Did a new H Mart already open in Ellicott City?
I had posted about the H Mart that is replacing the Shopper's Food Warehouse on Rte 40. A reader today commented that the store is open. Already serving up samples!!
This is on Rte 40 at Rte 29. The address is Ridge Road. It's across Rte 40 from the longtime Lotte supermarket.
I'll be interested to see the new store and how it affects the area. The new Lotte in Catonsville is beautiful, and I feel like it made the existing H Mart in Catonsville up its game with renovations. I wonder if the new H Mart in Ellicott City is enough to cause changes at the Lotte.
HowChow needs to go on a holiday hiatus, but I will check out the H Mart right after New Year's. Also, has anyone heard about a Chinese company taking over the Lotte shopping center and maybe changing the stores there? There was a comment about that, but I haven't heard any details or seen any other mention.
20 comments:
I did see the sign at H Mart that it would open on 12/23. I guess it did!
Yes, it opened yesterday at 10 am. I went by this afternoon. The parking lot was jammed. Hard to believe there is another Asian market across the street. I'll go tomorrow as they are open 365 days and Christmas is not my holiday. So glad they are open, not that Catonsville was too far. This is just that much closer.
Thanks for the heads up. I just checked the H Mart website, and they have a page announcing that the Ellicott City location is now open:
http://www.hmart.com/company_new/store_event.asp?loc=llicott
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you, Mrs. HowChow, and Lil' Chow!
It's open, and it's busy! I'm surprised there's enough demand for yet another Korean grocery store off of 40.
The only thing lacking is eateries inside. It looks bigger and sleeker than Lotte in Ellicott City (which also got a facelift recently). There's supposed to be a pharmacy, travel agency, and a bakery coming soon though. It looks like there was still some construction going on inside (nothing major). Because of all of the people giving out samples, I'd say this store is more on par with the Northern VA Korean grocery stores and makes it a little better than the Lotte's and HMart already around here.
Merry Christmas!
This Towson transplant from EC could use *just one* big Asian grocery store up here. Real greedy of you guys to have 5 along Rt. 40.
I stopped in opening day while making a beer run. Guys at the liquor store told me there was a long line outside HMart by 8:30 despite a 10:00 opening. It was a zoo inside. I picked up some sliced short ribs, but returned them when I saw that every register was 10-deep. It was a madhouse of people with full grocery carts.
It's laid out almost exactly like the old Shoppers, the aisles haven't even changed. Seemed like better prices than Lotte and the meat quality looked great.
I went back Christmas morning and there were no lines, got my beef. Glad to have such a sweet array
Thinking it would not be buys on Christmas Day, I went yesterday. Wow, was it ever busy. HMart did retain the old SFW shelving. It is pretty much a full regular grocery, along with aisles and aisles of many ethnic foods. What was the old produce area is still being used for produce. That was the area that was most confusing and I had the sense they were still working out placements. Some of the products I routinely buy at the Catonsville location I could not find in EC. The deli counters have lots of kimchis and other specialities. I think once they iron out the kinks it will be am awesome store.
Anyone stop in at Northridge Wine and Spirits while shopping at H-Mart? They are NASTY! If you don't buy something you're interrogated as you leave the store. You just have to ignore them and head out as fast as you can. This is their regular pattern. They have some good prices but I'm not sure I can go back.
Anytime I've shopped at Northridge, the owners have always been very friendly and helpful. Maybe they were just trying to strike up a conversation with you? I think the owners are a group of brothers and they're always there. They're very layed back, friendly guys so I'm surprised you had a bad experience there.
My husband and I ended up checking out the new H Mart when we were driving back home after attempting to go to Niko for lunch in the Normandy Shopping Center this past Saturday. Come to find out Niko is closed. Yelpers had reported it closed about a month ago. There were some others who were peeking in and stated to us that everything is gone. As we were leaving a guy stated that there is a sushi buffet near the H Mart in Catonsville. Anyone have information on that?
Went there today. Nothing special as Asian markets go but it is more convenient then the ones in Catonsville.
I'll second Laura's comment about Northridge - the owners are pleasant, and are always willing to help. Maybe Anonymous caught a bad day...
Went there on Christmas day-- great grocey! I've been a longtime H-Mart devotee, and I can confirm that this branch is a bit more spacious than the one in the Hanoori Town strip. The old store has a bigger seafood counter and the new store evidently lacks a cafe with hot meals (as at the old store), but it offers a banchan "deli counter" and a slightly wider range of groceries.
I second the sentiment that Route 40 is now massively overserved by Asian groceries, however. How many are there now? Five? And opening this massive store diagonally across from the Lotte Market seemed like a cut-throat move...
There is a sushi buffet place next to HMart, on the right side. Couple stores over, there's place called Besetto(?), food court with 3 restaurants. Sushi buffet is in the back.
I know this isn't about Northridge, but I agree. They have been nasty to me. Yet my husband says they're great. Jekyll & Hyde personalities I guess.
Anon from Jan 4 -- I think that you're talking about the H Mart in Catonsville. This is mostly about the new H Mart that just opened in Ellicott City.
The restaurants next to the Catonsville H Mart is great. The Besoto name came down a while ago. It is called Hanoori Town now. There are three restaurants. The one in the back still does sushi, but also some Chinese-Korean dishes including handmade noodles.
If you're interested, check out the recent posts about Hang Ari -- another of the three restaurants -- that talk about Hanoori Town: http://howchow.blogspot.com/search/label/Rest%20-%20Hang%20Ari%20Noodle
I followed this post to check out the new H-mart. It is indeed spacious and I think they are still working through some of the layout challenges. I would definitely come back for grocery in the future. To my delight surprise, the lotte actually remodeled their store as well. It is better organized, cleaner and nicer, probably in response to the new H-mart. Hopefully, competition brings better grocery experience along Rt. 40.
I was there on New Years Day and wow did it not change much from a Shoppers. I don't think they even changed out the signage from Shoppers beige and orange. It's not bad, but I really think not upgrading the fish section was a mistake. It also seems really odd that the bakery is just stacked with random multipacks of stuff. It's not bad, but it is jarring. I think taking more time to upgrade the store would have been a good thing.
So very glad to have a new H Mart just down the street and especially placed next to Northridge. Always incredibly helpful and friendly with a terrific inventory. For sure not rude!
Try leaving Northridge without buying something!
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