Eating in H Mart and Super H Mart - 6 Area Locations

[Monica Bhide]

I was at our local Korean Super H store yesterday and boy did that food at the counter smell good! I had no cash on me so could not buy anything there but I was wondering if anyone has tried the counter food and what they thought? (The store takes credit cards but the counter is cash only)

thanks

Monica who is enjoying her kimchi immensely.

[Scott Johnston]

I have had lunch at the Fairfax location twice now. The kimchi (homemade) was great and the hot pot and noodle bowl that I inhaled was fantatstic! The counters were clean and their were many many choices and styles of cooking to be sampled. Free water, Miso and tea were also available.

Monica: Was this the fiarfax location or another

[Monica Bhide]

This is the one in Merrifield.

[Escoffier]

I was at our local Korean Super H store yesterday and boy did that food at the counter smell good! I had no cash on me so could not buy anything there but I was wondering if anyone has tried the counter food and what they thought? (The store takes credit cards but the counter is cash only)

thanks

Monica who is enjoying her kimchi immensely.

Which place did you go to? All of the lunch counter places at Super H take credit cards (in Fairfax anyway). We eat there almost every Saturday (we do our weekly shopping there).

[deangold]

The counter in Wheaton serves up a mighty fine Soeul Long Tang but their hours are unpredictable. A full lunch can e had for $7. Woo Hoo!

[grover]

I was at our local Korean Super H store yesterday and boy did that food at the counter smell good! I had no cash on me so could not buy anything there but I was wondering if anyone has tried the counter food and what they thought? (The store takes credit cards but the counter is cash only)

thanks

Monica who is enjoying her kimchi immensely.

If you are near Han-Ah-Reum in Merrifield, you are actually not far away from Super H on Lee Hwy(10780 Fairfax Blvd. Fairfax, VA 22030 Tel : 800-427-9870).

This Super H is bigger than the one near you and the lunch counter accepts credit cards.

[Monica Bhide]

I have been craving spicy food.. I think I will head there this weekend. Thanks

[grover]

I have been craving spicy food.. I think I will head there this weekend. Thanks

Oh, you should have joined us last night. We had a $20 Tuesday dinner at Light House Tofu (MD location).

However, the lunch counter at Super H has 3 different cusine styles.

1. Korean

2. Chinese

3. Sushi corner (a separate vendor from above)

The sushi corner carries spicy jirash sushi. Of course, Korean/Chinese corner also carries some spicy food.

They are located on your right hand side when you enter the store.

We usually go there around 11:00 AM, eat first and shop. This way, we can avoid the long line in front of the cash registers.

[cheezepowder]

How do you think the Super H counter food compares to the Lotte fast food stands (at Fairfax)? Would you recommend one over the other, such as for particular dishes?

[Escoffier]

How do you think the Super H counter food compares to the Lotte fast food stands (at Fairfax)? Would you recommend one over the other, such as for particular dishes?

Super H has a really good cham-pong and soldier's stew (both at Evergreen). Well worth the trip. Their dolsot bibim bap is also very tasty. The panchan is limited to radish and cabbage kimchi but thats a minor quibble. Grover seems to eat the soon-doo boo a lot and it is nice and spicy (but not quite as good as Lighthouse).

[grover]

Well, I have been Lotte many times before Super H comes up but didn't have chance to eat at Lotte's food court. I used to buy their ready-made soon dooboo or another bahnchans. They were pretty good.

[jparrott]

Speaking of which, I had dol sot bibimbap at Super H Thursday. Yum.

[Escoffier]

Speaking of which, I had dol sot bibimbap at Super H Thursday. Yum.

I agree, Evergreen does a great dolsot bibimbap (equal to Mandu for a bit less).

[DonRocks]

As I left here today, I reminded myself to put in a plug for this little eatery inside the Great Wall Supermarket.

I was in Merrifield today, and mistakenly thought that goodeats had posted about the eatery inside of Super H, so I wound up at the (primarily Korean) food counter there.

You pay at the register, and then wait while some very serious cooks prepare your food - there are about twenty dishes to choose from. There are two long counters where you can eat, but I ordered mine to go.

I hadn't had Ja Jang Myeon ($4.99) in a couple of years, most recently at Choong Hwa Won. Super H's version is similar in spirit, but has a more sugary-vinegary kick in the black-bean paste. It's a huge plate of food for $4.99, and not all bad (but Choong Hwa Won's is much better). This food counter is worth knowing about.

But the highlight of my visit came while I was waiting for my Ja Jang Myeon to be prepared. I looked around a bit, noticed a sashimi counter where, at some point, I plan to order a Herculean portion for $14.99 and have a carryout lunch feast that will either kill me or make me rich in protein.

Then I looked around some more, and could not believe what I was seeing.

Tucked over in a corner was a Roast Squid cart. An actual cart on wheels, about the size of a large kitchen range, that said "Roast Squid" and had Korean letters and cartoon drawings of squids. This was about the damndest thing I'd ever seen, and I wouldn't have been that much more surprised if a spaceship had landed from Mars.

Behind the cart, going about his business, was an older gentleman. I ordered a Roast Squid ($2.99), and he opened up a plastic tub, removed what was apparently pressed, desiccated squid, and dropped it right down into a slot in the cart! It was like a piece of paper disappearing into a fax machine. A few moments later, the now-roasted squid came out of another crack. The gentleman wrapped it in foil, put that in plastic, handed it to me, and I was on my way.

And it was tasty, too. Mild, chewy as shoe leather, warm, and looking like a flattened rectangle of hash browns. If you find yourself at the blighted intersection of Gallows Road and Lee Highway, and want to remove yourself as far away as possible, as fast as possible, coming into Super H and finding the Roast Squid cart will transport you so far away that you won't believe you're in America.

Worth the trip!

Cheers,

Rocks.

[Sthitch]

I was in Merrifield today, and mistakenly thought that goodeats had posted about the eatery inside of Super H

Rocks, not to nitpick, but isn't this just a plain old everyday H-Mart? It might have a Super squid roaster, but I don't think that makes it a Super H.

[vickie]

I go there almost every Wednesday and order the Udon Noodle Soup. It is delicious and I feel like I am eating really healthy. It comes with a side of pickled radish and kimchee, for $6, you can't beat it.

[zoramargolis]

Rocks, not to nitpick, but isn't this just a plain old everyday H-Mart? It might have a Super squid roaster, but I don't think that makes it a Super H.

The Super H is in Fairfax and has more food stalls than the H Mart in Merrifield. I usually end up at H Mart, because it is closer to home. But for a while there, I was addicted to that squid jerky Rocks mentioned. That H Mart is usually my go-to place for duck legs, but they didn't have any when I was last there, two weeks ago.

[Kibbee Nayee]

Had the bulgogi and the meat dumplings today at the Merrifield H Mart. Also had the roasted squid with seaweed. Pretty outstanding feast for under $20. If you want a drink, they point to the vending machine with $1 bottles of Coke products.

Across the back isle is some first-rate Korean sushi and sashimi to go. The large tub of sashimi was $19.99 and it looked as good and as fresh as anything I've seen at the Korean sushi restaurants in northern Virginia.

Maybe the mark of this place's quality and attraction was the guy I sat down next to at the counter. He was formerly in the Navy and stationed in Japan and Korea. He lives in DC and comes out here every weekend for his Saturday lunch. From our conversation, he knows his stuff and he likes this place a lot.

Both this guy and another knowledgeable person on the other side of me raved about a spicy seafood soup that can be had here, but at very few other places for whatever reason. Anyone know what this dish is? A quick tiptoe through Wikipedia indicates it might be Maeuntang, and if so, any experts on Korean food care to comment?

[Escoffier]

Both this guy and another knowledgeable person on the other side of me raved about a spicy seafood soup that can be had here, but at very few other places for whatever reason. Anyone know what this dish is? A quick tiptoe through Wikipedia indicates it might be Maeuntang, and if so, any experts on Korean food care to comment?

Great stuff! A spicy with red chili powder fish soup. A second cousin to Haemul or seafood stew. Maeuntang is generally one type of fish (pollack or croaker or cod, usually) and every part of the fish is cooked with cabbage and scallions. Haemul is a mixture of (again usually) squid, octopus, scallops, shrimp and any other fish pieces that might be hanging around. Instead of cabbage and scallions, it has noodles, some onion, miscellaneous green thingies (I've been unable to identify the specific greenery and Grover won't tell me what it is). The prize in Haemul is the head-on shrimp which I always save until last. Both Maeuntang and Haemul get their spicy kick from red chili pepper powder.

[vickie]

Great stuff! A spicy with red chili powder fish soup. A second cousin to Haemul or seafood stew. Maeuntang is generally one type of fish (pollack or croaker or cod, usually) and every part of the fish is cooked with cabbage and scallions. Haemul is a mixture of (again usually) squid, octopus, scallops, shrimp and any other fish pieces that might be hanging around. Instead of cabbage and scallions, it has noodles, some onion, miscellaneous green thingies (I've been unable to identify the specific greenery and Grover won't tell me what it is). The prize in Haemul is the head-on shrimp which I always save until last. Both Maeuntang and Haemul get their spicy kick from red pepper powder.

I've had a spicy soup there, but I thought it was beef. No clue what it was, it just tasted good.

[Escoffier]

I've had a spicy soup there, but I thought it was beef. No clue what it was, it just tasted good.

You had exactly that, you had spicy beef soup (Yukaejang), another of my favorites. A lot of Korean soups are either flavored with red chili powder or kimchi (which also has red chili powder...detect a trend here?)

[grover]

Both this guy and another knowledgeable person on the other side of me raved about a spicy seafood soup that can be had here, but at very few other places for whatever reason. Anyone know what this dish is? A quick tiptoe through Wikipedia indicates it might be Maeuntang, and if so, any experts on Korean food care to comment?

We went there to find out what the spicy soup Kibee meant. There are three different spicy soups: Menu #1 Spicy beef Soup, Menu #4 Soon Dooboo (Spicy tofu and seafood soup) and Menu #11/12 Jjam Pong (Chinese style spicy seafood noodle soup - #12 has extra seafood). If they didn't changed the menu, it is definitely not a Maeuntang. Anyway, these are very common in any Korean restaurant. We paid a little over $20 and the food was very delicious.

[Escoffier]

To echo a bit of what Grover said; I had the spicy beef soup which I found a bit strange. Rather then shredded beef, there were three or four small pieces of beef cut into roughly 3 inch long strips. While they were tender, the soup didn't really have any overall hint of beef in the broth. Now this could be the difference in cooks between the H-Mart food court and the food court at Super-H. At Super-H the beef is shredded and there seems to be more of it. The broth itself was tasty but not quite as spicy as what I'm used to. There also seemed to be an overabundance of bean sprouts. After looking at the menu, there was nothing on the menu that you can't find at other Korean restaurants so I'm not sure what they were referring to. You can get jjampong at a number of Korean restaurants.

[StephenB]

I think I had #11, which was a noodle concoction, satisfyingly spicy, but the few shrimp in it were lost. The beef and tofu dishes came with rice. We got 4 orders of kimchi for the 3 of us -- a zen alignment. I intend to go back to explore the other options.

Wait a second -- maybe I had #12.

They sell humongous clams in the seafood section -- 3 for $1. I got a package of the somewhat smaller topnecks, still nicely sized.

[goodeats]

There is new Korean Fried Chicken lunch counter in the Fairfax Super H Mart and by now, I have forgotten the name. It starts with a "T" and is something like "Torone." They offer the garlic Soy Sauce, Spicy and one other flavor. Since I went at 8:30am, they weren't exactly open, but definitely calls for a trip for a taste test.

[Escoffier]

There is new Korean Fried Chicken lunch counter in the Fairfax Super H Mart and by now, I have forgotten the name. It starts with a "T" and is something like "Torone." They offer the garlic Soy Sauce, Spicy and one other flavor. Since I went at 8:30am, they weren't exactly open, but definitely calls for a trip for a taste test.

They have great spicy fried chicken. When we want it for lunch, we call ahead and when we get there it's ready after a short wait. Like all the other Korean fried chicken places (KFC?), they fix chicken to order.