Groceries Shopping @ Lotte Mart, Seoul Station (with list of must buy items)

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We always put a supermarket visit on our travel list – Big C at Bangkok, Cosco at Taipei and City Super at Hong Kong. Don’t get me wrong, we do enjoy prowling wet markets with shouting butchers and fish mongers. But there’s nothing better than an hour spent pushing a cart at an air conditioned space, puzzling over unfamiliar junk food.

Lotte Mart Seoul Station is conveniently located within the subway building. If you go by subway, alight at Seoul Station and come out at Exit 1. Since our service apartment is just a stone’s throw away from Lotte Mart, we dropped by for a quick bite. There’s a food court within and  a simple meal ranges from 5000-8000 won.  Towards the tail end of our trip, we even went back to grab some souvenirs for families and friends.

Koreans pickle just about everything

Lotte Mart Seoul Station has got every household related stuff that you can think of parked under one roof. If you are wondering how does a normal Korean meal looks like in most families here (they can’t be having BBQ every day), then this is the best place to be.

pre packed seafood, jumbo size pork chop, bacon rolls

korean strawberries, live abalones, jumbo size tonkatsu, jumbo size ebi tempura

what are these boxes for?

Upon checking out, we have to pack our groceries into these (given out for free) boxes. No plastic bags are provided so remember to bring along your recycle bags.

One can find all kinds of snacks, instant noodles, gingseng tea, soju, liqours and food stuff here. I would have grab everything if not because of limited baggage allowance. Our hauls:

Scorched Rice Candy. This sounds intriguing and it tastes exactly like burnt rice. If you are someone who digs deep into your claypot chicken rice, then you will like this!

We bought like more than a dozen of these tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) snacks. Sweet, sticky and spicy; this is so addictive!

Beef broth powder and seafood broth powder. Koreans uses it on soup, porridge and even fried rice. It is very delicious with intense meat flavour.

Market O Real Brownie by Orion (a famous snack manufacturer in Korea). My Korean friends told me that it’s made of organic ingredients so they feed their toddlers with this! We like it a lot too – so chocolatey and dense.

Yuzu Tea

Seaweed snacks populate entire sections of shelf space at Lotte Mart so we were spoilt for choice!

Korean Strawberries and Melons

My Korean friends told me that Binggrae’s Banana Flavored Milk is like one of the ‘traditional’ Korean drink and its popularity has been going strong even after 38 years. They tend to have it after a relaxing session of jimjilbang (korean hot bath) too. I can understand why; it is sweet, creamy with a mild banana flavour.

Lotte Mart provides tax refund service for 30,000 won purchase for tourists too. Remember to bring your receipt to tax refund counter at level 1.

Lotte Mart Seoul Station
122, 2-ka Bongrae-dong, Seoul, South Korea
Opens from 10am to 12am daily

Next Up: Bongchu Jjimdak @ Myeongdong (our favourite!)

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