99 Ranch Market — Attraction in Austin

Official Grand Opening is March 10, 2018, so I'm giving this place the benefit of the doubt. Soft open is meant for working out the kinks, but here is my review so far:

MARKET: 4.5 stars BAKERY: 4 stars HOT DELI: 2 stars

Market was clean, organized, and although on the smaller side for an Asian supermarket, had pretty much everything you would need. Layout is a little different than what I'm used to, with all the fresh produce all the way to the left side of the store when you first walk in. Meat/seafood is all the way at the back if the store like normal. Pricing on most items was reasonable.

Bakery had a good selection, with someone constantly bringing out fresh items to restock the empty trays. Most items here were also priced reasonably.

Hot Deli had issues from beginning to end. First, you are supposed to take a ticket from the wheel to reserve your space in line. When we pulled our ticket we were number 42 while the current customer being served was number 22. We stood in line for a good 30+ minutes before it was our turn. When we went to order, we realized what most of the issue was: the lady serving up items didn't speak English. Barely any English, if any. That, and none of the workers seemed to know the menu. (My cousin wanted the "roast pork and rice combo" which was listed as #4 on the Chinese BBQ menu. He kept getting questioning looks and was asked multiple times if he wanted the 2-entree or 3-entree platter, which was on an entirely different menu.) There were at least 5 ladies back there, but only 2 seemed to be working on serving customers, while 1 worked the cash register, another brought out "fresh" dim sum, and the last lady just seemed to be bouncing around "assisting" but actually seemed like she wasn't doing anything productive. The quality of the food was definitely sub-par. The dim sum looked to be previously frozen, as items all had the same uniform appearance to them. If I wanted to pay for frozen dim sum, I would've purchased it from the market. The hot line items were reminiscent of a poorly run Panda Express. The items looked glazed over like they hadn't been stirred or touch all day, even with the massive line of people waiting to get food. The 3 items I got were unimpressive. Orange chicken was dry and seemed to be mostly chunks of fried batter. Black pepper pork was tough. The best part was the side of fried rice, which was really basic. My cousin finally got his roast pork after the one English speaker came out from the kitchen, and his exact words were "I don't know the menu, I just cut the meat." The pork was good, but he never got any extra sauce drizzled on top or on the side like you normally would. Again, not knowing what is on their menu, when the cashier rung us up, she charged for the wrong item. We didn't notice it until after we paid, but as soon as the transaction went through, somehow she realized the error. We were charged $6.99 instead of $8.99. She spent the next 4 minutes going back and forth to the kitchen trying to figure out how to charge us the extra $2. We didn't have cash, even though she repeatedly asked us, so she was trying to find a way to charge $2 on our credit card. Most places would just let you go, admitting it was their error. This lady adamantly wanted to hold up the line even more, but eventually she just put all our food in a bag with a huff and shooed us on our way. Fortunately, prices were reasonable (some dim sum seemed overpriced), but definitely not worth a 30+ minute wait.

The one thing that both the bakery and hot deli could have benefited from was the workers operating on any other level than slow. Nobody seemed to have any sense of urgency or pep in their step. It was painful to watch.

I hope the managers take this feedback to make some adjustments before the official opening. Make sure your servers understand English, because not everyone who goes to eat there will be just one specific type of Asian. Work at a faster pace to accommodate the number of guests who are trying to give you their business. Wait time lost...

I fairly new entrant to the Asian Market scene in Austin. It was a pleasant surprise to have it spring up not far from my house. Its arrival has revitalized the shopping center that was half empty with a never ending churn of Dollar stores. Now you have to fight for parking. So how does it stack up? Its decent. Its not as big as MT Market on North Lamar but it’s a lot bigger (and cleaner) than Hong Kong Supermarket. It has a pretty extensive produce section with all the usual Asian veggies and some American ones. The meat section has a good variety of goods. You can get bones for stock, different cuts you don’t find at HEB. They also have a lot of space devoted to Shabu-Shabu/Hot Pot. Wide selection of thin sliced meats including a fair amount of high end stuff (wagu beef). You can get your sushi on as well. They have a good stock of pre-sliced sushi grade fish as well as roe and other sushi accessories. If you’ve got some bucks to spend on hot pot/sushi at home this is a good place to shop. General seafood is also ok, but I haven’t paid much attention to it. Their dry goods (noodles, sauces, snacks, rice) are also plentiful. Home goods (rice cookers, pots, cleaning supplies) are there but not their strong point. Prices are reasonable, maybe a bit more than MT Market. They do have some “American” goods here and there so you’re not completely lost. Overall I would rate their selection of stuff as good. If I’m pulling out my Chinese cookbook I can certainly find everything I need. If I go Vietnamese/Korean/Indian I would struggle. But there are other markets to get those goods.

Now aside from the grocery store the place also has a take out restaurant, bakery and Bubble (boba) Tea place inside! Food at the restaurant has some Chinese classics you have a hard time finding elsewhere (spicy beef tendon, take out dim sum). Its not fine dining nor is it a bargain price wise but its there and in smells good and goes fast (if you go in the later afternoon they are frequently sold out of stuff). I haven’t tried the bakery yet (to be fair there is a entire dedicated bakery in the same shopping center). The Boba tea place (Fruitealicious) is part of a chain and quite good.

So if your kind of new to Asian stores or want to amuse your friends who are this place is a good “sight” to see and explore all sorts of things they may have never known. You can make a morning of it, then check out some of the other stores in the center.

In summary it’s a good place, not the biggest, not the cheapest, not the fanciest, its middle of the road, get your groceries and more. I’m thrilled its so close by and look forward to...

We have no complaints about 99 Ranch Market itself. Every time we visit, we’re able to find everything we need at reasonable prices, and we’ve always enjoyed shopping here. However, I’m giving one star because of a very unpleasant checkout experience, and unfortunately, this is not the first time. It involves the same cashier: an older Chinese lady with short silver hair. On multiple occasions, her attitude has made us feel disrespected and singled out. Every time we go through her checkout line, she is cold, unfriendly, and responds to our questions in a very impatient and rude manner. We’ve tried to be understanding, assuming her age might make things more difficult, and always smile and stay polite. But an incident two years ago left a deep impression. I was trying to redeem points and was a little slow in pulling out my ID. She became visibly annoyed and even demanded that I raise my ID and hold it up in front of her face. I complied, assuming she had trouble seeing it. But what she said and how she reacted afterward was deeply offensive. I reported the incident to a manager. When she saw me doing that, she kept giving me sideways glances with clear hostility. Since then, I’ve tried to avoid going through her line. Today, my husband happened to end up in her checkout line. When I noticed, he was already unloading items. Again, her expression was sour, and she acted impatient throughout the entire checkout process. We bought four boxes of the same drink, and she asked us to lift up for scanning which was fine. But when we asked for bags, she told us we had to pack it ourselves. My husband, who is always calm and respectful, simply asked why we had to pack our own items. She said she was busy and that there were customers waiting behind us, but we turned around and saw there was absolutely no one in line. Her reason made no sense. Still, she insisted that she simply doesn’t offer bagging service. My husband said, “It’s okay if you don’t bag, but could you please be a little more polite?” Her response: “This is just how I am.” Her tone was confrontational and extremely rude, just like two years ago. I was shocked and angry. I seriously question how a large, reputable supermarket like 99 Ranch continues to employ someone who repeatedly treats customers like this. I am sure we are not the only ones who have been treated this way. I still like 99 Ranch and appreciate what the store offers. But the customer service, especially from this particular cashier has been incredibly disappointing. What should have been a pleasant shopping trip turned into a day...