SeeWoo

I spend most of my Asian grocery money either in Leicester Square or this tiny Taiwanese grocery shop at Poplar. I hate the commute to Leicester Square and the mindblowing crowd within every single grocery store there, and I hate the commute back even more, since i would end up carrying a ton of grocery from a couple of different supermarkets in hopes that I wont have to be back for a long long time. The Taiwanese grocery shop has a lot of basic staples, but it’s expensive and lacks in fresh produce and meat. I knew that there was the option of going of going to SeeWoo in North Greenwhich, but I never had the willpower to figure out how bussing would work after getting out of the tube, but it was quite easy! The stop is Greenwich Penninsula and a couple of buses will take you there, and then it’s a short walk from there.
This is actually a warehouse that stores the shipments the organization gets from all over the world. You can still find the chinese watercress/​morning glory still in their styrofoam cases. One side of the warehouse is dedicated to storage (that you can buy wholesale) and the other side is dedicated to retail. They don’t sell fresh meat, but they sell a ton of fresh vegetables (I found this taiwanese vegetable (A菜) and pea pod leaves!) and fressh seafood (ginormous lobsters still alive in tanks), any type of frozen good you can imagine (a lot of taiwanese frozen goods too), all dry asian goods imaginable, and cooked deli foods like buns and dimsum dishes. It’s asian heaven (for europe) and likely a one-​stop shop for most of the asian stuff you might need.
The best part is that it is nowhere near as crowded as the stores in Leicester Square (huge aisles) — and I had gone on a saturday afternoon. I don’t know why I’m Unilocaling this because I would like to keep this place a secret just for me.

I love this shop! I’ve been shopping for all my Chinese staples here for ages, and I really enjoy shopping for those items here then in a normal supermarket. I also love the chopsticks, and plates and bowls etc that they sell and always pick something up to take home and try fit in my kitchen somewhere! My boyfriend buys noodles from here that he can’t get anywhere else, and they have lots of fresh vegetables that are really good value. Although I haven’t brought any fish from here, I see tons of people waiting to buy and I’m always tempted by the duck so maybe next time I’m there I’ll finally get some.
Parking is a bit crazy, but the carpark is quite big and spreads out more than what you see when you drive in. I recommend a visit!

I’ve spent many a childhood time in this store. It’s MASSIVE! This branch is far bigger and easier to navigate than the original branch in lisle street, wheelchair friendly but the queues. OH GOD. the queues, everyone who lives in the south east area comes here, AT THE SAME FRIGGING TIME. By that, I mean avoid Sundays and Wednesdays, because sundays is families day, and wednesday is auntys get together for dim sum day. (Oh wait, that could possibly be every day)
Anyways, they have pretty fresh produce, imported veggies and fruits. Steer away from the thailand durians, even if you have a hankering, those are filled with injected chemicals and then the durian get all soggy and watery and not creamy. ew. There’s always a lady at the chinese greens refridgerator, so if you have any queries, shoot away. Be EXTRA nice to the lady, she’ll remember you, if you go often and save the good greens for you. Don’t be rude to her, Asian veggie ladies are freaking scary.
There’s even a seafood counter/​deli counter which has pretty good quality fish and seafood. Lobster is always going to be super expensive and will virtually be gone near CNY times. The great thing about this particular superstore is that they have an added warehouse for wholesale, this was perhaps, in its early days, a superstore dedicated for wholesale to suburbian takeaways. This is so much a chinese superstore that if you want your authentic chinese bowls/​chopsticks, place to go and also for the chinese traditional funeral bits and bobs.
Bakery is a bit rubbish, as is the snack and japanese/​korean food offerings at this particular store. If you want a better choice of condiments, I’d head over to five crops in Charlton, literally a 5 minute drive.

One of the places in London that I really should have hauled my ass to by now. I’ve lived in the area for almost ten years, I love Chinese food and this place is less than five minutes away from my house. Not exactly rocket science is it? Luckily, a friend dragged me here last week and I finally got to play in the Chinese supermarket I’d heard so much about.
It’s fun here. There’s stuff you won’t ever have seen before (I lived in China for a while and I still didn’t recognise some of the stuff). It’s not easy that everything is sold in bulk. I ate pak choi for almost every meal over three days. But, it would be great if you were planning dinner for friends. I have a bamboo steamer now. Everyone is getting wontons whether they like them or not. I wasn’t impressed with their Crispy duck — the carving was so bad that it was 30% bone which was annoying (and has probably cost them that final star actually). I’ll try the char sui next time. I’m very excited about that. They stay open late on a Sunday too (illegal? maybe? leave them alone, please).
It’s not cheap here, but that’s understandable. That’s a bit like complaining that Cyber Candy is expensive. Besides I don’t know many supermarkets that will sell me a lobster that’s still swimming about in a tank.