Lotte Plaza Market - Richmond

I love coming here for food from Korea, Thailand, Latin and Central America and the middle east. I love the prepared foods from Korea and the food court. The selection of fresh fruits and vegetables is top not and the store is very clean and has wide aisles. If you’re like me, and you like a variety of ethnic food, from different places, in Asia, and beyond, this is definitely the place to visit! They have an excellent, frozen section, meat selection, seafood selection, as well as non-perishable items. I got fresh passionfruit for the first time and sweet and juicy lychees.

I’ve always been curious about this grocery store and had never been to one before, so walking in was a bit overwhelming at first. There were so many new and unique items, things you wouldn’t normally expect to find, which made the experience really interesting. I even found a product I had been looking for for a long time and was excited to finally be able to try it. The store has a food court, live fish, and a wide variety of cultural foods and ingredients that you wouldn’t easily find elsewhere. Even though I wanted to buy so many things, I ultimately left with these ice cream bars that have a crunchy shell on the outside and are shaped like the fruit flavor. I chose mandarin, but I also saw grape, lime, mango, and strawberry. Overall, it was definitely worth the visit and I’d absolutely go back.

What a fun grocery shopping experience! Lots of fresh Asian fruits and veggies and an awesome seafood section. Lots of foreign snacks (ice creams and chips were fun to explore!) My favorite part was the food court. The food was fantastic. I ordered one item from each restaurant: Korean fried chicken, honey lemonade (if you like honey forward flavor, this one is for you), pineapple sugarcane juice (fabulous), sushi, spicy seafood udon, bibimbap, and pork bahn mis(one pork belly and the other regular pork which was my favorite). Everything was outstanding (except the bibimbap which was bit flavorless). The bakery was a wonderful experience. The pastries were not overly sweet, but were soft, airy, and satisfying. The only negatives were the macarons. The lavender blueberry tasted like soap and the rose tasted like a literal petal. Too much rose water was used. Otherwise the other 4 pastries I got tasted fabulous.

This store has started charging 5 cents for plastic bags, claiming it is "in accordance with the City of Richmond ordinance." However, this location is not within the City of Richmond—it is in Henrico County, where that ordinance does not apply. When I asked the front desk about this, I was told they can make any decision they want and charge for bags if they choose. While that may be true, it feels misleading to justify the charge by citing a law that does not apply to this location. This comes across as shady and takes advantage of customers who may not know the actual local regulations. If the store wants to charge for bags, they should be transparent about it rather than blaming a non-applicable law as the 5 cents in this location are not going to the City, but rather the owners.

I’m so happy the west end finally has a Lotte. This one has great produce prices. It also has a bakery and food court. And yes, they have a great selection of rice wine too. Seasonal fruits, like persimmons, were awesome this fall. We use to go to Lotte stores in Northern Va all the time when we lived there. Nice to have one in Richmond now. If you’ve never been to an Asian grocery store, this would be a great first one to visit.

Great place! The "food court" has a wonderful variety of Asian cuisine. The market has awesome produce and Asian items not easily found. Prices are a bit high but the quality, selection and accessibility is worth it!

This Asian market was recommended to Aspire friend. Our friend said you could do a lot of normal grocery shopping there as well as get Asian specialty items. Not exactly accurate. It is 90% Asian foods with very little normal grocery store food. With that said it's a great market for a specialty market. They've got a large assortment of produce as well as a food court with some pretty nice restaurants. They carry a large assortment of fish as you would expect for an Asian market. Pricing was a tad bit higher than normal but I can completely understand why. The market had a vast assortment it's not small by any means. Very clean because it's new at this point. Highly recommend at least going and checking it out period