88 Marketplace

I found out this place through Instagram reels, and was not disappointed when I came to visit. The store felt very similar to malls in China, and everything was clean and organized. The food options here are particularly unique, with everything from claypot to dim sum to sushi. We tried food from the 312 Fish Market, the claypot stall, and the Northeastern Food Stall. The mala beef burrito (麻辣牛肉卷）was definitely the best bang for your buck, but the salmon don had some of the best quality fish I've tasted. The claypot rice got better with time (I enjoyed it more as leftovers than in the initial meal), and the greens were tender and perfect for balancing out the meal. We also stopped at the bakery stall, which offered a fresh selection of bakery classics in addition to some trendy items such as puddings, mousses, and soufflé cakes. The cake was light and fluffy and the egg tarts had an excellent flaky pastry crust. I can't wait to come back and try more stalls! The boba shop downstairs also looked quite promising.

The food court here has food you wouldn’t easily get elsewhere in the Chicago areas like blue crab curry, duck head, duck neck, pig foot noodles and dong bei food—all in one location. The wait time after ordering food was a bit long and the staff had limited English skills. You order through electronic stands. Overall I had good experience because of this place having Chinese groceries, food court and cute home ware stores all in one location.

First time visiting this Asian supermarket near Chinatown. They have a parking lot with plenty of free parking which was a pleasant surprise! Upon entering the building, take the escalator upstairs to access this supermarket. Once you enter the supermarket, stay to the right side and you will find a small food court with four vendors, including a stall serving dim sum. The good: Their varieties of snacks were impressive! The selection of Lays chips and Oreos from overseas was probably the most I've seen, even more than at Chicago's Gangnam Market. The biggest highlight though was they sell Schweppes cream soda. I've never found this cream soda at any supermarket in Chicago or Houston. This soda brings back great memories of my trips to Hong Kong! The bad: The produce. The quality was not great and the prices were much higher than what you'll find at H-Mart and Joong Boo. I recommend visiting to stock up on snacks and cream soda, but pass on the produce.

I've been wanting to make hot and sour soup. Some ingredients are a little hard to find, like tree ears (a type of fungus) and tiger lily buds. 88 Marketplace had several sized packages of both, along with a comprehensive and simply bewildering assortment of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and South Asian foods. Next time I eat dim sum at a Chinese restaurant in Chicago I'm going to wonder if they made their food from scratch or thawed and heated food from this place. There are frozen, dried, packaged, canned and fresh foods. There's meat and seafood. They also had a small selection of cookware and tableware. Off to one side were several food stands preparing hot food to order; things like dim sum, barbecue, pho and baked goods. We stopped for a lunch of soup and dim sum. Cheap and filling. Some items were tastier than others. You order at the counter of your choice, pay and wait for your food to be made, then take it on trays to a table for eat-in or else take-out.