Hua Sheng Supermarket

The prices are killer and the mices are thrillers! Just kidding, haven’t seen any mice, though I haven’t gotten down on my knees at night to look. I live in Kensington, and with the closing of the good Zimmerman’s a couple? years ago, I’m out a local supermarket for stuff like eggs. You can’t really beat the prices at this place, and I haven’t noticed any issues with quality. You can also find outstanding Asian sauces here, stuff that puts Siracha to shame (they also have Siracha, in case that’s what you’re into).
I explored around the store a bit more last time I went in and there are some things I probably wouldn’t touch, but there are things in Loblaws I wouldn’t touch, either. There’s fresh crabs and fish, sold with the heads on. This grocery store has a wonderful charm to it that you can only get with the location, staff, and clientele. If you’re ignorant and haven’t been out of the province, maybe you won’t like what goes down here, but I like it just fine.

I love Hau Sheng! They have everything you need for asian cooking including produce, meat, fish and refrigerated section along with all the spices and condiments too. It’s the grocer that spills out onto Spadina Avenue just north of Dundas on the east side with all the seasonal vegetables and fruits. It’s been my go-​to for Chinese food dishes like Asian Gourmet spice packs, ramen noodles, and hot sauce, o, my, gawd, they have the best chili oil sauce (besides Swatow Restaurant behind-​the-​til stuff) around, especially the one with peanuts in it. Get your mushroom soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and oyster sauce and make the dish of your dreams here. Vietnamese ingredients lurk around here too. Get it!

I have known of this place thanks to a co-​worker… wow… for almost 20 years. As a teen, I worked near Adelaide at a non-​profit and on sunny days I used to walk in, buy BBQ pork, some bread, walk to a nearby park and make myself impromptu sandwiches.
Once older and living on my own, I realized how generally inexpensive this place is in comparison to Loblaws and my local now-​Metro. Even NoFrills, which in many things is of comparable quality is of no match to this store’s prices.
Of course, the food profile of these stores is different than my own demographic and as such there are some items I will purchase in other grocery stores. Obviously like cheese, pastas, baking ingredients, frozen fruit, other fresh fruit, high-​end and many others items.
Yet for what they do have, a good selection of green veggies, rice and noodle brands, some grains (Moong Dal!), seaweed, certain spices, fish, molluscs and other meats, you really can’t go wrong.
Surely, before someone wonders about the quality of their meats, I am certain such person has at least already glanced at how the meat industry works in Ontario. And how the federal and provincial government routinely checks and will shut down businesses if they do not adhere to certain standards. Can there any mistakes be done in general? Sure but that could apply to any supermarket. In fact last year, T & T, a much «nicer» looking and expensive grocer had quite a number of recalls for a myriad of reasons. Hua Sheng had none that I could see on the Agriculture and Agri-​Food Canada website.
Anyway, I do like the fact you can buy live fish if you wish and for those who may complain about the smell… if you have traveled, then you will recognize the smell to be a normal «market smell» found anywhere from South American to Indian to China. That is how markets smell like, even St. Lawrence market shares it, especially around the fish stalls. It is the normal smell of vegetables, live fish, seafood and fresh cut meats pretty much anywhere.
First World supermarkets have misguided people into thinking that markets are generally odorless — aside some exceptions, perhaps like the baking area, oh, they would pump that baked smell out onto the streets if they could.
But they do not. It is an aesthetic choice, just like playing slow tempo, soothing music used to make you buy more. But it not how the rest of the world operates. Obviously a smell does not equal unclean nor unhealthy.
True, there are some Asian and Middle Eastern grocers in the suburbs with larger selections but Hua Sheng is a great store for both budget and selection reasons, especially if you are in the market for specific Asian and Indian items that might be hard to find in your regular grocery stores.
If you live in the area, check it out, compare.

BOTTOM LINE: These guys make the other Chinese supermarkets look classy and clean.
Let’s be honest, the only reason you go to Chinese supermarkets are for their ethnic selection and rock bottom prices — everything else is bonus, especially when you’re shopping in Chinatown. These guys take the cake for their surly staff and cluttered aisles. A recent interaction with their abysmal handling of mis-​priced products left a bad taste in my mouth, and good luck trying to get them to enforce the «Item Free Scanner Policy» (
). And this is how they treat Chinese-​speaking customers — you’re more screwed if you can’t! I rarely come here anyway, but recent experiences reminded me why I usually go across the street to Oriental Harvest instead.

I came to Hua Sheng on a quest: I have been looking for Thai Eggplant (the green golfball-​sized round ones) for well over a year. I had looked all over the store, didn’t see it, picked up some cheap limes and headed out. I offhand asked the cashier about it, and some communication in Chinese (?) proceeded with 3 other people followed by one older woman excitedly leading me to the Holy Grail… I mean Thai Eggplant. Woohoo.
Seriously though, this store has a rather impressive selection of Asian foodstuffs that has animal, vegetable, mineral covered, and then some… both dead and alive. Great looking meat counter. Scary whole fish. Some live bivalves.
I think this store might be a bit more pan-​Asian than some of the other markets that seem to be more Chinese oriented. I saw lots of random other Asian herbs. Overall, rather happy with the experience!
Staff were friendly and smiley to me. English skills weren’t great, but they all tried to be helpful.
Not the most organized or clean, but it’s still perfectly acceptable.

When I’m in Toronto, this is usually the place I can consistently find fresh pandan leaves which is key for Sri Lankan and Malaysian cooking. And since I’m already there, I’ll also get galangal, lemon leaves, and lemongrass, all of which are extremely fresh and cheap. Staff there seem to speak very little English so I don’t bother asking any questions (and so I can’t comment on their customer service).

The key thing is that they had the frozen chopped lemongrass I was looking for (they helped me find it). I’m not sure if it’s Vietnamese focused but usually I can’t find that item at Chinese grocers.
Also, cashiers are fast and things are cheap.

This place fails on basic customer service.
Went to buy a whole chicken, wanted to know how heavy it was so we took it to the meat/​chicken counter. We waited patiently to have it weighted.
One person was serving, while another was just doing something else, clearly oblivious to other people waiting to be served. I asked the other guy in a polite manner «Please, excuse me please, could we get this weighed?» He told me to go to the front and have it weighed there. Told him we didn’t want to wait in line just to find out how heavy it was, then he told me he didn’t like my attitude… my attitude!!! I told him I just wanted it weighed. People at the counter were very lazy, some idiot said it was 5 lbs. I told him I wanted to see how heavy it was, and again they told us to go to the front. Finally they put it on the scale and it was over 7lbs.
Don’t come here for any kind of service. When I come here I dont’ expect stellar service, but this was too much.

Perfectly ripe cherimoya makes me happy. Guess what Hua Sheng had today?

Last weekend, I decided to purchase fixings for a Lunar New Year dinner…
After having had a terrible and frustrating, experience at a supermarket a block south on Spadina where I waited over 25 minutes, trying to catch the attention of the fish monger while standing right at the front of the counter, and when finally acknowledged — I was told, «for you $ 8.99»… not the advertised $ 4.99 price on the tank!
But I digress…
So into Hua Sheng I went, hoping for a more positive experience. The fish monger was helpful, served the customers in order of arrival to the counter– regardless of who was yelling the loudest; and even though it was busy, he returned my wish of «Kung Hei Fat Choy» with a grin!
They also have a good selection of frozen dumplings, fresh vegetables, tonnes of noodles and likely many other items I didn’t get a chance to check-​out. But I’ll be back!

Packaged/​imported Asian food selection here is really awesome. Way more variety than others on the street and rock bottom ridiculously cheap prices.
I went in to buy pre-​made dumpling wrappers and they had over 10 varieties… crazy. Some where freshly made from a Toronto company too, so no preservatives. Just as good as making your own! And only $ 1.29 for a 50 wrapper pack.
Produce and butcher section is not as good, go down the street to one of the others for a larger butcher selection.
As Eric mentioned, the place is stinky because of the fish market inside. But please, it’s a Chinese grocery store. If you want a less authentic experience, go to T&T, by all means!

I am not sure what everyone else is complaining about…
— If you do not know anything about «Chinese foodstuff», then you’re probably going to be pretty lost in a «Chinese foodstuff» grocery store. I assume you probably also have no idea what it’s like to be in China, from your description of the store.
— I’ve only used cash there once (otherwise always debit), and I go pretty much once a week. No problem with my purchases ever. Maybe you just got unlucky? But then again, I have never had that issue.
— I have also never had any problem with anyone that works there, be it the fish department (that’s the section by the frozen foods, not the meat… meat is by the tofu, milk, and eggs), meat department, registers, or the people up front stocking fruits and vegetables. It’s sort of a no muss, no fuss situation.
— The selection is decent, but not great. The veggies, fruits, meats, and tofu are fresh (i have yet to buy fish, but the eyes and skin are nice and bright). The prices are reasonable. The lines are never longer than a 5 minute wait, and I usually go on Sundays.
— Aside from the fish/​seafood area, I don’t smell anything foul or strange. It looks like a typical Chinese grocery store that has a lot of traffic — you will not find the same pristine white floors and spotless shelving a la Emergency Room, but that’s fine.
If you want to find cheap produce, meats, tofu, spices, noodles, tea, and etc. this place is great.

I sometimes come here… but I’d rather go to Lo hong super market just down the street! its cheaper, more variety, clearner (?) and bigger!

I felt like I was in China. The place was dirty and smelled like feces and had the weirdest most oddest things, (living and dead).
I’m no pro when it comes to Chinese foodstuff, but I can tell quality and cleanliness in any grocery store.

I needed to pick up a few specific items one time to prepare dinner. Silly me, I did not bring cash to Chinatown — what was I thinking? I guess I was too focused on the need to feed my family and nothing else! I went to search for a frozen item near the meat counter at the back and the butchers were leering and ogling me like I was a piece of meat. That alone would have been unpleasant enough but then they started talking about me as though I was presumably an Asian that didn’t understand! To top off this already humiliating experience, I arrived at the cash counter to pay, only to be advised that they did not accept debit/​credit for purchases under $ 20. There were no signs to advise customers of this, so after I waited 5 minutes in line, I was rightfully frustrated. In desperation, I went to pick up some items that might come into use soon. I lined up again for 5 minutes at the same cash register. The girl told me rudely again that I was under by less than a dollar. I got fed up, left my items at the counter (which I am not the type of person to do — I fold clothes at stores after I check them out/​try them on). I told her that her customer service was poor and they should have signs to let customer know of their store policies (which by the way are not in compliance to most major credit/​debit processing companies). She started cursing at me and giving me cut-​eye! I have never returned to this store and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else to either. Even if their prices were the best in Chinatown.