Amazing place an they have fresh food and we have been coming here for years. Quality organic…read moreproduce, amazing selection of and the team is well coordinated and is run by an amazing family. The store routinely stocks thousands of distinct items. The layout features explicitly separated conventional and massive organic produce sections. From multiple varieties of seasonal apples to hard-to-find global specialties like fresh lime leaves, banana leaves, or specialized roots, its variety beats traditional retailers. The self-service bulk rows are massive. So many herbs, spices, loose grains, teas by the pound (such as loose chai and Yerba), dehydrated soups, and specialized nuts. The counter has an amazing selection premium seafood, fresh poultry, house-packaged meats, and an extensive cheese wall. There is also a robust hot food bar featuring quick bites like pizza, sandwiches, and sushi. The alcohol section should not be slept on. It has a vast local selection, and you'll find some selection you can't find in other places. Pretty much the best market place in the bay area. The amount of different items you can find here is astounding and whenever we are in Berkeley we have to go.

I never knew about Berkeley Bowl Marketplace until my wife told me about it years ago. We recently…read moretook a friend to BBM, and she was very impressed with their produce and variety. I mean you can find so many different variety of apples, oranges, mushrooms, etc. [From the internet] "Unmatched Variety: The store is celebrated for carrying dozens of varieties of single items--such as 15 different kinds of apples or half a dozen types of artichokes." For example, Chocolate Navel Oranges: a rare citrus tree variety featuring a unique deep bronze-brown rind and sweet, low-acid, bright orange flesh. The taste of a Chocolate Navel Orange is exceptionally sweet, rich, and mellow, often described as a "gourmet" upgrade to a standard orange. Starkrimson Pears: a striking, sweet, and juicy late-summer variety distinguished by its vibrant crimson-red skin and thick, stocky stem. Pink Pearl Apples: a rare heirloom variety featuring translucent, yellow-green skin and a striking, vibrant bright-pink flesh. Crisp and juicy with a tart to sweet-tart taste, offering tangy berry and subtle grapefruit notes. Come check out this local gem! Support your local businesses.

Crimson peaches and lychees win over all other stone fruit!…read moreI've been around many peaches, but these are splendid! Thank you, Yasai!!

Yasai is conveniently located close to Philz, Safeway, La Farine, Wisteria, and other dining…read morelocations. It's very organized and offers many options for fruits, vegetables, fresh noodles, Asian snacks, Asian sauces, drinks, and dried goods. While small, many options are available. When there was a shortage of Sriracha, Yasai was the one spot I could find large bottles of it. They offer fresh, in-season produce and keep it maintained well-- while I was there, one of the employees refreshed vegetables as they needed re-filling.

First time in Berkeley Bowl. And it didn't disappoint. It was so many exciting items. My favorite…read moredrinks at a great price as well! Hawaiian Suns the tea flavor omg! $1.29 yes please! Then they have the cutest bags! Like so cute! I can't wait to buy more and send some to my cousin in Kansas. They have pink,purple,green and blue! Please see pictures thank you. Everyone was so nice. Then I left and saw someone with warm food! I went right back in delicious! Special only $10.99 wow! She put so much food in there she was nice enough to put a rubber band on it! She was very nice. The cashiers very pleasant. The lady that was stocking shelves very helpful. I can't wait to come back!

All grocery stores are (somewhat literally) a mixed bag, and Berkeley Bowl West is a grocery store…read more It is one of two Berkeley Bowl stores, and is the one of the two I have the most experience with. Berkeley Bowl West is celebrated for the vast variety of its produce. I like to shop as much as possible for organic items, and they definitely have fewer organic produce choices than non-organic; but there is still a reasonably large variety, of good quality. They have a nice variety of other kinds of items as well. Some prices are high, some are reasonable. I've been requesting delivery orders since 2020, so my in-store experience is dated; but in early 2020 and previously, the parking lot was impossibly crowded every time we brought a car, and the store aisles were relatively narrow, making the store also feel crowded at pretty much all times, especially in the produce section. Berkeley Bowl deliveries come from the Berkeley Bowl West store. Up until this month, they were a tolerable delivery option. I could order without creating an account, the orders would always arrive on time or early, they usually followed delivery instructions, and they were comparable to other delivery services in that I mostly got fresh produce and the items I ordered. Their team was responsive and nice if I got a wrong or defective item. This month, they changed their website. It's possible that some people love the changes. In my opinion, it is a vastly inferior experience. It's now mandatory to create an account in order to request a delivery, and they saved all of my data without permission! They used to tell you whether you were requesting produce by the pound or individual items; now you have to infer from the total cost of the item. The navigation system does not show all of the items in a category, at least when it comes to meat alternatives. The search for individual items isn't good either, but online store searches are often not great. It's unclear whether the system saves substitution preferences when you place an order. The system only recognizes certain types of addresses; if your address isn't in their system, for delivery or billing, then oh well. There doesn't seem to be any option to cancel an order. They have some unclickable edit buttons on your order page; why are they there if you can't actually edit that category? On top of all of that, they added a five percent service fee, in addition to their delivery fee and driver tip. Depending on the size of your order, that is a significant increase in fees, and was a big shock when it appeared on the final page during checkout. With this new fee added, the total delivery cost for my order today (and my last order for a long, long time) was about forty dollars for four bags of normal groceries; no extravagant items. That's ten dollars per bag! That's a crazy high amount; definitely a splurge, not a normal way to buy groceries, in my opinion. (People with a much higher grocery budget may disagree.) For comparison, if I was to rate other local stores, I would rate Safeway two stars, Whole Foods, El Cerrito Natural Grocery, and Good Eggs three stars, and Trader Joe's and Costco four stars. That's taking prices, delivery options, general staff morale, and item variety into account. Trader Joe's doesn't have delivery options (as far as I know), but everything else about their stores still averages out to a four, for me. I will still shop at Berkeley Bowl West, but sparingly. I would be sad if they didn't exist. I really appreciate the variety, and the general professionalism of their small local chain. I really wish they would roll back their online shopping experience to how it was before they changed it in July. As it was, because of prices, I would request a delivery from Berkeley Bowl West once a month at most; it will now likely be once every four to six months. At some point I will probably go back to occasionally braving the crowds in the parking lot and in-store, and bypass the convenience of delivery altogether.

Great local shop with affordable prices and solid quality. The owner is super kind and the first…read moretime my husband went he offered the lemons for free since if they didn't sell they would still have to be tossed anyways. That's what grocery stores SHOULD do but the big shops would rather toss than loose a sale. The shop is on the smaller side so selection can be limited but we love to go specifically for the produce.

Showed up here and walked in the rain just for them to be closed. Update your hours, it's a…read morehorrible experience, especially since this is my first impression as a (would have been) new customer.

A really great farmers market with an amazing community. The perfect size too, not too overwhelming…read morebut still lots of options. They also have hot food too. Shout out to Dumpling King! Everyone was very nice and loved seeing all the families.

I like this place because it has a lot of options. It's super kid friendly and has live music. I…read moredon't rate it more seats bc unless u live in the neighborhood it's kind of out of the way. When I went there was dirty girl produce and cholita Linda as well as a café truck. Service is friendly!

A fantastic effort! Thank you!! eggs and cookies also available. Check or venmo only.read more

This is a great place. I passed by several times and not knowing how it works. Even at night,…read morethere's a light lamp that leaves the place lit. This is a 24/7 farm stand. You take what you want, based on the price, and drop your money in the box, or use PayPal or Venmo. There are so many things: flowers, fruits, vegetables, tea bags, etc. I don't think it's as sanitary during COVID, so make sure to wash your hands after handling all these.

Poke, pickled goods, local meats and seafood, fresh vegetables and fruit produce, and food stands!…read more What they were lacking were some benches, but I guess the grass on the park near this market, will do! Spot on and great for the stroll while in Berkeley!

About 1-2 blocks long, there are a variety of vendors available here. I like that this farmer's…read moremarket has slightly later hours than what I see at other farmer's markets - they are open from 10-2 here instead of 9-1. I came by and got some fresh, sweet strawberries and a thick slice of sourdough focaccia bread that was soft and paired great with some rosemary infused olive oil. They didn't have any hot food vendors though, so I was a bit bummed by that. Parking is available on the street via meters.

There is a good selection of healthy ingredients and the owners are super friendly and helpful. The…read moreprepared food is amazing - delicious Brazilian treats made fresh every day. It has an old fashioned grocery store feel. It's a pleasure to shop there!

2 stars cuz the pão de queijo was really good but points off because I feel like the workers were…read moregossiping about me after I ordered it. My Portuguese isn't perfect, but at least I tried. Geez. I don't think I'll be stopping by again anytime soon.

"Run up to the Star Grocery and get a half-gallon of milk and a loaf of sourdough" was a common…read moredirective in my house growing up. (And a 25 cent Hershey's chocolate bar for me and my dad would find its way into the bag as well) And probably lots of kids in the Elmwood neighborhood beginning in 1922 would do the same for generations if their parents didn't do their weekly shopping there. The Star Grocery located at the intersection of Claremont Avenue and the Uplands is a Elmwood/Rockridge institution that every neighborhood should have but no longer do. No, Star Grocery is not Safeway, or Whole Foods, or Trader Joe's. No scanners, no self-checkouts, no floral shop, and no Starbucks, but they do have a dispenser of free coffee you pump yourself. What Star Grocery lacks in volume it makes up in quality. Lots of gourmet offerings especially when it comes to wine, beer, cheeses, meats, bulk foods and sundries. It's got an especially large liquor selection (my mom used to tell me it was for the old neighbor ladies who'd shuffle in late afternoon for their evening tipple) and in the rear of the store you'll find Star Meats (separate business, see my review) that's been around as nearly as long as Star Grocery and puts the overrated Verbrugge on College to shame. (Try their giant sandwiches, expensive but worth the price.) The Star Grocery reflects Berkeley's character in many ways. Founded by Greek immigrants Ike and Nick Pappas, the family would deliver groceries to the neighborhood and during the Great Depression extended credit to dozens of families and wrote off presumably thousands of dollars. You can still get credit at the store today, writing down your order on a carbon-paper pad. Standing in line you'll find lots of liberal-leaning editorial cartoons from the New Yorker and the windows are usually plastered with similarly gentry liberal admonitions, but also local artists and neighborhood pictures. You'll find the Cal Band stopping by during Big Game week and many Berkeley High students and Cal students got their first jobs ringing up groceries at the Star. If you want a bright new grocery store, go to the Safeway down the street. Star Grocery's decor hasn't changed much since the 1950s. The linoleum floors could use a little TLC and most of the light fixtures and signage hail from the 1940s it seems. (Not a bad thing). The Star Grocery knows what it's got and now offers a line of blue and gold T-shirts and coffee mugs for its loyal customers (like me). Say hi to Ike's son Nick Pappas too when you go, he's usually behind one of the registers (as he has been forever) a little older and little grayer than I remember. The Star Grocery hasn't changed in nearly 100 years. Hopefully it stays that way.

4.5 stars $18…read moresandwich, "The Classic": fantastic. Well made, tons of meat with great dressing and Vegi fill. Good size too.

GRAB A WONDERFUL FRESHLY-MADE SANDWICH ON YOUR WAY BACK ON BART, OR BEFORE YOU SEE A SHOW AT…read moreSHOTGUN Abdul, Ray and the other lovely young man (I wish I could remember his name) make the most wonderful fresh sandwiches on the spot. They have mouth-watering honey roasted turkey and pepper turkey, with onions, olives, cheese, avocado... You can have your sandwich on buns or wheat, and toasted if you like. They want your every ingredient to be perfect for you! They are three of the loveliest young servers - it's a true pleasure to go in there. The sandwiches are always fantastic and inexpensive. And they've got an amazing range of well-priced groceries.

5/5 service ,food and vibes. the guys working there are kind and considerate, and i was able to get…read morea veryy good (cold) sandwich with my EBT $. best EBT meal option besides sushi from a grocery store is a cold sandwich from Ashby Super Market!