Vua Kho Bo

Retail service was excellent, very friendly and offered tea and we were able to taste sample of products we were interested in purchasing ! Loved their dehydrated mushrooms and spicy beef and fruited beef jerky! I always make a special trip to their store for the dehydrated mushrooms with out of state friends to purchase. I found they have the best flavor of all the other stores that sell them!

Friends from LA brought some beef, pork jerky and dried fruits made by VKB and we all loved it. Came to this location when I was in the area. Great selections and staff were very helpful. Price is not cheap but worth it. They will also ship to your house, so ppl like me don’t have to drive all the way from SF.

Stumbled upon this store after a weekend trip to get boba at Fantasia with friends. We were drawn in by the sign outside ‘Jerky King’! What more can you ask for right? Upon walking in I was surprised to see far more than just jerky! There were bins of Mui (Moi) dried salted plum! I had just gone into two separate Ranch 99s in quest for some li hing mui. The minute my husband and I walked in there were 4 sales people all over us! «Try this… Try that… you like this» I asked for a ¼ lb of the traditional sweet sour mui and the older woman started packing in 4X more than I wanted! Then the gentlemen got my husband over in the jerky bins. The sales people were friendly and all but boy I just feel like they took advantage of us not being OBC. Pushy– all to make a buck.
Fast forward a couple of bags of salted plums and 1 smallish bag of sweet spicy pork and oula $ 167.00??? Wha?!
FWIW– their jerky is tender & tasty. Just can’t justify the price/​pound.

So happy to come upon this store! The outside sign says «Jerky King». They have dried fruits, dried mushrooms, olives, and jerky. The jerky ranges from dried squid to beef and even has pork rung and other assortments of meats. I haven’t had spicy squid in 15+ years since my mom picked up some in Vietnam. Been craving the sweet and spicy flavor for so long. Everything is sold by weight and listed at cost per pound. I bought ½ pound of sweet dried plums, dried spicy squid, and dried whole large olives. They will give you a taste of anything you’d like! They also sell delicious teas (yes, sample that too).
For pricing reference, the sweet dried but juicy plums were $ 11/​lb, the squid $ 26/​lb. Wish I lived closer!

I really like this place, and wanted to give it a higher rating, but like others I have also experienced the sales people «overweighting» the bag and when I asked for a ½ pound instead of a pound they were protesting. Not cool. The staff are otherwise very friendly and helpful. I’ve been a few times, and they continually offer you samples and cold-​brewed tea (good tea, I bought some). The jerkies are mostly very sweet; our favorites are the mushrooms (savory, great snack for low-​carb or gluten averse) and broad beans (mm, garlic!). It’s a fun place, just don’t get taken advantage of.

Mushroom chips, fried okra, black sesame candy and the sweet pork jerky. All items are favorites and you’ll get a little cup of tea while you’re waiting for your order to be packaged up. It never ceases to amaze me how much I wind up spending in this shop.

I would have given them 5 stars for all the goodies and great treats, but their sales approach was unethical and bordering illegal.
We purchased jerky and other treats for ourselves and as gifts to others. We were encouraged to put half pound per bag for each item. Even as we resisted of only putting ½ pound in a bag and requested putting 1 lbs in each bag, they pertained that they never heard that. Then they overload every bag by 50−80%. So each pound we asked for, they gave us close to 3 lbs. they rushed the open bags to the counter and weighted and sealed the bags without us there. When got to the counter requesting them to re-​weight the bags, they tried to distract us by offering free drinks that we did not want. Then we were presented with a $ 300+ receipt while we had only asked for about $ 120+ worth of products. We made them reopened the bags, took all the excess out on the weight and reseal them. They were NOT happy. Then, they re-​weight the bags for the price for the register, they tried to do that so quickly that we could not keep up. The total went down to $ 140 but was still higher than we expected. Again, we made them to re-​weight everything in front of us and we finally got a price that we expected. This meant that they tried to overcharge us a few dollars for each bag. We pressed them on their practice and behavior and they blamed the scale — which would not fully stabilize for a few seconds after the item was placed on it. Therefore, they just estimated the price once they put the bags on the scale — for their benefit of course.
We got what we wanted but it was a painful process. We were not happy and they were visibly pissed at us too. Too bad!
Don’t be nice to these sales people as they are there to take advantage of you. So stick to your guts and do what is right for you! If not, just walk out. I wonder if we should fill a report to the consumer protection agents?! From other Unilocalers, it seems that we are not the only ones that they pulled those stunts.

I am surprised that this type of store sales still exists in U.S.
They treat the customers like tourists, i.e. one time shoppers. Once we stepped into the store, four clerks jumped around you and pressed you to buy. When we agree to buy something, they put far more than we asked into the bags.
Not sure why they are not aware that it makes the customers very uncomfortable and will be hesitate to come back again.

We visited this store on a weekday night.
The owner is very friendly and offered different samples to us. It made us feel bad that we did not need to purchase anything.
I tried different fruit/​veggie chips and pork jerky. The chips are okay, the taro does not seem to be very fresh. The pork jerky is very sweet. Not really my type.
I really want this place to be successful since I like the owner a lot. She is smiling all the time and she is very generous in giving out samples.
If I were an investor in this store, one thing I would suggest is that — pack the food into small plastic bags as you can see in grocery stores. For example, $ 28/​lbs mushroom chips can be packed into small bags and sold at $ 2.8 per package. Customers will be more willing to purchase if you have clear labeled price and quantity for each item.

They have a lot of variety on dried fruits, snack, candies, jerky, Asian treats that are unknown to me. I did buy honey beef jerky which was very delicious and a must try. I bought a small sweet dried fruit that had a seed inside. I think it was tamarind.
You are greeted upon walking in and you are handed a small cup of tea which I thought was nice. Any question that you have they will answer and will let you sample everything. After sampling they will ask you if you liked it. If you say yes. They will ask you «how much you want to buy? $ 5? 10?» They assume that you want to buy if you like what you are sampling. If you ask for ½ lb or 1 lb of anything. They will toss more than what you asked for into the bag. So keep an eye out for that.
The twp older ladies working here are pushy. I wanted them to go away and I wanted the cute young girl with the big beautiful eyes to help me out, but the older ladies stepped in and my sweet angel stepped back ‚(

Oh how I miss the asian flavored «fresh» beef jerky. We walked in here after our dinner since I had this huge craving for some jerky. This place has more than just jerky. This place reminds me of Aji Ichiban (whatever happened to that place?) It has all sorts of dried fruits and meat. It is also stocked in interesting asian candies.
Upon walking in, you are greeted by friendly (although pushy) attendants. They hand you some delicious tasting hot tea, which I graciously accepted. Then you are greeted by another attendant who encourages you to try almost everything in the store while claiming how good they all taste.
I love beef jerky, so i decided to hop straight to the jerky section. They all taste great.
Now, here are some tips if you don’t plan to spend $$ here (unless of course you got the cash to burn). In agreement with some of the Unilocalers here, they will give you more than you asked for and then quickly seal the bag before they weigh the bag of goodies. Make sure to watch them closely if you do decide to buy something. If you ask for ½ lb of jerky, they will try to shove way more. I caught my attendant trying to push in WAY more jerky than I have asked for. This is my own fault for trusting a salesperson… Luckily I caught her before that bag reached a full lb or even more! It came out to be just shy of 1 lb.
Although I paid for more than I planned, at least I walked home with some delicious tasting jerky. :)

Lots of dried and pickled and sugary snacks. They are pretty pushy with sales and want you to try a lot of their things. Usually you will get handed a small cup of lightly sweet hot tea to sip on while walking around and seeing what might interest you. You ask for ½ lbs of something, you’ll probably get ¾ lbs. You ask for 1 lbs you’ll probably get 1.25 lbs, so be stern on telling them when to stop, unless you don’t mind.

Vua Kho Bo offers delicious food and high pressure sales tactics.
I just got back from a trip to India where high pressure sales techniques are the norm, so the sales tactics here put a smile on my face and conjured fond memories of walking through bazaars and having to fight off aggressive salesman.
The quality of the goods here are exceptional. The dried mangos are unlike any I’ve ever tasted. The texture and flavor are unrivaled and make a perfect snack.
Dont let the salespeople deter you from enjoying all the amazing foods they offer, they are definitely worth the trip.

Delicious jerky and assorted dried treats!
So I was walking around this little mall with a friend looking to get some boba when we passed this place. We saw a bunch of buckets filled with treats so we couldn’t say no.
We walk in and immediately are offered tea. It was really good. And also very well played because then I felt obligated to buy something. Clever!
We were also offered free samples. Two types of jerky which were both delicious. And dried mango and dried guava. Both were phenomenal but the mango transcended space and time and exploded my taste buds. When we asked how much the mango was the nice saleswoman said it was $ 13/​lb. but quickly said we didn’t need to buy a pound. We however were very down to buy a pound each. And trust me, I’ve gone to pound town on that pound since then. Just so good!
I suggest you head over here and eat a lot!

I’ve been wanting to write this, because I wish someone would have advised me the tricks they use at this place to increase your spending. I don’t think they’re being evil — just think of it as a bazaar-​like atmosphere where you have to be street smart. This place was also written up in a Chinese newspaper (World Journal) for their sketchy tactics, and my friends all know about it too.
First things first, they do have great snacks — beef jerky & pork jerky especially… high quality whole muscle portions, not the chopped & formed stuff or the hard to chew kind. My parents loved eating it, and so did all their Chinese friends. So it’s a great gift you can bring to out-​of-​town Chinese folk, instead of the standard bakery sweets that people normally get.
So here’s the tips to avoid getting snookered:
1. They will ALWAYS put in more than you ask… if you ask for ½ pound, they give you one pound. This makes a huge difference when the beef jerky can be $ 28/​pound. So when they finally weigh it out, tell them to take the extra weightt out. They do their best to discourage this by sealing your package quickly so you have to ask them to break it and create another package.
2. They will often price different variety items at the highest price. We got one flavor of beef jerky at $ 22/​lb and another at $ 29/lb…they weighed everything at the $ 29/​lb price. So pay attention to the scale and unit price displayed!
3. Using the two tips above will prevent you from spending 2x-​3x (!) what you planned. And if you ever have any doubt or sense something isn’t quite right, do not pay! Take some time to think it through before you hand over the cash or card, cause they don’t do refunds… or they’ll give you a sketchy handwritten store credit piece of paper that you’d be embarrassed to bring back.
4. It doesn’t hurt to ask for a discount or freebies they can throw in. At the very least, ask for a bunch of free samples to try in-store…cause you’ll be paying expensive prices for their stuff.

That’s interesting, I reviewed this a while ago, but now this listing is the main one. So pasting what I wrote before.
Those who are familiar with Vua Kho Bo in South and parts of East Bay will recognize it is a chain of shops that started in Southern California that have the moniker «beef jerky king» in Chinese characters. Despite the Vietnamese name the one in Milpitas Square is staffed with Mandarin speakers. The goods are placed in containers or jars, and sold by weight. Each store operates a little differently, but the MO is more or less the same… pushy salespeople. In a way it has become their signature move, heard stories about the ones in SoCal that operate similarly, so expect a rugby style tackling and gangpiling of sales ladies in the spirit of Taiwan, except the comfort zone closes a lot quicker since we’re in the USA.
This VKB location replaces Aji Ichiban (another old snack shop that failed to lived up to its Hong Kong counterpart), right next door to Joy Luck Dim Sum. In English it’s «Jerky King» and you can barely see the VKB.
I popped my head in out of curiosity. The storefront looks a lot cleaner and nicer… and instead of top loading containers like some of the bulk food sections of supermarkets, the dried goods (Chinese style «candies» if you will) are carefully labeled in big jars with scoopers, with prices labeled per pound.
Near the cashier are some high end packaged Taiwanese imported products like Longan honey and Longan honey vinegar, as well as high mountain tea.
Of course, the signature VKB customer service is way overkill. The moment I walk in, I’m greeted in Mandarin. At some point offered a cup of nice green tea (cold and quite refreshing).
And here’s the best part, I am literally FOLLOWED AROUND by two salespeople (fortunately not simultaneously) playing tag with each other as I browse through the store. And better yet, the dood was literally within a foot behind me as I was browsing, TAILGATING.
One offers me the tea which I accept (some say that is a bad move because that turns you into instant rat bait), and tries to offer me other samples which I turned down after having lunch. I kindly tell them in Mandarin, «just browsing» TWICE, yet they follow me like the Pied Piper as if I’m the one giving them a tour of the shop (except unfortunately I cannot lead them to a lake to submerge for good).
So think at least twice before entering, and even if you are browsing from outside, try not to get too close or linger too long, in case suddenly you turn into a piece of delicious chee$$$$e bait. No doubt the products are of good quality, and if they are Jerky King as they claim, the product should sell itself without having a bunch of mice following you around. Friendly but adequate is the key, unfortunately the employees are falling into «old world» style tactics that intimidate even those who are familiar with this style of doing business.
Thus please VKB, re-​train your employees. Tailgating drives people away! At least I lost the de$ire to try any $ample$ after the green tea. And please don’t use the tea as an excuse that the customer is interested in anything. Just because I fell for the sales roofie doesn’t mean my wallet is willing to spread eagle :-o

So the translation of the name is King of Stewed Beef? The sign outside says Jerky King. I thought the name alone was enough to check it out. Tons of dried goods, fruits, meats, you name it they’ll Jerky it I guess. After looking around I was told that the prices have a decent sized markup but I guess the quality is high. The folks on the floor might give you a bit of the hard press though, so be prepared when browsing

Just came from this store today. Everything is fresh and you can taste anything you like. In fact you can’t go five feet into the store before a sample is being shoved in your face.
We came in the store out of curiosity and found some great tasting items. The problem is we left the store with a bad taste in our mouths. Many items we liked and agreed to buy we told them we only wanted a little, but to our surprise the weight at the till was over one pound!!! The total was over $ 100!
Pressure sales are the norm here. Add to that outright disregard for the customers instructions and I feel all the staff would have made out great in used car sales.
In any case the tactic backfired for them. If they had honored our instruction a lot of repeat business would have gone their way, as well as recommendations to our friends (and Unilocal). We won’t be going back soon.

What can I say? The Hubs loves his dried prunes! Apparently they tastes just as he remembers it from the motherland.
Luckily this place conveniently shares the vicinity with my newest addiction known as Ten Ren, that way I’m able to frequently stop in every week or so for a pound. I must comment on my amusement, as each time I come in they load me up with samples and service! To be quite honest though, I can’t really tell the difference in some of the flavor selections they offer. They definitely insist on educating you otherwise though!

So. This is the place I used to work at.
If you are craving for some authentic Taiwanese dried fruit or jerky you are definitely in the right place. My favorites are the dried hawthorn, mushroom chips, okra chips & pork jerky, and trust me when I say they are deeelicious! They also carry tea bricks that come in 3 different flavors, which can be made into a jelly; I thought that was pretty cool! The store is also selling Natureland products, an example of that is a fiber drink that’s called «the king of concentrated fiber» it has tons of positive health benefits, and the only side effect, according to the store manager, is weight loss. However, be sure to consult with your physician before taking any fiber supplement!
Store’s usually clean and service is always friendly, a drink sample is offered to every customer that came through the door. As for the goods, if you are not sure about the taste, don’t worry! Just ask for a sample, you can practically have a 5-​course meal just by walking around the store! LOL! Every thing’s made through a nature process, so no bad stuff for your body.
The sale tactic is pretty aggressive and contrary to popular belief the workers are not paid on commission. I repeat, this is not a commission-​based job! The entire time I worked there, I’ve always been told I’m not putting enough in the bag for customers. Oh, the pressure! :(And I have to admit, I’m guilty as charged when it comes to giving 1lb instead of ¼lb. But, hey! Till this day it still haunts my dreams! It’s actually one of the reasons I left, the other reason is this old woman I worked with is always badmouthing me behind my back, she even dropped hints to the boss that I don’t speak English. (I KNOW RIGHT?!!) Anyway, there is a scale near the cash register, if you feel like you have too much in your bag, no biggie, just ask whoever’s helping you to take some out~