Oriental Store & Food To Go

Been here a couple of times now. All the Filipino staples you’d expect. The hot food isn’t served on weekends, I guess. The hard to find produce like long beans, okra, bittermelon, and eggplant are there. Otherwise off to Seafood City or Lucky in Santa Clara. The owner gave me a free sweet rice baked in banana leaves. Maraming sarap. And don’t forget the Jasmine rice in 25 lb bags.

Whoa, how has this place flown under my radar all these years? Probably because I rarely venture into this part of town and NEVER when Watsonville High School is in session, especially during lunch time. Crowds, lines, and noisy teenagers are not my idea of fun ;) at meal time anyway.
As everyone else has said, this really is a Filipino store that just happens to have a small food counter. The day we were there they had pork adobo, dinuguan or «chocolate meat» (pork in pig’s blood), sweet and sour chicken, fried rice (as well as steamed rice), chicken legs-​in-​something-​gravy, pancit, egg rolls, & stir-​fried veggies. I opted for the familiar and got a (huge serving) of fried rice, one egg roll, and sweet and sour chicken. There was enough food for 4 people but my husband also got a small order of pancit. Needless to say, we had enough food to generously share for lunch with leftovers for the next day. The prepared food plus a few grocery items came to under $ 13.
We took a quick walk through the small grocery section and found Golden Mountain sauce (a Thai cooking staple) at a steal of a price. Lots of frozen goodies too, including lumpia. It’s nice to have something like this locally since we do most of our Thai and Vietnamese ingredient shopping in Marina and/​or San Jose.
The Filipino woman behind the counter was very friendly and was impressed we knew so much about the food she had for sale. I noticed a special price on two items plus rice for high school students that I’m sure is appreciated on a «poor student’s» budget. There isn’t any seating and parking on the street is hit & miss but we will definitely check back from time to time.

We have gone to this place for over 20 years. It is even better now with new ownership. Store is cleaned up and brighter. The takeout section has tastier food. Order the pork adobo. The sauce over rice is so flavorful. Real authentic Filipino homecooked food.

Closed! I didn’t cross the street to read it, but a signs says «temporarily closed». I have no idea how long it’s been up, or when it’s coming down.

i havent tried their lunch time meals yet but thats probly due to the fact that its just down the street from the high school so it gets to be a high traffic area. i mainly use this store as a back up-​back up place when im really pressed for time. prices are ok and selections are kinda limited so i dont expect much whenever i go. maybe one of these days ill dare the lunch time and write up an update.

I finally made it out to Oriental Store this past Wednesday. I picked up an order each of dinuguan and pork adobo with rice.
My friend loved her adobo. My dinuguan had all the traditional flavor, but with pork chunks … gotta say I much prefer chunk style.
I’ll definitely be back here.
** Store Hours ** ** Food Hours **
10am — 6pm 7 Days Tu — F: 12pm — 4pm
Cash ONLY

This is one of the best «hole in the wall» markets in Watsonville and it doesn’t serve Mexican food! Crazy I know! If you want the best pork adobo ever you need to come here.
This place is known as «The Filipino store» and is a great place to get lunch. It’s a very small market and they have a food counter for you to get stuff to go. No chairs or seats here!
The pork adobo here is awesome. I always get mine with steamed rice and always get the gravy put on the rice. The pork has been simmering in the sauce for a good portion of the day and is nice and tender. The lumpias here are made constantly and are perfectly crispy and not greasy. They also serve fried rice, chow mein, sweet and sour pork, and broccoli beef.
This place is the perfect little family owned market and you can see them cooking up the goodies in the kitchen in the back. This place is close to Watsonville High School and will have a huge line during their lunch time which is around 12:30. I always try and go before then so I know there will be adobo waiting for me. There isn’t much parking, just on the street in front, but if that’s full I just park at Del Sol market across the street.