My favorite home improvement store, OSH, had a location near my house. Unfortunately, it closed down. The storefront ran vacant for quite some time and an Asian supermarket, H-Mart, recently opened. Since they touted it as an “Asian supermarket”, I had to check it out for myself.
H-Mart is an Asian speciality grocery store that has locations in 11 states within the US. Their focus is all about the customer experience. They recognize that many of the existing Asian grocers don’t pay that much attention to basic things like signage, lighting and overall appearance and they believe they can provide a better customer experience.
I recently visited their Torrance location. Entering their front door (which is on the left side of the building), I immediately noticed that everything was clean – even the floors. The produce is of good quality and attractively presented. In the refrigerated case, you immediately notice the wall of fresh herbs – just about any herb (common or Asian) you can imagine is packaged in a convenient amount.
H-Mart had a number of different stations giving out free samples. I enjoyed the one set up by the seafood section where they had fresh sashimi with two dipping sauces. I was happy at my good fortune to get the last piece of bluefin tuna. The tuna was velvety soft and delicious.
An area of the market is devoted to pre-marinated bulgogi beef, chicken and other types of meat that you might find at a Korean BBQ. This offering seemed to be quite popular and in the short time I was there, there was quite a bit of traffic around this counter.
H-Mart is very large for an ethnic grocery store and they have lots of shelving devoted to single products. An example of this is uncooked rice. Half of an entire long aisle is devoted to large bags of uncooked Asian rice. I was impressed to see many different brown varieties and other types of specialty rice like Jasmine.
Like many Asian markets, they have tanks filled with live fish. What was missing was the smell that you would immediately associate with an Asian grocery store. I was also surprised to find fresh clams (like LIttle Neck) and lobster. The frozen seafood section is enormous. Everything you could possibly imagine is available.
Many popular beverages may be found here: bottled Starbucks coffee drinks, sodas (in glass bottles) and energy drinks. Adult beverages I discovered include beer, soju, rice wine, sake and shochu.
Upon exiting the cashier, you enter their food court. SUP Noodle Bar, serves pho, fried rice and believe it or not, lomo saltado. The ramen restaurant has a nice variety of miso, mabo and shoyu ramen to name a few. Tous les Jours bakery offers delicious French pastries.
Clearly H-Mart is your one stop shopping if you prepare Korean dishes. The choices for basic staples like kimchi and rice are truly amazing. They also have an extensive variety of fresh Asian greens. In fact, you can find Thai Basil here without having to leave the South Bay. I’m definitely going to keep H-Mart in mind for my seafood and marinated meat needs. In fact, I can see a Korean taco party in my future.
- 4340 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance CA 90505; (310) 974-6880
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/H-Mart/846085248828673