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Food Basics

2.4 (20 reviews)
InexpensiveGrocery
Closed 8:00 am - 9:00 pm

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One of the nicer supermarket breads as far as the packaged commercial stuff goes.
Aleks R.

In the Major Mac supermarket battle Freshco has been kicking FB's ass most of the last 3 years with it's longer hours, bigger overall selection and historically better service & lineup management. However this Basics' has a handful of stronger points and has made some recent improvements over the past 12 months which keep it relevant. A few specific areas that warrant occasional attention: First Aid Isle: GTA best prices on bandages - Elastoplast 40pk $3.99 80pk $4.99 (seldom on sale but regular price already less than most competitors' sales...). Store brand disposable foam insoles $1.79. Bottle 70% Alcohol $1.79. In this category they generally beat Freshco, Walmart & the drugstores on most staple items. Household: If you're picky on toilet paper look out for the $6.99 Charmin promo, seems head office has shifted that deal to Basics so Metro can charge full price most of the time. Also good on sponges, brushes & scrapers. I second Diana C's note on the meat and exotic jams - this may be the only mainstream supermarket with multiple brands of Rosehip & Quince jam ( both SF and PODRAVKA). There's also a whole shelf dedicated Ghee including one that's just $3.99 for 500g, good for those who only use a little. I generally avoid big commercial breads, but FB's Stone Oven demi baguettes are really good, especially for entertaining. Stone Oven products taste like the same supplier which makes Metro's Premier Moison Country Bread, these are about as good as it gets apart from independent ethnic bakeries. This month I'm enjoying the Daia Tunisian Dates. These are the freshest North African dates I've bought in 15 months! Every store has Tunisian or Algerian Dates but for the past year they've all been hard, dry & sour, to the point you can tell just by touching & sniffing the cellophane wrap. Not sure how service goes when it's busy, I'm usually there on a Tuesday at 9:30 or a Sunday around 8PM and they've been doing a better job of having 2 lanes all the time and a 3rd when needed. Of course the fact they've lost many customers ironically helps with crowd management but I feel they have made some effort to improve in this respect. I've only abandoned my purchase once in the last 10 visits compared to my usual 40% ditch rate at supermarkets in general. Overall, still low end and struggling, but not a total write off.

They an't kidding when they are named food basics.  I an't going back to this store.
Ching P.

Sells me dented cans of drinks. They an't kidding when they are named food basics. I an't going back to this store.

the outside of a butcher shop
Jennifer K.

Food Basics has really basic selections but I do expect that. I though was really impressed with the meat selection. The Butcher Shop at the back which they outsourced to Nosso Talho https://www.yelp.ca/biz/nosso-talho-toronto-4 has one of the best selection of meat in the area and at a reasonable price. You can either get their pre packaged items or order whatever cut and quantity from the staff directly. They even have a Mandarin/Cantonese/English speaking lady working there in case of any language barrier! So now I know where I can get my meat for my BBQ!!

Meat should not look like this 2 days before expiry
Jennifer T.

Dropped in because I was in the area to pick up some ground beef and mushrooms. Checked the expiry date for December 25th before I purchased. I took out my groceries tonight (December 23) to find the beef has gone bad (meat was grey plus smelled terrible) and the mushrooms were all black. Either the butcher was playing dying games with with meat or the fridge temperature was not kept to regulations. It's too far for me to go back to file a complain with the manager. Disgusting and wasted my money. Buyers beware!!!

a shelf of ketchup bottles
A Y.

This is my regular grocery store. The selection is typical of bargain grocery stores. Produces are sometimes cheaper than the No Frills at Warden and Hwy 7, another regular grocery store of mine. The butcher section has good beef, really. There is a decent selection of ethnic groceries, such as a variety of Mexican bottled salsa from Mexico (shame on No Frills). The bonus is the Tim Horton's on site. Lastly, the store is not dirty, but I feel that it can be cleaner/brighter. Is it time for a store-wide deep scrub? P.S. French's ketchup is sold here.

the front of the store

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T&T Supermarket - Storefront

T&T Supermarket

3.0(37 reviews)
2.6 km
$

Very spacious T&T!!! I didn't know they had a location here til i was eating across the plaza…read more Everything was very organized and well stocked. There were employees everywhere. There was some good sales going on as well. I got the sparkling VLT zero sugar. One of the only grocery stores that have it. and You obviously have to stop by the pastry section! Parking was very easy to find.

My family doesn't shop at T&T very often. Their veggies and produce are good but VERY expensive. In…read morefact, MOST of their products are higher priced than a lot of their counterparts due to being under the Loblaws banner (take anything for example like a bottle of soy sauce). However, this review is SPECIFICALLY geared towards an elusive item that they recently introduced: PAPA CRISPY CHICKEN. My family tried for 2 weeks to nab one of these birds but it kept evading us. I think they don't have that many fryers and because the birds are fried whole, they can only stick so many chickens into each one at a time. Also, one of the ladies told my mom that they only stick like 5-10 chickens into the fryer(s) in each "session". My mom called in, was told to rush over in 5 min and by the time she arrived, they told her all the chickens were gone and she'd have to wait til 12:30pm (it was 11:20-ish when she arrived). So on to the taste. The chicken is very different from say southern fried chicken like Popeyes. The chicken has very obviously been seasoned aggressively. If you're a garlic lover you will absolutely love this chicken (I happen to love garlic haha). The garlic flavour permeates throughout the meat. I think they brined the chicken and then slathered garlic paste all over it as a marinade overnight before frying. They provide 2 dry spice dips to go w/ each chicken in their respective box. One is a spicy salt and the other one is a dry chilli rub seasoning. The chicken doesn't need the dips at all as there is MORE than enough flavour. To be honest, I do prefer the flavour and crispiness of southern fried chicken more but the breast meat on this Papa Crispy Chicken was way better. The meat was more moist (most likely because the chickens were smaller than usual commercial chickens). Every so often on Tuesdays, instead of ordering my couple, tuesday Popeyes 2 pc specials, I'll crush one of these birds by myself. The part that sucks is how often they're unavailable because of the current demand.

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T&T Supermarket - Sticky rice with two types of sausage and egg

Sticky rice with two types of sausage and egg

T&T Supermarket - He looks happy!

He looks happy!

T&T Supermarket - Heading over to the main entrance

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Heading over to the main entrance

Bruno's Fine Foods

Bruno's Fine Foods

2.9(16 reviews)
1.1 km
$$

This is a small to medium sized specialty supermarket - the specialty is their meat. Choices are…read moreamazingly plentiful, I was able to find not just the normal cuts of beef, but even frozen beef bone marrow, foie gras, etc. Also I was able to find a pretty wide variety of Italian ingredients including many types of flour for pasta and pizza. Probably this store has some Italian background? They also have a wide selection of prepared meat items, for instance I saw they had ready to bake Beef Wellington :D However, I'm not too sure about the taste as I tried their breakfast sausage and it turned out far too salty for me. The other side of being a specialty store means...not having that much choices for other types of items. Produce choices are satisfying enough but of less variety than bigger supermarkets. I somehow liked their packaging of using ziplock bags for salad leaves and other produces, it saved me a bit of fridge space. Seafood choices are very limited. Being a person with a diet that stresses heavily on seafood and white meats, that weekend I did end up going for a second grocery trip to get all the items I needed. The store had very few customers during my visit. It has the feeling of a neighborhood grocer that serves only who knows this place - I happened to hear a customer talking to the butcher and it sounded like the customer had been coming to the store for food for a long time. Not a bad place at all if knowing what to expect from a specialty store.

Bruno's Fine Foods may have a good meat and cheese selections, but I found it falls short on other…read moreareas of their product's selections. The hot food selection is pathetic with just rotisserie chicken. For salad they do have quite a variety, even some strange coloured kimichi. The fresh produces selections I found it is just so so too. I might drop by Bruno's for last minute or pick up odd items I needed because it is smaller in size and not as busy and I can get in and out fast. But it won't be the to go to place for my grocery needs!

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Bruno's Fine Foods
Bruno's Fine Foods
Bruno's Fine Foods - Prepared hot food area just beside the front door

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Prepared hot food area just beside the front door

Food Basics - grocery - Updated May 2026

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