Lion Supermarket
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
4 reviews
Sunnyvale, CA
"I heard about this place from a former co-worker back in 2001. I would stop by once in a while to pick-up cheesecake that was good. A few…" read more »
20 Reviews for Lion Supermarket
I don't trust Lion's refrigiration. The whole place stinks of rotting fish.
Before you ask me what I expected, Ranch 99 is about 2 miles away and the store is significantly cleaner, and much less smelly despite a huge fresh fish counter.
Produce here is more expensive than Ranch 99.
I will drive longer to Ranch 99 and fight their crazy parking lot rather than come here.
I'd rather go to Ranch 99. But the reasons I sometime still go to this Lion Market are it is the closest Chinese market to my house and parking is not as hectic as Cupertino Village.
Many things I do not like about this store:
1. Food quality is low and un-predictable: they have one type of tofu I really like and Ranch 99 does no have. But twice out 10 times, I may get a rotten one. Now I give up having this kind of tofu. Fishes and vegetables some time are not fresh either.
2. Cashiers are rude
3. They have this music on which I could not stand.
I hate this place. Not worthy of even one star. I'm never going back. Worst customer service I've ever encountered in my entire life!
The cashier didn't say a single word to me as she was ringing up my groceries (shocking since she was chatting it up with the customer before me) and worst of all, I paid in cash and she practically threw my change at me. Then, I notice later that she charged me for the wrong item. How can someone confuse cilantro with avocado? UGH!
I live around here, but I've only ventured to Lion once. Ewww. I didn't like it. It had an old, unclean feeling to it. I'd rather drive a few more exits down and go to Marina or Ranch 99.
Ugh, I hate this place...yet I still come here because it's the closest asian market near me. I try to get here really early in the day, else I can't get a parking space or there's just too many people in the place.
Oh, and it smells so bad. Most asian grocery stores have a smell, but this one always make me gag. I walk around really fast, grabbing what I need, then get out of there as quickly as possible. I'm always having to fight for vegetables, bags, and I get pushed out of the way. One time when I took my mom here, she went to get a cart, which so happened to be the only cart left outside. She was a few steps away from it with her arms out to get it, and some woman comes running and cuts off my mom, taking the cart and pushing it away without looking back. Most people would pull the cart from where it was, but she pushed it. I guess she didn't want to risk us taking it from her?? How rude.
I keep telling myself I won't go back, especially since they don't have everything that I want. I'm surprised they never have kaffir lime leaves. This is just a silly, stinky (and dirty) place. I need to drive farther to a different place...
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This is your typical Asian market, so what is there to complaint?.
Business as usual.
I totally forgot how crazy this part of SJ is. Lion supermarket epitomizes the nuttiness of this area. Before the proliferation of Ranch 99 and other likes establishements, Lion was rockin' it as one of the O.G. Asian supermarkets. It's been years since I'd set foot in here but my Mom was in town and she decided she needed to get some sort of crazy ass Chinese tea you just don't see at Vons near where she lives.
So I went in and realized the place hasn't changed a bit. It's still as popular as ever and it's just as crazy as the driving and parking is outside. It's really run down now but it is still a plethora of Asian related goodies you just don't get at your usual Supermarket. If it were closer and I needed something specific for my cooking, I'd probably go by more often, because it's hard to beat some of the prices. However I don't live here and it's too much of a headache to deal with the madness :)
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Update 6/14/07
Ugh! Perhaps a note of caution should be added to this review regarding concern about imported foodstuffs from China..
check the FDA banned import list here before purchasing processed foodstuffs from China..
http://www.fda.gov/ora...
I'll still go there.. but gonna be a *little* more cautious with my purchases...
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I do the majority of my grocery shopping these days at Trader Joe's and Lion Supermarket - Between those two places I can get most everything I need at reasonable prices.
I hit Lion for all the vege stir-fry candidates I want (Gai Lan, Bok choy, broccoli), cheap tofu, prepackaged dumplings, vege-duck, onion cakes, radish cakes, inexpensive fresh or flash frozen fish, and those aromatic leafy plants that I love to throw into my salads to add zing (cilantro, mint, watercress). If I can find it nowhere else, I'll get their papaya, mangos, and Fuji apples (not too keen on the quality of their fruit, otherwise). If one of the young men in our household asks, I'll buy a big bag of their cheap chicken hindquarters (double-bagging it to prevent the blood or juice or whatever from leaking out) so they can barbeque them.., wide selections of soy sauce, sesame oil, dark vinegar. Sometimes, if my impulses get the better of me, I'll go for some of their thousand year old eggs, or their sweet stuff..
A four word summary of the Lion Market shopping experience:
"Cheap.. varied.. adventuresome.. fun.." Quality... eh.. (but one can overly - *fetishize* quality, you know. Quaility, fastidiousness are Japanese concerns.. I will pay my Chinese-style lip service to those concerns. But that's about it)
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Well, they have what any other market has, and yeah it smells like fish. They did have good produce, though.
The parking lot is not crappy like others, though, even though you might fight for a spot. If anything, park at BK and walk. LOL....
This place is like the United Nations. This is the first Asian grocery store I have seen people speaking Eastern European languages, caucasians, Asians, and everyone in between. All they need is a big horseshoe-type table in the seafood section and your set. ;-)
Lion, for the many years I lived in Santa Clara, was my 'basics' grocery store for produce and Filipino items. The produce is CHEAP there. Well, a lot cheaper than your mainstream grocery stores like Albertson's or Safeway. Most of the stuff is pretty fresh, and pretty good.
The seafood isn't all that bad here, and is geared toward the Asian palate. Also, a note to the Yelper that was talking about weighing the fish pre and post cleaning. Most Asian grocery stores weigh their fish with all the insides and then gut/clean them. I've actually never seen an Asian grocery store that hasn't. Frying is a good thing here, but just watch out for when then change the oil ... otherwise you'll get extra, extra fishy fish.
This place is CHAOTIC on the weekends (but not as bad as Ranch 99). So, my best advice is to get there earlier on a Saturday to avoid the crowds and get the best selection or produce.
I used to come here a lot back in the day when I lived in Santa Clara. It's the cleanest lion market I've been to! I always find what I need and them some.
They also have a panda-expressish food to go section on the side. I got pearl tea there once...never again! But I should have known! There is also a small sogo bakery that I like to visit.
DURIAN! They have affordable frozen durian here. I've been on a huge Durian hunt and this is the first place I've seen that carries it. :) [for those who have never experienced the pleasures of the durian fruit, please do some research on the odors before buying it, the fruits hails from S.E.A]
Anyway, I tried the fresh trout, fried then made into curry, and my oh my... It was sooooo good. The fish was really fresh. When they gut the fish, look at the colour of the gills and guts, fresh fish is very dark maroon.
Good Asian selection. i wouldn't buy vegetables from here though. Better selection and quality in Safeway and Costco.
Lion is not that cheap. Frankly, there is no reason to go to Lion except for some special Chinese ingredients. Prices for most normal mainstream grocery is the same as most national or regional chains. Further, the quality of their produce is BAD--things rot quickly in my fridge. It seems like Lion buys produce rejected by other supermarkets. For example, their garlic cloves are all dried up and their onions bruised.
Their seafood is not cheap either--for instance, I thought their scallops were a good buy ($9.99 per pound). Yet, I now realize that these scallops are not fresh (probably refrozen more than once) at all and have a lot of ice attached to them. In addition, I checked out the water tank which their clams sit in: wow, it looked like the tank was never ever cleaned.
Anyway, Trader Joe's Hokkaido sashimi-grade scallops also cost $9.99/lb and they taste far superior to Lion's (they're individually frozen too). Also, believe it or not, low-sodium soy sauce only costs less than $2 at TJ's while it costs $3-4 at Lion.
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Update: I learned another lesson at Lion. Again, their fish is not of great value, considering that the fish is weighed and priced BEFORE being gutted. In other words, you have to pay for parts that you don't need--scales and internal organs. I would go to Cosentino's (on Homestead and Lawrence) for their even fresher fish, weighed and priced post-gutting.
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Lion Supermarket is cheaper than Mitsuwa that is across the freeway. Yes, Lion Supermarket smells a little more than Mitsuwa, but at Lion's I can find all that I am looking for at a reasonable price. good prices on veggies, fruits ( i love mangos). I just prefer it better. If you dont like the fishy smell, stay away from the back where they gut the fish and other things. My list: Mochi ice cream - strawberry and mango flavors are my fav!, dried mango's, edamame - cheaper than other places, plantain bananas to make turron (filipino banana lumpias), thai curries, peanut butter for thai chicken satay and roasted chestnuts. YUMMY. I went earlier this month and I bought 5 pkgs of everything!!! I only go there once in a while.
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Lion is a large Asian supermarket located just across the freeway from the huge Japanese Supermarket Mitsuwa (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). I was excited to find Thai ingredients here, but not all of the brands I wanted (like Taste of Thai). I also couldn't find my favorite candy. The sake selection is decent, but Mitsuwa is so much better.
Lion is reasonably priced (much better than Mitsuwa). The Sogo Bakery (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) is next door.
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Although this supermarket is large in area, the stuff it carries isn't all that extensive. However, having said that, it offers a variety ranging from Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Thai and Indonesian. Produce isn't always fresh. Meat/Seafood department is okay, offers fish frying service. Definitely do like the fact that they carry Thai and Indonesian items -- makes it convenient to shop at one place instead of having to go to several stores to get stuff from. The Asian snacks are limited too and so is the variety of tofu products generally widely available at Chinese grocery stores. Only rely on this place for your basic Asian shopping needs. For specialty items, you will still have to go to individual stores to locate them.
A decent place if you need some specialty Asian ingredients. Vegans may enjoy the wide variety of fake meat products (vegetarian intestine anyone?) Produce is so-so in freshness.
Chaotic on weekends.
I used to live right next to this place. I'm not sure why they have a different zip code, but whatever! Doesn't matter- Yeah.
I like Mitsuwa right down the street a little bit more. It's less fishy smelling.
You can find many kind of international food ingredients here. The price is cheaper compared to other groceries such as Albertson and Safeway.
Pretty decent asian supermarket. I love the Sogo bakery attached to the store. Yum Yum.
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