Ruben's Grocery — Attraction in McAllen

A place for real Foodies and professional chefs. The owner once or twice a year travels to quite a few countries finding new or just great prices for international foods wines and spices. Ruben's grocery is known for placing special orders from internationally and at a great price! I cannot praise this restaurant enough! There is quite a few formally and traditionally trained chefs in the valley and many of them come to Ruben's grocery in McAllen or Tokyo Asian market on North 10th Street for all of their International hard to find Foods! In the picture I have made a 24 fluid ounce bold of takatsu beef bone broth and pork belly seared Ramen. Complete with cilantro bean sprouts leeks garlic turmeric freshly cracked peppercorns and a bunch of my secret spices. I used a really high quality rice noodles completely gluten-free that I got from the Tokyo Asian market. One of the best places in the valley to get international foods! And of course local favorites! Got to support family owned small...

I called in an order for 2 pounds of chicharrones. They took my name and quoted, me a price of $6.99 a pound, and said it would be ready at 11:00 A.M. the next day. When I arrived, the order wasn't ready. Nobody seemed to care and nobody apologized for it not being ready. I waited quite a while and finally someone brought the order to me. When I checked out, it rang up for $8.99 a pound rather than the price I was quoted. When I got to the car and opened the bag and looked at it, it was not good. It looked old, certainly not fresh or just cooked. When my daughter and I tasted it, it was awful. It was so bland. It had absolutely no flavor! Many of the pieces were soggy and the meat, what little there was, was rock hard. The fat was not only soggy, but it was tough and very hard to chew. It looked like it was left over from the day before and they threw it back in hot grease and tried to revive it. My dogs enjoyed it though. Needless to say, I won't make a return visit and I can't...

Lots of various and hard to find specilty groceries. Including herbs & nuts, botanials, phytomedicines. Regular goceries can be bought too. My wife was exspecilly interested in their naturopathic products. They have products from all over the world. Semi-busy when we were there but not like you'd think, owner and staff busy helping people but not hecktic, hard to explain. Had a lively buzz, active engaged activity. Had a good vibe but need some patience if you want some personal attention. They make time for every one. I recommend it! Should check it out for yourself to see if it is right for you. Wish I took some pictures. There is a Youtube about the place I watched a...