H Mart opens in San Diego

I'd gotten quite a few emails from folks since the post about H Mart opening in San Diego. It seems to have created a bit of a buzz........which was enough to actually get my crowd-o-phobic rear end down to H Mart today....opening day. Predictably, the place was packed, so I'm going to do mainly photos with this post. It'll be easier to see what this location of H Mart has to offer once the masses are gone.

We managed to pick up some prepared food which was pretty bland....especially the Japchae. The kimchi station wasn't ready yet upon this visit, probably by design.

They use all the marketing tricks in the book, from misting.......

To open prep stations......

To my disappointment, there's only a tiny little food court with looks like a single booth in the market.

The Missus was really impressed with the availability of organic and vegetarian products..... She's really into tempeh now and told me the selection and of course the prices were much better than Whole Paycheck. I wouldn't know.....

Decent seafood department.....

There was a nice selection of meat, with American Wagyu chuck roll and ribs available. I'm going to have to spend a bit more time here when things normalize.

We didn't even bother with Paris Baguette as the line was crazy long.......

In spite of the masses, every cashier station was open, so it was really fast once you got past the logjams at produce, the food court, meat, and seafood. I'm sure folks are happy to have another option in San Diego. Though not everyone looked thrilled......

As could be predicted, parking was an absolute nightmare....we parked on the street and walked into the mall. I'll do a folllow-up post in a couple of weeks when things slow down a bit.

H Mart
9440 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Comments

[Cliff]

Is this the same H-Mart as the one from the east coast?

I've noticed when I went to the one in Boston that it wasn't dirt cheap prices and crowded frenzies like Zion, but a bit higher prices with higher quality stuff

[MrZ]

The name of the market reminds me of that store that Bruce Campbell worked at in Army of Darkness. "Shop smart! Shop S Mart!"

[mikew]

I was drawn like a moth to a flame knowing it would be a mad house but yet I also went and parked at the Big Lot. This must be an Asian food obsession thing. We didn't even buy anything

[caninecologne]

Cool, I didn't know they opened yet! Our daughter's Philippine dance troupe performed there today ) and will perform again tomorrow (sans TC/these are the older performers).

That poor bored kid sitting on the floor! Too bad the food court was really small. I'm curious to go but will wait til it dies down.

[Jason]

Wow, asian markets are already crazy enough on the weekends, and you braved an opening day? I was getting my haircut at the next mall over (the one with Wings and Things) and my haircutter was asking if I was going there afterwards... no way! Thanks for the preliminary review, a weekday evening visit sounds like a good plan, should be relatively less crowded at that point.

[Kathy R]

I went at 8 pm. It was still crazy busy but probably not as bad as earlier in the day. I parked in the back, since that was what I used to do when Starbucks was in that mall (where Kebab shop is now). Did you have a problem with taking pictures? I was trying to take pictures but one of the managers gave me a dirty look and started following me around the store so I stopped. If he didn't want me to take pictures I think he should have asked me not to.

[Food detective]

Are you kidding me? I felt like I was in
a nightmare that didn't end! We were stuck in the parking lot for at least
15 minutes because so many people were waiting in their cars for their family to get in line for free ChocoPie? We didn't feel like fighting for parking so we didn't even get to go in. Whatever, I'll wait a month to come back.
This reminds me of Yum Cha. Holytamole!

[kat]

looks just as crazy as the department store renewal opening in osaka...

[Sandy]

You are brave to go to H Mart on opening day! This is close enough to my house that I will avoid weekends. I'm curious how the store's size compares to other H Mart stores.

[dancing]

thanks for the preview. will have to check out the place at a future time since i also have a bit of crowd-phobia (parking sounds crazy although i'm not sure it can be worse than almost getting run over in the zion parking lot). this might be a dumb question (maybe you mentioned it before or perhaps it should be obvious) but what does the "H" stand for?

[Kirk]

Hi Cliff - Yes, same chain.

LOL MrZ....now why didn't I think of that! Would have been a great tie-in!

Hi Mike - I think we're all kind of like that.... Lots of folks weren't buying much.

Hi CC - That kid cracked us up.....I understand how it can be.

Hi Jason - It was kind of nuts, though once you got to the cash registers the lines were short and fast.

Hi Kathy - I had no problems with photos...though I think I'm pretty discreet and most folks don't notice.

Hi TFD - What....you gave up? You never give up? You just didn't want it enough! ha! LOL!

Hi Kat - We usually don't go to these, but the Missus was curious.

Hi Sandy - It's about the same size, maybe a bit smaller than Diamond Bar and Irvine.

Hi Dancing - The H is for "Han Ah Reum" which means something like arm full of groceries...it's also the name of the company that owns H Mart.

[AZ]

I avoid grand openings in my area because I live close to Sun City, the retirement community, those ol' ladies will run over your arse to get to a bargain, and the parking lots anywhere in my community are like demolition derbies!

[Kirk]

Hi AZ - You haven't been body slammed by a little old Vietnamese lady at the market yet.... ;o)

[PoorExperience]

Went to check out the store today. Line up for the "food court" counter was about 15-30 mins. I waited anyway since I felt like trying the place out. When it was my turn to order, none of items I was interested were available. Could have helped if there was some indication of them not being available. No problem - onto something else. BTW, some of the items had a sticker that said "open". What does that even mean?

Went to purchase some marinated beef. They couldn't weight/print the price label at the counter and said the people at the check out counter would know the price. The lady whose job was to place the meat in the clear plastic containers didn't speak one lick of English. Just asking her to add more beef was so difficult.

Went up to the check out counter. They weren't able to find the price of the meet.
It took 2-3 people to find out the price, *and* they still got it wrong - ended up overcharging. I went back to confirm the price afterwards. Yep. Asked for a refund and that itself took more than 5 minutes to do. Still made a mistake in the refund after I had told her what it was. Lady made no eye contact and no apologies.

With all the wasted time just on the meat, I could have driven further to Zion, purchased it there, went home, cooked it and ate it.

Wait, with all the hassle, I could have hunted my own wildlife, went home and deboned it myself.

Maybe things will improve eventually, but they have a LOT of work to do in efficiency department.

[dancing]

thanks, Kirk, for the info about the "H" in H Mart! i think i'll wait until H-Mart irons out some of its opening-week wrinkles before i visit (i just read the comment above). thanks again to those who braved the crowds and etc. to give the rest of us a preview though! =)

[Kirk]

Hi Dancing - That's what we would have done.....but were so curious.

[Roy]

Not sure if the little restaurant inside h-mart has changed ownership, but they now have self-served prepared foods section, charged by the pound. Unfortunately it's $6.99 per pound. That's quite expensive.