Joong Boo Market

Would love to recommend this market. Great place to shop for all types of Asian food as well as sea food. They got all the meats in the back and a restaurant with a bunch of soups that are freshly made. The only down is how small the space is when it gets packed. I love the spicy octopus and beef soup is so 🔥 fire. The dumplings in the front are made fresh daily can choose from reg or spicy and sweet ones. 😋 the orange chicken is a must as well.

I am Korean American and I think this place is way more authentic than the H Mart in West Loop. First, you can already tell when you walk into the store that it’s authentic.

I had lunch at the Snack Corner and enjoyed their 설렁탕 and loved the side dishes they gave with the meal. The seating area is small , so I recommend coming early on the weekends or during the weekday.

As for the market itself, I love the variety of products they offer and love the fact they have rice cake as well. The H Mart in West Loop doesn’t have the rice cakes or the pastries.

I would HIGHLY recommend their dumplings as a nice snack to munch on right by the entrance. This place is pretty authentic and I will be a regular.

My only wish is that this place was a bit larger to offer more products.

The Kimchi dumplings at Joong Boong Dumplings shop are absolutely AMAZING!!!! Definitely recommend!!! They are truly some of the best dumplings I ever had - lots of flavor and spice. 👌

I loved the food
Finally I have tried what they eat in the korean drama 😍🤣

Shrimp dumplings are delicious
I recommend you to try the rabokki ( noodles with tteokboki) the best thing that I have tried it is sweet and a little spicy and the tteokboki are fresh and chewy

I didn’t like the stew very much but most of the people there order it

I loved the crepes cake!! Very light and delicious (must try it)

Corn ice cream tasted exactly like corn

Jin ramen contains pork broth, I bought it but didn’t try it

The soft cakes tasted very fluffy and delicious

The onigiri I tried the creamy tuna mayo
It tastes exactly like white rice with tuna and mayo

The kimchi tasted fantastic I liked it.

This is the greatest grocery store in the world. Joong Boo is the purest reason for trying to live longer so you can continue to have the incredible, indelible pleasure of patronizing an absolutely magnificent local business. Shop here.

Great little market offering a variety of Asian grocery staples and dry goods, a very reasonably priced tiny diner (Snack Corner), and a special discounted sashimi platter. It has a fresh meat and seafood counter and carries a wall of kimchi. I come here when I'm in the area (great location off of the Kennedy), for fresh vegetables and a take-out of Korean comfort food like the soups and bulgogi rice bowls. Unexpectedly on my last trip I came across a bottle of fermented beancurd with chili, a specialty item from my childhood that I would only have expected from a store in Chinatown. On my way out I snapped a picture of the $30 sashimi platter (note available only on Wed and Fri) in the refrigerated section that they were busily assembling more of in the fresh seafood counter. There's a newer addition of a dumpling stand by their entrance that I'll have to try the next time!

Excellent market. Fresh produce. Good butcher too. Store gets a little crowded and aisles are tight and narrow. A decent selection of household goods too. The best place for dumplings/buns too. They are at the walk up window just off the parking lot. Parking can also be tricky as the lot is small and oddly shaped.

Joong Boo Market is a unique and accurate South Korean experience. The food is delicious! I tried my first ever bowl of Kimchi stew and all I can say is wow. I sent some of these pictures to my friend in South Korea and he was impressed with the accuracy of ingredients and presentation to a typical South Korean market. There was so much variety for authentic groceries. Their meat counter was surprisingly inexpensive for the quality. If I still lived in the area that is definitely where I would be buying all of my pork and fish. All together just a wonderful experience.

Small and old looking location but do not sleep! Giant bottles of Soju, consistent and great priced banchan, and the HWE! $30 platter on Wed & Fri, thirty dollars people! Spoiler: it wasn’t Wed or Fri. Also a tiny dine in area with fire looking 순두부 치재 which we sadly didn’t have time to get because G(I)-dle concert at Rosemont. If this is your closest location of the three, don’t fret, it’s equally great. Same products as warehouse location with more in stock in home goods section as it’s not as sold out.

A very solid, well-stocked, and reasonably priced grocery store for Korean and miscellaneous Asian staples. It also has 2 “snack corners” inside and outside the building (inside one is for traditional Korean dishes; outside one is for dumplings and giant mandoos). The dumpling/mandoo stand stopped selling dumplings by the time I got there around 6:30pm, so I’ll try to get there earlier in the future to try those.

Instead, I got the kimchi mandoo, which is huge and contained pork and kimchi pieces. The mandoo exterior was soft and plushy, and the interior was spicy from the kimchi but otherwise pretty bland in flavor and texture. From the inside snack corner, I got a takeout order of Bulgogi, which came with rice and small side dishes of kimchi and japchae. This was pretty good— the bulgogi was a little overcooked but overall flavorful and delicious. The japchae had good flavor and texture as well, and paired well with everything.
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Price (relative to peers): 4.5/5
Food: 4.5/5
Ambience: N/A
Service: N/A
Overall Value: 4.5/5

It's great that Joong Boo Market is located near Chicago. Also, the food court inside the store is so delicious. It's a pity that there are so few tables. This time I had the sashimi rice bowl and the bulgogi and it was perfect.

I absolutely love, love, love, this place! It has such an authentic feel to it. The food at the tiny restaurant inside is always amazing and goes really easy on the wallet. It’s gotta be some of the best valued food near Logan Square. It’s super delicious, and it is very healthy food as well. The items in the market are also extremely reasonably priced. This is definitely my "go-to Korean spot" near my house. I almost always order the Bibimbop from the restaurant inside, and the huge dumplings from the stand on the outside of the market are a "must try" item!

Lots of fresh stuff. 1st Korean Grocery Store that felt like a regular Supermarket. Great parking which is nice compare to other places. Lots of flavoured Soju. Very clean store with it’s own appliance area costing up to $500 Made In Korea products.

Not the grandest place but packed with goodness!

The seafood here is fresh and great in quality.

The other highlight here is the snack corner with Korean quick meals.

Outside this grocery market is a shop you can get Korean buns and they are excellent value and taste!!! Kimchi bun is sooo good!!

Fabulous Asian Market!! Superb selection of fresh, frozen, and deli-fresh food. Plenty of options Asian and other. Decent prices as well.
The dumplings outside for sale are AMAZING- worth the trip alone (parking is kind of a nightmare but there are spots- not the easiest parking lot to pull in/out of). The “dumpling set” was $11 and at least 2 meals of delish dumplings!! They also have fresh seaweed salad, fresh kimchi, and sushi-grade sashimi. Can’t wait to go back— they just have such a HUGE selection of food so I can’t wait to try more of their goodies!!

Favorite Korean market for how authentic it feels. Prices are good and they carry everything I need for Korean cooking. Tiny restaurant inside serving fantastic and affordable food.

I wasn’t able to take photos of the place since we were too busy scanning the products that we wanted to buy and try out. The place was clean, it could be crowded, but people were respectful to each other and nice. There’s a lot of variety of frozen products—we bought some fish cakes to take home and Korean ice cream that I first ate in Asia. I bought some rice cakes from the bakery part of the grocery tho and I didn’t quite liked it, but everything else is good. We bought the snacks that we always love like Choco pie, and that assorted cracker snack.

We bought some food from the kitchen too, it was okay. It tasted kinda like generic Korean food—I guess we are so used to eating in Korean restaurants that specially make their foods that’s why the cooked food here was just okay. It could be better. But everything else was really awesome.

We will definitely go back and I’ll seriously take more photos of the actual place next time. I hope this evolves to a Mitsuwa-like market place someday.

Snack Corner is The best place to eat Sundubu jjigae ( Tofu stew ). Usually, the base of this stew is seafood, optional is meat and/ or other ingredients. Please, ask before to order.

This is the original Joong Boo, the newer one is located in Glenview. It is right on Kimball in between Addison and Belmont. A small Korean grocery store with plenty to offer including Korean home goods and appliances. They are known for their house made Mandoo (Korean dumplings), which is steamed just outside the store. Their small cafeteria is popular as well as it fills up quickly. It is recommended not to go during peak times as you may have to wait for a table. They have great sashimi deals as well on Wednesday and Friday for $30. Call ahead of time and order in advance. Pair that with some sake or soju as they have several options. Prices have gone up on my favorite items including the pre-made Banchan (Korean side dishes), but with inflation going on, it is understandable.

A well known local Korean grocery store in Chicago that supplies other Asian products, however, it is generally a Korean driven concept. Hispanic community has definitely a strong connection as they are employed there as well, and I am pretty sure they can speak Korean. And yes, Andrew Zimmern did visit Joong Boo in one of his episodes of “Bizarre Foods America”. A true staple of the Avondale neighborhood since 1992!

I LOVE JOONG BOO. This is my favorite grocery store in the whole city. I wish I lived closer to it, I shop there any chance I get. This is the only place that has my favorite icecream, lychee sherbet with coconut jelly. They have so many different kinds of seafood, it's amazing. Everytime I shop here, I accidentally spend way too much. There are just way too many interesting foods and snacks in this store. And when you're on your way out, you have to get some steamed buns at their little shack outside too. :)