Sandyi Oriental Market (샌디마켓) — Local services in Tucson

This is a wonderful little place! They manage to offer a wide array of products for such a little shop. There's something for everyone, even if you've never tried Korean or Japanese food. There's more Korean than Japanese food, but just by a margin. You've got everything from supplies to make homemade kimchi to cute little snack kits from Japan. I highly recommend the rice cakes coated in coconut that you'll find in the refrigerated area, near the mochi (which is great too.) As a side note, if you have a soy allergy or intolerance, this is a great place to shop. If I go to Safeway, for example, and want to buy some packaged treats, almost every single one will have soy in some form. Whereas the packaged treats at Sandyi rarely had soy - actually, I haven't found any yet that did. The owners are super nice, lovely people. It seems to be family-owned and it's always great to support small, local family-owned businesses. They play a vital role in our community.

The one single negative I have, unfortunately, is that the bathrooms aren't disability-accessible. I use a cane and didn't struggle too much, but if you have a walker, wheelchair, forearm crutches, or the like, you'll most likely want to use the restroom at another nearby location. The bathroom is marked as being for employees, so that might be some of the reason for that, and I appreciate that they let me use it. I won't deduct a star for it, just a word of caution for any other disabled folks! The store itself would be a tight fit for a wheelchair but you could probably manage it with help. It's such a small space, you'll want to be aware of that.

But overall, this is an awesome market and I'll be visiting it again many times over. They even have a book area, mostly Japanese from what I could...

This place is the Pinnacle of Korean markets. I am an avid Asian market consumer and I typically like to purchase a majority of the Korean products over a lot of the other products simply because they are higher quality than some of the other regional exports. I have found other places claiming to be a Korean market and when you go in more than 2/3 of the products are Chinese products and there may be a few Korean products in there. It's easy to find Chinese products but it is difficult to find good Korean products even in a limited selection. Not this place. All of the products are significantly less expensive than I am accustomed to. Any of these products purchased at any other store would be much higher in price. They have the greatest variety of every category of food product you can imagine as well as the most numerous selection of soju. There are more Korean products in this store than all of the Asian markets I have been to in every state I have lived. This is less than 3 mi from my home. When anyone says Walmart will help you save money and live better they have obviously never shopped here. This is my new favorite store in Tucson. A true honor to any customer and consumer of...

The lady that runs it is ALWAYS super nice! She's patient, gives good recommendations, and when I bring my youngest with me she talks with him and listens to his little stories happily. I LOVE coming here and am so happy it's close to us. Whenever my stomach is upset, the rice cakes/moon pops are one of the few things that help, and I love the little tea cakes too. They even have these super creamy ice cream pops, and ice cream bars in a wafer with either machi flavoring or red bean paste. It sounded weird to eat red bean paste with ice cream, but I'm so happy I tried it!

Edit to update five years later: I STILL love this place. Theyre still always super nice, and the bbq pork bao is AMAZING. I had a bunch of teeth removed so eating has been difficult, but it has a wonderful bread texture and the filling is perfectly measured and delicious, and it's so perfectly soft to eat without being soggy at all! I...