Sun Foods

I saw that this place offered Pad Thai and that is one of my favorite dishes. I stopped by and ordered a small.The price was great $5.99 for a couple pounds of food. However, this was really bad. The noodles were hard, the chicken was rubbery, and there was absolutely no taste. I am only giving it two stars as the store was super clean and the employees were very nice. Maybe it was an off day for the food but it was just bad.I won't be going back anytime soon.

Decent, has everything you need but I go to another super market that has everything I want!! There's really no complaints about this place for me.

Sun Foods is one of the places I like to shop at in the area for those huge stainless steel pots and pans. They carry the 60CM pots for about $150 each and the smaller size, forgot the size, for $100 each. I don't know if those are decent pricing but our local Asian stores sells them about $200 to $250 each. It's a good deal in my book. The establishment also houses a deli inside plus a gold jewelry store. I haven't tried the food made in the deli but the food looked decent. I believe one time I picked up a premade banh mi sandwich; I believe it was made elsewhere and sold there. It was ok. Lacked flavor but decent for a grocery store. I purchased a jar of kimchi from here and it seems bad. It was no where near the expiration date but it tasted off.During the summers, they also host a farmers market in the parking lot. This also means that there are a lot of sketchy people around the area. As it's right on University Ave, so the establishment is hard to miss. We've been stopped a few times by people who were begging for money, not food. This, plus the crowd, and strong fish stench are some of the negatives about this establishment. The employees are expressionless. I don't think I've ever asked for assistance. One time I asked the cashier if I should leave my items in the cart or take them out. In a very monotone voice, she whispered, "Take them out," through her mask. If I were here to strictly shop for groceries, I'd rather go to Dragon Star or Shuang Hur for the best deals.

I want to start off that many Asian grocery stores in the Twin Cities are unfortunately not the best when it comes to service, employee benefits, a clean facility and great quality food- compared to your average grocery store like Cub Foods. However, we (Asians, POC, people who love ethnic foods) still go there because of the diversity in culturally relevant food options. Although I definitely agree with other Yelpers that the food products (especially the meat and produce) are sometimes over due and disappointing- I would say that I still LOVE the seafood options and believe that they have improved a lot (trust me, I remember when this place with called Foods Mart, had horrible service and overdue food including canned goods all the time and had a different owner). Also, sometimes you will find local businesses owners selling produce and goods in the Sun Foods parking lot (I think there is a yearly fee that vendors pay for a table).

Their hot deli is truly scary. Everything looks like it's been sitting under the heat lamp for days. The fried rice was so dried out and crusted to the pan that I'm not sure how they would actually scoop it up to serve it. And don't expect to know what anything is - nothing is correctly labelled. I looked in their cooler case by the deli area and saw a few things that they had attempted to relabel with a new fresher date - but left the old label with the expired date still on under the new label. Ewwww.The first time I went was at 5pm on a weekday so I figured maybe they just cater more to the lunch crowd. I tried again a few days later around 12:30pm. Both times the deli looked just as bad. My first trip I didn't get anything but my second trip I got an egg roll and a samosa because they were the least sketchy looking things. The egg roll was oddly fishy even though I was told there was no fish in it. The samosa had no label as to what the filling was but to me it seemed like a chickpea curry. It was very tasty and not doughy at all so at least there's one edible thing there. So two stars for that and their decent prices on grocery items. When my Hmong coworkers heard I had gone for lunch, they were horrified and warned me not to go back because of the bad deli and rotten meat. They've never steered me wrong before so I think I'm going to listen to them.

First review of the year...sorry for the delay. This place is a little more organized than other Asian stores. It is big inside. They sell variety of fruits from SE Asia like persimmons, rambutan, durian, mangosteen, langsat and jack fruit. Their meat section is interesting from quail, duck, tripe, live frog meat and variety of seafood. I asked for bat meat and they said they stop selling them because it is not a demand. I thought that was interesting. I know their other location in Brooklyn Park sell camel meat. Anyways back to this location, it has a deli with small seating in a separate room. I haven't tried out the food yet but I know it is good. This place not only sell food but also accessories from jewelry bags, phone cards/covers, chargers, purses and other stuff. I know this place will not disappoint me when I come for grocery shopping because it is cheap. Parking is huge.

Deli has gone downhill. Their kapoon was fantastic years ago. Now, it is sold in a bowl that can not be seen through, so there is no way of knowing that it is almost entirely noodles in the bowl. The broth does not taste of coconut or herbs, and has only a tablespoon of bamboo shoot. The toppings consist of about three tablespoons of cabbage and half a teaspoon of cilantro. It is just noodles, with a bit of ground chicken. The eggrolls are mostly empty inside, but there is no way of knowing this until you buy them. I will find myself an honest grocery store and deli, and stop shopping here. I wanted to buy frozen dumplings, but the freezers were not cold enough to keep them frozen, so all the dumplings were thawed and soft. It is too bad. I was a loyal customer for years.

I bought three durians few days ago for the first time from this store. I opened them up to freeze the fruit for winter. None of their durian have the typical soft creamy texture. All were rigid and appeared to be not ripe at all. They did not taste good either. There was only one label saying "mountain tiger", but it is not the true "cat mountain king" label. It is the first time I have ever had such poor quality. If I lived closer, if not having to spend $20 for gas alone to drive to the store, I would have returned them. Good thing it was not the first time I ate durian, otherwise I would probably not trying them at all afterwards.

This place used to be great, but in recent times it's really gone to the dogs. It seems like it's no longer managed by a Hmong family, but by South Asians from India or Pakistan.Problem is, I can't find the brands & items that I've always bought there for so many years. It's like they don't know what to buy in terms of SE Asian grocery goods. It also seems that they're trying to cater to too many different ethnicities and letting the SE Asian slide.. they don't even carry Calbee Shrimp Chips anymore, just some off-brand.I think we're done shopping here.. and after almost 25 years! Good thing there are like 3-4 other Asian markets within a short drive.

As a former NYC resident and a recent Twin City resident, I felt that this store, which I have seen multiple times while traveling on the Light Rail was in a word, unimpressed, as far as, appearance, employee interaction (unhappy cashiers), and overall experience. One aspect of business that a few business do not understand is basic fundamental knowledge of business; your customers are what make you so how are you going to maintain and attract new customers. This has the potential to do so much better but falls short....way short. The best part of the visit here was the fascinating cookware (HUGE pieces that stack). My repeat patronage is not based on price alone or convenience but experience. Should I grace their doorstep ever again for a purchase, it would have to be for one of the coolest cookware pieces. I understand the multi-cultural shopping experience well and if you ever want to have a true standard, try experiencing Food Bazaar in Queens on Northern Boulevard in Long Island City.