Vua Kho Bo & O Mai 2

I came here with my girlfriend one day to get some dried squid. A lady came out, who I suspect to be the owner, came out to greet us. It was all good in the beginning.
We chose the type of squid we’d like to buy and asked her to get «enough» for two person. Yes, it sounds vague but what came next was kind of awkward. She kept stuffing the damn bag until it was like enough for a whole family and wanted us to buy it. wtf…
I came home with the bag of squid, didn’t touch it for only 2 days and when I finally did, I noticed a rotting moldy smell. Dried food don’t usually go bad unless it’s a really long time. I ended up tossing away the whole bag. I don’t think anyone goes to this location and wouldn’t recommend it either.

My mom and I stopped by after grabbing The Sweet Corner and what can I say. I was quite annoyed, really. They are overly persistent and verge on the border of persistent and just downright forcing my mom to help them out by buying Banh Trung Thu Deo. Like honestly, I’m all for helping out and supporting our fellow Vietnamese community, but if we told you that we have TONS AND TONS and Banh Trung Thu at home and we don’t need anymore, I don’t want to have you hovering over us as we try to get other things in your store. Ugh. It was frustrating to the max. Even until the very end when we said no, we’re okay (in Vietnamese) and walked away to pay for the items we did want, the lady brought it UP to the register area and was like c’mon, please just support us by buying one box (in Vietnamese) which led my too-​kind mom to purchasing the box. Honestly, after we say no about 5 times, it’s just rude to carry on with that kind of attitude. Persistent is great, until you annoy your customers.

The lady who owns the clothing next door also owns this place. I was in the clothing store one day and she was shaping one of the chewy thing into a ball and setting it on pan along with other chewing balls she have made. She was doing this at the same time she was helping a customer look for clothes. Talk about gross and heath code violation! Com’on lady; you might get little lints and dust stuck on those ball candies and then you wrap them up and sell them to the public. I was so turned-​off by the scene and will never come back to buy from any of the two places again. Oh. and as I left; I notice some of bin have some of the candies she just made. Ewh…

These folks hustle you so come in knowing what you want to get. The customer service that you receive is directly correlated with how much money you’re going to spend/​how many bags of jerky/​snacks that they’ve bagged up for you. They prefer cash so they can avoid having to report tax on it, so paying cash makes them happy.
Kind of expensive at $ 10 for a half pound of jerky, though really good jerky.
Overall, good jerky, bad service, questionable practice.

The «French style» jerky was our favorite. It’s $ 9.99 per half pound.
I was here with my mom so she bought a bunch of other flavors but I didn’t get to try them all.
Other Unilocalers are correct when they say the workers add more into the bag than you ask for. I asked for half a pound and the SO noticed they were stuffing a lot of jerky into the bag. After we asked them to stop, the total was already $ 14.
The jerky was quite good but now that I know how they operate, I’ll just be more aware of how much they are putting into the bag.

Actually, same problem with the other Vua Kho Bo & O Mai — not enough variety. They just have the typical array of goodies. Don’t get me wrong, this means that they have plenty of candied lemon rind, kumquats, tamarind candy, golden raisins, pineapple, ginger, etc… However, they don’t have anything more exotic, like candied/​dried longans, guava, strawberries, and the like. Their beef jerky selection is also very ordinary.
I guess I just expect more from a store that dare call itself «King of Beef Jerky and O Mai» — or at least that’s how it can be translated. :)
The women do push you into buying more product than you say you need. But I usually stand firm, and I never have that problem. Just politely decline or remind the person helping you that you only want a certain amount. I also remind people of the «correct» price, if it ever bothers me. You can usually get what you want or need just by asking politely.
P. S. They sell the special sauce for papaya salad here! My husband had been looking for the sauce, since we were using fresh papaya at home, but we hadn’t any luck At many places, they force you to buy the salad before they sell you the sauce. We had actually only stopped here to buy the beef jerky for the salad, and it was kismet. Perfect and good price on the sauce too!

I stumbled upon this shop while I was out buying Vietnamese food with my mom. I didn’t know this place exists until recently, but my mom had told me the place have been there for quite some time.
We went in and I was pretty surprised of how big the selections were. I didn’t think they would carry that much dry good/​beef jerky.
My mom and I sampled a lot of different variety of beef jerkies and dry fruit stuff and settled with a lb of curry flavored beef jerky, a lb of beef jerky to eat with Vietnamese salad and 2lbs of shredded pork (they carried two variety, one being hand shredded and one being machine shredded. we went with the hand one because it tastes a little bit more flavorful. it was a dollar more per lb i think).
I think we ended up paying about $ 60 bucks for the whole thing which is about the same price we would pay at any other shop. I would definitely swing by again if I’m in the area, but I don’t think I’ll make a drive all the way out here to get beef jerky. It’s a bit too far for me.

I asked for a half a pound of pumpkin seeds… it was $ 3.99. I watched grandma shovel tons of seeds in and I’m thinking, «oh dear… this is gonna be way more than $ 3.99.»
I was right. It cost me almost $ 8.
Lady who rang me up looked like she was gonna stab me if I questioned the price. I just took it, paid her and ran.
I will NOT be going back to this place. 99 ranch here I come to buy more pumpkin seeds.
I get the feeling she does that to first timers… and I won’t be a repeat customer, that’s for sure.
Overpriced and overweighed. Keep an eye on the person and question. Make sure they get it right so you don’t get ripped off.

FRAUD business model alert!!! Warning: after you walk in this store, they «force» you to buy food. Until you pay, they charge you more than the correct weight of food!!! California government should shut this business down!!! 0 star & they are Vietnamese, not Chinese. PLEASE BE AWARE: «Golden Pacific Link Inc.» shows on receipt but store name is «Vua Kho Bo» you can find 5 same business names on Unilocal.Obviously 1 business owner!

One star for the unfriendly cashier who is likely the owner. Two stars for the vast selection of Asian snacks.
Besides the standard beef jerky, squids and such — there are also scallops, tiny crabs, large tentacles… most have a choice of regular or spicy. There are also the pickled items as well as candies.
The younger person was trying to be helpful by following us around but it was more annoying than anything. Unlike other Asian snack stores, they give you samples to try if you ask.