HK2 Food District

My review is actually for the «hole in the wall» BBQ meat business at the back of the HK2 Food District near the meat/​seafood section.
This tiny business makes the best flavorful, moist BBQ pork with crispy skin and Cha Siu that I have ever eaten. I haven’t even had a chance to try their other items because I LOVE their crispy skin BBQ pork (I don’t usually like Chinese pork because the meat is often kind of gamey… but not at this location). The chef also cuts the pieces on the small side which makes it perfectly large bite-​sized piece of meat to go with my rice.
I often go to HK2 just for their BBQ meat and not for groceries.
Cash ONLY!
PLEASE give this place a try! I want to keep this place in business because I’m drooling now even thinking about their meats!

Their staffs are very unfriendly, unapproachable and rude.
I visited the store yesterday at 9 pm (they close at 10pm). The butcher refused to sell me meat because it was slow and he said the other guy already cleaned the meat cutting machine.
He kept telling me to buy the pre-​cut meat in the pre-​pack section, but I told him that I needed more than what they had out. I need at least 10 lbs, they only had 3 — 5 lbs combined out.
It was late so I did not want to drive around to another market, I even begged him a few times. He told me to ask the other guy but, he also said they don’t want to clean the machine again tonight. I wanted to ask the other guy that was there, but since he knew what I wanted, he had his back facing me the entire time I was there and he had headphones on. He basically, ignored me during my entire visit.
I ended up going to shun fat super market across the street. Their meat was 30% cheaper and their butcher was super friendly and nice, keep asking what else do I need, and even making recommendations on what I was buying.

Smells weird, pallets all over with product in different language
Meat market smells, disorganized aisles
rude cashiers.

Wow! Best Grocery store I have ever been in! I love the selection of products and you CANNOT beat the pricing. The produce is so fresh it is like it was just picked out of a garden. Everything smells so good! Parking is really easy and getting in and out of there is a snap! This market has all the new trendy products along with the traditional. I love how there is a different «district» for each major product group. I could not believe how knowledgeable the meat department was. I had a backyard BBQ to cook for over 25 people and they HOOKED ME UP!
–Great Service
–Great Facility
–Great Products
=I will be a HK2 shopper for Life!

What I like about this market is that for one there are never any lines at all. So if you know what you looking for you can check out with cashier real quick. Another is that there’s another parking in the back of the market which makes it easier to find parking. I mostly come here to buy fruits and vegetables for the quality of the freshness is a A+.

The old Hong Kong Supermarket (which closed quite a few years back), now as the HK2 Supermarket (which no one really knows about unless you are in the area) has taken its place. The good thing is that not many people know about this place. They do have a good amount sized store and it even follows suit with exactly what the old HK Supermarket looked like, produce front, aisles middle, meats/​fish back. In fact, if I didn’t know that it had closed, I would have thought it was the same place. This place is cleaner than most other Asian supermarkets and the prices are just a tad cheaper than 99 Ranch and Shun Fat. But where they lack is the variety. They have way less variety than the two other stores, and so Shun Fat which is right across the street, and 99 both are better in that regard.
Add to the fact that Colima Road heading West takes forever to get through b/​c of construction, and I don’t see why I’d come here. I mean, it’s not like 99 Ranch is better with Gale Avenue and the Nogales construction (what is with all this construction LOL), but I’d still rather shop there. Just cuz.

— Locale Destination —
It’s on Colima Rd and between Batson Ave and Jellick Ave in Rowland Heights.
It’s in a big shopping center right next to bunch of super cheap restaurants. I expected it to be a super cheap and a bit dirty market the local wouldn’t mind. The place looked clean and neat! Bring your own shopping bag since they’ll charge you $ 0.10/bag! Easy parking. Less crowded than other shopping plaza.
Cleanness: First thing you would notice here was the cleanness. It was very clean to the point that made me think it was a KOREAN market. You wouldn’t see clean Chinese/​Vietnamese markets in general. You’re lucky if you found one of those (some out there!). But I read the horrid review — the butcher dropped the meat on the floor and picked it up and served it to the customer… So I’ll avoid buying meats here and shouldn’t trust much about their «cleanness» ;p
Service: Asians sorta look alike in general, but not really (to me). It’s a lot harder for me to distinguish people with dark skin (I’d be a dead meat if I had to memorize the features for eye witness or something ;p). You do feel disadvantageous here if you weren’t Chinese/​Taiwanese. I had only a few items on me unlike others and was the next in line for the register. I should have been the one if they opened up a new register right next to me. But the cashier grabbed the customer BEHIND me (of course she was their person), and started ringing up for her… WTF??? No logic there — at least logical to the cashier. That’s not cool. Don’t worry. I bitched about it in ENGLISH hoping they would have been able to catch what I said (I’m such a bad ass ;p). I’m not a racist — just observant. It’s different.
Price: It could be cheaper than others, but it seemed depending on the items. I kinda expected much cheaper price tags since every restaurant in the shopping plaza was so cheap. Grab the ones on sale!
— Gluttony Expedition —
Drinks: Vast amount of drinks — American, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican etc. Interesting :)
Fresh produce: Very clean (looks) and reasonable as an Asian market.
Snacks: There’re lots of interesting stuff from Taiwan on top of what you see at Asian markets in general. The prices aren’t necessary cheap.
Foods: Mainly Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Some Americans and Mexicans.
Meats: As I mentioned before, I’ll avoid.
— Conqueror’s Deduction —
Be selective about what you get here. Some definitely cheap but some not really (for Asian market). It’s fun to try different snacks here, which I did. They had an assorted mochi from Taiwan with almost 10 different flavors in a box wrapped individually — awesome!

Stopped by HK2 to check it out… very nice! Clean with wide aisles… not smelly like most Asian markets…
The front section has a crackseed section and they have tea water. They also have a section where they sell bags of all kinds of cereals and other things that are individually packed… some even marked NO GMO!
Great assortment of food items… both Asian and American… so a great place to get all of your shopping done… produce looks nice and fresh and they even carry my brand of lup cheong!!!
I like that they have packaged meat and fish and also have meat cutting service there…

Today I stopped by here at HK2 Food District to do some shopping. Now, let me tell you my experience here at HK2 Food District was not quite up to par as it should have been.
I saw some lady order some meats and the butcher finished cutting the meat, and then had another butcher come and hold the bag so the butcher that cut the meat can drop the meat in the bag. Guess what happened, the butcher was dropping the meats into the bag, and accidentally dropped a piece on the floor, and guess what? He didn’t put it aside like he should have because it fell on the floor, instead he put it in her bag with the other pieces?! REALLY?! CONTAMINATION HERE! You dropped the piece of meat on the floor, and still give it to the customer!??
Now, another complaint, this time on the Customer Service we received. We barely received any. We had asked one of the ladies who work there for some assistance on finding a particular item we could not locate. She told us which aisle it should be located in and we couldn’t find it. She couldn’t even bother to take the time to come and help us look for the item?! She’d rather continue talking to her friend over helping a customer?! We had to walk over to her AGAIN and tell her we couldn’t find it. Then was she willing to come and help us look, smh, some service here. She came and looked and found it, although it wasn’t the exact one we were looking for. Eventually, we found the brand we wanted ourselves.
Remeber to bring those re-​usable shopping bags, otherwise it’s 10 Cents per bag!
Customer Service here at HK2 Food District, needs serve improvements! They need to get on 99 Ranch Market’s level, they provide much better service than this place.
As Unilocal says, «Meh. I’ve experienced better.» I’ll stick to 99 Ranch Market if I’m ever in the area again. 99 Ranch Market is far better choice over this place.

Hk2
This place is slowly getting busy. The price at hk2 is a little cheaper then 99 ranch market down the street.
Cleaness.
This location is very clean.
Price.
Most things are cheaper then other supermarkets. Which is good, but the variety isn’t there like 99 ranch market.
Overall.
I would return because it is closer to my house and most of then things are here.

I went in to grab a few things. They do not have a wide selection of items, but I went in there because I just finished lunch at a restaurant outside the store. When I went to pay for my items, the cashier Did NOT bag my items. I asked for a bag and she said no bag. I looked to my right and the cashier on the right had bags. I looked to the left and the customers on my left had their items in a bag. What is going on? I should have taken the time to ask for a manager. The cashier didn’t even give me my receipt. I will not go back to this place with that kind of service.

Red Flag, Out-​Dated Food, and Bad Customer Service!
I shopped at this food market a couple of times in the past and will not return again.
1. They sell out-​dated canned food as old as Feb. 2012 in Nov. 2013 for full prices. I did not find out until I got home. When I drove back to speak to a manager, he took 15 mins. to come out and he was eating his food while I was waiting for him. I told him that if I am sick after eating his bad food, he will be liable for my health. He did not seem to worry and did not compensate my gasoline cost to return his bad food.
2. The workers are very unfriendly, cared less, and rude.
I agreed with the poor reviews. NOT recommend!

tip: good clean produce, great deals
many things jumbled up in the front isles like snacks and grocery items so have to look through. overall a very clean and organized (only in the produce aisle).

First if all, what a strange name for a grocery market…
Second, overall this is a very clean, bright and well-​stocked market (produce is at least). We just went in for a few things so I only checked out the produce section. There were plenty of items, all of them fresh. We walked out with 2 pounds of Fuji Apples, I pack of jalepenos, Gal lan and a Naked juice for just a tad over $ 7 — $ 3 of those dollars attributed by the Naked juice. So things are cheap here, at least to someone who is accustomed to shopping in the Bay Area suburbs.
I doubt much is organize here though, but I guess you can’t have it all… cheap and organic, that is.

Fresh alive frogs and turtles are available as if it were a pet shop. Their meat is price right and their alive crustaceans are swimming fresh! Just remember to bring your own bags.

They stopped selling the beef heart, for some reason. That is where we used to go and get it for very cheap. They replaced it with pork heart. It may be cheaper for them to purchase. Otherwise, everything else is the same. I had to drop the rating because they removed what I had consistently went there for. I still go there when I know an American store will not have a specific fruit that I am craving.

Whenever I’m in the area, my mom always stops by here to go buy some seafood/​meat and I’m always in the snack aisle to buy whatever snacks I want.
This is a grocery store so I don’t know why I’m rating it. But it’s clean and not too crowded, which I like. No one would get in the way of me buying snacks ahahaha.
THE CONS.
The only cons I have are that some of the cashiers are RUDE. And I don’t remember what they look like or what their name is. So that doesn’t help.

Went there w/​boyfriend to buy some stuff, love the market; it’s clean, neat, well-​organized, and carries a variety of Asian goods that we enjoy. The problem? At checkout, the cashier (Yongyu L. according to my receipt) was beyond rude. She rang us up, stared at Boyfriend for a minute (fyi he is from Taiwan, and I’m Apple Pie) gave me a dirty look, and then left our food sitting on the counter while she turned to smile and chat with the (next good looking Asian male) customer behind us. Finally, Boyfriend says «excuse me» and asks for a bag for our goods. She shoots me another dirty look, and then calmly informs him that bags are eleven cents extra.
We have no issue with a bag surcharge; hey we even like the idea. But c’mon now, at least let us know, right? We fork over a dime and a penny, she hands us a bag, we bag our stuff and make a run for it.
Thanks but no thanks. Never again.

I have been here a few times, The HK2 market is convenient and has a large variety of ethnic Asian food. It has a huge assortment of the powdered meal replacement packets that I eat when I am on the go.
On the west side of the Plaza you have great restaurants, the outdoor restaurant alley though is dominated by the pungent smell of Stinky Tofu which literally smells like «Light a damn candle please» to me. If it smelled a bit less I would stay and enjoy the «this is not LA» Atmosphere.
The Plaza is very empty though, and has the most HORRIFIC/​USELESS/​DISGUISTING colored HK2 columns that come in Green, Pink, and Blue that I will have nightmares about. They literally look like Barbie Boxes cut out and placed around equally spaced from each other with the intent to look «modern» or «sexy» and they have a concave slope towards the wall which adds to the visual disturbance of the entire place; as if empty stores with tenants that have vacated them and left trails of their presence with Large Open signs aren’t enough. HK2 supermarket seems like an oasis of hope in this shopping plaza.
I believe this color scheme was chosen to highlight how tasteless people are in this world and how we need more vertical market structures in regard to aesthetic design for the public! This is like a disease that has to be stopped. This disguising truth however highlights the positive notes that HK plaza has to offer great restaurants with friendly service and affordable prices.

Thinking it was a food court at first when we arrived at this plaza, we cruised right on inside.
Then it turned out to be a supermarket, and seemingly a new, spaciously, yet not fully populated one. OK, guess there’s no need to hit up 99 Ranch to stock up…
What threw me off were the initials HK /​HK2 which to most Hong Kongers would mean the former British colony, now know as one of the Special Administrative Region (the other being Macau). To the younger generation though, it may hint at some Japanese car racing (re: rice rocket) equipment or modification company (rice rocket toys and accessories). Fortunately none of that smoke exists inside.
But this being Taiwan town with hints of Korean, including an out of place «Boston» Hong Kong café and some wacky fishball specialist that looked absolutely nothing like Hong Kong style street food yet posing as one, anything goes I suppose.
There’s really not much Hong Kong in here, other than a curt Cantonese speaking cashier, and some imported bag of mah jong snack (gua zi, marinated melon seeds).
While HK2 Food District does not have the breadth and depth of a 99 Ranch, the highlight for me was a section devoted entirely to imported regional Taiwanese groceries, something that even NorCal South Bay’s larger supermarkets and specialty foods stores would not touch with a ten foot pole.
–organic dried groceries, lots of health food related things
–healthy dried snacks (with samples)
–imported bottled quality Taiwanese longan honey
–Yi Lai Hsun vermicelli (Mien Xien), claimed to be hand crafted, all natural and old school traditional receipe… think of this as a distant cousin of traditionally made hand crafted regional Japanese somen. Three different flavors. Next to it some unappetizing looking red vermicelli dried noodle (made with red yeast). Luckily there was a lady with a cooking station offering samples of what could be done with this, sesame oil, bitter tea leaf oil (designed to lower cholestrol amongst other health benefits). Let’s just say the red yeast noodle is something I wouldn’t spend moolah on, unless I was forced to convert to a Buddhist vegan diet, but it was interesting texture to say the least.
Towards the back, two employees stuffing fresh batches of various Chinese leafy greens into bags. Looked great, clean, and no doubt tasted better than the NorCal Chinese supermarket crap.
Further in are the fish and meat section. No funny looking sashimi, but a decent selection of fish on ice.
There’s another location in West Covina.
Why can’t we get something like this in NorCal? :-o