World Foods Supermarket

This supermarket is spacious, clean and lots of great finds. If you are near the area it would be worth checking it out.
I’ve gotten Thai basil, different variety of bok choy, fresh peeled papaya (ripe and green), Asian pears, fresh ginger, taro root etc etc.
The point is that they have a wide variety of produce at very low prices and of good quality also.
If you like fish, well they have lots of it and the store kind of smells like it too.
Lots of spices and teas to choose from.
I get my garlic chili paste here and chili oil for a cheaper price than any other place including Zion market and Mitsuwa.
Parking lot is big.
Come in and I promise you’ll end up with great finds, your palette and your wallet will thank you for it ;)

Good for most of your Asian grocery needs including some traditional groceries that you’ll find at your local Vons (might be priced a bit higher)
So if you love your DIY home cooked Asian foods, this place is worth a stop, sometimes the lines can get a bit hectic, just a warning.

I’ve been coming here probably over 10 years since I was a young child.
Lots of meat, fish, crab, oysters. Etc you get the picture. Yum!
Everyone here is nice and the shelves are always stocked. There’s nothing I can’t find here compared to other Asian markets in town.

If there is zero star, I will give zero. The person sells meat is so rude. I ask him to help me to cut one meat because it is very big and I will buy the whole thing. He said go home! go home! and wave his hands to me. I have never seen someone so rude. And the whole market has a nasty fish smell. will never go back again.

LOVE this asian supermarket. I’m glad to have found it because we live 30min away from the nearest Seafood City. Its ghetto but whatever, worth the visit. I come here to get crabs & balut especially. So much asian food here, its insane. Not to mention hundreds of different ramen. ;)

Awesome grocery store. They have a lot of specialty items and more variety in certain sections than most of the well known Asian grocery stores in Kerny Mesa. Their seafood, meats and produce might not be at the level of some of Kerny Mesa’s best, but they make up for it in other areas. Highly recommend stopping in if you’re in the area and never been. Buy something so you can witness the most miserable cashiers in all of SD.

Stopped by this place after having dinner nearby. There is plenty of parking in this shopping center. If you ever visited Vien Dong Supermarket in Linda Vista (now Thuan Phat), one of the first things you notice after walking into this store is that pungent smelly seafood odor. I’m not sure what goes into preventing this smell, but I’ve been in plenty of stores that sell seafood and they do not have this problem. Anyhow, after a few minutes your nose gets desensitized and it’s less noticeable.
This place has a wide variety of Asian goods, seafood, and produce. Some of the fruits and veggies didn’t look fully fresh, which may kill your mood to further explore the produce. I saw one of my favorite fruits… mango. Some of the mangoes didn’t look very good, so I left it alone. On a more positive note, prices are cheap and they have a decent selection of goods such as: drinks, sauces, canned goods, cookies, crackers, teas, coffee, and much more.
We only picked up a few things here, however, no meat or produce. The cashier was not very friendly, no smile, no greeting, no how are you today, no thank you, not a single word. She was a young woman and not sure what her deal was. Normally, I would chalk it up to her having a bad day, but she was chatting it up to the second customer ahead of us prior to ringing up our items, so it was just her.
Overall, the place was clean (the smell sucked though), it had a big selection of goods, and low prices… the only knock on this place for me was the customer service. I’d return to this place, but only if I were in the area and needed to get something not sold elsewhere.

We found this Supermarket because we’ve been going to Phở Ca Dao for years and the market is right behind our favorite Phở place.
The first thing the unaccustomed shopper notices upon entering the promises is the strong smell of Seafood. I know people that don’t go there because of that. This does not bother me as I lived in Southeast Asia for five years. Just fair warning, and advice not judge a market by its smell. This is the way they are supposed to smell.
Almost all my purchases are in the Produce Section: Red and Green Chillies, Thai Basil, Garlic, Shallots, Bok Choy, Chinese Green beans, etc. Most of the time everything us fresh, but do take care to examine your purchases closely. They do have produce by the sell by date. The other things I get there are for day to day cooking, Oyster Sauce, Fish Sauce, Sambal Olek, Sweet Soy Sauce, Fried Shallots, etc.
Prices are reasonable and selection is very good. The only thing I don’t like is that it’s rare to have more than two registers open, so check out can take some time. Anyway, a good place to stock up on supplies for reasonable money. I prefer this to the Ranch 99 Market for convenience due to its proximity to my Bat Cave.

They have exactly what we need. Always fully stocked. Fairly organized for an Asian supermarket. What else is there to say?

Vegetable price is very considerable, but eggs price is not so attractive.

Worst cashier ever! She’s not mute, I heard her talking with her Asian clients. She didn’t greet us. Not even a «Hi» come on! Everyone in America at least knows how to say hello! She throws your stuff across the belt. She had a look in her face like something stank. She gave us a total and handed us a receipt. No thank you! Nothing. Geez! The guys at the seafood department are nice. Nothing else to say.

World Foods Supermarket is a great place to find a large selection of Asian themed groceries and quality produce for cheap prices. Even though they have cheap prices on their produce, its still great stuff. On all my occasions of buying produce here, never once did I ever get bad tasting veggies. Perhaps the biggest reason though for me shopping here, is their large selection of Asian sauces, all which are also at very decent prices. Even though the store is kinda scattered about and not the cleanest looking place, its still a really good bargain and worth exploring.

To do a real Louisiana seafood boil, it’s important to have way too much seafood on hand. I use an 80 quart pot, if that gives you the idea. Since Vien Dong on Linda Vista closed a few years ago, World Foods has been my go to source for live blue crab and crawfish.
The owner and the seafood managers at this store have been very helpful, letting me know when fresh shipments of crab were due in, so I could get there ahead of all the little old ladies, who cursed me in several languages while I weighed each crab with the tongs provided (the trick to blue crab being not to focus on size so much as density).
These fellows have also put aside large portions of live crawfish for me as the product arrived, allowing me to start my water boiling, shoot over and pick up my shellfish, and get back to the house in time to start cooking.
I’ve purchased nice cuts of beef, pork bellies, and head-​on shrimp from World Foods, as well as sundry herbs and vegetables that I’d never find at Von’s. To those who argue that the selection at 99 Ranch is better, I say, you’re right, but World Foods is closer to home and has everything I need.

Found! Chicken Feet.
Perfect addition to my bone broth soup.
#paleo #gaps

I live within walking distance and visit this market several times a week. I have found that the produce is almost always more fresh than standard supermarket produce. The fresh meat and fish are just that — fresh — and more than reasonably priced. They carry many ethnic and specialty foods, most definitely Vietnamese but also other Far Eastern goods. I see that other Unilocal reviews comment about the «smell» but I don’t find anything there other than the smell of fresh food. Having grown up going to the local fruit market, I can say for sure that maybe these people are just used to the smell of over-​commercialized superstores that smell only of bleach and plastic.
American staples like bread, peanut butter and the like are more expensive here, so I still go to a standard store to pick up these things, but this is my definite go-​to place for fresh foods and specialty treats.

I feel bad for the live fish and too many lobster like creatures in the back in a small tank waiting to be slaughtered. I can’t help feeling sorry for them. The smell has always been bad but you adjust to it. Many of them don’t speak English very well and that makes it very challenging if you want to find something specific, but oh well.
I have also bought a few coconuts here that have been bad.
There are some interesting vegetables and fruit that are decent priced and a big selection of instant noodles/​ramen.
I’ve been here a few times but I don’t really plan on coming back.

Cheap [mostly Asian culture based] market!
Love how that carry Filipino foods! Closest Asian market by SDSU! I’m used to going to places like 99 Ranch and Seafood City in Orange County/​LA area but these stores are further away from SDSU and will all these hills around… gas wastes FAST!
Anyway, I really like this place, wish they had some more mochi options, noodle options, and ice cream options (wanted Ube ice cream) but this place will do and is at a reasonable price compared to other Asian markets!

Living in La Mesa, this is the closest Asian supermarket around. I went there for my first time today and I was not at all impressed. Maybe it’s because I’m spoiled from the Asian supermarkets in SG Valley, but this one had a small selection of vegetables and meats. A slightly larger selection of fish. So I drove out 5 miles and was only able to pick up 3 items. Disappointed :(Best thing I got was white nectarines at only 89 cents/​lb. Haven’t tried them yet, but hope they’re good!
Prices are average and comparable to markets in SG. Not quite as expensive as 99 Ranch, but not as great quality either.
Location is not ideally safe. Just be careful and make sure you don’t leave valuables in your car and lock it! Only took one trip to know I hate driving down El Cajon.
I would come back if I was really craving some Asian veges and fruits, but wouldn’t otherwise!

Overall a nice asian market. First it’s clean, aisles aren’t narrow or overcrowded & it’s well lit. Decent selection of fresh meats, ok selection of fresh seafood, they have a bigger selection of frozen than fresh.
Their vegetables & fruits were fresh every time I’ve shopped here.

If you’re looking for some fresh fish… this is the place. I also like the variety of Asian beers the have available.