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Crestview Market
Categories: Grocery, Ethnic Food [Edit]
Neighborhood: Clintonville2950 N High St
Columbus, OH 43202
(614) 267-2714
3 reviews for Crestview Market
Crestview is one of the biggest and best stocked Asian markets in the city. I wouldn't know how to cook with much of what's found on the shelves. I've purchased sake there (but not last time i tried, because my ID was missing and the counter girl wouldn't sell it to me); the tea selection is very wide, and i've picked a few winners (pinhead gunpowder green tea) and at least one that sat in my cupboard without much action (black tea with lychee, an apple like fruit found in China).
As Kris H noted they sell live frogs. It makes me a bit melancholy to look at them sitting nearly stationary inside of mesh bags. Crestview also sells live tilapia.
In addition to the colorfully packaged food stuffs, the market also carries cookware, tea cup sets that can make nice gifts, and a variety of Chinese dietary supplements, like royal jelly and ginseng. My purchases have been limited to tea, cups, sake, dried shiitake mushrooms, rice noodles, and condiments like sriracha hot sauce. Crestview can probably cover the ingredients list of the most obscure Asian recipes, though, and just walking in there feels like stepping out of the midwest and into another country.
I really like Asian markets primarily because they smell like Asian markets. The smell is a mix of fluorescent colored packaging and sad amphibious creatures.
This market is no different. You'll notice the smell, no doubt, as soon as you walk in. You'll find tons of extremely cheap dry goods with questionable origins and handling procedures. But again, the food is really cheap. A lot of Ramen-style noodles, strange gelatinous goo, exotic drinks (grass jelly is pretty good, fyi), and my favorite, live frogs sold by the pound. I'm not sure exactly what to do with the frogs, but my friend bought one and set it free. Apparently the bonds of slavery had been driven deep in this frogs mind because it just sat there as if it were still in the box.
I never go in with anything particular in mind, but it usually takes me about 30 minutes to find it. I usually walk up and down the aisles looking at all the interesting food -trying to catch a particularly hilarious translation.
Crestview Market is probably one of the earliest... if not the earliest Asian food market in Columbus. Pretty sure it's earlier than Four Sea Emporium. Well... I know it has been there before 1984 when we moved to Columbus. The original Crestview Market was actually further down the road on 200 Crestview Road, and then later moved to 2950 N High St.
The store itself is small. The aisles are really tiny. If I was any fatter, I could probably knock down all their stuffs walking thru the aisles =P Parking can be a pain, you have to park on the street.
They have varieties of Chinese groceries and products like fresh meat and live fishes. They also have BBQ Pork, Roast Pork, Buns delivered from Chicago and NY Chinatown. Back then, we mostly go to Crestview and Yao Lee for grocery shopping. But now, with Sunrise, CAM and Tensuke popping up, we go to Crestview less and less. Plus... they did change owner.
