Lotte Plaza Market - Tampa — Attraction in Tampa

This was my very first visit to a Lotte Plaza Market. I've never even been to the Orlando location. What an overwhelming experience! Fortunately, I waited well past the grand opening hoopla so that I could explore it without all the lines. It was a good decision. I was lucky enough to find parking towards the back of the lot. The parking lot was still full as of 12/5/2023 at around 2pm. All the lines were manageable, and the food court area was actually calm even though there were still many people there. They have ordering kiosks where you can order from most of the restaurants. Just be aware that bb.q Chicken has it's own ordering line. Just walk up to their window and order. They are pretty popular, so expect to wait about 30 minutes for them to get your order ready. Not a problem. They give you a pager so that you can do your shopping. You can also take that time to grab some milk cream bread, or any bread loaves or bakery items at Tous les Jours. There was plenty of seating available when I was there.

The market itself is packed full of items from all over Asia. I don't think I've ever seen so many frozen Indian foods, snacks, and sweets in one place. There was more than 1 aisle devoted to just India. The tea aisle is a mixture of products from different countries, and they have quite a variety. This grocery store is way larger than I thought it would be. I didn't really get to stick around to see every single aisle, but I did see a couple of things that I will go back for later. This visit was more of an exploration and Korean Fried Chicken mission. Honestly, I can't wait to go back. Everything looked good.

It's located close to the I-75 exit for Bruce B. Downs Blvd. You won't see it right away from the road because it's set back near Home Depot. Just make that turn onto Highwoods Preserve Pkwy to Home Depot. You'll see the Lotte Plaza Market on the left. I thought 2pm on a weekday was a good time to shop and eat there. I don't live in the area. It's a good time for someone who is heading back to Brandon (but not in Friday traffic). The drive home was a breeze. It's totally worth a special trip. Hey, it's way better than driving all the...

Went to this market for the first time. Everything is just thrown all over the place and very disorganized. We looked all over for miso soup seasoning and couldn't find it anywhere. We asked for help 3 times from employees and they kept telling us it's in the back. We kept looking and kept looking to no avail. Finally I went back to the same employee who was talking to the man in the picture and asked them if they could show me where it is and the man in the picture told me no its in the back. I told him we looked 3 times and can't find it and asked if he could show us and the man in the picture said no he won't because he is talking to another employee. I said when can you help and he said...10 minutes. I said...can you find me someone that CAN help me and he said no. I was astounded and frustrated and was just like WOW. I asked him what his name was and he said it was Kim and he was the manager. Unbelievably bad manager!!! How is this man the manager?! We are trying to spend money and you can't take 30 seconds to show us something that we have been looking for for 10 minutes???? If I owned this business this man would be instantly fired because he isn't even willing to take a few seconds to help customers spend money. Go shadow the managers at Publix and take ALOT of notes. When I took his picture he put in a smile to look friendly, but was anything but. The cashiers didn't know what they were doing either. They tried to charge us $30 dollars for oranges...thank goodness we were paying attention. When the cashier couldn't figure out how to properly ring up the oranges she became flustered and then started being very rude and sent us to customer service because she couldn't figure out how to ring up an orange! It's clear the people that are working here are very incompetent. ...

I have been here 4 times since it opened up. Unfortunately my experience keeps getting worse each time. Since opening the price for certain items has gone up by 30% while the quality has dropped. For example I bought mushrooms last time and when I opened them up at home they had MOLD on them. I was at the store last night and checked the mushrooms and many of them had gone bad and had mold over them. The prices are sometimes incorrect. I bought an item that had a price for $6.99, but then at checkout they charged me $8.99. A 20 minute drive was not worth it for $2. The produce is also not fresh at all. The pomegranates were in terrible shape as well as persimmons and they had the audacity to increase the price on both of them since my last visit. Lastly ALL items are extremely expensive and overpriced. If you look around you barely see any Koreans, for good reason. I am from LA and have been in the Tampa area for two years. There are a number of other options in Temple Terrace or Tampa. There are other Korean markets in the area and also Asian Markets that sell Korean items. The kimchi that I bought was almost 50% more expensive than another store that I visit. The only thing that this place offers is a lot of variety. There are certain items that might be harder to find at other places. Besides that you can find all the basics at other places for a lower price. I can see how this place can be a novelty for folks who aren’t familiar with Korean food or markets, but be willing to pay a...