24 International Grocery Stores You Should Be Visiting Regularly

Little Asiana

9731 Montgomery Road, Montgomery
Tucked in a small plaza behind a gas station, Little Asiana provides a curated selection of high-quality Korean ingredients in only three aisles. Some items found at this store include canned, frozen and fresh goods. This family-owned market is the definition of “small but mighty.”
Photo: Adam Doty

ASAFO African Market

5150 Camelot Drive, Fairfield
This small Fairfield market sits in a tiny plaza. From produce to beauty products, ASAFO is stacked to the brim with fruits, vegetables, kitchen utensils, snacks, fish and even a small selection of African-inspired clothing.
Photo: Adam Doty

Al-Madina Market & Grill

6 W. Corry St., Corryville
This gem, adjacent to UC’s campus, is staffed by smiling faces and sells Lebanese cuisine with fresh meat and Mediterranian groceries. Cheap but delicious, you can eat as much as your heart (or stomach) desires. They’re best known for their falafel and shawarma.
Photo: Paige Deglow

Saigon Market

119 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine
One of the first Asian grocery stores in Cincinnati was Saigon Market. Beyond the reddish orange exterior at the Findlay Market storefront are tall shelves holding products from Vietnam, Thailand, China and more. The parents of the store’s current owner, Nghiep Ho, immigrated from Vietnam in 1976 and started their business the same year.
Photo: Lauren Moretto

Tokyo Foods

10738 Reading Road, Evendale Located next to Uncle Yip’s Chinese and dim sum restaurant, Tokyo Foods features all the items to make your favorite Asian dishes at home. There are frozen noodles (ramen, udon, etc.), gyoza wrappers, refrigerated sauces, tons of miso, tofu, packaged snacks, Japanese candy, frozen seafood and even a few household items. Also, Uncle Yip’s is a must-try if you’re in the area.
Photo via Google Street View

Happy Asian Mart

355 W. McMillan St., Clifton Heights
This little market may be small, but it's stocked with the essentials including cheap produce and a wide array of imported goods.
Photo via Facebook.com/Happy-Asian-Mart-Cincinnati

Gutierrez Deli

1131 Lee St., Covington
This Hispanic grocery store/restaurant hybrid serves up real deal Latin flavor, offering made-to-order dishes ranging from tacos to Mexican entrees and everything in between. Check their Facebook page for daily specials like fresh tamale Fridays and items featuring mole poblano, a complex chili-chocolate sauce that typically includes about 20 ingredients.
Photo via Facebook/GutierrezDeli

Mi Tierra Supermercado

11625 Chester Road, Glendale
This Mexican supermarket includes a little taqueria. Their tacos include less-Americanized meats like tongue and beef head. Come back on Saturday or Sunday to try something from their weekend menu, like menudo (a traditional Mexican soup that features cow stomach in a red chili pepper broth) or caldo de mariscos, a seafood soup literally overflowing with crab.
Photo via Facebook.com/Mi-Tierra-Supermercado-y-Taqueria

Darou Salam Store

4158 Hamilton Ave., Northside
Next to Northside’s beloved Shake it Records sits Darou Salam, which carries a variety of African groceries like herbs and spices, tea, fresh produce and even beauty supplies, including perfume. Right across the street (in the courtyard of the Northside Tavern at 4163 Hamilton Ave.), there’s a Darou Salam restaurant. Although humble in appearance, this is Cincinnati’s best-kept secret for authentic African food. Darou Salam offers Senegalese cuisine ranging from lamb dibi, which is grilled lamb paired with an onion-mustard sauce, to firir, a fried whole tilapia (yes with the head — but don’t be scared, it’s tasty), and bissap sorrel, Hibiscus juice and Senegalese favorite.
Photo: Adam Doty

La Mexicana Restaurante Cantina & Tienda

642 Monmouth St., Newport
La Mexicana is a market and taqueria in one. And it is home to some of the city’s best tacos: tacos al pastor with deliciously marinated pork shoulder, barbacoa, carne asada, lengua (tongue) and sesos (brains; they wash down perfectly with a cerveza). For vegetarians, wide-ranging fillings include seasoned pumpkin flower, corn truffle, hongos, beans and queso fresco. This inexpensive menu has been known to incite cravings after as little as one visit. Over the past few years, the restaurant has stepped up its game, livening up its former no-frills ambiance while still staying true to its roots.
Photo via La Mexicana/Facebook

Francis International Market

4414 Colerain Ave., Northside
Francis International Market is family-owned and has been around for decades. They have a wide variety of fish and other seafood and a large selection of meats. Shop here for items like oxtail, blue crab, goat meat and lamb, as well as Vietnamese coffee.
Photo: Adam Doty

Jagdeep’s Indian Grocery

270 Ludlow Ave., Clifton
Jagdeep’s Indian Grocery in Clifton’s Gaslight District has a shout out in UC International’s Cultural Handbook for international employees, scholars and students. While the store does receive some business from Americans, they largely serve international students. They have popular spices like turmeric, garam masala and chili powder, along with rice, flour and organic foods. Kalvinder Kaur, whose husband’s family owns the store, says that Jagdeep’s caters to vegetarians.
Photo: Lauren Moretto

Dean’s Mediterranean Imports

108 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine
Dean’s Mediterranean Imports is packed so full of wonderful tastes, smells and textures that it’s hard to fit more than a few folks at a time inside the store’s narrow aisles. Maybe you’ve seen bags of their awesome roasted nuts at bars around town. Maybe you’re a regular patron drawn by the aromatic wall of hard-to-find spices behind the counter. Or heck, maybe you just like dropping by to chat with Dean and his daughters, the charming folks who run this one-of-a-kind gem. Whatever the reason, this Mediterranean shop is the perfect place to pick up Mediterranean spices and Dean’s own unique blends. There’s falafel spice; shawarma spice; a Syrian seven-spice blend; Jamaican, Indian and Pakistani curry; fenugreek; and the list goes on. Buy the spices in whatever amount you need, even itty bitty portions.
Photo via Facebook.com/DeansMediterannean

Maranata Store

1215 Rulison Ave., Price Hill
Price Hill’s burgeoning Guatemalan community offers a taste of Central America at this tienda, which stocks groceries and serves colorful cilantro-infused ceviche, pork pupusas, fried plantains and three-milk cake from its modest restaurant. The Guatemalan-style tamales alone are worth the trip.
Photo: Google Street View

Jungle Jim’s International Market

5440 Dixie Highway, Fairfield; 4450 Eastgate S., Eastgate We’d be remiss to not include Jungle Jim’s on this list. Jungle Jim’s is an amusement park for foodies, and not just because of its kitschy statues and animatronics. This huge store (more than six acres) contains equal parts weekly shoppers — scanning the aisles for super fresh seafood, exotic produce and one of more than 1,500 hot sauces — and visitors, wandering, mouths agape at the wacky décor, likely with a beer in hand from the in-house bar. The Elvis robot monkey is a favorite peculiarity; same goes for the elaborate restroom hidden behind a port-a-potty facade. It’s like the Hogwarts of grocery stores with a killer selection of international eats from more than 70 different countries.
Photo: Hailey Bollinger

India Bazar

4870 Union Centre Pavilion, West Chester
India Bazar has a wide selection of all your cooking basics — atta, rice, lentils, flour and poha — and favorite Indian brands, like Shan. Also shop here for snacks such as gazab dates, Maggi seasoning, Britannia milk rusk and Golden Punjabi cookies.
Photo via Google Maps

CAM International Market

10400 Reading Road, Evendale
The first CAM International Market opened in 1997. Today, there are three locations: a local Cincinnati shop in Evendale, one in Columbus and one in Cleveland. Arguably the largest Asian grocery store in the Tri-State, you could spend hours navigating the shelves. Along with snacks, canned goods, noodles and rice varieties, CAM stocks baked goods, produce and fresh meat and seafood. There’s even a section dedicated to beauty products.
Photo: Lauren Moretto

Burmese Market

3155 Dixie Highway, Erlanger
Burmese Market is a small hidden gem that sells a selection of Burmese, Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian food, including aisles filled with a variety of noodles, rice, sauces and pastas.
Photo via Google Maps

La Canasta

7812 Colerain Ave., White Oak
This store not only has a selection of dry goods, frozen food and fresh products, but they have a small dining area in the back where the employees will serve you authentic Mexican food. Their menu includes tacos, burritos, soups, appetizers and more.
Photo via Google Street View

Halal Market

7755 Tylers Place Blvd., West Chester
Cincinnati’s Muslim community is no stranger to the Halal Market in West Chester. With an international grocery and café in the same building, you can find ingredients from many regions in North Africa and the Middle East. Walk inside and take a left under the archway and you’ll enter the Laziz Café, which offers delicious shawarma. Cut fresh from a turning kebab, the chicken or beef is served hot on pita bread with your choice of toppings. The menu also offers a kofta sandwich (grilled sirloin with onions, parsley, tomatoes, pickles and hummus), and falafel.
Photo via facebook.com/halal-market