Super King Markets

by Mark C.

Super King is anarchy at its finest! First of all, if you haven't been to Super King, you're in for a bit of culture shock. The shoppers are abundant, and come from many, many, many different cultures. Expect to get your shopping cart banged a few times by oblivious old ladies who will not offer an apology. Expect to encounter some interesting aromas from folks who don't believe in a daily shower. Expect to be there for a good while, because the aisles are overcrowded and impossible to navigate at times. Expect to observe some indescribably bad driving in the parking lot (don't drive a nice car down there).  Those are the negatives. The positives include some of the freshest, least expensive produce, fresh nuts, and meats you'll ever come across. The fresh fruit and vegetable section is a veritable United Nations of good stuff. Persian cucumbers for a fraction of what other markets charge. Eggplants, onions, spinach, all colors of bell peppers, melons, mangoes, papayas, all at dirt cheap prices. And unlike Grand Central Market in Downtown LA, the produce at Super King is fresh, not wilted and half-rotten. As for the meat counter, I'll just say that I've never seen fillet mignon sold in slabs at a special sale price of $4.99 per pound anywhere else. When that stuff's on sale, I buy 10 pounds of it at a time and cut it up into steaks or kebab chunks and freeze it. We've served Super King fillet mignon for guests on several occasions and they rave about it.  I believe their beef supplier is Harris Ranch.  By all means, go to Super King.  And take patience and a sense of humor along with you!

by Gina S.

If I had to choose one word that describes Super King Market, I would definitely go with: INTIMIDATING. This is not your normal, run-of-the-mill market. Its like Vallarta on crack. The produce selection is amazing. Its all really fresh and priced incredibly competitive. The butcher carries fresh cuts of your favorite animal flesh and is priced cheap. The rest of the store is ridiculous. They pretty much have everything. Coming on a Tuesday after work, the parking situation wasn't really the issue as the other Yelpers described. However, I'm sure most of the patrons walked there because there was eleventy billion people in the store. Its really hard to maneuver in there. I would like to offer my fellow Yelpers a tip: Make sure you know what you're going there for. If you're just coming to browse, this ain't your store, buddy.

by Jeannie P.

Forget Whole Foods and TJs and the Monterey Park Chinese markets ... thanks to Yelp we've found our Holy Grail of supermarkets.  Fresh and cheap produce, dozens of varieties of olive oil (now I don't have to go to Papa Cristo's to get Lebanese olive oil), cheeses, yogurt, sausages and smoked meats, flat breads, rice and grains.  Decent wine and liquor selection.  A little Chinese fast food place that offers whole roasted chickens plus a couple of pieces of flat bread and a side of lo mein, fried rice or egg rolls for 6.99.  Short lines at the checkout, and you don't have to bag your own stuff.  I'll suffer the crowds gladly.  Plus, you can buy a hookah on your way out.UPDATE:  We had the leg of lamb I got at 2.99/lb for Christmas, and it was marvelous.  Still haven't tried the fresh seafood - and the frozen seafood section's limited - but we'll be having lamb more often now that I've found an affordable source.

by Kristin H.

I do my once a week grocery shopping here, with supplements from Whole Food for Life on Los Feliz Blvd (better meat).  I spend 70% of my time in the produce area and can tell the time of year by what is available there.  Fresh yellow dates, fresh almonds with fuzzy green husks in the late summer, wonderful persimmons in October, the best Persian cucumbers in the spring.  It's an amazing produce department with wonderful staff.  $.99 for 10/lbs of potatoes every couple of weeks, beets for $.50/lb, 5lb of carrots for $1, about 15 kinds of peppers, tomatoes of all types for about $.50/lb, great fresh herbs, garlic, ginger, etc, 7 pounds of yellow onions for $.99.  It's great!  The dairy department has great Lebna and yogurt, the deli is full of wonderful cold cuts and cheese, and oh the meat department!  It's full of Harris Ranch beef, various chicken, pork and a seafood (although if you are looking for much more than salmon, shrimp, tilapia and catfish, you will be disappointed).  Plus they have Armenian coffee, and the medium blend at $3.99/lb gives any coffee shop blend a run for its money.  In a Gaggia grinder and espresso machine it gives a great crema and wonderful flavor.  Big juicy Medjool dates for $3.99/lb, walnuts, raw almonds, an entire nut bar, etc. round out the produce area and make it even more wonderful.  I could go on. . . it has a whole wall of spices, an aisle with many types of olives and pickled veggies, lots of fruit nectars, a whole isle of dry beans, rice, noodles and couscous and another aisle of wonderful jams and sweets.  The bakery has a deli with hot foods, baked goods and fresh orange juice.  I love this store!  I've tried the Altadena SuperKing and it's not worthy of this one..  This is a wonderful, friendly and often CROWDED store, but the crowds know their stuff.  It's worth it.

by Rita N.

Okay. So I still LOVE SK, however, I believe that the lack of employment in Los Angeles has sent a stream of bargain hunters to the store. And since no one is working regular (weekday) hours anymore, there is NO safe time to approach the parking lot. Even the trusty old "go during church hours" no longer works. Even on Sunday mornings, the place is full of heathens! It is a danger zone beyond my comprehension. Don't bother trying to park in the lot until they have some sort of attendant out there creating some sort of order. Find street parking or just walk. I wish to send many of these people back to driving school. My favorite is the person who stops in the middle of the lot, takes up the entire driveway and blocks all moving traffic. I love that. Even better ... I think that everyone's turn signals are broken... you must GUESS which way they will erratically drive (or not).Please Super King! Hire someone to direct the traffic!!! PLEASE. :) I spent a lot of time in eastern Europe growing up and my uncle is a Hungarian butcher. When I first…

by Eugenia B.kat m.Kerri T.Sam D.cyn t.Kristin H.

True, the parking lot is INSANE but who can blame their patrons?!  With great prices in these times, and the wonderful selection of interesting ingredients from all around the world I give them 5 blinking sparkly red stars.  I've found flavorful jars of veggie dips, alllll kinds of olives.  a bazillion different types of cheese, their meat section is very popular and it's practically impossible to navigate that section of the store.  Here's where your trained monkey comes in. Priceless in so many ways, Super King is a hub of little Russian or Persian or Asian grandma's who tell you how to pick the best produce after shoving their way in front of you.  ONe tiny granny taught me how to pick out the best ginger "no, theese wan..theese wan better for you.. that wan no goooood."    I believe her.  She looks like she's 100 years old and if in her shape when I'm here age, I will be grateful for all she taught me.   There are also birds flying through the store that add to the atmosphere.  I hope they don't add to the cooties though.  What they say about the booze here is true.  I bought a GIANT bottle of very nice Vodka here for 25.00!!!The only reason Im giving this place less than 5 stars is because its like a war zone the minute you pull in...The parking lot is insane..but even worse is the cart wars inside the place...prepare to be banged around by rude pushy people....But other than that are you kidding me....this place is Ab-Fab!!!! The produce is amazing.....the price are incredible....and the meat...my God the meat...I take everyone I can convince to go with me and they are always equally shocked at the prices and selection....The steaks , the seafood....oh my...I can fill up my cart with all kinds of tasty wonderful goodies and Ive still never spent more than $80....Thats for rib eyes, Filet, chicken, lamb, fish, jumbo shrimp and all kinds of produce...they have so many choices....and the Puff Pasty...I love love love puff pastry...This place is wonderful....I can't believe anyway still shops at Ralps and gets ripped off when this place exists!!!!LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!Pre-apocalyptic stockpiling hell swarm, anyone?  Getting someone an Xmas gift card for Super King would be kind of a fucked up gift.  On one hand, free groceries!  Whoot!  On the other hand, they have to actually go there to redeem it.Even though I'm the girl who'd rather carry two baskets than try to maneuver around the obstacle course with yet another grocery cart that's too big to properly round the corners, I had an old man actually ram ME with his cart when I was shopping here.  Had I not loudly said "OW" he probably would have just kept pushing till I was pinned against the far wall.  People here sure are focused - on the goods, not on their fellow shoppers.  And for good reason; the shelves are packed with weird delights from around the globe.  Worth a vist for the packaged foods (crackers, cookies, soups, etc.), cheese aisles, shelves of cured meats, yogurt selection, and mexican ice cream (can someone please tell me whether Mamey ice cream is good or not?  I'm intrigued).However, I don't necessarily equate CHEAP FOOD with GOOD FOOD, especially when it comes to produce.  When I was here, the vat of persimmons outside looked rancid, but people were grabbing them by the handfuls anyway because they were cheap.  Not Okay.I shopped here when this store originally opened as a Hughes Market and later when it became a Ralphs and went completely downhill until it closed and remained vacant for several years.  I am so glad the owners of Super King decided to locate their market right here because it is an awesome store at a conveniently short distance from my home. If your grocery shopping includes a lot of ready prepared/heat n eat foods this may not be the right market for you. Or if you're looking for locally grown organic foods, this is not the place. But if you want rock bottom prices on a huge selection of good quality fresh produce, meat, bulk nuts and coffee, cheeses and cured meats from the service deli. Super King is probably your kind of place. It does get crowded here, annoyingly so at times. But, hey, there are good reasons why it's so popular. Most supermarkets have one person working the produce section. Super King has about 20 people just to keep all the produce bins stocked. It's that busy. But even so, you'll almost never have much of a wait when you get to the checkout. There are 14 check stands and they keep as many operating as it takes to avoid long lines when it is busy. You can check out their weekly ad online. They also have special one-day promotions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as described in the ad.Restrictions: This market does not accept manufacturer's coupons. Returns are accepted only for 2 days from purchase and there are no returns on meat or produce. Also, no cash back when you pay with a debit card.The apocalypse is near and every one is  running to Super King to load up on groceries! Or at least that's what it seems like when you step inside and see the massive amount of people. But seriously the way people are fussing around in the produce and deli areas, you would think its the end of the world or something. I went with my dad a few weeks ago to get some groceries and to see the place for myself. Every time I went to get something and run back to the cart I nearly got run over. The only way I safely made it back to the cart was pretending I was Mario. Yes, I had to pretend I was in a video game!It started to get wayy too crowded so I kept running into empty isles. Remember when you were a little kid, and you would go to the super market and you would roam around. Next thing you know you cant find your parents and you start to panic? That's exactly how I felt the entire time. On the plus side, it has tons and tons and tons of stuff and its at a reasonable price. They also have an awesome bakery area with yummy goodies. It truly is something you must experience yourself!I do my once a week grocery shopping here, with supplements from Whole Food for Life on Los Feliz Blvd (better meat).  I spend 70% of my time in the produce area and can tell the time of year by what is available there.  Fresh yellow dates, fresh almonds with fuzzy green husks in the late summer, wonderful persimmons in October, the best Persian cucumbers in the spring.  It's an amazing produce department with wonderful staff.  $.99 for 10/lbs of potatoes every couple of weeks, beets for $.50/lb, 5lb of carrots for $1, about 15 kinds of peppers, tomatoes of all types for about $.50/lb, great fresh herbs, garlic, ginger, etc, 7 pounds of yellow onions for $.99.  It's great!  The dairy department has great Lebna and yogurt, the deli is full of wonderful cold cuts and cheese, and oh the meat department!  It's full of Harris Ranch beef, various chicken, pork and a seafood (although if you are looking for much more than salmon, shrimp, tilapia and catfish, you will be disappointed).  Plus they have Armenian coffee, and the medium blend at $3.99/lb gives any coffee shop blend a run for its money.  In a Gaggia grinder and espresso machine it gives a great crema and wonderful flavor.  Big juicy Medjool dates for $3.99/lb, walnuts, raw almonds, an entire nut bar, etc. round out the produce area and make it even more wonderful.  I could go on. . . it has a whole wall of spices, an aisle with many types of olives and pickled veggies, lots of fruit nectars, a whole isle of dry beans, rice, noodles and couscous and another aisle of wonderful jams and sweets.  The bakery has a deli with hot foods, baked goods and fresh orange juice.  I love this store!  I've tried the Altadena SuperKing and it's not worthy of this one..  This is a wonderful, friendly and often CROWDED store, but the crowds know their stuff.  It's worth it.

by George G.

Okay so it's a bit of a struggle to get here, and once in the market it's packed, but totally worth it.  Fresh produce and fresh seafood. The produce wont go bad after two days in the fridge like when you go to Ralphs.  And it's really cheap. The seafood is mighty tasty and reasonably priced. The meat is also good and they have all the cuts. Sure the cashiers like to give hard stares and all, but I'm sure I'd be the same way if I was working in a crowded hugely packed market for eight hours. But put that aside. Consider the $$ saved...I mean, dang, the veggies here will last 'ya!

by Evania L.

A coworker of mine and a random woman at Starbucks recommended this place to me and OMG . . . I absolutely love it. The produce section is amazing. While I WAS eating strictly organics, because of recent hard times, I've had to go back to eating "regular" produce. No snobbery from me though. It's just how it is. The first time I went in, wasn't sure what I was to expect. Started picking up some product then realized - Hey I need a basket! It's very easy to go overboard and buy lots of yummy fruits and veggies here. I was able to find huge portobello mushrooms (perfect for sandwiches), beautiful eggplants, kale, organic alfalfa sprouts, sweet grapes, gorgeous orange and yellow bell peppers . . . and can go on and on. Picked up Guerro crunchy circle thingies for my parents there. Only 99 cents when normally they go for over $2 in other stores. If you're looking for strictly organics, it's not here. I'm definitely going to use this market as my go-to place for produce. Saving Whole Foods for my precious Kombucha.

by Raffe L.

I went here yesterday for the first time... loved it.  Produce is dirt cheap.  Think about what you assume is cheap.  It's cheaper. The meat section was really good.  They had a nice variety of cuts and types of meat.  Although it was really crowded, the line moved pretty quickly(they had 4 people working).The only downside to this place in the convenience.  I went at three in the afternoon, and it was almost difficult to get around the store with a cart.  I suggest maybe going in the morning, cut down on the headaches.

by Sam D.

I shopped here when this store originally opened as a Hughes Market and later when it became a Ralphs and went completely downhill until it closed and remained vacant for several years.  I am so glad the owners of Super King decided to locate their market right here because it is an awesome store at a conveniently short distance from my home. If your grocery shopping includes a lot of ready prepared/heat n eat foods this may not be the right market for you. Or if you're looking for locally grown organic foods, this is not the place. But if you want rock bottom prices on a huge selection of good quality fresh produce, meat, bulk nuts and coffee, cheeses and cured meats from the service deli. Super King is probably your kind of place. It does get crowded here, annoyingly so at times. But, hey, there are good reasons why it's so popular. Most supermarkets have one person working the produce section. Super King has about 20 people just to keep all the produce bins stocked. It's that busy. But even so, you'll almost never have much of a wait when you get to the checkout. There are 14 check stands and they keep as many operating as it takes to avoid long lines when it is busy. You can check out their weekly ad online. They also have special one-day promotions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as described in the ad.Restrictions: This market does not accept manufacturer's coupons. Returns are accepted only for 2 days from purchase and there are no returns on meat or produce. Also, no cash back when you pay with a debit card.