The Bay Area’s newest Asian supermarkets — ranked

You can learn all about a person by where they shop for groceries. In San Francisco, home cooks with an affinity for organic local produce and seasonal ice cream have Bi-Rite Market, while anyone looking to avoid animal products knows Rainbow Grocery Cooperative will have the best selection of vegetarian items. 

But with the Bay Area in the midst of an Asian supermarket boom, it’s getting increasingly harder to know whether you’re heading to a proper market or a nice restaurant with a decent selection of retail items. So we’ve done the legwork for you. The Standard’s food team visited seven of the region’s biggest, newest Asian supermarkets, examining $50 melons in Emeryville, testing chocolate bars studded with dried shrimp in San Jose, and braving the lines at San Francisco’s first T&T. 

After all the instant ramen was slurped and takeout sushi consumed, we’re ready to present the ultimate guide to the Bay Area’s newest Asian grocery stores — ranked from worst to best.  

7. Asia LiveAsia Live houses a full-service restaurant and cocktail bar.Kurobata pork char siu with hot mustard.

When it opened in June at the Bay Area’s most prestigious mall, Asia Live promised to be a game-changer, a glamorous statement restaurant and marketplace offering sushi, dumplings, noodles, tandoor-roasted meats, and a diverse array of baked goods. Undoubtedly, this 15,000-square-foot follow-up to George Chen and Cindy Wong-Chen’s 9-year-old China Live is a culinary behemoth and anchor tenant of Santa Clara’s flourishing Westfield Valley Fair. But the Vegas-level glitz hasn’t quite materialized. The result is an uneven hybrid: a cavernous, multi-story restaurant with a small retail section geared more toward gift buying than pantry stocking. Chen is a gifted chef, and dishes such as the Kurobata pork char siu and a coconut-driven, prawn-fueled Singaporean boat quay laksa are well worth your time. But many dishes, including the Peking duck in sesame pockets, feel like tired retreads. What was meant to be the “Eataly of Asian cuisine” instead gets the boot.

6. JagalchiJagalchi’s wall of instant noodles is hard to resist.

With its low lighting and Ikea-style layout, Daly City’s Jagalchi can feel more like an art museum than a supermarket. When it opened last year in a 75,000-square-foot former JCPenney, it won praise for its immense variety of products, including Korean Shine muscat grapes, instant noodles, tteokbokki of all kinds, and a massive skincare section — as well as for the explanatory blurbs intended to guide newbies along. But that sense of helpfulness stuck in the craw of some Korean Americans (and anyone who doesn’t need a tofu explainer). Whether you gravitate to Jagalchi’s serenity or H-Mart’s controlled chaos is up to you, but shopping here should be approached more as an expedition than an errand. At Pogu, the restaurant at the center of the supermarket, chef Tony Yoo offers a $95 tasting menu that’s probably best to skip. If you’re hungry, opt for the prepared food section, which features vegetarian japchae, soy-sauce-marinated crab, and sushi platters.

5. Osaka MarketplaceThe meat section at Osaka Market.The grocery store sells off-cuts like fish collars and heads.

If you’re hunting for hard-to-find regional Japanese specialties, like sweet freeze-dried strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture or rice crackers made with cheese from Hokkaido, then you’ve come to the right place. This Peninsula supermarket, which opened last year in the Edgewater Place Shopping Center, won’t wow you with high design or flashy features, but it does stock everything you need to prepare a Japanese meal at home — plus a nice array of delightfully unexpected items, including frozen Sun Noodle saimin, Japanese pore strips, and off-cuts and trimmings like fish collars, which are cheap and perfect for making stock. This balance of practicality and charm makes Osaka Marketplace a great option if you’re in the area but less of a retail destination. The same goes for the prepared food section, where sushi platters, chicken katsu bentos, and Kaisen-miso ramen attract a nice crowd of office workers looking for a quick, affordable lunch.

4. Tokyo Central Tokyo Central is a great option for a quick, grab-and-go meal, cocktails included.

Tokyo Central’s location inside the Bay Street Emeryville mixed-use development means shoppers are just as likely to be wandering in for a gallon of milk after a Uniqlo spree as they are to be doing their weekly grocery run. It also means the selection at this store isn’t quite as expansive as those of H Mart and T&T. But the upside is that it’s designed to be highly accessible, with signage identifying many ingredients and providing instructions on how to cook them, whether thinly sliced sheets of Kurobuta pork for at-home shabu shabu or black pepper-marinated beef. But the main draw is in the back corner, where an expansive prepared food selection spans onigiri, microwavable bowls of ramen, a hot buffet offering two types of chicken karaage, and a dozen types of sushi. There’s no seating inside, but you can take your meal into the mall’s open-air plaza. And since it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, why not grab one of the ready-to-drink cocktails on your way out the door?

3. H MartShoppers picks through eggplants at H-Mart.Marinated meats ready for at-home Korean BBQ.

Of course, H Mart is no newcomer to the city’s grocery scene. But you might have missed its reopening in June following an extensive renovation. Now the Korean supermarket is even bigger than before, with a downstairs level that houses everything from cookware to matching floral pajamas and an expanded food court. As a grocery option, there’s no denying H Mart’s supremacy: It’s a go-to for Asian staples of all kinds — you’ll find fresh banchan, just about any variety of hard-to-find green a recipe could call for, and enough savory, crunchy snacks to make your head spin. The food court’s newly added vendors include Dduk Dabang, which specializes in Korean street food, and South Korea-based fried chicken chain BHC. Even still, the best option is hometown hero Daeho, where the kalbijjim is just as cheesy and nap-inducing as ever. 

2. YutoriYurtori leans more into its prepared food offerings than its retail selection, which is small but exceptionally well curated.

In fairness, Yutori isn’t really a grocery store. It’s an ambitious cafe, restaurant, marketplace, and konbini — and it’s one that manages to do all of those things quite well, and in a beautiful indoor-outdoor setting, graced by Japanese maples. Patrons don’t come here to fill up a cart with pantry staples; they come for Kyoto lattes flavored with elderflower and matcha-dusted financiers. Or for an al fresco lunch of chirashi bowls and wagyu loco moco. Or for date night in the 72-seat restaurant, where chef-owner Jeromi Ito and his team serve a menu heavy on itameshi, Japanese-Italian pastas. And while “konbini” means “convenience store,” this is no 7-Eleven. Yutori is closer to an upscale Muji or Daiso, with a full kitchen and a liquor license. Though, yes, you can still walk out with a grilled unagi and egg onigiri and a cold Diet Coke.

1. T&TT&T strikes an ideal balance between a proper grocery store and a destination market.

T&T is on a roll. The family-owned Taiwanese Canadian grocery chain, which has about 40 locations across several provinces and Washington, made its California debut this June with a 50,000-square-foot supermarket in San Jose. And this week, it brought the party to San Francisco. The new location takes over a former Best Buy inside Anza Vista’s City Center shopping complex. It offers a live seafood counter, exceptional produce, $15 “Papa Chicken,” and a hot station serving made-to-order savory crepes and burrito-esque sticky rolls. Brightly lit, with Paris-style cafe seating and a bright-green color scheme, T&T sets a new standard for home cooks feeding families of all sizes; plus, its app is exceptionally user-friendly. Better still, CEO Tina Lee confirms that two additional Bay Area locations, in Millbrae and Newark, are on track for 2027. Our prediction: T&T is poised to become a local household name.