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.

Yasai is a wonderful corner market that fills the gap for an Asian grocery store in the south…read moreBerkeley area. I come here regularly to stock up on Japanese snacks, green tea, kimchi, napa cabbage, and mushrooms that I can't find at Safeway or Trader Joes. Thank you Yasai for your reliability and community feel!

Currently my favorite spot to shop outside of actually going to a farmer's market…read more Reasonable prices - similar to farmer's market and less than the Marketplace. They also seem to have more turnover than the Marketplace, so it's fresher. Their organic Granny Smiths are some of the best I have had - crisp, slightly sour and super juicy. They also carry a variety of microgreens. Interesting small producers in the pantry section. The service is always friendly and efficient. Request: carry maitakes! Then I don't need to make multiple stops around the island. Easy to park around the Central/Oak area. I neglected you for a few a years but I am back!

I stop here on a regular banana and their broad selection of fresh produce helps me to feed my…read morefamily and sometimes save money. Their produce varies with the seasons and the fruits and veggies are fresh and tasty. If you're look for quality produce stop here, they also offer CSM boxes but I haven't yet signed up to receive one. I come here often, and I'll be back soon!

PROS: -So much selection and specialty foods…read more -FREE Parking lot across the street -Clean Bathrooms- not in the store, but on the premises. -Friendly and knowledgeable staff. -Fresh produce and flowers- locally grown! KEEP IN MIND -It can get BUSY- depending on the time of day and week -with that said, even with the parking lot, it may be full and you'll have to find street parking. -Considering how crowded it can get, navigating around the store can be a little tricky, esp. with a cart. -It can a little overwhelming especially if it's your first time there AND it's busy. I always love coming here! But I go when it's not peak hours bc when it's busy, it's like Costco, so be mentally prepared AND patient- with other customers and the staff.

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.

I bought a 40 pound case of delicious bananas for $5!!! I had to wake up before God to pick them…read moreup but totally worth it!

Best kept secret in Chinatown!…read more $5/pound for crab is an absolute steal. Fresh from Santa Cruz, I was happy to hear that it was local and fresh. Look at that tub! He helped picked out 3 nice crabs- ended up being $30. After you purchase they can clean it and cut it for you behind the seafood counter. They also had live frog (?!) and Manila clams! Love chinatown

Just came here to buy tofu. In and out fast. Very fresh and good price. The tofu is very firm,…read morejust the way my family likes it.

Earth Grown drinks are both delicious and beneficial to your health. They use only the freshest…read morefruits and no artificial ingredients in their recipes. They even offer non dairy options for their smoothies. Great service from the owners. Parking can be tough during peak hours so phone in your orders ahead of time. They also have bottled grab and go drinks made fresh daily. A nice change from all the milk tea shops and sugary boba drinks.

Love Earth Grown! It was my third time coming here and I always bring friends. They have clean and…read morehealthy ingredients, I am always trying something new. Tony and Jennifer are so helpful and so knowledgeable. Would definitely recommend!

I ordered my groceries delivered from Rancho Market via Mercato and will definitely make this my…read morenew go-to groceries. Not only did they call to confirm anything that was out of stock with replacement options, but I found this sweet note when my groceries arrived. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness. Thank you Rancho Market!

It's a really good place for food and there snacks are you can't even say it in wordsread more

I'm back at my fav farmers market. I love the variety of fruits and vegetables. I can see inflation…read morehas hit the market too. But the freshness and the variety is well worth it. I was able to get kale at $1/bunch. The red amaranth and the fuzzy melon was by the pound. The bok choy and yi choy was $2 each. Fruit was $3.50/pound. Street parking only. I tend to go between 8:00 and 9:00 am for better parking and more inventory. There's also fresh fish and stalls with donuts and cooked foods. There's also market it 2 blocks x 2 blocks. Support this wonderful market!!

Such a cute farmers market that's pretty expensive and diverse group of vendors. I loved the…read moremulberry spot giving some samples of those sweet things and I ended up buying some detox dragonfruit ginger tea from another!

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.

avocados and blueberries are amazing. Even with inflation selection and quality is pretty great…read more Also, they're selling amazing tamales that are delicious in the frozen section. Finally, Staff is friendly. love this place!

I was overall very happy with Monterey Market and I found it to be everything I hoped Berkeley Bowl…read morewould be and was not. Tons of produce and most things were great. On a Saturday morning, I found parking without much trouble and checkout was reasonable too. They have a huge selection of Rancho Gordo beans, the local yogurt and milk brands (Clover, Strauss) I prefer, many varieties of produce, good quality bread, and some bulk goods. The variety of the produce beats most if not all stores I've been to in the area and the quality and freshness was great too. The only reason I give them 4 and not 5 stars is they do have some items on the more expensive side and that are less than ideal especially if you get them out of season. For example, I paid almost $9 for a few peaches and they were pretty bad. But as long as you pay attention to what you are buying and buy what looks and smells good, you should be good. As a bonus, they source from a few of my favorite Bay Area farms including the one my CSA is from. Huge mushrooom selection- they seem priced higher than some Asian stores and sometimes farmer's markets but the selection is very good. My one thing is they definitely seem to go for volume and breadth of selection so it seems like that means selling non peak produce that is out of season in some cases. Overall, I'm a fan and this will probably be a somewhat regular trip for me.