Oriental Food Store — Attraction in Davenport

Lee is the man who owns this store. He is Vietnamese. After he bought out the previous Korean owners, he moved it from Iowa St. to (basically) across from the River Bandits ball park off Centennial Bridge. He and his wife really expanded from the small grocery store. The 2nd aisle from the left is mainly Korean items. He has lots of other Asian foods as well. He goes to Chicago twice a week--one trip focuses on meats, and the other for other items-- so you know the supplies tend to be plentiful and fresh. He gets live blue crab at certain periods! Radishes, Asian Sweet potato, cabbages, taro root, etc. Wednesday-Friday is a good day to go for Chicago made kimchi, but they might be out by Friday! Great place to go if you need soup bones to make stock (better price than the local processor/meat market).

He has a restaurant/cafe open on the weekends "Pho 9999". Try their Pho (homemade until they run out of stock), or their pork chop dish--YUM! On Fridays (about 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.) Lee's family makes A LOT of Bahn mi sandwiches--Grilled pork or Pork Belly. He also sells the Bahn Mi bread (I understand he bought an oven and is supplying the local restaurants and he sells the sliced carrot & radish topping, for it, in the refrigerator on the right side. Friday is also a good day to get various Asian Bakery items.

He expanded to make and sell various Boba Tea flavors as well.

And he has an Asian beauty supply store across the street. If he doesn't have what you are looking for, TALK TO LEE--he is willing to get it IF you show him what it is. My mom wanted some specific items he did not have in stock (one example was WILD sesame oil). He gave me his catalogs to look through, and I found it and he and Mom arranged for him to get it for her. (She did have to buy the whole box, but she really wanted it!).

I and my family moved from Davenport to Burlington a few years ago, but we make a point of going there 2-4 times a year--especially on Friday to get fresh Kimchi and Bahn Mi sandwiches. They still remember us.

His wife, children when not in school, parents, cousins, etc. all work there. Lee and his children are best at English, then his wife, and on down. He had two young daughters when we started going there. One is in college or just graduated, and they had two sons as well. All very smart!

Layout from walking in (from memory--it has been 3 months):

Right in front of you will be seasonal fruits, Chicago bakery and fresh made meats and other snacks. To your right a freezer with ice cream products and a drink cooler.

Directly left--stacked 20lbs and plus bags of various rices: sushi, brown, jasmine, sweet.

FRONT LEFT WALL: Tables for the cafe on the weekend.

Far left aisle, various bowls/plates, cookware, utensils, ramen noodles

2nd from left aisle: Korean food supplies.

(Boxes of the canned drinks, and ramen noodles are available to buy in bulk in the back of the two aisle on the left.).

3rd and 4th from left (aka THE MIDDLE AISLES): various beans and plain noodles, coffees, and more the Vietnamese/Thai/Philipino foods.

Shelf Aisle from the right will have various oils and condiments: soy sauce, chili oils, sesame oils, etc. with fresh radishes, cabbages, taro roots, potatoes, etc. Next is long commercial chest freezer with meats--more the prepared ones for Korean Ribs, barbecue etc.

Far right wall has the upright coolers for refrigerated fresh foods such as bean sprouts, kimchis, cilantro, spinach, etc. Also has some fresh meats like liver and such. ALSO, has upright freezer for meat filled dumplings, Korean rice cakes, etc. I think some Korea fish.

BACK FREEZER and COOLER: FROZEN MEATS. Pork Belly; beef and pork bones for soup. Different fish. Jars of Korean Salted shrimp (the size of rice grains), and more.

ORDER BOBA TEA AT...

One of my favorite places to shop. They have new things to try every time I stop by, as well as consistent staples that I keep coming back for. I have friends who come in just to stock up on the wide variety of noodles they have on the far left side of the store, way better than your average grocery store ramen, and I love the more unusual seafood in the freezer section. It's the only place I know in town where I can get a whole octopus or prawns the size of my hand. Great place for congoers to stock up on snacks like mochi, ramune, pocky, dried squid, and bean buns during Anime-Zing for half the price of buying them at the vendor hall. And speaking of bean buns, if you happen to be there when they have their 'bean creme buns' in stock, GRAB SOME. The cream inside is like a cross between whipped cream and honey butter, mildly sweet and sooo fluffy. When they have them they sell out pretty fast. And a good tip for shopping I wish someone would've told me; the google translate app has a mode that will automatically detect the language of whatever you point the camera at and translate it for you. This is excellent for reading labels, as you don't have to know what the base language is or have the kanji available on your keyboard. It opens up a lot of...

oh my God this place is filthy. And I don't mean it doesn't say bad things to small businesses. I went in there to get a drink, from the cooler which was down When I opened the door, I had a bad Smell of enclosure that's been for a while shut down. there was mold also the smell of it, you could've smelled it, and it was around the fan of the cooler and I'm sure they're not throwing it out and she didn't even seem like the care when I even asked her that her cooler was down and there was mold all over the place. I'm sure that they don't throw that stuff away. They keep selling it. It's so sad sanitation Is so much needed in there. I know we all get busy and behind, but you can put time after your clothes or before work or take a day to clean up the environment. You're working in this is where our food gets Made in that environment imagine drinking something that was turned off for a couple days or so or God knows how long even if it's one day and there's mold and you know your can has mold on it growing. God bless people that go there and eat and get their drinks. health inspector needs check out this place. I do support small businesses, but they gotta know they have peoples lives on their hands when they don't keep their areas...