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After much speculation and anticipation, Arizona is finally getting a location of the popular Filipino grocery store, event space and food hall, Seafood City. The massive new store is located at Chandler Fashion Center mall, and is set to open on July 30.
Seafood City got its start in National City, California in 1989. Since then, the company has grown to include nearly 40 locations around the U.S. and in Canada. The new Chandler store brings the chain to Arizona for the first time.
Within the nearly 66,000-square-foot store, customers can expect a large live seafood area, with tanks filled with lobsters, crabs and fish. There are also rectangular, open tables filled with ice and topped with fresh fish, designed to replicate the shopping experience of a Philippine wet market, or a palengke. Once customers select their seafood, store staff will clean, gut and, if customers choose, fry the fish to eat onsite.
Tirion Boan
The store also includes a 10,947-square-foot dining hall with over 300 seats and seven restaurant counters. The massive grocery market doesn’t just stick to Filipino food, though plenty is available. Shoppers will be able to find imported snacks, products, drinks and ingredients from the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and beyond, plus a mix of American staples.
Multiple aisles are entirely filled with different flavors of instant noodles. Others display cooking equipment including traditional clay pots and giant frying pans. There are cases packed with frozen lumpia, freezers full of dumplings and plenty of bright red banana ketchup available as well.
The produce section is loaded with grocery store staples, along with specialty tropical fruits and Asian vegetables. A fresh fruit counter will serve cut fruit and help customers prepare tricky produce. A well-stocked meat department offers options in addition to the fresh seafood, with a whole freezer dedicated to longganisa sausages.
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The Seafood City food hall includes seven restaurants. Crispy Town features whole lechon. -
Slurp Alley serves hot pot with individual burners that keep the soup bubbling at your table. -
At Grill City, workers cook chicken and pork skewers. -
A mixed plate from Grill City includes rice, pancit, adobo and two types of skewers. -
The seafood tanks are surrounded by freezers holding every type of seafood and plenty of meat. -
Seafood City sells ingredients and products from all over Asia. -
Seafood City is located at Chandler Fashion Center mall.
What’s on the menu at the food hall?
The Seafood City food hall is the largest in the chain and includes seven restaurant and bakery counters, all operated in-house. Customers can chow down on Filipino barbecue skewers, baked salmon and crispy pork belly at Grill City.
Slurp Alley offers personal hot pots and noodle soups which are served on individual tableside burners, and dim sum. At Sizzle, dishes sound as good as they look, served on sizzling cast iron skillets. Options include beef bone marrow, ribeye and Sisig served with java rice.
Crispy lechon is the star of the show at Crispy Town, with whole pigs on display at the counter where customers can choose their meat-to-crispy-skin ratio. The counter also serves chicken and crablets in addition to its pork offerings.
For baked options, customers can turn to Bakers Avenue for freshly baked pandesal, ube pastries, brioche, cakes and other sweet treats. Dessert options continue at Yelo Yelo, a stand serving ube and mango shakes, soft serve and the iconic multilayered treat, Halo Halo. Kakanin Korner also offers sweet options, with mochi-like rice cakes made from glutinous rice flour, along with baked bibingka, steamed puto and colorful, layered sapin sapin.
An eighth food counter is scheduled to join the mix, in the seafood section. The upcoming counter will focus mainly on crab.
In addition to the grocery store, seafood tanks and food hall, the new space also includes a social hall. The rentable area comes with a large screen, karaoke and optional in-house catering.
“Our goal has always been to bring people together through food and create a place where everyone feels welcome,” Matt Go, President of Seafood City, said in a news release. “Whether you’re searching for familiar favorites or discovering something completely new, your journey to experiencing Asian flavors starts here at Seafood City.”
The new store will have two entrances, including an exterior door with direct access to the parking lot, and another from inside the mall. The store will welcome its first customers at 9 a.m. on June 30.
Seafood City
3111 W. Chandler Blvd., Suite 04A, Chandler
