99 Ranch Market

Nothing personal but I’ve never had a bad experience here until today, when they messed up my order and refused to admit it.
I ordered a duck with won ton soup. Easy right? No.
Instead they gave me won ton soup with too many won tons and no duck at all. When I asked why there wasn’t any duck in the soup, they refused to admit that they had messed up the order. Instead, they told me that I can add the duck for $ 1. Least to say, upset but fed up, I paid the $ 1 and they added the duck. One more thing, the duck that they added was mostly all bones.
I will definitely not be coming back to this location. The Ranch 99 in Cupertino has fresher foods, better service, and more variety.

This is your typical 99 Ranch through-​out the entire bay area and Southern California. They have seafood, meat, vegetable, hot food, alcohol beverage area. Just like most other 99 Ranch and other grocery stores.
Hot Food Area —
You pay about $ 8.75 for a lunch box and you can fill any type of hot food on the displace to your box for that balance mentioned above. You will have Fried Rice, Chow mein, Veggies, fish, chicken and other selections for your food. The selections are not bad and you can always fill up your box until it exploded and it still only cost you $ 8.75. Not a bad deal and the taste are not too bad either.
Their Cantonese braised meat are also pretty good. But I never ordered anything from that. They also have hot food related to noodle soups and soups which are quite decent for the price. They also provided a «dim sum» area, the portion is enough, but the taste might not be as well when compared to authentic dim sum area. As for the pricing for dim sum, i think it’s a bit over-​priced here.
Vegetable Area —
For some reason, 99 Ranch started to package their vegetable inside a bag or other type of containers. You have less selection of vegetables you can purchase without buying in bulk. Which in quite inconvenience. Some of the vegetables in the container are not fresh or it’s bruised but you have no choice to purchase your food in bulk and in bad quality. Unless you go to other store to purchase your grocery.
Meat & Seafood —
Their meat & seafood selection are generally pretty good. It’s quite rare that they have something that is not fresh. May be because they sell their protein quite fast around this area? The only thing i wouldn’t really purchase here are their clam and other «Live» shellfish, because a lot of them are dead already and it may be contaminated with your other life seafood.
Service —
The staff members here are quite rude if they are working on the ground floor. They are generally pissed off for some reason. When they bumped into you, they will also give you a stink look. It’s like wtf? You are at fault and why are you giving me such an attitude? People who work at the meat & seafood department are generally nice and willing to help at all time.
Overall, it’s a 99 Ranch, you find thing you like and you find thing you don’t like. One thing i really dislike is that 99 Ranch will not purchase everything they used to sell. But they will be really selective. So sometimes you cannot find the items you want (in cans, bags, etcs. Not fresh produces).

I didn’t even know that there was a 99 ranch here!
I’m not usually impressed by grocery stores of the Asian variety (or … any variety maybe?) and this one was no different. It smelled like 99 ranch, looked like 99 ranch, and everything was hard to find … like a 99 ranch.
The only pro here was that their lines were quite short, I’m not sure if it was because of weekend non-​madness for Saturday night or that its just not as impacted here but either way that was pleasant.

We went to the market at 7:30 pm on a Sunday to buy the hot food items from the Hot Entrée Deli Section. There were only a few trays of items left and workers were trying to put trays away.
While we were putting the selections of food items in the paper box, two ladies were cleaning up and trying to put the trays away. However, one lady was wearing gloves and spraying the Windex on the glass part of the top of the display case. Later, she tried to stack the smaller paper boxes properly. But she put her hands wearing the same gloves which touched the Windex and wiped the counters etc inside those boxes.
Can you get the picture? The workers need to be told NOT to spray the cleaning liquid while handling food items that are not covered. If the store resells the food items from the previous evening, you may want to know that they may have tainted with Windex residue. I will never purchase the hot food items from this store again.

Such an unethical business. The shabu shabu beef for hot pot that I bought from this market sold at $ 12.99/lb but only a few slides on top look ok, below were all dark meats and fat (check the photos).Terrible service and horrible product!!!

Asian market! Whoohoo. I only been to only two 99 ranch locations, Mountain View and Milpitas. The place is much smaller than Milpitas. I usually come here for dumplings and some chinese food to go. It’s not too far from my work, so I come here after work.

This is the closest Asian market to where I live, so I usually come here once a week to load up on Chinese greens, seafood, and whatever else I wouldn’t be able to find at Safeway. I can typically get help at the seafood counter pretty quickly, so happy about that. It’s a decent store but I find they are lacking in some Asian fresh herbs that you can find at a San Jose branch.

I go to 99 Ranch whenever
1) I am completely out of rice;
2) I am going to a pot-​luck but don’t have time/​patience to cook;
3) I need uncommon cuts of meat, like beef chucks and pork butts; and
4) I need some inexpensive seafood.
99 Ranch can satisfy my grocery needs on those occasions as it has
1) bags rice, including its own name brands;
2) a hot food /​dim sum /​deli counter;
3) an expansive meat section with a good selection of weird animal parts (i.e. chicken feet) and internal organs (i.e. hearts and livers) for Asian cooks; and
4) a decent seafood section with both live and previously frozen sorts. I’ve spotted fat juicy salmon heads there to make fish head soup.
Overall, I like 99 Ranch’s butchers and fishmongers. The take-​out from the deli section was often pretty good but extremely oily.
Despite my obvious needs to go to 99 Ranch once in a while, I often put off going there as long as I could because
1) it could be cheaper. I’m surprised that I’ve found the same «specialty» items a lot cheaper in other Asian and non-​Asian markets. So no, I don’t do my general grocery shopping there.
2) The produce looks so sad there. Tomatoes are green, green onions yellow, and fruits way too ripe.
3) certain cashiers love to engage in long chats with their friends/​acquaintances and keep the lines long and slow-​moving. One female cashier, after a good 15-​minute catchup session with her friend at the check-​out, gave her friend a further discount of 15%. Her friends was so pleased with the unexpected discount that they chatted even more, ignoring people waiting impatiently behind them.
Well, I don’t know any cashiers, I don’t get any «secret» discounts, and I don’t keep the lines long. I just know that I prefer not to shop at a place where some people are treated significantly better than others.

Your typical Chinese supermarket. Has a ton of Asian snacks and drinks. It is a little smaller than other Ranch 99’s in the area, but is less crowded and I have always been able to find whatever I needed here.

I’ve been shopping at Asian grocers since before 99 Ranch even existed. So I know – much like Asian restaurants– sanitation and customer service aren’t especially important.
But that was then. This is 2015. In 2015 you shouldn’t end up with a bag full of fruit flies when buying baby bok choy. Last time I make the mistake of buying bagged produce here…
But – you do make some exceptions shopping here. Produce isn’t always the nicest looking, but certainly better than the bedraggled messes you see at the oddly popular Berkeley Bowl.
You will certainly see some interesting folks at the hot buffet. At least they don’t use their hands to grab the food. Not that I’ve seen so far.
And speaking of the buffet… doesn’t seem like the menu has changed in quite a long time. Which is good, if you like that tasty white fish that’s always there. But bad if you don’t care for what they have.
The Dim Sum bar is separate and usually a bit dried out. I suppose savvy shoppers know when they first put the food out.
Tucked away in what old school grocery stores used to use as shopping cart storage is a seating area if you care to eat there with the flimsy plasticware they provide. Get extra napkins because it doesn’t seem like they have anyone assigned to clean the tables.
Of course all this is a trade-​off. There are many things you simply won’t see at «regular» grocery stores. Or if you do you can only get them in tiny portions or at outrageous prices.
And things are chaotic. Unlike other grocery stores where you don’t see boxes stacked in the aisles unless its late night at a 24 hour store, you see boxes in various states of being unpacked – all over. And a lot of the products are placed in chaotic fashion – prices may or may not be listed right, and there are always tags on the shelves for phantom products. Which is a good companion to the products with no price visible at all.
Last trip I was there to get some pickled bamboo shoots –you won’t find those at Safeway– and I saw a great deal on some bowls. Unfortunately they were in the wrong spot. Or the register wasn’t updated with the price on the shelf… whatever the reason I told the cashier the price didn’t match and she set the bowls aside and then started slamming all my purchases on the counter as she rang them up.
But as mentioned you don’t go here to get good customer service. Or for a clean store. You go here so you can buy things you don’t get at Safeway, Lucky, Whole Foods etc.

Craving congee on a weekday morning? Never fear, because 99 Ranch is here! You can order a variety of congee at the deli /​eatery section of this restaurant. Only $ 5.65 per order, and bowl is huge! You will likely NOT finish the entire bowl since it’s just overwhelmingly large. I had the preserved egg + sliced pork congee, and it was great. :) So happy after eating it!
There are other dim sum items available at the deli area, and very reasonable prices too. Anything from chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, daikon cakes, and more! :) Come eat before you grocery shop, haha.

I like this place more than the ranch 99 in Cupertino, even though it’s smaller. Reasons are that the bakery has better selection, less crowded, and closer to me. I come here a lot, and will keep coming back here for groceries.

This 99 Ranch is better than the one in San Mateo. The registers are at least much wider. Vegetables looked fresh (except for the bok choy) and some amazing deals on many of the produce. Lots of variety of snacks to noodles to meats and some great deals. I will admit that Marina is cheaper, but you get more variety with 99 Ranch. A lot more!
I need to try the food court place and order there soups and plates and other things. Looks really good and tasty. I’m learning on how to cook many Asian dishes rather than my traditional Salvadorean food, so, I need to update my review when I try more brands and styles of food to perfect my Asian cooking :)
Oh yes, lot’s of Asians here!!! LOL. Being a Salvadorean, I felt like a minority here, but I do not mind :)
Overall: Great prices, Good service

Living in the Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View area there are so many options for Asian supermarkets. And within the 99 Ranch chain, there are three relatively close to each other. Unfortunately, this branch is my least favorite.
The produce and meats they have seem to be less fresh. I also noticed that they have less options, perhaps due to their space. I believe this is the smallest of the three in the area.
On a number of occasions, they have also closed just a few minutes early than 9 pm. For the reasons above, I rarely shop at this branch.

The Mountain View 99 Ranch Market has some pretty decent hot deli. It’s broken out into 3 – 4 main sections.
1. Hot Entrée (DIY and charged by the box) Tip: The small entrée box is better value than the combo entrée.
2. BBQ Station (Employee assisted)
3. Congee/​Noodle Station (Employee assisted)
4. Dim Sum Station (DIY $ 2.4 for 3 pieces)
Congee/​Noodle Station is my favorite with the Beef Brisket Wonton Noodle Soup or Roasted Duck Wonton Noodle Soup being my favorite at $ 6.35. Portions are very generous including 6 all shrimp wontons, a few pieces of broccoli, and 6 pieces of either roasted duck or super tender beef brisket.
Dim Sum Station is decent too. My favorite is the sticky rice or Eggplant shrimp… although it tends to be super oily…
Hot Entrée station is the best value, especially the small entrée box at ~$ 4.xx. Simply fill up as much as you can, and bring the box to the cashier to pay!
Staff try their best to be friendly. They all wear uniforms, hats and gloves… although some reuse their gloves?!?
They accept credit cards here too and their most recent grade from the Department of Environmental Health is a Pass!

I find all the reviews from twinkies a.k.a. (ABCs) amusing. Keep in mind that this is a Chinese supermarket. They don’t compete nor do they advertise themselves as Safeway or Wholefoods. If you want the experience of a Safeway or Wholefoods, then go to a Safeway or Wholefoods. I don’t mind the roughness of Ranch 99 because I’m not paying exorbitant prices for bak choy. If you just bought an expired item, take it as a life lesson that you forgot to learn while growing up. You probably don’t realize that there are literally thousands of items with hundreds of thousands of counts stocked at a supermarket. The management is not going to take the blame for poor service or quality control. You make more in one hour than the store staff makes in days. Please take the $ 3.99 hit to your wallet and spare someone his minimum wage job.
On the whole, this is the most «white» 99 Ranch Market, I’ve been to. Selection is not comparable to other more traditional 99 Ranch. Parking is horrible because spaces are too small and drive aisles too narrow. I don’t think it’s all because of Asian drivers. There’s a Nob Hill Grocery next door and Highway 247 terminates right at the corner of the strip mall. It’s not surprising that traffic is difficult to manage at this location, but people are just lazy to think about root causes so they’ll blame it on Asian drivers.
I would recommend the Milpitas 99 Ranch for the size, location, and selection of items.

This 99 Ranch Market is one of the smaller locations. However, don’t let the size fool you. They offer the same products, probably in a smaller scale, but the wow factor here is their hot food particularly their dim sum. I was surprise how good they were considering, they were made available throughout the whole day. I was surprise they even offered black beans filled bun? Maybe a limited edition? I don’t see it often.
Their customer service here by far, have been one of the best experienced I’ve had in the Bay Area, though the one in San Diego tops the list. Parking here is plentiful, but you will have to compete since this is a strip mall with other popular businesses. Of the times I’ve been here, their busiest have been around after 5pm during weekdays. I don’t know during the weekend, as I’m only here after work.
Until then, ~ Cheers! :p

When I need to get my Asian cooking ingredients, its Ranch 99 to the rescue since Marina’s a bit too far for me to get to.
Upsides: Cheap produce. Great variety. Great selection of ingredients for a good winter hot pot get together! Oxtails? They have them! Pork knuckles, check! They have some great live seafood options here along with great cleaning and steaming services.
Downsides: Parking lot filled with horrendous drivers going the wrong way. Mean rude immigrants who cut lines. Not very helpful staff. Too many Made In China products that I’m trying to avoid!

I was at work and it was lunch time and I was feeling a bit nostalgic. I used to frequent the Ranch 99 Deli Steam Table years ago. Back then they would let you fill a Styrofoam Container. from the Steam Table to capacity for $ 4.25. A Helluva Deal.
So I rolled my work Whip Big Ken to Grant Road and Ranch 99 .I was able to park my Work Whip in the Mall Parking Lot. I street Hiked to Ranch 99 and rolled in. The Mountain View Ranch 99 is a much smaller store and is packed with merchandise.
I rolled to the Deli area and was happy to see a Dim Sum Section ‚
They Also had a Chinese BBQ Section with a Butcher. Roast Duck and Pig.
Then the Steam Table with Cooked Chinese Dishs. Bingo. Self Serve load your own Styrofoam Container for $ 9.00. Ouch Inflation but still a good deal. I picked Fried Rice, String Beans, Beef and Broccoli, Chau –siu, Fried Fish and Generals Chicken and a Cup of Hot and Sour Soup. I then paid by Discover Card and rolled out.
There’s a Outside Patio in front where you can go and eat if you choose to.

Not bad.
Went here to get Chinese New Year stuff. Got everything I need with NO hassle. Can’t ask for more.
Time to stock up on dumplings YO