Viet Wah Supermarket

A very good Asian market store with reasonable prices and lots of selections in fresh fish, produce, liquor, exotic tropical fruits, vegetables and other Asian staples. The selections are varied and well stocked.
Then comes cuts of meat and seafood not found in ordinary grocery stores. And after that: aisles of packaged/​canned ingredients organized by national cuisine. Aisles of dishes and cookware for home and professional kitchens.
This is the place to go if you’re into Asian cooking. The staffs are also friendly and extremely helpful when I was not sure where a particular item is located.
If you want a «Asian fix,» wander through Vietwah Supermarket! It’s worth checking out even if you don’t think you need anything.
Here are some pro’s:
***Shopping in stores culturally different than your own will inspire you to try new foods.
***Often you will be supporting a smaller family business which is something to feel good about.
***Unbeatable prices
***If you are a fan of asian cooking, you will find everything you need at these stores.
There are, however, some cons. Some of them are:
***Often «Chinatown» is a far distance away. Don’t plan a large shopping trip unless you are driving or have a fairly direct bus route with minimal walking. Bags are heavy.
***I find the tanks of live «seafood» extremely depressing.
***The waste is a problem. Often items are pre-​wrapped in plastic and sometimes packaged in styrofoam. Try to recycle as much of this as your city permits.
***Stores can often appear dirty or messy. Some shops keep produce on display outside which can attract pigeons and other animals. Wash your food well before use.
***Sometimes food is not the best quality. You will find bruised and sometimes rotten vegetables hiding among the others. Check the date and condition of your items to avoid wasting your money.
Only buy produce that you know you are going to use up. Having half a pound of bokchoy go yellow because you didn’t eat it in time is a waste. This is where freezing comes in handy like I did for my green beans.

The store has a great selection of Asian products at good prices. However, if you not Asain, you are treated very badly. Every time I have been there an Asian has gone out of their way to make sure I am not welcome. A week ago I was almost knocked over by an Asian woman weighing at best 110. And I weigh 210. There was plenty of room to get around me. Each time I go there, Asian customers go out of there way to treat me badly. I get pushed out of the way while I am reading labels, making a decision. I don’t understand it. Employees don’t greet me at checkout. I go there often and it happens nearly each time. Go to Uwagimaya. You are treated much better there by customers and employees.

So you’re in the international district and need to get some Vietnamese greens or veggies… This is the place to get them as well as a lot of other things you might need.
So it may not be the cleanest place but it has a good selection.
«Tia Tois» is a type of green/​herb. Its leaves are green on the top and red on the bottom and have a strong herbal flavor. I like to add to my salads and I was glad they had some. I have been to a lot of markets and many do not have this item so was glad they had it!
This market has a fresh fish section with fresh crabs for $ 8.99, lobster for $ 12.99 a pound, clams $ 3.99 a pound and oysters $ 8.99 a dozen.
The veggies and fruit were fairly cheap and got some great veggies and fruit while here.
They have a decent tea selection but feel they could carry a bit more in my opinion.
There are a lot of sauces and mixes available here too so pick up some fish sauce if you can. :D
If I’m in the area I would totally stop by and check out what’s available.

This place reeks of the most foul smell of rotten fruits and vegetables. I don’t understand how people are able to come here to shop or work here, inhaling the disgusting smell all day long. It is so nasty. Sure the prices may be low, but not cheap enough for me ever to come back. Simply disgusting.

This grocery store is wonderful! It’s not the fanciest of stores but the cashiers are super nice, especially if they regularly see you in :) Their prices are consistently inexpensive. What you sacrifice in ambience, you save in $$$. No biggie. Our dogs are fed on a raw food diet and this place is particularly good at selling fresh organ meats!

Although this place isn’t fancy, it has everything you need if you want to cook Southeast Asian food. I’m glad I went even with some very negative reviews. I think the people that complain about the smell have never been to a real Asian market.

Viet Wah is my first stop if I need to pick up on my Asian goods. Prices are way cheaper than at a regular supermarket. I know parking sucks and the smell is funky, but I find what I need in a quick in and out.

When I am in need of some goodies for homemade hot pot with friends and family, this is usually the place I go.
It has all the goodies an Asian market should have, such as plentiful vegetables and other Asian condiments. I once stocked up on bottles of fish sauce because it was such a great deal. Truthfully, can you ever have enough stinky sauces to compliment your food? I don’t think so!
The parking situation is a bit odd — the open lot is located on a sloping hill, so it can get awkward trying to back your car out or leave.
It can also be daunting to wander into this market if you don’t know what you’re looking for since the aisles are not labeled. It’s definitely a store that you just have to be willing to explore.
The seafood is pretty decent and inexpensive. You can usually get a good deal on the Manila claims and oysters (sold by the bag). During the summer, we would typically buy a bag of oysters and put it on the grill for some good eats (yummers).
Otherwise, the customer service was okay but nothing really stood out as superb. It’s definitely much more roomier than other Asian markets and definitely the most well known Vietnamese chain market in the area.

They carry a lot of viet food here that I can’t find at other stores. However, parking here is a challenge.

For obscure ingredients for dishes emanating across the Asian diaspora, look no further, these guys have it all! Prices are better than Uwajimaya but the meat/​fish selection is obviously not as premium. The vegetables and fruits are top notch and the layout of the store is easier than Lam’s.

I can’t stand this place. Hate to say it, but the majority of the store smells putrid and repugnant to me. I almost threw up last time I came here.
Maybe when my sense of smell diminishes, I’ll come back and give it a fair review. But for now, two stars.

Oh heck yeah! How has it taken me so long to shop here?!
My boyfriend and I came in here looking for fresh young coconuts and not only did they have them for a lot cheaper than any other store nearby, they had loads more stuff for great deals.
I browsed exotic fresh fruits, fresh meat, and a even got lost in the home goods section. This is a fantastic store for just about all your needs. Whether you want cleaning supplies, tea sets, affordable dish sets, or fruit and seafood, this store has it all.
Better yet, when we were buying coconuts a store employee ran and grabbed a rolling cart so we could buy an entire case at a deeper discount. He rolled the car to the register for us and helped us carry everything to the car. Super nice!

Get all your meats here !!
Buy all your produce else where!

Perhaps it’s the sensorial reliving of almost every Asian country through which I’ve ever traveled, but coming here is a fond trip through those tactile and olfactory moments.
The only thing missing is the heat and humidity. Stinky and dirty? Yes, wouldn’t have it any other way. Hard time communicating with the staff? Absolutely — (note to self: go learn a few useful words in various Asian languages you xenophobic lazy dimwit).
I’ve tried to find something, anything, that they might not carry from various Southeast cultures — to no avail.
Durian (blecchhh)? — check.
100 year old eggs? — check.
Cat fish? — check.
Coco jam? — check.
Turmeric and Galangal root? — check.
Indonesian curry packets? — check.
Gelatinous pig’s blood (for making Dinuguan)? — check.
Fresh Char sou boa? — check.
Bitter melon? — check.
Apart from the elation of reliving one’s travels, the credit card tally is as low as 25% of what one would expect to find elsewhere. Given if you could actually find what you needed elsewhere, which is doubtful.
If you’re cooking SE Asian food (Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, Philippino, Indonesian, some Korean) for a small-​large group, this place is a first stop.
HINT: Bring hand-​sanitizer and remember to wash all your fruit and vegetables once you get home BEFORE you put them in the fridge/​freezer.

Picture it — people parking their cars in spaces marked HANDICAPPED, when they’re not… at least, not physically. People parking on the sidewalks and in fire zones. People boxing your car in with theirs. Congratulations — you have entered Viet Wah’s parking lot.
Your cultural experience continues inside the store. To your left is the market in all its fishy– unfresh vegetable-​smelling goodness. To your right is a Chinese herb-​y medicine shop filled with a lot of crap, not unlike the crap in my grandmother’s house. To get in, you have to go through a turnstile, which is actually a *test*. (You’d be surprised how many people in the I.D. cannot successfully navigate a turnstile.)
With the turnstile, the good people at Viet Wah want to keep the riff raff away from the higher priced dried dates, gingseng and libido enhancers (which are found at the checkout, behind the glass counter, so you have to ask the guy, who speaks no English, which means you have to mime act «libido enhancer» to a middle-​aged Chinese man, whose only English vocabulary words are HI, HI and 3.99 and NO DISCOUNT. I could go on and on about how there should be a law which only allows people to sell things they can pronounce or know the English names of, but I’ll save that for another review of a nail salon).
Was there for some red dates, Chinese New Year paraphernalia, and a head of Napa Cabbage. True to traditional Chinese market style, everything was piled into big lumps, which you have to pore through. Some things were not marked and others had been misplaced.
At checkout the libido enhancer salesman took great care with my Chinese New Year purchases, making sure to wrap it in newspaper and placing it in a plastic bag (free of charge!) which was nice — though I’m sure he made a killing on the purchases (bunch of mainly gaudy gold and red, printed paper products with NO DISCOUNT!)
The market portion of Viet Wah was a disappointment. Despite its size and variety of products, I never seem to find enough good, fresh Asian produce here. For example, all that was left of the cabbage were small little heads (not marked with any prices), since the outer leaves had probably rotted and had been cut off. The product section was pretty much bare. This was 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon.
I always go to Viet Wah with great hope in my heart, but in the end, it just becomes another weird story on Unilocal

If you can find parking, don’t mind the overwhelming smell of fish when you enter, and are able to pick the freshest veggies, you too, will like this place.
I’d like to think I have great parking karma. It doesn’t matter what city I’m in, I usually find a spot to park anytime and anywhere (don’t jinx me, people!). I rarely admit this for fear that my luck will one day go away and I’ll have to park and walk a mile each way to where I want to go. Anyways, yes, parking is a challenge but if you have impeccable timing, you will find parking right outside.
When you walk in, hold your breath until you get to the area with shopping carts. If you don’t, it’ll smell like fishy incense and your nose will cry. I’ve brought a couple vegetarian friends here before who couldn’t stand the smell and didn’t return. So, if you’re offended by fishiness odor, you probably will not be happy returning.
I like to peruse the produce first. Not everything is tip top fresh, so you have to be picky. I guess some people are so picky they poke holes and take what they want from the «pre-​wrapped» packages. By «pre-​wrapped» I mean the Styrofoam holding the fruit or veggies wrapped in saran wrap. I never know if that’s appropriate, so I just purchase one that’s fully wrapped; even if I don’t need the entire amount because a. it’s cheap and b. I can always freeze it or use it in a smoothie.
Sometimes the produce here isn’t super fresh. It can be, but there’s times I bring home veggies and then realize there’s mold fuzz on part of it. Blech. Make sure you check everything thoroughly before you buy. I don’t purchase fruit here unless I know for a fact I can’t get it at WF’s (mostly the Asian yummies– lychees, yellow dates, etc.). It’s dark in there and I will not admit I have the flashlight app on my phone (every hardcore foodie has it, I promise!)
Anyways, surprisingly, the aquarium area doesn’t smell as bad as the store does upon entering. I wonder if I’m just used to the smell by then? Whatever the reason, you can get fish, oysters, lobster etc from here. I opt to get this from WF primarily because they will clean it for you up to par. The people at Viet Wah speak limited English, so getting it cleaned how you want is challenging. Anyone know how to say, «filet this and remove the pin bones, please» in Vietnamese?
Their freezer section is pretty plentiful. Only thing I wish they carried but don’t are whole wheat udon noodles. I go to Uwajimaya for that. Sometimes I’ll opt for the fresh, hand pulled noodles in the refrigerator section but depends on what I decide to make.
They have a ton of pretty and colorful packaged goods (thankfully they don’t all have pictures of what’s inside and I can’t read characters so it saves me from buying a lot of junk I would normally buy if I could read what it was, like at WF’s). A few of my favorites are garlic sriracha, low sodium soy sauce, coconut water (for cheaper than anywhere else), Asian gummy bears (except they aren’t in bear shapes), and wafer cookies.
They will also give you plastic bags without lecturing you if you forget yours, which is very kind. I’ve also purchased a wok from here. So legit!
I do like this place and am usually in and out of there so the smell doesn’t stick on my clothes. When you timebox your shopping time, you’re hella more efficient! Did I mention that I like this place?

I have been going here for the last 3 years. It’s time to write something about this place. Let start with the cons (because they are somewhat common in all grocery stores in ID).
Cons:
— Dirty
— Vegetable are not clean sometime
— Fruits are no good. Never buy fruit here. Go to Safeway, Costco or Wholefood
— Messy
Pros:
— Cheap, cheap & cheap
— You can find everything Asian here: fish sauce, seafood, special seasoning …
— Meat super cheap and fresh. Meat is their bonus. I got slice beef here to cook Phở all the times
— Banh bao is good. Don’t pick the one in the steam cabinet thing. They are old & that’s why they put them there. Pick banh bao in the fridge area
— Friendly services
— They give free bags sometime if you forget to bring your own grocery bags. Good thing that the VietWah in Renton doesn’t have this problem as plastic bags are still used in Eastside and Renton area
— Rice is cheap & plenty of options
— Noodle cup /​ramen noodle selections are awesome
One more thing: they open late so you can go here after late work day and still be able to get grocery. Also their parking lot has plenty of space. If you are a clubbing person, just go here to park on Fri then take taxi to Pioneer Square for clubbing. Then head back here. It WORKS!

I have been searching high and low for culantro (yes, culantro and not cilantro) to make sofrito for my PR and DR meals and it’s here people… CULANTRO can be found here!!! After doing a bit of research and learning that culantro is the ‘ngo gai’ leaf used by Vietnamese, I made my way there. The leaf is smaller than the ones on the east coast but the aroma is still there. Sofrito can now be made the authentic way in the Pacific Northwest.
Oh yeah, the market is clean and the people are helpful and friendly there. I’ll be back.

I’m not averse to Asian supermarkets. I grew up going to them, so what may be «offensive» smelling to some is old news to me. However, I can’t walk past this Viet Wah’s seafood section without wanting to hork… and because of that I’d rather walk down to Uwajimaya for similarly priced but much less stinky fish selections.
Otherwise– I like this place a lot. A quick walk from my apartment I come here mostly for veg (double check on the freshness folks), noodles, rice, and saucey goodness galore. The prices are stupid cheap for the most part, and pssst. Secret time — they still use plastic grocery bags… inside the city limit! OH MY!

This location has the worst parking spot ever – and inside, feels so small. Ahhh.
Haha, I love Viet-​Wah, don’t get me wrong. This location just isn’t my usual location (which is on MLK). But nonetheless, they still have fresh foods, seafoods and great quality Asian food. I think their seafood here looks better though.
Everything is good, just smaller store… it’s cheaper than some Asian stores & has such a vast variety! Loves it.