Sun Chong Grocery

My sister was looking for a store that sold spicy dried lemon. I was like, huh? Anywho, she found this store. We parked in an underground parking lot, which happened to be a 2-minute walk from the store. How lucky! This store looks like a hot mess from the outside because it literally has bags and bags and bags of dried foods, fruits, teas, crackseed and many other items that I've never seen before. The older Chinese aunty was very helpful. She answered all questions, which were mostly "What is this/that?". She even gave us samples of some the dried abalone and smoked tako. We found everything we needed + snacks we didn't need and happily left $100 poorer lol.

Lunar New Year goodies...As it was approaching I decided to give Chinatown a peek on this particular Sunday since parking is free as well so roaming around would be easy and less stressful to check the meter.Once place that I didn't give a though until Nadine gave me the Chinatown tour and this was the place for me...well they already have me at their cutest totes that I already have an enjoy but many of the snacks and treats to help celebrate and embrace the upcoming Lunar New Year from Gau, Lucky Candy and the cutest Lucky Candy Box is all found here.The vibe here isn't as over the top that many places are trying to overstimulate with the huge event and just bring what we're all looking for and the lady was so sweet and kind as I kept finding one item after another and the unique items found only here are what made it special and I grabbed it up as I only know what the usual items are but other than the trinkets and plushies the food that represents the culture is found here and know where to go every single year to do so.Thank you!

Wet lemon peel, li hing miu, rock salt plum, footballs... IYKYK ;) This is a place to get 'um! (My mouth is watering as I type this! )It never ceases to amaze me how the workers can find stuff in this store... and quickly! I was looking for footballs, so I asked a worker and she gestured to a pile of cracked seeds near the door. "It's over there by the door." I looked and looked, to no avail. Then when she was free, she came over, in 3 seconds, looked under a pile, and located what I was looking for. Even for other stuff, they were seemingly buried or hiding somewhere in the (organized?) clutter, and boom! No problem, they know what they have or don't have, and if got, where to look! Really glad places like these continue to keep traditions going. Sure reminds of my young days where I used to always buy the 25 cent Yick Lung seeds and eat them in the car going home!!

Looking for that hard to find chinese ingredient or product you cannot find anywhere else on Oahu? Chances are that Sun Chong might have it. This is one super packed store with a variety of chinese/asian dry goods and snacks. They also have very hard to find dried foods used in many traditional asian cuisines. Since the store is so packed, it is little difficult browsing the aisles but I think that what make this place fun to visit.

Sun Chong Grocery Store a long time favorite for International ingredients. Locally owned and operated. Family members are always happy to help you and share their knowledge of the ingredients they sell. If you need help or can't find what you're looking for "ask". I don't know how they do it, but they remember where everything is and get it to you in a split second. Whenever we need to replenish our pantry with essential ingredients Sun Chong is always our First choice.

I would leave zero stars if I could. There was an old lady sitting by the door weighing the lychee that people were buying. I was taking pics on the outside of the store for my Yelp review and was going to buy the lychees after, since she was helping other customers. I wanted to take pics on the inside of the store as well. She kind of stood in my way and asked if I needed help. I told her I wanted to look around. She yelled at me that I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the store. I knew that wasn't true because other people have taken pics inside the store and she could have told me nicely. I told her ok and put my phone away.I walked in and there was a younger woman on the inside taking the lychees off the stems. I asked her about how many lychees were in a pound. I was trying to gauge how many I needed as I was going to buy some for my parents and they would only eat three to four pieces each. Lychees don't really keep. After a few days in the fridge they turn brown and have this funny taste. She gave me this irritated look and sarcastically said she wasn't sure how many were in a pound and that they only put it on the scale. They sell lychees all day long and they don't know approximately how many lychees are in a pound??!! I left without buying anything. These people are rude as hell because they thought that I wasn't going to buy anything. I'm sure their tone would have been different if I told them up front that I wanted 10 pounds.

There's something to be said about great customer service! And I am so happy I found this little Chinese grocery store called - Sun Chong Grocery in Chinatown.I normally don't venture into Chinatown very often as the area really has gone downhill within the last 20 years or so, but what motivated me to swing by in Chinatown was "LYCHEE"!!!After seeing my Yelp buddies - Bruddah Dan O. & da FAMOUS Auntie- Nadine C. post their lychee pics, I had to make my way down to Chinatown for lychee, as I've been a fan of lychee since I was a little kid.My first stop for lychee was to go to Sing Cheong Yuan bakery for lychee, as that's where my Yelp buddies had gone to pick up their lychee. When I got to Sing Cheong Yuan bakery to look for lychee, it was apparent that they had sold out already, as I didn't see any lychee at all.Feeling a little deflated on what I came here for, I decided to take a short stroll around the Chinatown area when I came across this little grocery store. Sure, there were probably a lot of other places that sold lychee in Chinatown, but what stood out for me was the friendly service I received from this nice lady, and upon completing my mission and buying my lychee, I thanked "auntie" for her help, and she in turned thanked me for my business, and wished me to return soon!Besides selling lychee (that they import from Hilo) Sun Chong Grocery sells an array of other Asian dry goods. I didn't have time to walk around the store today, but perhaps on my return I will see what else kinds off stuff that they sell here. So happy that I got my lychee!

If you want to find a variety of dried preserved goods, including seeds, fruits, vegetables, seafood, etc., this is the place to go.After buying their seedless cherry seeds at an expo/fair, I finally found them. Located in Chinatown, they have the best tasting seedless cherry dried fruit that I have tried, that is reasonably priced. They either sell by weight or prepackaged. Sometimes they sell certain prepackaged items for less if you buy 2 or more. At that time, the candied dried coconut was on sale, so I bought 2.Service - lady was really nice, patiently waiting for me to browse through the store, and they have discounts on certain same packaged items. Parking is all metered, along the street or in parking complexes.

Got my jai ingredients here for Chinese new year. They conveniently put the ingredients all outside in the front of the store: bean sticks, wood ears, dried lily pods, red nam yue, white nam you, gluten puffs, dried shiitake mushrooms, gingko nuts, dried oysters, dried fat choy etc. so you don't have to ask or enter the store. IYKYK. I just had to pick up the rest of the fresh ingredients, the won bok, baby corn, carrots and snow peas elsewhere around the corner at the Kekaulike Market Place. It was almost 3 pm so I had to scramble to get my produce before they closed, the marketplace not Sun Chong). The woman at Sun Chong is always helpful and you will inevitably need her help to get any esoteric ingredient because the store is packed to the gills and she will need to retrieve it for you. Chinese is preferred but if you don't add speak, she speaks English.They were dried ingredients were fresh (a paradox, I know) and the woman will ask if you need any of the essential ingredients and may even give you some cooking advice if you ask.Prices are a little steep by east coast standards but it's Chinese new year and Hawaii after all.She seems to carry everything, just ask.

This store is the best for asian snacks and packaged goods. I stopped coming here for a while because around covid time they stopped letting people walk around in the store and you could only tell them what you wanted at the entrance but Im a browser so that didnt work for me. BUT recently i went to china town and noticed people walking around in there so i finally started going again. They have probably the hugest selection of crack seed stuff and now they have a massive variety of the li hing and lemon peel candies.