Chua A Asia Market

Was able to find most everything I needed for proper street pad thai like I’ve had in Bangkok.
As others have noted, unlike a lot of places (you know who you are T&T), the owner is extremely helpful.
I particularly like many of the ingredients are effectively in bulk, so you’re not forced to buy a giant bunch of thai basil when you need a few leaves, or a bag full of peppers.
One thing I forgot to buy was banana blossoms, so not sure if they carry those. The green papaya was excellent and the only place I have ever seen actual Thai Green Papaya (including the place on Granville Island).
Prices are very reasonable, in some cases (magrut or keffir limes), about half what they can be other places.
As the fresh stuff can be hit and miss since it gets shipped from Thailand, be sure to call ahead if you are going for something specific to make sure they have it.
There is street parking right out front. Yes, it’s a «scary» neighbourhood, but it’s not that bad, especially when we were there on a Saturday morning.

There are a lot of ingredients from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc. staffs are friendly. The bad thing is the location. There are many homeless guys selling drugs near by. Its quite scary.

Great place to pick up fresh and packaged grocery items from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and elsewhere in SE Asia. For example, you can get frozen locally made tempeh, different types of fresh chillis and cooking ingredients, snacks, sauces and so on. If you enjoy cooking SE Asian, shop here. The owner is very friendly, too, and if you ask about missing items he can usually tell you when they will next be in stock.

My trip to Southeast Asia last year ignited a love of Thai cuisine and cooking, and just recently I was on a quest to find a decent Southeast Asian grocery store when I discovered Asia Market. Husband and I were on our way downtown for dinner one particular Saturday when I asked to stop in to pick up some ingredients for a recipe I had been wanting to make. The area is horrible, I’m not going to sugar coat it. I had my husband wait in the car up the street while I ran in. There were people hanging around the front of the store selling items, but I didn’t get hassled by anybody. It’s not a place you would feel safe at night time, but the daytime is better.
The interior of the store is spacious, clean, and modestly stocked. I wish I had more time to browse the aisles, but I had arrived literally 5 minutes before store closing and we had dinner reservations, so I only had time to look for what I needed. The Thai lady working at the check-​out (the only employee I saw in the store) was very kind and offered to help me find the various types of dark and sweet Thai soy sauce I needed for my recipe. Prices for the bottles were very reasonable, less than $ 4 each — and they were large bottles too. I also noticed they sold some items like noodles and sauces for cheaper prices than what you would see at the bigger chain Asian grocery stores. In the end I purchased 3 tall bottles of sauce and a jar of tamarind paste for my homemade pad thai — all for about $ 10. Sweet!
Despite the shady location, I loved the store and would definitely come back. It was authentically Thai and brought back wonderful memories of my trip last year. I only wish the location was a bit closer to home (and in a better neighborhood), but the journey was worth it. I’ve definitely found my go-​to store for Southeast Asian ingredients.

After leaving empty-​handed and overwhelmed from two other southeast asian grocery stores (which will not be named here), we stepped into this little hidden gem of a grocery store.
Immediately, we are greeted with a modest, clean space with nice, neat aisles, which is more than can be said about the other two places we went to. Anyway, onward with this review…
We bumbled in with a cookbook of Thai recipes in hand and managed to find most of our fresh ingredients (galangal, lemongrass, baby eggplant, thai basil, finger root, fresh chilis etc…) and the rest of our dry ingredients with assistance from a friendly staff member, Deer (pronounced as Dia, I think). She went as far as to lead us around the store with our cookbook, point out where everything was, even made suggestions as to which products were preferred in thailand and what she would personally use in her own cooking!
A note about fresh ingredients: Deer told us that fresh ingredients are generally arrive on Mondays, so that would probably be the best time to visit for the most choice. We visited on Saturday night and some things were sold out (hence, one lost star)
All in all, this will definitely be our go-​to place when the mood strikes to cook some authentic thai food!!!

The store was rather poorly lit and felt like a warehouse, but it had a lot of fresh Southeast Asian herbs and spices. I found fresh galangal, kaffir lime leaves, kaffir limes, Thai basil, and green Thai chilis. The owner was also very nice and helpful.
The area is iffy so be careful, but as long as you go during the day you should be fine.

Was around the neighbourhood and my significant other needed some supplies, that to make some home-​made broth for her phở. We already passed up a few other locations and I remembered this place, I haven’t been here in years, so I didn’t know what to expect. Most people who live in the Lower Mainland might not come to this place, as it literally is in the (as my friend use to say) «armpit» of Canada. From the amount of beggers, crack whores, drug dealers, drug takers, let’s just say this is not the rainbow and unicorns neighbourhood of town. I found parking a block up, and once we exited the car, a person asked us if we had any change… yes… this is a stones throw away from Hastings and Main!
We entered, and the guy working here was unloading, and putting things away, as well as setting up the front display of food items, and my dear went off in her world to look for items. This place is spacious, no overloading of shelves, no narrow aisles, no short store, this place is pretty wide, and pretty long. We started on the left side, walking down their open refrigerated section, you see very clean, and packaged vegetables. Anything from Thai chili’s, Thai basil, mini limes, coriander, green onions, bean sprouts, just to name a few, everything had their own packaging where you could see what your buying, and everything was, as I said, clean! Through the aisles we noticed stuff like shrimp paste, sections of Sriracha sauce, fish sauce, cane sugar, brown sugar, cans of bamboo, powdered soup broth for your favorite phở dishes, laksa sauces, a variety of different rice noodles, even labelled by the width of the noodle.
This place is a specialty store, and one I wouldn’t hesitate on sending anyone too, sure you have to actually get out of your car, or go down there with public transit, and open your eyes to a different part of society. Sometimes part of the journey of making your dish at home, is the journey less spoken, that of where the hell you got your ingredients. The words, «you can’t believe where I went to get this stuff» may come out of your mouth the next time you actually decide to prepare a Thai, Viet, Cambodian, Malaysian, Indonesian, etc…, dish… but if your working through some cookbook that is telling you things you need for a particular dish that you have no clue where to get cause your normal supermarket wouldn’t have a clue what it is… you maybe surprised here by finding it.
The one thing we were looking for. which they didn’t have was freshly package phở noodles… as all of the noodles we saw were dry, can’t win them all!

As previous reviewers have already said, this is the place to go if you’re cooking up any Southeast Asian food and can’t find the right ingredient… or at least the fresh version.
Don’t worry about the location — it’s in the heart of the DTES but my wife and I walked in there after work in our suits and such and the street peeps paid us no mind.
The guy in the store was super helpful as we’re new to cooking Thai food. He gave us some excellent pointers and introduced us to a few ingredients that aren’t found in any other store in Vancouver.
Fresh veggies come in every Friday. I’d imagine this is where all the restaurants shop for their exotic Thai herbs so get there early.

Looking to make something Thai, but overwhelmed with an extensive ingredient list?
Look no further than Chua A Asia Market. A spacious store with excellent products including fresh herbs — Galangal, Thai Basil, pureed Lemongrass, Palm Sugar — it’s all here with excellent service. They’re importing a line of authentic curry sauces from Thailand that are to die for, as well as a killer Pad Thai sauce that will have you from pot to plate in 20 minutes.
This is where local chefs shop…

Was in Vancouver over the weekend and had a hankerin’ for some Thai cooking. A quick Google search for «thai ingredients vancouver» yielded Chua A Asia Market located on the ever-​so-​charming East Hastings Street, right near where Main and Hastings meet.
Despite the terrible neighborhood (I’ve never seen so many heroin junkies in one place in my lifetime), the market was well-​lit, staffed by a friendly, elderly lady, and full of all the Thai ingredients I was looking for. Was able to find a lot of things I wasn’t able to find easily in Seattle too — fried rice powder, Thai eggplant, ground bird chilies, for instance — and the prices were quite cheap.
The woman behind the counter readily helped me find things I was looking for, and wished me a happy New Year on my way out. Overall, a really enjoyable experience — if you don’t mind walking through the freaky neighborhood. Will absolutely shop there again!