I can't believe there aren't any reviews on Yelp yet for Manila Mart, as they have been around for at least 5 years, if not more. Although I think there has been a change in ownership since it first opened.
They are a very small grocery store, specializing in Filipino items, but also carry other Asian groceries and within the last year or two they also started carrying African products. You can get ingredients for Filipino Buko Pandan and Nigerian Egusi soup in the same aisle, how cool is that?
They have shelf-stable, refrigerated and frozen items. To my chagrin, they don't carry baked goods like pandesal or any Filipino desserts like sapin-sapin :( I seem to remember that they used to, but my memory could be playing tricks on me.
So they used to have a restaurant in the basement that sold Filipino food, but that restaurant has closed and the new restaurant in its place sells Caribbean food. It's called Pam Cuisine Caribbean Food (you can see my separate review for Pam Cuisine).
Staff at Manila Mart are nice. I'm always greeted when I enter and I've seen them helping customers carry out their purchases to their car.
For what it is, it serves its purpose, but it's really small, so can get crowded unless you go during non-peak hours.
I like prepared foods and bakery items, so this place isn't for me, but if you're looking for ingredients to make your own Filipino, Asian or African foods from scratch, this place is for you. It has harder to find items that you won't find at mainstream grocery stores and while prices are a bit high, I guess that's the cost of imported goods.
Free parking in the private parking lot to the side of the grocery store. read more