Hometown Grocery

Good service! One stop shopping for all your Asian pantry needs. Organized and well stocked.

I was really torn about whether to rate them a 3 or a 4 because of frustrating experiences with their open hours. I realize it may be common for small businesses like this to close for the night if business is slow, so I decided I shouldn't ding them for that, but it sucks for someone who works full-time typical business hours on M-F and can't always make the trip down on weekends; see below.Minuses:- Not sure if they actually stick to set hours. Yelp currently lists them as being open until 6:30pm, but on three occasions in the last few months I tried to go there right after work, arriving at times ranging from right before 6:00 to a little before 6:30pm to find they were either already closed or closing up. It was pretty disheartening to travel more than an hour by bus only to not be able to buy something. I didn't see any hours posted outside the store either.- There's quite hand-written price signs for things like eggs and produce where they wrote the product name in Chinese. For someone socially anxious like myself, I feel really embarrassed that I'd have to ask someone to translate for me. Staff do know English though.Pluses:- Workers have generally been nice, one time a few years ago I accidentally dropped a tofu container on the floor and it burst. I would've expected to have to pay for it but they told me no need and to just get another one.- They have Mandarin Soyfoods tofu which is around 23-24oz for $1.59, so a larger quantity of tofu than most of the packaged tofu brands, and according to a friend who cooked with tofu a lot, this is a pretty good and fragrant tofu. They also offer their own in-house fresh tofu in plastic bags (not sure if this goes bad more quickly).- Decent array and quality of snacks, some produce, eggs, milk, condiments/sauces, canned foods, flavored aloe drinks, dumplings, noodles, stuff like that. (I'm a vegetarian so didn't really pay attention to meat options.)

Hometown Grocery is a decent sized Chinese grocery on 10th Street between Alice and Jackson.They have a variety of produce, frozen meats, teas, noodles, spices. They don't have an in-house butcher shop. You can also get large bags of white rice from there.I believe like many Chinatown groceries that they're cash only, but check them out if you're looking for reasonably priced produce and Chinese supplies.

Nice peeps,. I love the fact is a couple blocks away from the hustle and bustle of central Chinatown. Those little old ladies with their pink bags can be aggressive by Western norms, but hey when Rome do as they do, I come here to avoid it. Selection is good. I come for the frozen wonton and fish balls. Parking is relatively easy.

Hometown market really is a hometown market--the owners Winnie and Ken go the extra mile for their customers, and have special-ordered items for us upon request. Their inventory of sauces and condiments is one of the best in Oakland Chinatown / the East Bay. My wife searched all over for the authentic Sichuan Pixian chili bean sauce and she found it here. They stock both Chinese and Vietnamese condiments and sauces. We also like their fresh tofu (in plastic bags) and dried noodle selection, as well as their selection of Chinese greens (yao choy, mustard cabbage, etc.)

I've been searching for a Chinatown grocery store for over a year now that I can feel/be loyal to, and more importantly, can depend on for good stuff and low prices. As far as anything that comes in a can, jar, or bag, this place is reliable! Some grocery stores have cheap soy sauce and expensive coconut milk, or whatever, causing me to feel like I want to run around and shop around at other places to get the best deal. Hometown Grocery is awesome though! I can get everything I need here.They have a huge selection of East Asian and Southeast Asian staples, all at good prices. Things like tofu and scallions are cheap and good quality. I love their fresh noodles (which according to the package, come from SF). I haven't bought a lot of fresh produce here, but their selection is typical and the quality (as far as things like onions, which sometimes look moldy or get moldy quickly when bought from other Chinatown stores) is better than average. They also have avocados!If you care about things like lighting/crampedness/smell, this place is big but the aisles are a little narrow (you might have to say 'excuse me,' but it's not a big deal), it's well-lit, and smells fine.This is hands down my new favorite Chinatown grocery store. On top of all-around good prices and awesome selection, the owners are super friendly and the lines are never very long, even when old ladies cut in front of you.

This place is rad. They offer fresh herbs and produce that are either exorbitantly priced or hard to find elsewhere: lemongrass, basil, bamboo shoots, et c. All sorts of crazy condiments, too! The owners and staff are also exceptionally friendly and helpful. And there's a bargain veggie bin for those penny-pinchers!

looks like another family run chinese grocery store has opened in c-town. hometown is down the street from gooodview's. hometown grocery doesn't caryy live seafood nor fresh meats. it does carry frozen seafood and the regular dried , frozen and canned asian food items.while the selections is thin in some areas like quality veggies, they do carry cream wafers(1.09) wonton noodles(1.79), oyster sauce (1.29), soy bean milk,(1.45) and ube ice cream(1.99).ture, it was at the end of the day. maybe the good stuff was sold already.this place is worth checking out if you can't park in chinatown central and don't want to walk the few blocks.parking around here is ea\sily to find. remember to feed the meters.btw, the map is wrong, it's 10th st, not E. 10th st.

One of the regular places to go shopping, looking in their bargain bin for produce past their prime at a discount, sometimes I think it's too late and pass on it. On a recent visit, I bought some Chinese long beans USD 1 for 3 pounds which is a great price, usually it's much higher; used a search engine to look up recipes for Chinese long beans and found this simple recipe:http://steamykitchen.com/49-chinese-long-beans-recipe.htmlNot as good as at a restaurant but not bad at all. I ran out of fresh garlic and didn't want to make a trip out now just for that, so I substituted garlic powder. Now I have a base recipe for that. The staff are friendly and helpful if I have a question. They do have some raw meat products, Vietnamese items - like frozen appetizer rolls to fry up in a skillet which I bought and cooked up. Not bad, but no English on the label so I didn't know what it was exactly except that it tasted good to me. Come at the right time and you may see something at a good price to buy; adjusting pricing to inventory, quality. Small shops like these type may temporarily reduce price to reduce inventory. Also bought some sweetened dessert tofu, coconut flavored, also yummy for me. It's worthy of a visit for me.

This is my Chinatown market of choice.+ Credit cards on purchases $15++ Good selection & quality of produce in the front+ Wide (compared to neighboring stores) selection of snacks, canned food/condiments and frozen foods+ The cashier who usually mans the register on the right is friendly & speaks English well