Sun Foods

We shop here often, but the Quality standards is VERY low, there’s been times they try selling a case of OLD (close to a month) oyster, and try telling us that they were FRESH, they’re sneaky, because they tear off the tag that has all the informations, date, time, location .
I can’t believe this place have MONEY for a NEW sign and expansions, but can’t even afford to replace their shopping carts. Some have SHARP edges, and they expect you to put your kids on these
5÷26÷2016
So I was in the can fruits section and notice that a lot of them have a shelf life of 3 years !!
Found some that was dated 2014, 2012!!! It just goes to show how old stuffs are at this store .
Had to put back ANY cans 2012 and older BACK!
But more are still on the shelves. ready to be sold to unsuspecting customers!

Sigh… parents, who were immigrants from Thailand obviously bought meat thinking that all meat works and is safe. When I visited them on the same day, I noticed that the meat labelled «fresh meats» was due on the 8^th (today’s the 11^th), and had green spots on the meat. I was dissapointed in Sun Foods for allowing this and for my parents not realizing that the meats weren’t good anymore. Won’t shop here for meats any longer.

huge selection but atmosphere could be improved. Floor could need a cleaning, repair, refinishing, etc. (broken up, patched, uneven, etc.)
Deli was non existent. just some items sitting under heat lamps near checkout.
vending machines were all either broken, or nearly empty.

Was excited to find an Asian grocery store… but when I learned that the mysterious fish that we bought at this store was an equivalent to the Japanese «blow fish»… we were shocked! I’m Japanese and even I (nor my mother) have never eaten a blow fish and do not plan to… and we threw it out.
…definitely sticking with United Noodles from now on!

Are you looking for exotic meat? Well this place got some. I came here to get some vegetables and walked past by their frozen meat section and saw CAMEL meat. I had to take a picture (do you see it?). I don’t think I ever had one but I have heard Safari Restaurant at Midtown Global serves them and they usually runs out. I wonder if they know this place carries them… I should give them call.
Anyways, most Asian stores that I have shopped in are usually dirty and disorganized. This place is a little better than most. It is a big store. I noticed they remodeled a little or made it more spacious. I like to grab vegetables and fruits here because it cheaper than Cub Foods or Rainbow. They carries fruits and vegetables from Asia, like from coconut to hollow vegetables. Seafood section is great. You can get a good deal on oysters case. I forgot how much it cost but I remember my family had asked me to get them once. You can find from live lobsters to crawfish.
What this place lack is… the deli. I didn’t see much of to-​go food section. The location in St Paul has a good size of a deli. Brooklyn Park is far for me, so I don’t think I will drive out here again unless I want to purchase the Camel meat.

Nice variety of food, however, never enough cashiers open, nobody speaks English, no one knows where anything is, the prices never match the displayed prices — always check your receipts. One time I told the cashier what the displayed price was for some sweet chili sauce, he called over his manager, the manager went to go look at the shelf, I accompanied him, he saw the price tag, saw the product, had no explanation, and STILL charged me the higher price that rang up. WTF is that? I hear customers correct prices every time I visit this store. I guess I should’ve known from the faded display prices that look sun-​bleached, that they haven’t been changed in years.
This place is good to go to if you don’t know if Vinai Supermarket down the street has what you need or not. Vinai is more mom n pop where you will get better service and hot foods.
If you go here, be prepared to feel like going to that one deli where you always order the same sandwich but the price is always different. Today is 3.50, tomorrow 3.86, etc…

So I’ve now been to three other markets. United Noodles sucked the most. This is now my go to market.

I was excited learning about Sun Foods because it means I don’t have to travel that far of a distance to get staples like Thai Basil or Jasmine Rice.
I know. You can’t expect ethnic grocery stores to feel like a Whole Foods. Why is that? Why ethnic stores tend to have a certain stench and you feel a tad icky inside? Then, you don’t feel like eating the stuff you bought because you weren’t sure how it was made. However, H Marts and Ranch 99 anywhere else but here can seem to make it happen. I guess back in Asia, if you ate something somewhat dirty, that’s a way of life. In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota? Not so much.
I was surprisingly amazed that it had some stuff I didn’t expect for them to have like fresh Rambutans and Lychees, all kinds of leaves people eat in Asia that I have never seen anywhere else. They had Melinjo leaves! Seriously. I only know one application of it which is in a soup called Sayur Asam, Indonesian’s version of Tom Yum.
I thought then they sure would have everything! After all, the place was huge. Yet, I couldn’t find the one thing I was looking for, kweetiaw noodle or fettucine style rice noodle, which wasn’t that obscure.
It was a weird place. In a way, it’s cool that they have the most obscure things, but then they don’t have everything either, not even the more common stuff. The place didn’t look like a Whole Foods, but it wasn’t unsanitary or dirty. In fact, it was alright; but, it did kinda smell and didn’t make you feel great being inside.
I’ll stick to buying raw produce you can wash and cook, and anything else that’s packaged to cook. No cooked food, meat, or seafood for me from here. I bought a Pocky and thought for sure that would be ok. However, it was old and it felt like the chocolate melted before and they were put in freezer or something as it had freezer smell and the sticks were sticking together. I guess There was a way to screw up Pocky.
If I’m in a bind to get those obscure stuff, I may come back. However if not, I think I pass. I’m not trying to be a snob and I know that’s reality of Asian and ethnic grocery stores; but, I’ve seen better and will go there instead.

Huge selection, but… The place smells terrible, like hot garbage and seafood: P, made me naseaous. It looked reasonably clean tho.

I stopped in here on Sunday on my way to a party. I had gone to another Asian grocery store the previous weekend to buy egg roll wrappers but I didn’t get enough and this place was on my way to Coon Rapids. It was huge!!! I didn’t spend nearly enough time in there to explore. I only had a second to grab the egg roll wrappers that I needed and checked out. I’ll definitely go back and explore the store though… I could spend a while in there since it is such a big store.
On a slightly negative note, there were only 2 cashiers open on a busy Sunday morning so that was a little frustrating.

This is the place to be if you enjoy cooking ethnic food or if you’re originally from another country and want to find your mother country’s ingredients. Sun Foods has products from around the globe –Asia, Latin America, Caribbean, Mexico, Africa!
Sun Foods has it all. I could spend hours perusing their aisles –it’s like you’re traveling around the world in there (minus Europe).
Originally this location was a Rainbow Foods, very clean, well lit and your typical American market. Now this place is, divey-​ish, overflowing with exotic foods, products, and people. It nearly feels like a mini-​village, sort of like a bustling outdoor farmers market –reminding me of la boqueria market in Barcelona, except, that it’s indoors.
Here are some snippets of some fun things you might find at Sun Foods, huge whole octopuses (super neat!), huge pigs feet, ducks head, chicken feet, camel meat, exotic fruits, random food from the philippines, japanese seaweed, lots of mexican ingredients that I don’t recognize, korean kim-​chee, and they even have «umeboshi» which is Japanese pickled plum! Never expected to find pickled plum in Minnesota!
There are so many exotic products, I wouldn’t know what to cook with most of the stuff they carry, but it is sure fun to just look!

Sun foods sells bad meat. At least, they sell bad chicken meat. How can a store sell meat that smells and has gone bad? The thing is, I can totally see Sun Foods doing it and… they do! I reluctantly supported their business because they carry a variety of items you can’t find elsewhere, but after a very, very bad experience with bad meat I purchased from them I will gladly pay more to support some of the smaller Asian shops in the area. Customer service here is also non-​existent.

Sun Foods is a great place to go if you are looking for ethnic foods. They have great herbs, vegetables, seafood, meat and a wide array of noodles. There is also a section with reduced price produce where usually you can get a large bag of produce for $ 0.99. The head on shrimp always keeps me coming back. On the weekends they have a Farmers Market with local vendors. This place is a must if you are looking to make any kind of ethnic foods at home.

It is way out there & on a friday evening after the work crowd’s made its way here, it is packed like a nightclub.
It’s got what you need, stuff that you never knew you needed & things that you scheme on buying the next time you are there.
If you are looking for Asian groceries & don’t wanna go over the river, this is the place to go! Plus, they got a mini Asian mall thing going on next door.
Kinda like the Ranch 99 in Houston, but on a smaller scale.

This is where I like to go to buy fresh vegetables, herbs, greens, fruits, and other Asian foods. They have a large selection of everything and stuff that needs to be fresh is always fresh. They keep it relatively clean and it’s not cramped like a lot of other asian stores. They serve many different ethnic communities and have items not normally found at regular grocery stores. Their prices are always competitive too!

Sun Foods is an Asian grocery store that occupies half of an old Rainbow Foods location. They have a large selection of fresh Asian vegetables as well as many frozen items. They also have a large fish counter with fresh fish and shrimp as well as some live fish, crabs and lobster. They also have the usual canned and boxed items as well.