Great Wall Supermarket

For all your Asian good needs. They ve got produce (even dragon fruit, although it’s a lot cooler looking than it is tasty); a seafood section with blue crab and lobster and long neck clams; a nice frozen foods section with dumplings and desserts alike; a hot food section with three items rice and soup for $ 5.99 and a baked good section with those light airy Asian buns and egg tarts. My only complaint is it’s not closer to DC!

Coming from LA, I needed an Asian supermarket next to me. This place is a great substitute. Decently cheap Asian supermarket with fresh groceries and a dank 5-​star food court.
Oh, let me tell you about the food court. This is the classic Chinese cafeteria with the pork belly, pig ears, chinese cabbage, beef tendon, you name that body part, they probably have it. Chinese comfort food. Good for the soul.

This is one of the smaller Great Walls I’ve been to. So the selection is not as plentiful and less checkout lines. Still have enough to get what one would need. Availabe Parking.
Fresh produce, meats, and seafood. Sells items other than Chinese so other Asians can benefit from this market. Prices are reasonable too!

Great Wall holds a special, nostalgic place in my heart. I grew up in the Fairfax area and my parents and I have been frequenting Great Wall for forever. It’s not like the Whole Foods of Asian groceries in terms of cleanliness and urbanity, but they have tons of produce and Chinese/​Asian goodies. Lots of veggies especially the rarer, harder-​to-​find Asian ones. I don’t usually purchase fruits here since there isn’t as much of a selection (mostly just Fuji apples, Asian pears, peaches, grapes, bananas) but you can find unique fruits like dragonfruit here.
There’s a seafood section in the back that has a variety of fish, lobster, crabs, shrimp, oysters, etc. There’s even live turtles and frogs! They will clean and prepare your fish for you at the store. Next to the seafood section is the meat section where you can request certain meat products by the pound. According to some reviewers, they’ve gotten sick off the meats but I haven’t so far. Just use your best judgment.
Then, there are just aisles and aisles of various Asian goodies like tofu, frozen dumplings, spices, sauces, tea, herbs, both Asian and American snacks and drinks (THEY CARRY GREEN TEA KIT KATS AND POCKY), cooking supplies, and household items like shampoo and laundry detergent.
If you’re looking for specific Asian products (especially Chinese), Great Wall is your best bet. They also do seasonal/​holiday goodies like moon cakes for Mid-​Autumn Festival. Meandering down the aisles, you’ll find yourself engulfed in nostalgia as you spot various Asian snacks from your youth.
Great Wall is where I get my hot pot stuff. From veggies to sliced meats to fish balls, egg dumplings, and more, Great Wall has got me covered. They’ve got a large variety of fish balls in their frozen aisle which you can either buy packaged or by the pound. You can also get the actual stainless steel hot pot, gas powered portable stove, and butane gas here too. A one-​stop shop for all your hot pot goodies!
And for all your Asian beauty junkies, Great Wall has a wall dedicated to your Asian skincare products. From Hada Labo to Shiseido, they have cleansers, toners, moisturizers, face masks, and lots more. I even saw that they currently carry the SNP Animal Masks!
In the very back, there’s a small food court. They have both dim sum and hot food that’s dirt cheap. There’s also various bread buns (hello, pineapple and custard!) too. This is a great spot to get hot lunch or even an early dinner. I also love that they prepare roasted duck and pork here; it’s fantastic!
I love the (Super) H Marts and the Lottes around this area, and I think they are a lot cleaner/​brighter than Great Wall. But there’s something about Great Wall that keeps me coming back. Maybe it’s the cheap produce, meats, and seafood. Maybe it’s the fact that I can find every Asian snack of my childhood. Maybe it’s because it’s a one-​stop grocery shop. Whatever it is, I’m not fighting it.

…talking loud… laughing loud… very uncomfortable… Very unprofessional… Very unpleasant environment in the vegetable section.

This place needs to work on cleaning up. The shelves are worn and the whole place smells.

I shop at Great Wall and Hmart because Hmart has items that are distinctly Korean and Great Wall carries items that are distinctly Chinese. I like eating both types of foods, so I happily go to both (they’re only across the street from each other). I was so happy to find a Chinese supermarket, but was bummed about a few things. Let me start with the good… The fruits and vegetables are fresh and cheap/​reasonably priced. I never had an issue with produce.
They have a cafeteria with Chinese food and a bakery. I’ve had better Chinese pastries (I must stress that I grew up in the Bay Area in CA), so I’m quite spoiled… but I guess it helps settle my occasional cravings for pineapple buns (yummy crust!). The food is pretty good, reminds me of Toishanese cooking and I’ve enjoyed eating there each time. It’s simple and cheap.
Now for the bad… I do my grocery runs here numerous times, and each time I buy meats from the butcher section, the ground pork and the pork chops (to be exact), they’re always BAD. Like, ROTTEN bad. They shouldn’t be selling this stuff! I only write this because I’ve gone several different times and weeks apart, and yet each time I open up my groceries when I get home (and I put my groceries in cooler bags that I keep in the car) I notice this terrible rotting smell… It’s not right. I got food poisoning on one occasion because I didn’t catch the smell since I later realized that they were mixing the «old stuff» with the «new» so that you wouldn’t catch it. SO DISGUSTING. I’m really disappointed because I noticed this isn’t the only place that does it, (Hmart, sorry, you’re guilty too).
Lesson learned for me (unfortunately, it took me several times to learn since I was being optimistic), only buy produce, canned goods, and other items, NEVER their meat items. Just be careful.

Very similar to ranch 99 that I grew up with. There’s a nice Dim sum/​bakery/​hot foods/​deli area, live seafood and fresh produces. A large selection of spices, snacks, housewares and specialty herbs. This store specializes in southeast Asian produce and I’m pretty pleased with it. I came looking for Rendang spice mix and didn’t find it… So if anyone knows where it’s at, please let me know! Pretty clean… Considering I just shopped at LA Mart on Bold yesterday and that place was a seedy nightmare. I would shop at La Mart again if I absolutely had to but would prefer to pay a bit more at GW

Yay! A Chinese supermarket! Before I discovered Great Wall, the only distinctly asian market I knew of was H Mart, which is a Korean market. It has a wide variety of produce and Asian foods too, but being half-​Chinese, I was looking for very specific Chinese items they just did not carry at H Mart. Enter Great Wall! Great Wall is reminiscent of the Ranch99 Market chain in California, carrying lots of produce, Chinese packaged foods, frozen goods (like xiao long bao!), and seafood/​meats. They even have a little food court section in the back where you can get hot lunch for cheap, or breakfast bao.
Parking is a bit of a hassle, as it is near most grocery stores. But this place is worth a visit if you’re looking for Chinese foods that you can’t find at your normal grocery store, or if you are looking to buy cheap produce. It’s honestly fun just to come here and look through each aisle, since they carry lots of Asian goodies and foods that you might not be used to seeing around.

I have shopped there since they opened about four years ago. Since the beginning of the year, the store changed dramatically. The service, employees, and quality has declined.
The service is terrible now. Lines are long, and products have been changed around a bunch of times. With all these changes happening the employees are no help at all. They are very rude. Most of the time when I ask an employee for assistance, they tell me that I have to find and ask the manager. How am I supposed to figure out who is the ONE manager is and ask him? I guess with terrible service and employees, the quality of the product has diminished. A lot of the produce and meat looks spoiled and has been left there for days. I don’t know what they are doing.
The restaurant inside the store is terrible as well. The food used to be amazing. Now it looked like it is half a** prepared. The food is served cold and barely warm. The tables are very dirty and it looks like there is no one there to clean anything.
This store was a lot cleaner, and viable before. Now, it is not really organized anymore. Please bring back the old Great Wall.

FAKE IMITATION SCALLOP!!!
I have to write this review,
because this super market sells fake imitation scallops and perhaps other items as genuine real thing.
Right before the Chinese new year, i went with my mother to the great wall super market to get indigence for the Chinese new years eve dinner. and my mother picked up some vegetable and the «Deep Sea Fresh Scallop» at $ 9.99 /​pound, these were the huge scallops about 2 inches in diameter. But when we cooked it, it kept leaking water and we dumped about 2 cups of liquid out of the frying pan for ¾ pound of scallop, the Scallop didnt harden and fray like the real ones. and we tried it without any sauce, the inside feels like some kind of fish cake, and had a very strong taste of nasty fishy SEA WATER.
we ended up throwing all two pounds of it away!!!
the only redeeming value of this place was that the vegetable was really cheap.
but be ware!!!

I happened to be near by so I thought that it would be nice to switch up from my usual Korean grocery store. The day that I stopped by was the Sunday before Chinese New Year. The place was packed so getting around was a bit difficult.
They have many kinds of fresh vegetables. The only part that I don’t like about it is the employees pre-​packaged them in a bag for you and they usually put in way more that I need. I didn’t get any seafood, but bought items from the meat department.
The prices are comparable to other Asian markets, but I like that they have items that I could only find in Thailand like egg tofu and Yakult.

The Chinese Supermart ! It’s very different than your typical Safeway/​Giant. It’s not as clean as you expect a typically grocery store in the US, however if you compare it to Asia, yeah. it’s clean. I’m Asian and I’ve lived in Asia long enough to judge. People here do behave very differently as well. Someone will probably cut you off while you are in queue to pay, nothing out of the ordinary. It’s unfortunate as the patron at Great Wall that cuts you in line will always know how to queue up when they are at a American grocery store.
Okay enough with the bad stuff, Great Wall does have it’s benefits. Of course the obvious is it’s a Chinese supermart so you will find any sort spices /​local asian delicacy here that you won’t find anywhere else. There’s plenty of vegetables, herbs, fresh seafood that you don’t typically find in American grocery store. You can even buy a whole pig here if you want to. The quality of the vegetables are much more fresher and cheaper here compared to anywhere else. There’s also a huge selection of fruits here. You can occasionally find some local Asian fruit here such as durian.
There’s also a very typically Asian cafeteria at the back of the supermarket. For around 7 bucks you can choose 2 meats and a vegetable to go with your rice. It’s a common meal for a lot single working adults that wants to get a cheap meal with variety of dishes in Asia. It’s nice that they have the same thing here. I have definitely eaten here a couples time when I’m lazy to cook. Try the bakery as well. They have some interesting Chinese bakery food that you don’t commonly find. The bread with shredded pork is my favorite. On the weekends you can always find egg tarts that they serve on a dim sum restaurant. Yum!
If you ever need to grab some herbs for your pasta, they sell rosemary, dill and basil here for way much cheaper than a Safeway /​Giant.

This large store has a great selection of food. However, there are some down falls. First of all, IT’S COLD. Bring a jacket inside of the store, or else you will freeze, especially in the winter. The live animals in buckets are not taken care of. There are crabs with missing eyes, and at one point I saw two frogs jump out of the bucket that they were supposed to be in. However, they have lots of food, a HUGE seafood selection, a ton of meats, lots of veggies, and great asian snacks!!! If you come here, just bring a jacket and don’t step on frogs.

Go to Good Fortune instead in Falls Church or Centreville. This is the only place I know of that will REFUSE to sell a customer it’s goods. They run this place like communist society – deciding who they want to sell what to. I can’t call them racist since I am Chinese – *hangs head in shame*
NOT high end, NOT clean, NOT customer friendly. It does smell, it does sell expired items, and they do overcharge if you don’t pay attention. People come here because it is cheap.
Mom asked a store employee to cut a huge taro root – part of had gone bad. Another store employee came up to mom and took all of the taro roots out her cart and REFUSED to sell it to her. My mother was with her friend who had her own cart and the employee took hers too and refuse to sell it to her as well. Who does that??? Who does that to a senior citizen??? Combined it was at least a $ 75 sale. Guess what? Went to Good Fortune bought the same things and it cost even LESS.
Chinese New Year is around the corner – go to Good Fortune.

This place for a three for the specific reason of always having the larger size lobsters then every other other Asian store. But for everything else h mart is the better choice. They don’t have a good sushi grade tuna or salmon or other sushi grade items. Vegetables those items are the sane every where. And the cooked good section is below average Abs it seems like they try to cater more to the Asian crowd Abs don’t describe anything in English. That’s not how that should be.

This is the place to go for all your Chinese grocery needs, both fresh, frozen, and canned. There’s a cafeteria area, bakery, and roast meats area.

If you’re looking for the H Mart chain’s brightly lit aisles and cleanliness (generally speaking), you’ll be disappointed. Great Wall is more similar to the Asian supermarkets you knew while growing up. If you are of Asian descent or grew up in a multicultural neighborhood, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The aisles are narrower. The lighting is dimmer. Everything seems crammed together. And the smells. Though you may catch a whiff of something fragrant every now and then, you’ll mostly likely be inhaling something that either takes getting used to or can never be adjusted to.
Despite Great Wall not being attractive like some of its area counterparts, it still is worth checking out for one aisle in particular: the Chinese and Japanese snack aisle! Korean supermarkets typically carry a wide array of Asian snacks; however, they don’t offer that many Taiwanese snacks.
Great Wall has all sorts of cutesy, amusing products from Taiwan, such as these strawberry-​flavored Cheeto-​like chips in girly pink packaging. Though Japanese munchies are well represented at Korean-​owned markets, they don’t tend to carry the more unusual flavors, like sea urchin (yum!). If you’re looking for conversation starter, look no further than Great Wall’s delightful snack aisle.
Other items of note include medicinal herbs, Chinese tea sets and gift sets, and live creatures… (turtle may no longer be an option after health inspectors swept in last year…). And before I forget, Great Wall also carries all sorts of «beauty foods» (cereals containing ingredients like snow fungus, herbal teas said to benefit skin, and more).

When you live in DC, and you start craving lotus root, taro, and wood ear shrooms (ok so you might crave Reese’s or pizza but were all different) there is quite literally nowhere to go. You’re screwed. Chinatown? Please, spare yourself. Unless you are in possession of one of the most powerful culinary weapons out there… A CAR! When I learned that a Vietnamese friend of mine was going to do her weekly shopping here, I made it clear I was coming along — roof, trunk, whatever it took.
I walked into a sea of produce. I actually ended up getting lost in it. There were things I’ve never even seen before, and I had to be that awkward American standing in front of the bitter melon for 20 minutes trying to figure out what it was. Once I got past that hurdle I was able to stock up on snacks on snacks on snacks, spices, candy, buns, noodles, ground sesame, you name it. AND even found myself a nice little porcelain set of utensils in case I force anyone to eat Chinese with me in the near future. Win!
So why a 3? Don’t know about that seafood though. Sure the salmon was its normal color and everything was live and kickin’, but doesn’t look like things were separated too properly, and it didn’t «look» clean. Maybe my nostrils are paranoid, but something wasn’t right about the smell either.
But aside from that, if you like cooking with authentic flavors, and really want good produce, this is the place for you.

Great Wall is, to me, a classic ‘Asian’ market, that would be perfectly at home in Hong Kong, Seoul, or Bangkok. The selection of exotic fruits and vegetables calls us back there every few weeks and, in spite of the sometimes dubious look of the fresh seafood tanks, we have never had a bit of problem with the offerings. Besides the fresh produce and meats, the store specialized in Asian candies and snacks as well as every spice imaginable. There is also a small cafeteria area in the back where you can get a small selection of bakery goods, dim sum, and bar-​b-​q meats, like duck and pork. Prices vary alot and you do have to watch the expiration dates as some things don’t move well and others do. But… that is just part of the process…
The atmosphere at Great Wall can be pretty chaotic, especially on weekends, when a significant percent of the Asian population of Northern Virginia seems to descend on the place. It is jammed and noisy… and the run-​up to Chinese (lunar) New Year is a quantum level worse.
But, we have always found it to be a reliable option. If you have never experienced this kind of market, you really need to give it a try!