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wow! i heard this place was great but it beat all my expectations. tip: if your a newbie like myself it was nice to go with someone more familiar with Asian grocery and food and helped us decipher some of the packages.
My wallet is in pain, not because the items cost much individually but because i bought so much of it. We got several cans of curry and coconut milk, big bag of sticky rice, real Ramen noodles, mochi cakes (several types) tea, rooster sauce, chili flakes, veg pot stickers, couple different noodles, miso paste, and some fun Japanese sodas. The goodies at this place are endless, it allows you to make all that great food at home, something we've never been able to try before because most mid west grocery stores carry so little or such crappy sugary versions of our fav asian foods. This place is a must!
United Noodle, how much you have grown. I still remember when it didn't have the noodle shop. This is one of only two Asian grocery stores that my mom shops at in the entire Mpls/St Paul metro area. And if she had to pick only one, this would be it. It is very clean, great selection of food and some basic kitchenware, magazines, chinese herbal medicine. There are things here that I wouldn't know where else to buy like green mung bean popsicles. I know in English that sounds really funky, but the Chinese people should know what I'm talking about :)
There are other places to do your asian grocery shopping like in Frogtown or on Nicollet, but if you want clean and fresh, you should definitely come here. We all know how some Asian grocery stores have this funky smell. A smell I can't even begin to describe. One time I grabbed a bag of frozen dumplings, and the dumplings were BLACK, and the workers didn't seem to care (this was at a store around Dale). I'm not saying UN is perfect, but it's better than most others.
I would come here just to eat noodles. Their noodle dishes are so cheap and delicious!! I'd rate just the noodle store 5-stars. Two noodle soups + 3 tea eggs = $12.00. Wow. Maybe I am just used to East Coast prices, but that's damn good.
I have to agree with Norton, again. Pretty much, I'm like Norton's yelp stalker or something. Seriously, though, this place is over-rated. I went there to restock on my Japanese cooking supplies last week-end and I could not find the following things: bonito flakes (are you serious? Bonito flakes are the salt and pepper of Japan, they might as well not stock fish sauce), a true hon or alcohol marin (again, another really big Japanese staple) that wasn't just rice vinegar with sugar added, shiso leaves (I swear I've seen these at my co-op even so they aren't that rare), fish heads for a soup I was making (they didn't have them at Coastal either to be fair). What they did have impressed me though: squid for my fish soup that was a whopping $1.80 for a whole one (their prices are much better than coastal seafood on most things, I've found), a box of whole frozen smelt, which I used as "fish head" substitute, again for a ridiculously small price, beef shank which I've been searching for to make real beef broth, again dirt cheap, awesome Japanese pancake mix which I can't find anywhere else around here, and a box of soba noodles the size of footlocker for hardly any money at all. I think I've got soba noodles for life now. I also found real fermented kimchee made locally which impressed me a great deal. I may have to come here solely for the Kim chee. Or SEOUL-y for the Kimchi. Wah. Geddit? Have you ever noticed how many spellings there are for kimchee? And none of them are accepted by my browser as being a word. Go figure.
I agree that this place probably appeals to non Asians because its more like a Rainbow and less like your local Asian market. But really, I've noticed lately the organization is slipping. The great hall of ramen is now gone. It's only a semi great hall. Instead of having all the noodles united in one place, they are now divided into the sections for various countries. They should change their name to Divided Noodles. For example that huge box of soba noodles was in the Korean section because it came from Korea. Now how was I supposed to intuit that? I just happened to walk buy and spot it and think, dang $8 for 100 servings of soba. Can't pass that up!
In many sections of the store it is impossible to get someone to help who speaks English. This may or may not be like your local Rainbow, depending on where you live I guess. Who cares, really. Sometimes charades work just as well. You should see me trying to act out fish heads at the sea food counter.
So I have mixed feelings on United Noodles. It's great if you are just starting out cooking somethings, but if you want to dig down deep into a cuisine you may have to branch out.
Difficult to find and parking is limited, but they've got just about anything you might be looking for in terms of asian food, and probably a lot more! I've only been here three times in my life, and each time I was happy to find another product that I had not been able to find anywhere since I lived in Japan, about 9 years ago. The prices are higher than I remember paying for the same items in Japan, but that is a consequence of supply and demand (and transportation), I guess!
This has got to be the CLEANEST Asian store I've ever been to. No joke.
Anyhoo, they have a small food court. They serve noodles, curry, meat over rice, fresh duck and pork. Good stuff for lazy weekends. Not only is this place clean, but it's so organized I love it. :) Everytime I pass by the produce, it all seems so fresh! They're so fresh they run out of chinese chives. Kinda random? Yea.
The store is a little hard to find since it's not located on the street. You have to pass through one building or something to find the entrance door. They have a small sign in front of the entrance to the parking lot so it kind of helps. This is just a warning to first time visitors.
Anyway, there's just so many good things about this store. If you're looking to cook some ethnic, Asian-specific type food, I think it's a must that you stop by.
When I moved to Minneapolis last year, this was one of the first places I went to. Of course, I got lost for half an hour on my bike and was almost crying by the time I rolled in, but the trip was worth it. It's one of the best Asian grocery stores in the Twin Cities, for sure.
They have a whole fridge section dedicated to tofu and tofu-based products. And it's so cheap, like ninety-nine cents a block. In most American grocery stores, tofu is still an exotic thing so they always mark it up to two dollars. Rip off.
However, United Noodle is a tad more expensive compared to Asian grocery stores in other cities where there are more Asian people. Like one time I was back in Chicago and bought a bag of rice crackers in smaller bags. It was like $4. Then I was at United Noodle and saw the same thing selling for $6.
Also, their selection of kitchen wares is not as good as Shuang Hur. That's too bad, especially if you want to do some one stop shopping.
Zara G is spot on about the selection of Japanese food. It's the biggest in the Twin Cities. In the noodle section, they carry a fresh ramen noodle kit that tastes pretty damn good. However, I wish they would sell a different brand of furikake (rice seasoning) that has less sugar. I don't like sweet salmon rice sprinkles. I don't know anyone who does. The only other complaint about the Japanese section is the seaweed. I've bought like three different brands of wakame (seaweed) for miso soup, and they've all turned out super fishy. Grossssss.
Also, they sell shiso and different kinds of basil, which is good for Thai cooking. By the way, cilantro works as a decent substitute for shiso in Japanese recipes like oyakodon (chicken/egg rice dish).
Also, I found like the best thing ever. It is called Butter Chicken mix by Asian Gourmets. It's a wet spice packet that you add to chicken (or firm tofu or tempeh) and diced tomatoes and then you get butter chicken. I recommend adding cilantro. It tastes like heaven.
One hint to get there successfully would be to look out for the Coastal Seafood building on Minnehaha. It's turquoise so you can't really miss it. If you're coming from the north, take an immediate right after passing that building and then hang a left into the industrial park. If you're coming up from the south, take a left before passing the building.
First time I've been to this store even though I've lived in MN for most of my life. It's pretty out of the way for me, but I predict more visits to this place in the future. I stocked up on seaweed (and a bunch of other stuff). Their containers of seaweed salad are about the same size and quality as what I got when I ordered it from Azuki Sushi, but Azuki charged $5 whereas these guys charged $3.59. I also got some dry roasted seaweed for snacking though they mostly had teriyaki flavored and I was looking for sea salt dry roasted. The only one that fit the description contained MSG so I decided to pass.
I also got some ramen, chow mei fun, bok choy, and uh ... a bunch of other stuff that is too numerous to list. The most interesting I tried out was an all natural, coffee-flavored Japanese ice cream. The ice cream was actually wrapped in some sort of flour/dumpling thing. At first bite, I thought maybe it was supposed to be cooked first because it was dusted in flour, but there was nothing on the package about cooking it. The package said to keep it frozen so I think the dough is to allow you to eat the ice cream with your hands. It wasn't too awful, but I don't think I'd recommend it or buy it again.
As for the store itself, this store seems to have more selection than Shuang Hur, but I think their prices tend to be more expensive. I didn't quite make it through the whole store. I had to cut myself off. I would like to stop at the little restaurant within the store sometime - it smelled so good when I first walked into the store. The store employees are so nice and polite. One of them actually bowed to us as we were leaving! The only bad thing about this store is that there are too many things to look at and to try out!
Best Asian grocer in Twin City area. Grab lunch from the noodle shop inside before you shop, fantastic value.
I hate to comment something negative about this store since this is the only decent asian grocer for Japanese items in the cities. But it's annoying that I have to check an expiration date on every single item before I buy because some items might be out of it. (personal experience) I'm already paying $6 for KIEWPIE mayo anyway, so can I at least get the one that doesn't taste stale?
The boy in my life really likes energy drinks, and that is what led us to United Noodles (which is apparently only about 10 blocks from our house...oops.)
Anyway. It was a day long quest for weird Asian energy drinks, but we found so much more! Cilantro (that actually smelled like CILANTRO) for 39 cents! The tofu noodles I had been looking everywhere for! Yam Yam!
And ohmygod. The bento supplies. I am a Bento-lurker, and I think that United Noodles might be one of the only places around that sells supplies for it.
It's a little hard to find (weird office park) but totally worth the trip.
If you're looking to cook Japanese food, this is the place to go to get the ingredients. Other asian groceries have some, but nothing compares to United Noodles. Their frozen section alone has more japanese-centric ingredients than all of Shuang Hur. They also have an awesome selection of fresh noodles and tons of different pickles (which I love, yum). I can always get galangal and thai basil at United Noodles which when I've shopped elsewhere isn't always the case and they have burdock and lotus root which I've been meaning to try, in other words, great selection of rare (for the midwest) produce and it all looks pretty decent.
Others have mentioned the crazy selection of snack foods. There's pretty much anything you could ever ask for in snack food. Also a pretty good indian ingredient selection for those of you that don't want to trek all the way over to NE. And they have annatto seeds which my family has been looking for and failing to find for ages.
Pretty much in every case they have more kinds of everything, their rice selection is unbeatable. Unfortunately they don't carry my favorite brand of coconut milk (mae ploy if you're curious) but I guess you can't have everything all the time.
Still, I can't really complain, especially since they're now selling roast duck. Yum.
A lot of people seem to love this place. I'm just kinda lukewarm to it. It's big, it's bright, and it's clean. I think it's similarity to a Cub or Rainbow is what attracts a lot of westerners here. "Typical" Asian markets can be dirty, disheveled, and have a smell in the air that turns off non-Asians. For me, growing up with it, I found it "normal."
However, I do like their deli where they have some pretty unique dishes for sale. We've snacked there a few times and have found their food tasty and interesting. And they do have a large selection and we can find things here that we can't find anywhere else.
But the one thing that really detracts from all the positives is the parking lot. It's long and narrow and incredibly crowded on weekends. It can be very hard to maneuver and I'm always glad when I get out of there.
OMG I love this store!! They have everything you crave as far as noodles go, and they have the best selection of ramen in the twin cities.
Also, everything is very inexpensive. There is tofu for 99 cents! This is a big deal to me. :)
They also have all kinds of fun crazy oriental market stuff, including cookware, sushi mats, nori, and little toy/candy deals that are fun for the little kid in all of us. :)
This is the one very great place to get all of your Asian Market needs.
When I was a broke student, I subsisted on rice that I cooked in a rice cooker and korean ramen, all of which I purchased here.
As I got older and started making actual money, I would come here and buy the things that I needed to cook traditional asian meals.
This is one of those serious Asian markets that has everything you need and none of the things that the normal groceries do.
Look at the website, come in and look at the produce or fish market and you tell me if you have seen anything like it before in the midwest.
I was turned on to this place by my ex-wife, whose Japanese grandmother would go nowhere else for the ingredients for her locally famous sukiyaki recipe. I love the variety, the staff, the Mochi, and of course the Pocky. I mean literally everything I have ever needed I've been able to find here. It is now the only place I will go for the ingredients to my own gyoza recipe. Plus, it's easily accessible from the Hiawatha train line (via a paved bicycle/pedestrian path from the Franklin Ave stop), and it is also located very near to other necessities (I'll be reviewing Coastal Seafoods, across the street, very shortly).
How freakin' excited was I to read on their website that this is "the largest Oriental [hrmph...NOTE: many Asians, including myself, take offense to this objectifying, Eurocentric word] grocery in the Midwest"??? Great variety of Asian ethnicities, most plentiful in Japanese, Korean, Chinese...but they have a decent selection of Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese (I'd say head to Nicollet for the Southeast Asian stuff). More varieties of dried ramen noodle than I've ever seen! The refrigerated/freezer section is pretty impressive...I swear they have every kind of meat/seafood ball you can think of. Produce is lacking in quantity and quality and not all that cheap. Of course there are also the Asian snacks and it looks like a relatively new place for you to buy hot, prepared Chinese food (along w/ a seating area). Other random things to get there...plates, chopsticks, random Japanese kitchenware. My favorite thing to buy there? Packaged FRESH RAMEN of different varieties - tonkatsu, shoyu, shio, miso!
Sure it doesn't compare to the grocery stores on Clement in San Francisco, but it's a little piece of home nonetheless.
p.s. this place is super busy on the weekend, and the parking lot has the stupidest narrow design ever...so plan accordingly.
I would give it five stars if I hadn't just moved from the largest Asian ethnic enclave in the states, The San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. Bias aside, I was really impressed with the scope and variety of Asian food stuffs available for purchase. What really reminded me of home and made me a little misty eyed for sure was the smell of char siew pork and questionable deli food smells as I opened the door. I stocked up on ramen, pocky, udon noodles, and more ramen. They even had precious taro buns (shipped all the way from the SGV)! I didn't really check out the produce section because it seemed a little sparse, but definitely a go to for my weekly fix of home.
I can't get enough of this place. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this place is the Shangri-La of Asian groceries. They've got stuff from all over Asia, and that includes thankfully India. They've got two HUGE aisles devoted to solely to snack food. They carry at least three different brands of kimchi. And they actually sell durian! Durian for crying out loud! Oh United Noodles, if only you were open past 7 PM so I could relieve my late evening microwavable Hello Kitty chocolate cake cravings.
Need some pork blood? How about quail eggs? Dried fish? Udon noodles? Seafood? Strange vegetables? Gallons of soy sauce? Get it here. I guess this is the biggest Asian market in MN, and it's really hard to find, but once you do, you can stock up on taro buns, frozen veggie stuff, and if you're hungry RIGHT NOW they have warm food. And an extensive supply of cold drinks. They also have some housewares that you'd expect at an Asian market. And most importantly, they have Pocky.
united noodles definitely got me through some rough times biting MN's cold--the large variety of canned coffees, the variety of ramen and dumplings, miso pastes, and asian snacks definitely kept me happy. the produce section could be a little broader, but i guess it wasn't that bad for the midwest.
Minneapolis, MN
Category: Ethnic Food
Saint Louis Park, MN
Category: Grocery
Minneapolis, MN
Category: Ethnic Food
Saint Louis Park, MN
Category: Grocery
Minneapolis, MN
Category: Breakfast & Brunch
When people see me here in Seattle, they tend to…
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