in fresh produce and colorful kitsch. The multigenerational women peeling veggies always seem charmed by my children, and Minh behind the counter is always happy to help. This is where my family goes for stir-​fry noodles, cilantro and baby bok choy.

Typical Asian market. Just not as clean as the other Asian markets in Pinellas County.
IMHO, they have managed to remain in business for the past 16 years for 2 reasons. #1. How they treat their customers. #2. Location.
WEEKEND:
–Prepared Vietnamese beef stew and stuffed bitter squash ready in to go containers.
–Roast pork (whole pig roasted but in cuts), roast duck, and Chinese BBQ pork sold by weight.
–Various Vietnamese prepared dishes by the store ppl or elsewhere.
Is it clean? NO
Should you check the packages? YES
There are things that you could buy there, and there are things that you shouldn’t buy.
FISH. Sometimes frozen shipped from another country (China). Sometimes fresh.

I’ll give it two stars
1 star for having a variety of coconut water cheaply priced.
2^nd star for some produce and the occasional treat in the candy section.
CHECK EXPIRATION DATE OF EVERYTHING YOU BUY.
SMELL IT IT APPLIES.
MAKE SURE SEAL ISN’T BROKEN ON FOOD OR DRINKS.
this place is just so freaking dirty I would never buy anything prepaired here or behind the meat and fish counter. Flies everywhere on the food.
I bought coconut water and she. I got home I noticed the seal was broken on both and it says «keep frozen» not a big loss it was 1.50. Bottle not a big loss.
Head those two rules!!!

Typical Vietnamese grocery store and more? They actually have a jewelry store inside, I walked away from this grocery store with two pairs of 18k white gold earrings which I love. I can find pretty much everything to complete my authentic Asian cuisine. However I really wish the store is a lot cleaner. The appearance of the store, the floor, the isles looks very dirty. Also after spending half hour observing the staff preparing some of the Vietnamese home made dishes to take home. I am questioning their sanitation process. I saw a man moving produce boxes and then went to package spring rolls, while the woman rolling up spring rolls were picking her teeth. Gross!
I will shop there for fresh produce and wide variety of selections they have to cook at home! But I will never buy their prepared food.

They have home made kimchi which I tried and like a lot. They have one decent brand of coconut water that I found. Other than that I am not interested in what else they have so my review can’t be taken as complete check it out and see for your self we all like different things. What I like could change in time too. Today I saw home made beef jerkey. I may have to try this.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, so the parking lot was packed. This Vietnamese grocery store is medium sized in comparison to other stores in the area. However, it has some specialized items worth mentioning and possibly making it worth a visit.
There is a large Vietnamese video and music selection of what appears to be some official releases as well as the usual stuff. There is also a jewelry counter that has precious stones, gold, and jade. It was interesting to see a jeweler there in a grocery store wearing the head mounted magnifying goggles.
The ceramic (note not plastic) dish selection is very beautiful, most of it being sapphire on white. I purchased an amazing teapot with a bamboo handle for $ 9.99 that had choy symbols, ryukins, and bats painted on it. When we have a larger kitchen, I will definitely be going back for the rest of the collection.
Their selection of fresh whole fish was small, but looked delicious and smelled like absolutely nothing, very clean and easy to cook at home. There were large whole fish cleaned and de-​headed for a low price as well as a case of BBQ duck and pork. The frozen seafood section had a larger selection of squid than most, and if you eat as much squid as we do, it is great.
The soda and tea selection was very large as well, featuring non-​expired drinks for once. I actually was able to find my favorite can of Watermelon Soda for only $ 0.60 each. They also had Taiwanese Lychee Green Tea and Coconut Juice with Aloe.
Fresh vegetables are usually my favorite thing to shop, but here it was very confusing and the portions were too large. To buy jalapenos, you had to buy a flat of 12, same thing with shallots, and I did not even see cilantro. Most of the vegetable items were pre-​packaged with no price tags or labals. and half were refrigerated in foggy bags, so you could not even see what was inside to identify it.
I am all about prepared snacks to take home for dinner and to take to work for the rest of the week. They had many to choose from here. Items like sticky rice, Banh Mi, rice paper rolls, meat plates, rice plates, and sweet bean desserts. The best breakfast ever is purple coconut sticky rice with taro (heated warm), and that is what I will be eating tomorrow thanks to Dong A.