Galleria Supermarket, a Korean grocer in Richmond Hill, has expanded southward. Their new location at Don Mills and York Mills is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. The Don Mills corridor is really expanding since the “Shops” opened up two years ago.

This supermarket focuses on Korean products but worthwhile to visit even if you don’t cook Korean food. Lots of premade delicacies are available. There’s also a very large hot food section where the cooks prepare everything fresh within your view. There’s also a fresh tofu machine, a bakery, a side dish “bar” and butcher.

Galleria Supermarket
865 York Mills Road

Bloor Street Market is the new Loblaws store that arised from the ashes of the Valu-Mart that was below the Manulife building at Bay and Bloor. The new store design does not really change the layout, but the store has gotten a fresh fascade with some stone facing, and new cabinets and counters. The butcher and fishmonger areas are much more approachable and there’s a large focus on convience foods (pre-cooked foods at the deli, salad bar, prepackaged ready-to-heat meals.

There’s quite a concentration of grocery stores on Bloor. With the new Market by Longo’s , a larger Rabba’s, the exclusive Pusateri’s and Whole Foods all a block away from this location. At least I have a lot of choices. What I like is that these are grocery stores, not supermarkets. There is no pharmacist, there is no 1 hour photo lab, no consumer hard goods – pure grocery. If they can concentrate on good, fresh product, they may get a lot of loyal customers who prefer to walk than drive to get groceries.

(pictures to be added shortly)

I hate using carts in grocery stores but sometimes carrying a basket is too heavy. T&T replaced all their baskets with these hybrids – baskets with wheels and an extra handle for pulling like rolling luggage. Brilliant!

Last year T&T supermarket opened their location downtown. It’s a bit further from downtown than the location suggests, it’s at the entrance to Cherry Street, off Lakeshore. It’s a fairly large sized T&T, maybe only a bit smaller than their location at Promenade Malls. It’s definitely not as busy as their other locations – you can find parking on the weekends!

As with all T&T’s, it’s clean and well-lit. There’s lots of chinese-specific groceries running from fresh fruits and vegetables to canned and dried goods. There’s a BBQ counter, fresh dim sum, sushi, and prepared dishes available near the front. Recently, I’ve noticed they’ve stocked the shelves with more Japanese and Korean groceries as well – this is a good addition. The butchers inside remain a good choice for getting cuts that are different that the “primes” you get at your local Loblaws.

T&T is always in my regular rotation of places to check out.