MT Supermarket

big. just plain — BIG. — I’ve been to grocery stores in Shanghai, Manila and Hong Kong, this store is the closet thing I’ve seen in Austin to these types of stores. — When I miss my mom’s filipino cooking, I go here to grab some goodies.

Stepping into an Asian supermarket can either be super intimidating or another Anthony Bourdain episode.
Sometimes, it would be nice to have Anthony be your spirit guide when you shop. The man loves his Asian foods and knows his stuff.
You really find yourself eating your way across Asia since this is a large Pan-​Asian grocer; it does lean more on SE items like Vietnamese though. I would say its above average 3.5 since its newer, decently cleaner, and has the essentials you’ll need.
Prices may vary slightly higher than comparable Asian grocers fyi.
[12 Things I like at My Thanh]
1. Bags of beans. Green mung bean, split yellow, adzuki.
2. Jasmine rice
3. Persimmons (if in season)
4. Star anise, lemon grass, bay leaves are here. Hard to find at HEB and cheaper than Sprouts.
5. Big selection seasonings/​sauces: hoisin, thai oyster, sesame oil, «Koon chun» think/​dark soy sauce, 3 crab fish sauce, garlic chili paste etc.
6. Dried seaweed/​seaweed vegetable selection is comprehensive. Still trying a few out. But does have some basic like Kombu for japanese soup stalk. You could use for japanese kombucha tea too.
7. Vietnamese soup base tubs: chicken/​beef/​vegetarian Phở, vietnamese beef stew, and other soups.
8. There’s a good 1 – 2 aisle for Korean/​Japanese items: Korean bbq marinade and chili paste (gochujang) is solid.
9. Jufran’s Banana Ketchup (Philipine) so so good.
10. Extracts: I mainly get Durian or Pandan (green light hint flavor) mixed with the almond one for cookies. But you can use it for jellos/​other desserts.
11. Tea section: One big aisle. The milk tea section is cool. 3:15 milk tea brand original is good. The chrysanthemum tea’s a favorite.
12. Drink section:“Tisanes herbal thai tea”=basically thai tea is probably the highlight of a trip to MT. Starbucks frap sized, orange, in glass/​can. Better than most thai teas at boba places. Tea leaves should be around in case you want to brew your own thai tea at home too.

Definitely the best Asian market I’ve come across in Austin to date. Good selection of live fish — especially the old standbys of tilapia and catfish. On ice, they’ve got a couple of Asian staples like milkfish and golden threadfin, which is a must for soup fans.
Extensive selection of dim sum fixin’s and dumplings. And my personal favorite, an entire department dedicated to rice! (No joke, every household should have some sticky-​sweet rice, common joe white rice, and a wild rice blend for roast chicken or game.)
Extra points for the surprisingly beautiful collection of dinnerware (really, you can outfit your home very nicely with some of the elegant plate/​cup designs) and for the fish ordering system (see my tip below). Oh, and for being surrounded by a half-​dozen Asian restaurants, giving you a pretty decent selection to choose from when eating out.
Pro tip: Re the fish ordering — look up above the counter, where it shows how you can order fish prepped by the number — ie, «I’d like the catfish done #3 — which is the whole catfish, head, entrails, and tail removed, body filleted into two pieces.»

Look at a bag of rice that I just bought, there were so many bugs inside, there was a worm hanging and the bag has many holes. I got some corn for $ 3 and were all spoiled as well. Really wish I still keep my receipt.

I really wish we had such a store in Las Vegas. It has everything and more one would need for all their asian necessities. They have aisles per Korean, Japanese, Filipino, etc…
This store saves you from having to drive from store to store for your asian goodies. The prices are pretty decent In comparison to what I see. But, I’ve learned… you will always pay a price when it comes to. imported goods. They have all the frozen food, as well as a butcher with lots of seafood and meat to choose from.
The store is clean, big aisles, lots to choose from… be aware because you must bring your own bags to bag your groceries. If not, either load your grocery into your cart or ask to buy their recycle bags for .95 cents each. These are pretty big bags that can hold a whole lot of groceries so if you forgot a bag, it’s pretty worthed. At least it’s reusable. Go green!

I find this place to be very peculiar since it is not like any other grocery store I have ever been to. Obviously I am not from Asian decent — but I love the store and the ability to get a lot of things fresh and I am an adventurous eater so I like to try new things.

Wow this place is huge! I had never been in here before because I am just not that into Chinese markets but this place was impressive. They had all kinds of stuff but to my surprise the place did not smell like fish and it was VERY organized! The employees were quite friendly and helpful as well. There is plenty of parking and the location is also great if you want to get a bite to eat at a restaurant nearby or just want to pick up some bread and a bubble tea. Love!

In my humble opinion, this is THE Asian supermarket to go to in Austin. It’s like the Randalls of Asian Markets for quality with the quantity of an HEB. It has multiple brands of every kind of Asian noodle, sauce, and seasoning. Whatever Asian ingredient we might be needing we usually find it here. There have been a few niche items we’ve sampled abroad and looked for here and not found, but it’s also possible I haven’t looked in the right spots.
Their organizational structure within the store can be a bit hard to navigate at times. There seems to be 2 possible sections for a lot of items and I’m never quite sure how it works. If you can’t find the noodles you want in the noodle aisle, try the maze of boxes at the front of the store.
Not only is this a wonderful supermarket to sample, you should try to schedule your visit to have a meal at any one of the restaurants located in the same complex, a couple the Vietnamese places are excellent.

I like the selection of Asian groceries and random knick knacks. This was my second trip to the store. And the customer service sucks.
I was in line and my only purchase was a bottle of soy sauce. The cashier completely ignores me and starts ringing the person behind me. I catch her attention and it’s not like I stepped out of line. I address the issue and exclaim why is she ringing up the person behind me, if I was in line before her.
The cashier just kept saying, I’m sorry I don’t understand. And she tried ringing me up for the groceries from the person behind and I tell her those are not my items and she kept saying, I don’t understand.
She kept yelling in Cantonese to other customers, which doesn’t bother me when people talk to each other in their language because I grew up being bilingual. But the fact that she was rude and didn’t apologize wasn’t cool.

I usually do not give bad reviews, but i have been getting consistently bad service here.
Sad, but not many options in Austin for Asian markets. Very high prices compared to other Asian markets in other cities I have lived in. Over the years i have learned not to ask for help. I have also stopped ordering seafood from the counter as they do not always follow first come rules. During check out my groceries are thrown into my cart without consideration. Today I had a box to place my groceries in and they still threw it in the cart very heavy handedly.
Disappointed

This is my favorite grocery store in Austin. Although finding anything in this store can be difficult, when you finally find your kaffir lime leaves or tamarind paste– they’re at a great price. I will note that this is a Vietnamese grocery store, so anything needed for Vietnamese and most Thai dishes can be found here. But if you’re planning on making Japanese or Korean food you should head to Hana.

Asian supermarkets are weird, man. They inevitably smell like a dirty diaper… but most of the things in there are actually fresh. What IS creating that heinous smell? Maybe it’s like their version of a force field… if you can get past this, you’re welcome to the goodies within.
I dropped in here to get some cheap hand fans for an event I was hosting and got totally sidetracked. Big refrigerators full of inexpensive noodles and dumplings and veggies. Aisles of fresh produce like durians and young coconut and lemongrass. Tons of items you would never encounter in our homogenized grocery store. It’s an adventure — and a daunting one at that.
Whenever I make these forays, I usually get overwhelmed and buy the stuff I know or can guess at and get out. One day I’ll need to take a shopping guide with me because I’m 100% sure I’m missing most of the good stuff.
(Also anyone who can make a plugin strong enough to counter the miasma of eye-​burning scent would make a mint.)

I really wished I hadn’t failed foreign language in school (or Rosetta Stone)
I really wish it didn’t feel so WRONG to ask the closest Asian to translate.
I really wish I knew the go-​to brands to choose when shopping here…
I LOVE this place… I love the «what is that??» smell you get in every Asian market I have ever been in, the «is-​that-​what-​I-​think-​it-​is» I get when I DO find something that resembles what I am looking for…
Meat, Seafood, Veggies, oh my! (its like a Far East HEB)
The store is huge and has just about everything… I didn’t buy nearly enough! I will be back!

Wow this place has it all for the Asian community. It has a huge Vietnamese community so it crated to that crowd. I love how they made so many fresh «ready to eat,» items. We got their fresh spring rolls and they were mighty GOOD! We didn’t buy too many things at the store because we were visiting and couldn’t bring things back with us to Chicago.
Plus to all of this is their public restroom was clean! Which I am not use bring from Chicago.

I’ve never seen such a clean and comprehensive Asian supermarket.
This place has just about everything you need to make East Asian cuisine, from the obscure spices and vinegar to random snacks like green tea kit kat.
What stands out to me is how clean this place is. You can walk past the fish section and not notice the smell. The produce is neatly arranged in an orderly fashion and presumably they discard everything that is rotting as well.
It comes at a price though. Comparable goods at 99 Ranch would cost at least 30% less in SoCal and I would assume Dallas and Houston as well.
Oh, bring your shopping bags because they don’t give you bags or have any for sale either.

How do i write a review for an Asian supermarket? I cant compare it to the neighborhood HEB. Walking in, your nose gets hit by the smell and thats when you know you are in the right place. Makes me feel right at home. Their vegetable section is fresh and plentiful. Frozen section can be overwhelming because they literally carry everything.
I love this place. Its my second home.

Oh how I love the smell of Asian supermarkets. Fish, cheap people, and Asian baked goods really get me in a good mood.
MT is the crown jewel of the Chinatown shopping center. People of all backgrounds descend upon this supermarket for cheaper prices and products that you just can’t find at your friendly, neighborhood HEB. Oh no! MT is the place you go when you need Chinese five spice, dumpling wrappers, rice by the 20 pound bag, and better ramen than you’ll find at chain stores. Almost everything here is cheap. Even the oddities like sea cucumber are reasonable. You can also get nearly any piece of a pig or cow here. The fish section always has tons of live seafood you can stare at and have on your dinner table later that night.
While the prices are cheap, people apparently do shoplift here. Be forewarned, they will put your picture up all over the store and the resident police officer will be on the lookout!
They used to have a minimum for credit card purchases. I haven’t seen that enforced in a while so it might be gone. It could also be that the young cashiers don’t care.
If you’ve never been, I’d suggest taking an hour to look around. You might find a new favorite food.

Pretty much the only Asian super market in town that has what you would want all in one location. It’s the standard Asian super market with the produce section and the fish market in the back with the meat dept.
Large variety of Asian foods and you can get sauces and spices for every kind of Asian meal. Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc…
Only draw back to the store is well they know they are the major player in the Asian supermarket game in Austin so the prices are a bit on the higher side. I say that coming from either DFW or Houston where there are a lot of Asian super markets and there is some what price competition.
Overall it’s a good store and I come here usually at least once a month to get my Asian foods/​snacks etc.

The good– amazing produce section, huge bags of super fresh super cheap baby bok choy, young thai coconut, every mushroom in the world, and exotic fruits like rambutan and duran. Isles of ramen noodles, potstickers, egg rolls, and prepackaged non– perishables. I always get my ponzu, soy sauce, garlic chili sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and curry pastes here because of the low price and variety of brands. They also have a big selection of boba and mochi. The kitchen section here is amazing. Pots and pans of every size, cutting boards, colanders, steamers, knives, woks, clay pots. They have sake sets as well, they make great gifts. I love their plates and bowls here, I have about a million of these small porcelain bowls with pretty designs on them, I use them everyday for snacks for my son! They also have trinkets and decorations like paper lanterns, lamp, and piggy banks.
The bad– 1. it stinks in her’ ya’ll. Sorry. I have come enough that I can completely ignore it and don’t even make a face when I walk in but it is like a mix of fish and old fish along with fish guts and some fish poo. It’s not that bad really, and you get used to it after like five minutes. 2. The bathrooms are absolutely atrocious. Like health inspector shut the whole damn place down bad. Last time I went there was no toilet paper, no soap, and no paper towels. Not kidding at all. 3. Most of the staff is invisible. Or maybe I’m invisible? For real though. And the store is SO disorganized there’s no way you are gonna find what you are looking for. I’ve literally never been asked if I need help.
Despite all of this, I still go once every few months to stock up on my sauces and kitchen wares. What can I say? I love economy sized ponzu sauce even more then I love stinky grocery stores full of unhelpful employees and bathrooms that more then likely contain every germ known to man.

MT supermarket has a wide selection of imported asian goods, but because of the wide selection, be very careful when selecting your goods. MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE EXPIRATION DATE. And also remember to CHECK YOUR BILL. They have gotten my bill wrong numerous times, good thing on each occasion, I figured that out while I was still in the store. Had to head to a corner to get my money refunded.
As for the goods, I wasn’t so lucky. Bought frozen udon passed the due date and didn’t realize until I came home (very far for me to return). It’s funny because 2 weeks ago when I came to buy udon from the same frozen section, it was EMPTY… and now 2 weeks later they filled it with BAD stock. Bewaree!
At times like these, I wish I was at home where there are multiple Chinese markets I can rely on, not just one.