good so it wasn't just me! We used to live in Toronto and most korean places are cook your own and all you can eat! I kind of miss the odd items like liver, tripe, assorted fish etc.... so we were a little surprised when we moved here.

I went to New Jang Su last week. We hadn't been there in a few years. It was just ok and they cooked 2 out of 3 dishes in aluminum foil instead of on the grill (which seemed to just miss the point of Korean BBQ?). They also scolded us for touching the food while it cooked and having the waitress hanging out at our table was a little off-putting. It was pricey too (even for Korean BBQ).
note: we stopped at Hmart on the way home, stocked up on the marinated BBQ and cooked it on our own grill. It was better...

Is it like an asian snack place with dried fruits, meats, fish, candy etc? or just a hodge podge of stuff? Ever since Super 88/HK market in Malden revamped their place and the edition of H-mart in Burlington I am not seeing as much need to go to Kam Man in Quincy unless we want to shop and go out for cantonese, dim sum or decent vietnamese.

I am rooting for dim sum. Our other local option china pearl in woburn leaves a lot to be desired and always has a line on the weekends.

Someone needs to open a cantonese restaurant north of boston that has dim sum and serves traditional cantonese family food on the northshore. This place was usually packed on the weekends.

This past weekend we had 7-beef (beef served 7 ways with rice wrappers, noodles and veggies to wrap it in) at Pho 88. It was excellent and really hard to find outside of a few vietnamese restaurants in dorchester. They also serve hot pot there.

too bad.. it was really convenient in comparison to going to chinatown or quincy for cantonese.

they are really busy on the weekends. I think you got the "american menu". They have an extensive "chinese menu" heavy on the cantonese dishes. We go there every other week either for dim sum or a family style sunday dinner. For us it is convenient and the closest decent Cantonese food to our house (we keep trying Su Changs and it isn't as good as it used to be). Last time at Jin's we ordered salt and pepper squid, HK pork chops (not sure what the menu name of this is though), salted chicken, scallop fried rice, black bean beef and fish maw soup. All very decent. Highly do not reccomend saturday nights there are usually 1-2 weddings going on at the same time and the food isn't as good when they are that busy.

you haven't had the joys of nasty suburban chinese food then!

thanks for the info! I definitely have to check out this place.

I always felt a little odd with my kids at pho mi mi at night... I felt like at any minute that the disco ball would turn on and people would start clubbing. Definitely a must try for us.

the place sounds like a cantonese BBQ restaurant. Was the lo mein like cantonese lo mein made with thinner yellow noodles, perhaps chinese broccoli and dumplings on the side? or like American lo mein thick white noodles with a dark sauce? the latter is american chinese food and probably something that a good cantonese place wouldn't do well. (ie: don't order chicken fingers at HK eatery unless you are referring to the kind that recently had claws attached)

Yeah for finally getting a cantonese BBQ joint in lowell... they should do well. A lot of the Vietnamese and Chinese folk in Lowell area are Cantonese. We will definitely be checking it out!

much to my delight there are definitely more south asian products!
Someone needs to open a boba shop there... and I think a vietnamese deli would do fantastic in the food court. There are tons of vietnamese and khmer folks in the lynn/malden area and h-mart is a short hop from lowell. Even though battambang in lowell does a fantastic job stocking traditional south-asian groceries H-mart is a nice change with more american and asian-american groceries.

4.49 a pound for lobster!!! I think it is time for lobster hot-pot in our house this weekend :)

went at lunch time yesterday. For once there was plenty of parking in their lot (and when I left there was even more). I was able to get lunch in less than 10 mins (unlike previous 30-45 mins wait). The lack of drinks and snacks are starting to get annoying. I am so used to kam man's huge drinks aisle and 2-3 separate snack aisles. Other than I have been able to find my usual chinese/vietnamese groceries (I actually found all of our usual vietnamese groceries but some of the chinese stuff I usually get I found a korean alternative). I really like the kim chee section (though you really have to check the dates most of the stuff out yesterday had a sell by date of the same day or today). It is great to have it fresh every week and I can't believe I am getting really sick of Korean BBQ from the marinated section. Its an easy go-to when I am busy and its fairly cheap there.
The bakery is really nice but really expensive. For instance the same bun I pay 60-80 cents for in a chinese bakery costs $2-$2.25 there.
They really have to do something about the produce. They have beautiful produce when it is first put out there but most of it is wilted. Plus the bean sprouts look like they are turning every time I go there.
What is up with the white folks ranting while they are still in the store about Korean people and food? You don't see Korean folks complaining at stop and shop that they don't carry kim chee? I have had to listen to someone complaining the last 2 times I was there.

must be a new sign... wasn't there last week. If that is going to be the case then people will stop shopping there b/c who wants to circle the parking lot for 30 mins?

clean, lots of new products that are not carried at the other markets, good prices on meat and seafood, the kimchee case (totally worth it we went through 2 containers of kim chee this week), everyone in the house loved the marinated meats I picked up (and so easy to throw on the grill), a good variety of other asian products and really nice staff. It was crowded but it was ok (the staff was madly restocking the entire time I was there). Definitely my new go-to asian market (I go to burlington every week anyway). I will still need to hit kam man or the super 88 in Malden once in a while to stock up on the unusual chinese or vietnamese products. The drinks section was really lacking. I also thought they would have a more substantial snacks section too.

Market basket is bound to crack down on the Hmart customers soon. Their parking lot had more hmart customers than MB customers (some guys in ties were giving me the evil eye when I came back with my groceries).

Insanity! I went a week after H-mart opened after the lunch rush. The chinese place had the shortest line (other than the Indian place) and it still took them over 30 mins for fried rice and a chix dish. They were only offering 5 or 6 items off the menu and I am pretty sure I didn't get what I ordered. It looked like (and tasted like) general gau chix even though I ordered something that said sliced chicken with vegetables.
The bakery was fantastic. They gave me the wrong drink but gave me a free bag of mini-buns to make up for it. A little pricey compared to the Asian bakeries I usually go to but the quality was better.

I think I am going to wait for the hype to die down before I eat there again.

are they really that good? I have never seen them (or maybe just never noticed) at any of the stores. I always get the vietnamese brand ones b/c they taste the closest to homemade (I like the XO shrimp ones b/c they are little spicy).

I was sitting in endless traffic on rte 35 in Peabody (in the middle of all that construction) and noticed a new store next to DD's called J-Mart Asian Food (I forget it was store or Market) The place looked empty but in the midst of construction. Curious....

Kam Man used to have a huge supply of Bento gadgets and boxes. Though they have a really limited supply right now (unless they restocked suddenly?). I usually end up buying my supplies online. Good luck!

made a trip to super 88 in malden this weekend (We were seriously low on Asian food supplies to wait for h-mart). We were really surprised with how much they had in stock. It was really overstocked with extra food displays crammed in every nook. There were a few things I couldn't find like banh xeo mix (something that I would assume would be a Vietnamese staple?), frozen custard buns, lee kum kee mixes (they had a few sauces but not the usual 25-30 kinds of sauces most stores stock), fresh noodle selection was really lacking (though a bigger variety of japanese noodles and ready made sweets) and some of the asian drinks we usually buy. BUT they did have a bigger selection in the bakery, the BBQ was open, a bigger selection of sauces/pickled items, candy, snacks and a huge selection of rice (which in recent months was almost nonexistent at super 88).
definitely worth a revisit if you have been since super 88 had all those empty shelves!

on a vietnamese kick this week so Battambang fit the bill. I will have to revisit HK market I went before and didn't think much of it. Battambang is always fresher on the weekend.
So far this week we made banh xeo (all really fresh greens from B.), sesame fried shrimp (its sold in packets in the vietnamese aisle), cilantro and garlic BBQ shrimp and today we are having bo kho soup. Its hard to find lots of vietnamese products at kam man (they do have a large selection but once in a while its nice to load up on the hard to find stuff).

agree about CM. The people there are so nice and I love being able to get paneer or Indian snacks but the Chinese product section is getting slim. Its a pain to shop there with the kids too. I remember trying to maneuver a small fold up stroller and it was almost impossible.

*eeeee* the most highly anticipated supermarket ever!
in the meantime I have been shopping at battambang in lowell. They have the greatest selection of Southeast asian greens, veggies, a hot bar and prepared food (and plenty of chicken and duck in the egg). We were really impressed to find a lot of things we haven't seen since we lived in Toronto. They have Asian shaved ice too! Husband had condensed milk w/ beans. Great prices on meat and seafood. Way cheaper than Kam Man.

ooooo.... its sad that we are all this excited for a decent asian market to open! great news on the bakery if its true! It sounds like this will be a great place to have lunch and get my grocery shopping done. Maybe this will throw some business to the other asian businesses in that area like China pearl for dim sum in woburn and New Jang su in Burlington. Perhaps some other Asian restaurants will pop up in the area (like when the Kam Man center went in).

yes we know its Korean but we read Chinese. H Mart in other communities advertises heavily in chinese papers.

They have one in Toronto. It is super clean and caters to a more asian-american clientele. Lots of pre-made food, packaged meats, clean produce areas and they sell a lot of american groceries too. It was set up a lot like whole foods with little stands around the edges a bakery, sushi counter, bbq meats, prepared foods etc...

My husband reads the chinese paper on saturdays and nothing in there.

I have to say they have been really mum about everything considering all the buzz..... I am breaking down and heading to Kamman this weekend. We are out of everything and super 88 in Malden doesn't look like it is stepping up any time soon.

like I said they were out of rice!!! I had to buy it at stop and shop!
H mart will be welcomed with open arms from all of us asian families north of boston! I am really sick of driving to the Kam Man center in Quincy just to stock up on chinese/vietnamese staples.