Al Rafedain Market

Errrrk. So on a cold, cold, cooooold Saturday, after leaving my blood, Unilocal,and tears on the pavement after running my heart out at the Cupid Run 5K (well, okay, fine, I didn’t really run my entire heart out, but I did *finish* the race at least, and those who know how lazy I am should be impressed by that alone, haha), I had a serious hankering for hot pot. Alas, we arrived at the shopping center on Old Pickett Road (which houses Hot Spot and the Fairfax Bön Chon) a little bit too early, and the hot pot place hadn’t opened yet. To kill a little bit of time, we wandered into Al Rafedain which is just a few doors down.
The illustrious Jessica M, who arrived before me, actually said that the door was locked when she first tried to go in, despite the neon blinking «OPEN» sign hanging in the window. I’m not sure if it indeed was locked or if running the 5K had left my friend with abnormally weak arms (hahaha, jkjk Jessica loooove you), but I guess the shop owner saw us milling about outside and decided to let us in from the cold.
We walked around the shop for a few minutes, taking in all of the various goodies. A freezer full of pita, various candies, non-​alcoholic malt beverages, and other raaaandom things like pillows and Heinz ketchup and Kirkland-​brand tomato paste and jars of olives that I feel pretty certain you could buy for much cheaper at a normal grocery store. Anyway, I almost burst into gleeful giggles when I saw an entire spread of Turkish Delight on one shelf, and immediately snagged a box of raspberry flavored gelled goodies for the mere price of $ 3.99 (it’s like $ 12 to order a box on Amazon.)
Unnnnfortunately, there is evidently a reason why it’s priced that low. When I broke into the box after lunch, all of the candies were crazy stale and so old that they actually were stuck to the plastic tray inside — it took a ton of effort to pry just one single piece out, and when I finally freed it I couldn’t even bite into it. Sad panda.
I would have been inclined to rate this place higher if it weren’t for the stale candy and the fact that the cashier shortchanged me. I paid in cash and, while it was only like 10 cents difference and I would probably have said they should just keep the change anyway, she never even offered me my change back! Lame. If you’re looking to stock up on any particular halal goods, I’d probably recommend taking the time to head to the Halaco in Falls Church instead.