Oriental City

I don’t know why the reviews for this are mixed; possibly because it has changed hands a few times in recent years.
So, hot off the presses: a *recent visit and recent review* of Oriental City!
I like it here. If only for its great selection of Hi-​Chews and Pocky. From memory I did a few price comparisons with Japan Centre (which I also review favourably) and Oriental City came out on top. It’s clean, it’s (relatively) small but jam-​packed with things and it’s…hardcore.
Hardcore, you say?
Yeah, I haven’t had coffee yet this AM, my vocabulary might be weak.
What I mean is… aside from the great snacks and grab-​and-​go appeal of bubble tea and prawn-​flavoured snacks with great cartoons on the front… if you’re into Asian cookery, this is a great location to target. It has a whole section of kimchi. It has so many noodles and pre-​packaged ramen options that you might lose it. Hot sauces? Erm, yeah. And not just tiny bottles, too; if you want to get a discount due to how quickly you whip through containers of soy sauce or rice wine vinegar? Jumbo options exist! Frozen meats, great options for dumplings (best I’ve seen, in fact; better than Japan Centre and Longdan) and other frozen goodies like mochi. MOCHI!
There are fresh things for sale too — sushi, produce, unfrozen meats. I was not on the lookout for any of those things, so cannot comment.
Not sure why this place has earned itself a triple GBP-​sign. Definitely not a «super pricey» spot. It’s a treasure trove of delicious potential!
I recommend it. Highly. There ya go.
Unilocal note: Hi-​Chews in grape flavour are really just the best things ever.

Decent if Overpriced for some things. The produce was pricy, but some sauces and such weren’t. And this can be very convenient. They have all of the basics you’d want, from cooking ingredients to quick meals to snacks and bevs.

Oyster mushrooms. 8 types of Bok Choy. A whole aisle of noodles.
What’s not to like?
This place is great and really not that expensive considering it’s almost next to Kensington Palace and half the world’s embassies including Russia. Even then, I’d be going there once a week if I lived in the hood.
In addition to many aisles of goods, there’s produce, a butcher, frozen items such as dumplings, and ready-​to-​eat sushi and korean sides. Not a huge quantity but enough to tickle one’s fancy.
I’m simply happy to walk out with a bottle of szechuan peppercorn, which is not only great for jazzing up any Asian dishes, but is also helpful if attacked by Russian spies.

Oriental Costcutters seem to have improved a bit lately with the addition of a Korean counter with very good frozen meat for hot pots and about 5 million types of kimchi.
The only thing I will complain about is that their stock is really erratic and I guess being a cost cutters the veg and stuff are still bit dead looking sometimes.
Definitely better than Impress Foods at the end of the road– at least they can say that much.

With the ethnic diversity and many Chinese restaurants in this area, it’s perhaps surprising and inevitable that an oriental supermarket would open in the area.
It has a fair range of frozen and tinned food/​bottles. Not as much variety on the fresh stuff as Chinatown. Prices probably on a par with Chinatown.
If you live in the area, this would be a good local place to pick up the oriental basics for your food store.

Amazing grocery store, they carry specialty food from Japan, China, India, and Indonesia. They also sell packages of dim-​sum ready to be steamed at home, that is a great idea in this credit crunch days. My biggest find was a bottle of 1-​liter soy sauce for £1! If you have a small budget this place can be very helpful.