Dragon Star Oriental Foods — Attraction in Saint Paul

This store has a lot to offer -- there is a wide variety of fresh, good-looking produce, meat and fish products, and ingredients from a variety of cuisine including Phillipino and Latin American. It is easy to drive to after grocery shopping for staples (close to Target, Cub, and Aldi on University), and parking is ample. As someone who spends a lot of time cooking various Asian cuisine at home, I was delighted to find this store.

Now, I debated for a while on posting this review because as you can see, I only rated it two stars. The reason why is because, on my second trip to Dragon Star, I was approached by the very friendly manager, Jack. He helped me find some of the ingredients I was looking for and struck up what I thought was a friendly conversation. That is, until he asked me some strange questions like "Where do you work?" and "How often do you work?" "Where do you live?" I started to feel really weird about it, I'm glad I didn't give any specific locations. I told him that it was nice to meet him and that it was time for me to get going, then he asked me out. To his credit, he did not push me further when I declined, but that interaction still left a bad taste in my mouth. I just wanted to go to the store and stock my pantry with some of my favorite ingredients. I thought the interaction was going to be a friendly customer-employee conversation. Unfortunately, after this interaction, I no longer feel comfortable going to Dragon Star and will have to find another store to find my specialty ingredients. I don't want this guy to lose his job, but I think other young women should be aware that this is a possibility when going...

This Asian grocery store is filled with an abundance of vegetables, ingredients from other countries (mainly Asia) but you will find many different types of ethnic spices, foods ingredients and more. This grocery store has made huge improvements from just the past 7 years. The mochi donut and Korean hot dog shops in here are great but is on the pricier side.

The aisles are easy to navigate through. Signs are above and are readable. If it's your first time here, really indulge yourself throughout the entire store as you can experience a wide range of different types of foods, kitchenware and snacks. Products are stocked so it won't be hard to find an empty shelf. If you're looking for something specific, it will take some time. There are plenty of meats and variety of meats with different cuts as well. The variety of seafood selections is a lot better than your chain stores. So, I would definitely look here for different types of seafood compared to your known chain stores.

No grocery store is perfect. Parking is limited and also very tight. If you have a big truck, it will be difficult to navigate through. There are handicap spots.

Employees are nice and helpful. Don't expect them to know where something is if it's hard for you to explain. so TAKE A PICTURE of that certain product and odds are they can guide you to the correct location.

Overall, this grocery store has been a part of this community for a VERY long time. We come here to get the ingredients, kitchenware, snacks, sauces, etc to stock. Would highly suggest coming here since the parking isn't as bad...

I like coming here and they have a good selection, and overall it’s a good vibe. However, I can’t get over the amount of expired product being sold. I have bought multiple expired items here accidentally and I don’t think they do returns. (Most often I find expired beverages in the beverage cooler, sometimes being sold at a high discount!! So I think they are aware it’s expired but keep it on the shelf anyway which is disgusting). The cleanliness of the store is also pretty rough, it’s really quite dirty in there.

I work at a grocery store in customer service so I think I’m used to us spoiling out expired product and ensuring there is nothing out on the sales floor that could be sold to a customer. I’m appalled that there are multiple products just sitting there expired and now I have to scrutinize everything I pick up instead of just shopping with the faith that they have done their due diligence.

I don’t think they have any intention to remove expired goods from the shelves so I would just say if you’re going to shop here do so with caution. I feel like if they don’t care about selling expired items, they don’t really care about the health and safety of...