Valley Harvest II

I only go in IF I have to. And that’s only for food that is packaged or in a can. Even that… make sure to check the expiration date. This place is filthy and dirty. Don’t bother with the produce, it will start to go bad once you bring it to the check stand. It will not last you for a day before the fruit flies come. For the sake of your nose and sanity, don’t bother going to the meat/​seafood section. I don’t think they know how to use bleach to cover up the awful smell back there… ugh.

I like to go here for the inexpensive produce. Some of the produce is a little past it’s prime, but some of it is in pretty good shape. Just keep an eye on what you are buying. Lot’s of variety as far as international condiments go. A fun beer section.
The meat section seems a lot less sketchy than it used to.
When I don’t have time to hit H-​Mart or Uwayjimaya I sometimes stop here.
On my list of places to shop that aren’t the big Western Chain Markets.

Worst grocery store ever.
Okay — so my wife and I are exploring a new area, looking for a great new grocery store — a new «diamond in the rough». Someplace to get some produce at a great price.
We walk in because the outside reminded me of our old Chicagoland favorites (Valley Foods, Joe Caputo & Sons, Garden Fresh Market). This was a huge mistake. Its the dirtiest grocery store I’ve ever been to. There were items in the freezer that don’t need to be frozen — which made us think that they were super old and expired.
Just nothing in there made me comfortable — or made me feel like I was in a place where food should be stored and sold.
And then we got back to the meat and fish section. I walked through out of courtesy. After that, I was ready to go. This place just wasn’t for us. I won’t be back. And I’ll encourage others to visit some other places nearby that we have since run across.

This is quite possibly the sketchiest grocery store that I have been to in a long time.
While on the hunt for fresh produce we did a Unilocal Search and found this place. I was so excited when we arrived! I thought it was going to be just what we were looking for, like a produce market in the suburbs of Chicago.
We were greeted outside with On-​the-​Vine-​Tomatoes for only 99cents! We made our way inside, and we were excited to see the bulk bins. Unfortunately, the rest of the store eventually made us put our tomatoes back and slowly leave.
It was so cold and dimly lit. Everything was so grimy and dirty. The meat was an okay price, but did not instill any faith into us about the quality. The vegetables looked okay, but the cases were just so dirty. The organization didn’t make any sense, and in the end was definitely not what we were looking for.
The garlic was tiny, sprouting already and overpriced.
We won’t be back unless an overhaul is done. You know, one involving a sponge and some soap.

They certainly appeared to have a little bit of everything.
Pricing is reasonable to a little pricey depending on the items.
They have a little Vietnamese shop within that sells Vietnamese sandwiches and bubble tea. It looks like they also fry fish and possibly other stuff in their seafood department.
Produce didn’t look too fresh. My husband went and felt the apples that were out and it was «soft» not the crunchy texture. We did buy some strawberries from them and it was ok.
We probably won’t be back. We’d trot out behind to Great Wall shopping center or viet wah

Produce rocks. If it exists anywhere, it’s here, and priced inexpensively. Wife and I are shopping for produce at Valley Harvest three times a week, on average.
But we never, ever venture to the prepackaged food part of the store, where the prices are only average — or worse. Strange dichotomy.

I love this place. Wish I had known about it months ago. Except for certain specialty items, their prices are great. I bought ingredients for thai, indian & mexican food & thought the selection was good. The owner doesn’t seem to have a very good system for organizing the food so you will probably have to wander around a lot. But the have a lot of harder-​to-​find ingredients & I was happy with how much I paid, especially for produce & bulk grains/​legumes. It was also an interesting place. The person who I think is the owner was asian but she was speaking spanish to one of the stock guys which i thought was neat. Also, they had all kinds of music playing. It was a fun shopping experience.

If I’m ever looking for ingredients for any recipe, I can almost always find it here. When my aunt from Colombia came here, she had problems locating some of the foods from home. We were able to find them here — without the need to drive all the way to Seattle.
My daughter is hooked on Asian foods and I am hooked on Greek & middle eastern cuisines they have a wide variety here.
I am always surprised by something new and tasty.

Valley Harvest is perhaps the largest international market I’ve seen anywhere.
About one-​third of the store is an entirely separate shop called «Taste of Europe» that specializes in Ukrainian goods. That’s why there are two separate listings (and you can see my brief review there).
The other two thirds cover the globe — Latino goods, Indian/​Pakistani, Somali, other Asian… You can find cereals, fresh and frozen seafood, a meat counter (nothing halal, though, for my Muslim friends), beer, wine, staples, grains, candies, soft drinks. Like I say, a great deal of variety.
It’s worth going, even if you’re the most mundane suburban native-​born American. My wife and I almost always poke our heads into grocery stores abroad, because of how much they say about the local culture. With Valley Harvest, you don’t even have to leave Kent to get a taste of this experience.