If you’ve searched for live seafood in the Twin Cities, you’ve probably hit a wall. Most grocery chains carry frozen fish or pre-cleaned fillets — convenient, but not what you need for a proper Cantonese steamed fish, a Vietnamese lau, or a Cambodian celebration dish that calls for something still swimming.

Shuang Hur Supermarket, with locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, is one of the only grocery stores in Minnesota that maintains live seafood tanks year-round. Here’s what you’ll typically find:

  • Live Dungeness and blue crab
  • Live lobster
  • Live clams, oysters, and mussels
  • Live eel
  • Live snails

Tanks are restocked regularly, and staff can select, clean, and prepare your order on request. If you’re planning a large meal or event, calling ahead is recommended — especially for live lobster and crab during holidays.

Why Live Seafood Matters for Asian Cooking

In many Southeast and East Asian culinary traditions, freshness isn’t just a preference — it’s a requirement. A whole steamed fish demands that the fish was alive as recently as possible. The texture of the flesh, the clarity of the broth, the sweetness of the crab: these qualities degrade rapidly after death, and no amount of preparation technique can substitute for a truly fresh ingredient.

That’s why Shuang Hur’s live tanks aren’t a novelty — they’re a reason to make the trip.

What to Ask For When You Visit

  • Ask the seafood counter staff to select the most active crab or lobster in the tank.
  • Request cleaning and preparation if you don’t want to do it at home.
  • Check the weekly restock schedule (usually Friday & Saturdays) for the freshest selection.

Open seven days a week. Shuang Hur is located at:

Minneapolis: 2712 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN55408
St Paul: 654 University Ave W, St Paul, MN 55104