Peking Bazaar

Go here for AMAZINGLY CUTE dishes!!! Seriously, couldn’t find dishes as cute and fancy as these anywhere (not even on the internet!). They’re also dishwasher/​microwave safe (major plus!!) But make sure you go down stairs for the best selection. The story is also very nice, clean, and well lit. They also have the BEST lucky cat selection!!!

Unique asian gifts and great prices. Staff seemed friendly and there was a large selection of everything.

you can get sparklers here!

I don’t want to write anything so incriminating that no one invites me to their parties anymore, but let’s just say that the last time I attended a house party it ended with my valiant offer to the homeowner to find and shake down whomever was throwing candy corn at people from the balcony… which was followed the next morning with hazy, vague memories of both my hands diving into a giant vat of candy corn, pulling out fistfuls while laughing and wanting to show everyone what I could do. The rest is sort of a blank.
It was later confirmed that I was, in fact, the candy corn culprit. Oops.
So a few months pass and apparently the statute of limitations on my house party ban has come and gone and through a 3^rd party I’ve miraculously been invited back to the scene of the crime for yet a another party, though this time sans candy corn.
In lieu of an apology, I decided it was best to butter up the host with Chinatown’s finest (read: strangest) treasures at Peking Bazaar as a host gift.
There’s no shortage of places you can go to get crazy, useless crap in Chinatown, but we chose this place because the cheap kimonos and Chinese caps with braid detail spoke to us.
They’ve got a couple different clearance sections upstairs and down if you’re in the market for some broken sh*t, but we opted for some cheap table top games, coin purses with nonsensical phrases, a souvenir coffee mug that said, ‘San Francisco’ with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and a really decrepit clip art rat with the words, ‘Where is my cheese?’, some googly eye Elvis glasses, a firework that you light at a chicken’s mouth and when it goes off a balloon blows up by its butt like and pops like fart (this was a big hit), a mini Chinese drum, some of those Mandarin caps, and a few other things that I pre-​gamed too hard to remember.
My partner in crime and I def spent more than we were planning, but we got a crap ton of stuff and the woman at checkout was so freaking nice and threw in some cool free gifts as well. Bonus: If you check in you get 10% off your purchase of $ 50 or more.
Anyway, we show up with said treasures and I don’t know if our host was thrilled (to be honest, he was probably more fearful that I’d start throwing it all at people again), but he seemed to be amused, at the very least, and he didn’t make me leave.

Fun, eclectic shop! I got my boyfriend an amazing silk robe that resembles something Jean Claude Van Dam would wear– love it!

This place ripped me off by charging my debit card twice for the single item I purchased at the store yesterday. I just checked my receipt this morning and caught it. I do not live in SF. No chance to get my money back at all. They also have a no return or exchange policy on the receipt. Rip off artists for sure.

pros… please see my review of old shanghai or canton bazaar.
cons…yup the same as the other places.

This seems to be our go-​to place in SF Chinatown for touristy kind of stuff. Two floors with lots of merchandise of all types. It’s been here for many years and the service is nice enough. Great for just browsing for stuff you don’t ordinarily see outside of Chinatown.

Tchotchke shop with lots of Asian themed goodies. They have sparklers, 6 for 1.49 any time of year. They have tons of cute dishes, chopsticks, containers and kitchen things. Clothes, robes, shoes, tourist stuff, jewelry, bags, masks, dragons, figurines and tea. They carry almost under the sun you would think you would find in Chinatown. This place is good for a one stop shop. The prices are middle of the road, not dirt cheap but not madly over priced either. They have a 10% off $ 25 check in offer right now and it’s $ 10 minimum for credit purchases.

Friday (Jan. 31) was Chinese New Year — Year of the Horse. I stopped in at Peking Plaza after Stella Pastry & Café. The store was packed with plenty of tourists. I knew what I wanted here — another canvas bag for $ 1.95 plus tax. I figure on getting the green one, hoping that it would be green and gold — Oakland A’s color. Nope, it was green and red. That’s okay. I opted for the black and white bag, which was close to the colors of the Oakland Raiders. I’m happy. Let me pay for the item and head out of there. On my way up the stairs, I noticed the Chinese New Year horoscope for the Year of the Horse. Like a tourist, I took a photo of the poster.

It’s one of those gift stores in Chinatown that sells anything from t-​shirts, key chains, jewelry, to typical SFO souvenirs. The only difference probably is that this store is huge — much bigger than almost any other stores that you’ll see on Grant Avenue. It is also 2-​story, with the basement displaying mostly cook wares and dinner wares.
The store is spacious, brightly lit, and the items are neatly arranged. The aisles are wide and nicely organized. Definitely an above-​average shopping experience in Chinatown.

Peking Bazaar attempts to appeal to a higher-​class of bargain bin /​cheap souvenir shopping with the added benefit of a jewelry department, but execution is poor in respect to prices. You may find nice items here, but generally speaking, their prices seem to be comparably higher. I’d keep moving on to other stores.

MY FAVORITE BUGS ARE THE ONES THAT DON’T BITE
This is one of the larger shops in Chinatown. We walked through many different ones on the Eve of this year’s Chinese New Year — most had similar items for sale and were much smaller than this one. Sparkly purses and jewelry first caught our eye — we walked around one half of the store looked at rings and tiaras, then entered the second half which had more touristy items.
And there it was! My favorite kind of bug! One forever preserved within a beaded ring. Yes, dead bug jewelry. Uhhh, awesome!!!
I bought two ($ 2.95 each). One for me, and one for my friend Amy. Her bday is in June. Her son’s bday is in June. Her husband’s bday is in June. And her wedding anniversary is in June. So I found her a June Bug ring and put it in the mail. Because that’s what everyone girl should get on Valentine’s Day from her bud. (Fingers crossed it arrives today).

Ummm… well, if you want your knick knacks previously cleaned, this is your place. You’ll be paying about 100% more than the place you were creeped out by down the street, but your Ebola risk is greatly decreased. Also, be sure to check out the ubber interesting display of mini statuettes along the left hand wall preferably before your kids find them, cuz, wow! That sure would be an education for them. It was for me.

Love this store! Huge selection, great variety, there’s surely a gift for everyone on your list here. This is a store I enjoy frequenting when I visit Chinatown. They just have so many options! And it’s a nice shopping experience inside– there’s plenty of people behind the counter to offer suggestions/​advice/​ring up your purchase. That is one thing I appreciate here; other stores have those awkward moments when the store owner follows you around the store with their arms folded behind their back… makes sense but still it’s a bit uncomfortable.
They do have a nice selection of fashion jewelry pieces (cubic zirconia, or other glitzy earrings) that I like to check out.

This cute little store is in the heart of Chinatown — an area of SF that is always fun to walk through. They have a bunch of stuff here that you’ll love, both as a local and as a tourist. Most items you don’t really need, but are fun.
I got a couple of braclets here as well as a pretty dragon puppet that I had my eye on. The items here are a little pricey for Chinatown, but if you check into Unilocal here, they’ll give you 10% off your purchase, score!
I walked out of this store a happy camper and $ 30 poorer, but it was worth it!
Happy shopping!

This and I believe its sister store, Canton Bazaar, are some of the gems on Grant Ave amongst all of the stores. Really enjoyed traversing around and checking out all the stuff. Great unwinding activity. :)

Prices were pretty decent for the stuff, they had a good variety of trinkets for the tourist. I was on the hunt for a box to house my watches, but the way the workers were treating me, well it just made me want to not buy anything. Which is exactly what happened.
I found a really nice wood carved box, for a decent price. I decided to shop around the other shops before committing to the purchase. I needed a few quarters to put in the meter. You figure if you ask the cashier politely, that she would be able to make some change, WRONG. She flat out refuses to make change, I leave it at that, walk outside to find a bank nearby to have change made.
After walking around Chinatown a bit, I decided to go back to the shop remembering that they had a lower level with more things. I made eye contact with the cashier from earlier and proceeded downstairs. As I proceed downstairs I hear over their little radio the cashier calling for the girl who worked the lower floor. It is only me and some European guy there, she looks at me funny, passes the European guy first, and asks me what did I need (as if I was going to jack something). I mean seriously?
So if paranoia and profiling are part of the service, no matter how good a selection or price an establishment has, with $hit quality in customer service, I will gladly spend my money elsewhere.

I try to avoid this street. But I had to go to Chinatown, three days, in the main trap of Chinatown (Grant!) I’ve been to this store before, usually when out-​of-​towners are visiting, and sometimes, I like buying the little weird ‘Asian’ themed novelty gifts for visitors. But generally, I keep away because I can’t stand the tourists who crowd the sidewalks, and the total irate shop clerks. (Hey, real Chinatown, I can handle, because I know how to get around them and push and give the stinkeye!!)
ANYWAY…I was here on the hunt for a Chinese tea set, specifically one with the character Double Happiness. (I only found the Longevity sets, which was what I wanted design-​wise but not the right character for a wedding.) I finally found it in their basement section, 4 cups with handles, one pot, and one tray for the price of $ 19.50. I had to get two sets. I also needed 20 extra cups (it’s for a tea ceremony), so I ended up getting the ‘wine/​sake’ cups, with the same design and Double Happiness character, at 49 cents a piece. Total of $ 48.80 + SF sales tax.
Service = helpful enough, when I attemped to speak in my Americanized-​Cantonese gobbledygook. She actually helped me find the proper sets, and in cardboard boxes.
Prices = cheap to moderate. You really, really need to do some price-​checking in Chinatown and take a real good look at items. Some things repeat and are priced the same, and other places are marked higher, and some places that have ‘sales’ or ‘clearances’, it’s a scam. So, use some common sense and happy savings!

This place is HUGE.
They have everything upstairs and then you go to the basement and they have more stuff!
Ended up buying a couple of those wooden frogs with a stick so when you use the stick on the frogs back it makes a sound of a frog croaking.
Friendly cashier and had an overall clean feeling to the store.