There's a store along Kekaulike St that's hidden by large deliver vans and trucks, and this store…read moreis literally filled with every fish and seafood imaginable from catfish to tilapia to milkfish to mud fish to many, many more! The store is called Santos Mart!
I used frequent this store quite often when it was called something else that I can't remember at the moment, but the sign is still there. ____ Seafood Inc. I feel it was just Kekaulike Seafood Inc, or Chinatown Seafood Inc. Back then, there used to be another wet market of sorts that used to sell a lot of fresh and frozen seafood, but that's been boarded up, used as a filming location for Hawaii Five-O, and now it's going to be torn down for, hopefully, a future rail station. Also, the "glass house" where New Hong Kong Supermarket and Kim An 2 is located used to be a much bigger place with numerous seafood stalls. Homeless took over that sidewalk, but they're gone now and it's pretty safe to venture down. Now all that's left is Santos Mart, and it's all alone.
If you look at Santos Mart, it appears to be a small store, but that's not the case at all. It goes deeeeeep inside. There are several, huge, long freezers all jam-packed with frozen fish, seafood, and other meats. If any fish pops into your head, or you watched a video about fish dishes in Southeast Asia, you will probably fish it here.
The store is clean and organized, and the prices are clearly marked. Tilapia is the main fish they sell of varying sizes. Even frozen, all their fish look nice, good quality, and very well packaged. You won't find any with freezer burns. In addition to seafood, Santos Mart also sells many convenient dried noodles, sauces and other condiments usually used in southeast Asian cooking.
Overall, Santos Mart is a great little store that's not little at all. Even though it's a little off in the distance by it's lonesome, it's worth the trip if you're in need of frozen fish and other seafood. You'll find so many varieties of fish, that you can spend the better part of your morning here. Here's a secret, all the stalls that sell fish that you believe to be fresh are all previously frozen! If the fish ain't in a tank, it's not fresh.