Asia Supermarket

Brilliant — you’ll get herbs and spices here that you won’t get in other shops or supermarkets. Can be very busy at times — bit of an obstacle course to get around. Brilliant all the same.

I’ve been meaning to try to recreate the dumplings from Wagamama for ages, and having been disappointed with my search for ingredients in Tesco, where else would I try but Asia Supermarket.
Looking drab from the outside, inside is a bustle of colour and noise, busy with people and packets with labels I couldn’t read. After dandering up and down the aisles I finally asked a really lovely girl about the dumpling wrappers. She laughed in a nice way at the idea of me making my own and showed me what she used to make hers (from scratch, the show off) but then took me to the wrappers. Thank goodness she did, I would have been there for weeks. The selection of dried, pickled, canned and fresh goods is astounding. The fruit and veg section puts the big supermarkets to shame in quality and price.
This shopping experience was a roaring success. Lets hope my dumplings are too!

Cold, chaotic, frantic, lots of shouting. There’s not many places you would want to visit that starts off with a review like this. But then again, I’m not reviewing any old place, I’m reviewing the absolutely unique place that is the Asia Supermarket on the Ormeau Road, Belfast. If you are a cook, a foodie or are lucky enough to live with someone who is, get in your car and go immediately. Why the car? Well, doh, because you won’t be able to carry everything you buy! It has veg, familiar and not recognisable, frozen stuff, rice galore, sauces, spices and jars of things which have no English labels and could be anything (the mind boggles). It has a scrillion types of noodles, woks, even fake monopoly-​type money for fake gambling! The food, though is the real deal.
And yes, it is cold and drafty and shouty and pushy, but it all totally ads to the experience. You can look into the wholesale side and witness the sheer racket of tons of produce being efficiently organised for delivery, whilst being similarly relived that a) you don’t work there and b) you’ve managed to look without getting in the scary Chinese men’s way!
Ugg boots on, plenty of bags and a determination not to get flattened a la Wylie Coyote is all you need to fill your cupboards with all sorts of stuff to liven up your woks (and, according to some of the labels on the dried fungi, your love life!)

When I’m feeling a) pretentious that I’ve lived there, or b) homesick for it, I take a run down to the Asia Supermarket to look for things I used to eat in Japan.
I first went there way back in 1997 when the term ‘reverse culture shock’ was one I was just beginning to be aware of, and when I was becoming really very unpleasantly surprised by how much I was missing Tokyo.
I usually limit my buying here to things like udon and ramen noodles and Pocky chocolate, but there’s a huge selection of Asian food for the more adventurous. Even if Asian cooking isn’t quite your scene, you can pick up wholesale bags of rice and spices here as well as woks and cookware that translate to any type of cuisine.
Definitely worth a look if you’re counting the pennies a bit — if you’re a student in the nearby streets twenty quid or so spent here on rice and spices at the start of term should do you for months and may even include a nice shiny wok for your flatmates to wreck. No, I’m not bitter.

I love wandering around stores like these and checking all the exoctic looking foods they have on offer. I used to shop a bit in the Chinese emporium on George Street in Dublin, because the vegetables were cheaper, fresher and came in bigger portions than in crappy supermarkets.
The Asia supermarket looks more like a factory than a place that sells food. The layout, as other reviewers have mentioned is vast and scatty, but if you have your wits about you, you may just come out with something weird and wonderful, and tasty too hopefully!
I would recommend getting some seaweed, a big block of Tofu (really good value) or some yummy miso soup. There are also big bags of spices, bags of rice so huge they could kill a man and some great traditional chinese vegetables.
A little haven.

Tucked away inside this rather unprepossessing building on the edge of the ‘Holy Lands’ lies an absolute foodie treasure trove of all things Asian. Spices, foods, meats, noodles and veg abound from the likes of Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and of course China. The shop section (flanked by two larger wholesale areas) is absolutely jam packed with food, woks, steamers, serving bowls, chopsticks and various catering supplies
Basically any Asian ingredient I’m having problems sourcing in my local supermarket I know I can get here, in bulk at a better price. There is a large fresh chilli section and the frozen seafood sections sports some alarming looking sea creatures whilst the veg area has a ton of produce I’d never seen before. Part of the experience is the atmosphere as well, there’s a real air of hustle and bustle in the place, a feel of urgency to it all.
Pricing seems reasonable and with the nature of the business apparently things run seasonally as well. Well worth a look if you have any interest in cooking or just want a new shopping experience.
Pros: There is A LOT of choice.
Cons: Maybe too much choice, you will definitely leave with more than you came in for.

This was the first Asian supermarket to grace Belfast. Since it was established Lee Foods on Donegall Pass has tried to take some of it’s business away but to honest they are very different places.
The supermarket is located at the bottom of the Ormeau Road in a very unassuming building. When you do pop through the small door at the side you walk into what can only be described as a warehouse.
Everything is everywhere and to be honest it can be a little jarring at first. If you’ve gone in looking for something in particular you may find yourself wandering aimlessly for half an hour.
There is a wonderful range of fresh vegetables at fantastically cheap prices. I ended up getting a huge bunch of Chinese leaves, spring onions and ginger for less than £2 (half the amount of ginger alone would be close to that in most high-​street supermarkets)
As with Lee Foods the store is aimed at the local Chinese community but also the many restaurants which adorn south Belfast. You’ll find 25kg bags of rice and other items in quite frankly huge quantities.
There are any number of pastes, sauces and additives for food, many of which are under a pound. Now, I’m very rarely thrown by food oddities but I did find several jellyfish in a large clear paint bucket… not for me.

I can’t say I shop here much as, in terms of food, I’m more of a Chinese/​Japanese fan as opposed to Middle Eastern. But I like the Asia Supermarket for the simple reason that it not only is a ‘home away from home’ for Belfast’s ever increasing community of Asian immigrants, As well as that, it has opened up us traditionally backward Belfastians/​Norn Irish to another culture that we probably wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise (Thomas Cook doesn’t do budget packages to Asia the way they do to Benidorm, so most of us will never actually visit the MIddle East).

This weird supermarket (that feels more like a factory) used to scare the be-​jaysus out of me when I first went. It can be a little intimidating, as it’s noisy and strange and there doesn’t seem to be any order or organization with regard to the products on the shelves. You could almost be in a Japanese branch of B and Q.
But once you get over the culture shock, (we Belfast folk have lived very culturally sheltered lives) you realize that this is a little gem. It’s got everything and anything you might need for your kitchen — massive bags of spices and so forth, really good value that will last you forever and a day, and really good quality duck if you feel adventurous enough to make crispy duck or pancakes… I haven’t plucked up the courage yet! I know it’s a weird complaint, but if they labeled things in English they might sell more because if anyone is like me, they might be too scundered to ask what something is, and therefore be too afraid to buy it! But generally this place is a little Asian-​goldmine of gorgeous, good value produce, that any foodie or Asian food-​lover would love to spend a few hours in.

Asian supermarket is quite niceits a wholesale shop. but even you get smaller packs aswell. prices are reasonable compared to other shops.
Almost all chinese and Indian groceries are available.
sea food is freshly available here

Brilliant for really cheap unusual food! A lot of items are sold in bulk which is great & you can find stuff here you wouldnt get anywhere else! The staff ar helpful! The interior is a bit dingy but this is a cheap bargain shop! Staff can be seen hanging about on big crates & wheeling food into their store but dont let this put you off!