Supersize Asian supermarkets are booming in the Bay Area, selling fresh pandan, ready-to-eat sushi, and fancy imported rice cookers. For this series, The Standard’s food team visited six of the newest, from San Jose to Emeryville, to find out what each does best — and where you should head for your next grocery run.
The first time I went to H Mart in Ingleside Heights, I almost cried. (I know — a cliché, given (opens in new tab)the now-famous book (opens in new tab).) It was 2021, a month after the cultish Queens-born Korean supermarket chain opened in the Oceanview Village Shopping Center on the southern edge of the city.
The line for the registers snaked around the circumference of the store, ending a few steps from the entrance. My son manned the cart while I manically raced through the aisles, elbowing people out of the way to gather frozen dumplings and rice cakes, like I was on “The Amazing Race.” It was a very undignified experience.
But for line haters like me, there’s good news: In June, H Mart expanded its San Francisco store by roughly 55%, taking over the adjacent space formerly occupied by 24 Hour Fitness. The renovation added a downstairs level — which houses everything from cookware to matching floral pajamas — and included a food court refresh. The result is a roughly 75,000-square-foot Korean shopping experience.
Since its Bay Area debut in San Jose in 2017, the chain has opened four stores in the region, including this one. The newest, which opened in March in Dublin and is only half the size of the SF store, drew a reported 10,000 people (opens in new tab) on opening day, with some waiting more than an hour to get in. San Francisco’s expansion happened with considerably less fanfare. And I am thankful for it.
Shoppers picking through eggplants and bananas. | Source: Andria Lo for The Standard
The food hall has expanded. | Source: Andria Lo for The Standard
After that first visit, I vowed to never leave my longtime favorite local Korean grocery, Kukje in Daly City (also a favorite of Liholiho chef Ravi Kapur). But on a recent Wednesday afternoon, I skulked back to H Mart to scope out the refreshed digs. With zero (zero!) lines and room to roam, I could finally appreciate what all the fuss was about. I am officially a super fan.
The best of the new food court
The expanded food court has made room for more options. New additions include Dduk Dabang, which specializes in topokki, the street food made from chewy, cylindrical rice cakes, and the South Korea-based fried chicken chain BHC. Until I tried BHC’s “Bburinkle” ($26.99 for 12 pieces) — fried chicken coated in a mix of savory cheese, garlic, and onion seasoning powder — I was of the mind that Korean chicken wings can do no wrong. However, this was totally forgetable: oddly sweet, almost room temperature, with a very tepid dusty crunch. A massive bowl of soon tofu noodle soup, full of shrimp and mussels ($17.99) from a stand called Hanchon, is a better order.
But even with the additional offerings, you’re probably here for Daeho, the popular U.S.-born Korean chain that has a crazy popular full-service location in Japantown. Although it has always had a presence at H Mart, it has graduated from the food court to a restaurant-size space that feels a bit like a modern, counter-service airport spot — sans the roller bags.
Of course, you can’t go wrong with the signature kalbijjim, a gut bomb of braised beef short ribs topped with melted mozzarella cheese ($86 to feed two to three people). But if you want to have the energy to continue shopping, try the perilla oil guksu ($16), a simple cold dish of addictively chewy buckwheat noodles, a heap of crumbled nori, green onions, and soy sauce.
How to shop the grocery store like a pro
While, yes, there’s now a lower level of housewares (and, somewhat randomly, a consignment shop called Maison Again, selling designer clothing), the real reason to go to H Mart is the extraordinary main-level supermarket. As someone who has written a love letter to the Alemany Farmers Market for its Asian vegetables, I admit that H Mart’s selection puts it to shame.
It is well worth putting up with the bizarrely loud and terrible music to get winter melon at $1.29 a pound and a $29 box of Korean pears. There are makrut lime leaves, yellow garlic chives, Thai okra, fuzzy melon, squashini, Taiwan spinach, yam leaves, Hawaiian purple yams, and fresh wasabi. And it’s all in great, perky shape. You just have to accept that there’s a lot of plastic — like, a lot — to the point that those squashinis, a specialty Korean summer squash (opens in new tab) grown in Southern California, are individually vacuum wrapped.
The aisles are wide, and everything is clean and organized. There are 6.5-pound tubs of gojuchang for $19 and $27 sheets of nori. And when you try the amazing buckwheat noodles at Daeho, you can ask where they are in the store and go buy them for yourself. The answer: in an aisle stocked with a mindbending array of fresh noodles.
Every Asian vegetable ever grown is available at H Mart. | Source: Andria Lo for The Standard
The fresh noodle choices are boundless. | Source: Andria Lo for The Standard
Should you not feel like cooking, the prepared foods aisle is not to be missed. Yes, there are boiled pig toes ($12.99 per pound); quarts of miyeok, my favorite soup afloat with slipper wakame and slices of beef; and of course, Korean hot dogs. But it’s the selection of banchan — the small side dishes served alongside cooked rice and main courses in Korean cooking — that is essential.
I left with stir-fried burdock root ($13.99 per pound), fish cake in gochujang ($10.99 per pound), tiny hot, dried anchovies ($30.99 per pound), and crunchy, delicious young peppers in bean paste ($15.99 per pound), as well as thinly sliced marinated pork belly for grilling. Back at my house in Bernal Heights — only a 15-minute drive away — I served up a seriously effortless Korean barbecue feast.
What to know before you go
• It is easy to get lost looking for things. But don’t expect the stockists wandering the aisles to be able to help you find or explain ingredients, especially the less common ones. Most don’t seem to have been trained in the cuisine’s intricacies — even if you’re equipped with a photo of your desired ingredient (in my case, perilla oil) screenshotted directly from the H Mart website.
• Every Friday at 3 pm, H Mart has a “tuna show” wherein the fish department demos breaking down a whole tuna (and, rumor has it, doles out some free samples).
• It’s worth stealing out of work on a weekday, when things aren’t as busy. Wandering the aisles is a total joy when you’re not fighting for space and parking.
• If you want to get the most out of the food court, bring a posse of friends. The serving sizes tend to be massive, so you’ll be able to taste more things. Also: Eat first, shop later. You might get some inspiration for dinner.
• The photo booth downstairs is perfect for capturing your H Mart forever memories.
H MartOpening hours8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily