Such a superior corner food shop. Thanks to Rob H & Katie B for reporting the findings...from the…read moreoutside, this appears just to be a regular, run of the mill market...but once inside you'll be treated to a pleasant surprise. A huge organic selection. A whole shelf of tea. Racks of dried fruits (I am not addicted to dried figs), nuts (cashews!) and I even found jars of sunflower butter here...which is surprisingly good and a good alternative to peanut butter (which they also have). Fantastic ethnic cooking section chock full of sauces, ingredients, grains, rices, beans and any element you probably need, spices, decent bakery with breads, rolls, pitas, etc. Eggs and dairy, beer, wine, a lot of coconut water, and a fresh produce section (outside) which is standard, but nice to have. Things you won't find: fresh meats or fish. Par for the course! The family that runs it is very friendly as well (always so polite!) and I always leave feeling quite good about supporting a local food shop that is not only convenient, but tucked away from the madness of the Old Street roundabout. Yours Food Centre = My Food Centre = LOVE. *they do not accept AMEX.

This place just looks like a normal, random off licence but when you step inside, you'll be…read moresurprised by the variety and diversity of products they have! You can find almost everything in there, from bubble gum to grains, dried fruits, fresh fruits (very good selection), alcohol... Almost everything except fresh fish and meat. It is not the cheapest place to do your shopping, but for the quality they offer, it is quite fair. And the people that works there is always helpful and polite.

Probably the worst Sainsbury's in the UK. It's always an absolute mess with trolleys of products…read morelaying around the store and blocking the aisles and no-one around to put the stock away. Half the stock on the shelves has usually run out. Amazingly, they sell a pizza 'meal deal' but only have the sides available and don't even order the pizzas that complete the deal! It's super expensive as they barely stock any 'own brand' stuff in there, so you always pay a premium. There are never enough staff. They have one person on the till selling cigarettes, but also doing Argos collections etc so they're never available and often out the back. They then force everyone to use self check out, so if anything goes wrong you have to go hunting around the shop for someone while the security guard looks on refusing to help. Annoyingly most of the self check out machines are tiny too, so if you want to buy more than 2 items you have to balance everything carefully and hope it doesn't fall on the floor. To top it off there's always a massive puddle out the front as the pavement hasn't been levelled right.

Sainsbury's appears to be a London chain of convenience store, akin to a gas station convenience…read morestore or a dated CVS/Walgreens. I ventured here because they make their own brand of candies and my sister loves their sour strawberry straws (go figure). This Sainsbury is tiny and kind of ghetto compared to some of the rest. It has all the basics though, and even serves fresh, hot bread!

The health food scene doesn't seem to be as prevalent here as in the States, and especially…read moreCalifornia, but there are a considerable amount of small and large stores catering to the health-conscious consumer. They can range from the moderately-priced to the exorbitant, and not all are worth what you pay. This little independent grocery store, however, not only has everything you need with quality you can trust, but the prices are actually worth what you get. They have a little bit of everything, with carefully-picked selections to satisfy even the staunchest vegetarian, vegan, and even Paleo-lover out there. From fine meats and cheeses, to super healthy drinks and take-away meals, and even a little something to satisfy that sweet tooth, (and yes, that's healthy for you, too). My favorites are the really hard-to-find items like the grain-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free granola and cereal options that are a bit pricey, but definitely worth what you pay for them, as a little bit will keep you going for hours, and tastes delicious. They have plenty of other yummy snacks like vegan coconut jerky and ready-made meals for on-the-go, including healthy juices and smoothies. They also carry unique and interesting beverages like maple and birch tree waters that are high in magnese, zinc, vitamin C, and other minerals. They even have black alkaline waters with activated charcoal that acts as a magnet for toxins in your body. Everything else from the bread to the booze also looks good, and while you may break the bank a little on a routine shopping trip, it will force you to spend your money well, invest in your health, and make it last. Enjoy, my fellow health nuts!

The Grocery is like the Shoreditch baby sister of Whole Foods. I really did try to resist this…read moreplace. But given repeated exposure (I get massages downstairs at My Treatment Rooms) -- it was just too hot to handle. I admit it, I like this place. A lot. It's just so damn appealing. And expensive. And...LOOK at this selection of tea. All the tea! And organic things. Many organic things. Homemade things! The soups in particular have very limited ingredients (read -- no crap) and are really great. Try the butternut squash/almond and split pea/ham. I'll be honest -- I can only take the bright lights of Tesco/Food Co-OP/Sainsburys for about 30 seconds before I want to expire along with all the fruit and veg that are hanging on to their last dying breath before some sucker takes them home. I might as well be on "Supermarket Sweep" -- sometimes I'm in and out so fast I barely know what I got. I just loathe the experience so much I want to be just as short as possible. This is the only grocery shop in London that I actually ENJOY. It's a nice, manageable size. The aisles are wide enough for 2 people to be in them at once. I enjoy looking at different products. The Grocery may be expensive, but as Steve B says -- "it sells nice things." And sometimes you've just had enough shrink wrap/pre-fab food from all those other crap supermarkets and you want some nice things and its worth the investment. Nice wholesome, diverse food. It's novel and it's nice. There, I said it! I tried to resist but sometimes (usually?) the hipsters are spot on when it comes to topics such as these. The Grocery is a winner. *takes cards. *there's a little takeaway coffee place right near the registers. *cash machines outside. Parent Fact: *this is one of the only places I've found that carries Nanny Care Goat's Milk Infant formula. Totally random, but I was quite happy to find this out! (I usually order from Amazon, but nice to know there is a local place to pick it up). Otherwise their baby food stuff is crazily overpriced, for the record!

The owner is kind and open to listen the client need. You can find easily everything you use daily…read more I recommend the organic bread and the Italian pasta sold here (green packaging).

Tesco Haggerston although not the best Tesco around for stock it is convenient with Honest trust…read moreworth staff and customers After my visit this morning 22-05-19 i have nothing but praise for the staff They work in the most cramped environment and it is really a victim of its own success the store needs to be 50% bigger to cope with the trade. Back to the staff they are always friendly and happy to help working with poor doors on the fridges and tills that breakdown This morning i had to change from one till to another then i left my laptop on the floor After 5 minutes i rushed back and was presented with my bag the staff were more attentive than me thank you all so much This is very much appreciated

Possibly the worst Tesco store I've ever been to. Rarely…read moreanyone on the tills and hard to move round when it's busy. Staff are not very helpful. May as well be a Nisa store!

I love shopping for Continental grocery and Lidl is the place to go for it. Also does good value…read morefresh fruit and vegetables and where else can you get 2 pints of milk for 75p or 4 pints for 95p! What I like best is a box of half a dozen medium free range eggs that looks no different to the large size, for 79p and 100% pure squeezed orange juice with juicy bits NOT from concentrate for 95p. Lovely and spacious and much more choices available than other branches I have been too (Camden Town, Old Kent Road), and lots more items on offer and available. I was able to find items that are not stocked in their other branches, i.e. dessicated coconut, sweet and crunchy red peppers, chorizo, Italian pastries, almond biscuits etc. Every week they have special household items on offer, like rugs, shoes, lighting, shelves, garden tools, kitchenware, camping products, vacuum cleaners, and only available that week while stocks last and only available in the larger branches. If you are not into branded goods, you can halve the price of your weekly shop.

After my first week relocated in London for Erasmus exchange, a slight feeling of nostalgia started…read moresettling, mostly for standard Euro prices. Here comes Lidl! No matter which location you go to, you'll always find the same low price international food and OK-looking fresh groceries in its characteristic apocalyptic setting. Oh, and those eternal till queues. This location is medium-to-big-sized, well connected with buses and parking, and I reckon they had most of the items from their weekly promos. Perfect for satisfying Euro expats & anyone who'd rather spend their pennies at the pub instead of "fancier" food from Sainsbury's/Tesco. Do your big shopping here instead!

It is with considerable reticence that I confess to having a soft spot for this particular Tesco…read moreExpress. Yes, it's part of a chain that I have previously ranted about, granted, some claim that these local Tescos are putting our beloved newsagents and cornershops in danger, but the staff at this particular branch are most certainly worthy of note. This has got to be the only supermarket in London with truly friendly and verbose staff. Sunday afternoon television, the idiocy of going clubbing in mid-winter, the value of the tabloid press and the inefficacy of self-service are all subjects I've discussed with staff in this particular Tesco; staff who are so unfailingly polite you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in the home counties. In the fifties. Stocking a range of booze (its seeming focus) and the kind of food aimed at twenty-something professionals who don't actually know how to cook, this Tesco Express is particularly useful if you've forgotten someone's birthday and need to grab some flowers, are on your way to a party or BYO restaurant and need a bottle or just want to stock up on magazines from the fabulous selection on offer. A rare find this.

Dodge the drunk hipsters, for a sober late night snack…read more No sandwich for me. - A haiku for the tuna & cucumber sandwich that wasn't meant to be.

Big ol' Tesco right on Bethnal Green Road, but the draw for me here is that there are about ten…read moreself-checkout tills. Even during the big crunches right after work for groceries, I haven't had to wait more than 5 minutes. Veg section is two full aisles, and there's even a little nook hidden next to the grapes/berries for discount fruit that's about to go off. There's also an area in the evening in the meat aisle where they start marking other stuff down that's close to expiration (mostly bread and such). I usually avoid the small cluster of moms that builds up around the poor Tesco guy, but check it out for some bargains.

This store is definitely a better option that some of the other Tesco stores in the area, i.e…read more Hackney Central, which is completely packed all the time. I have to say, I don't really go to Tesco stores all that often, but when I do I don't want it to be a chaotic experience. The selection of meats is relatively good for a small store. That is an important thing for me, because I only really go there to get meat, as I can buy everything else from the mini-mart under my apartment. The only problem with smaller tesco stores like this one, is the fact that they don't always have everything you want. For example, I went there to get sun-dried tomatoes once, and they didn't have them. Besides that, I can't really complain about anything else.

Oriental supermarket. About:'We supply over 4,000 authentic Vietnamese products of high quality at…read morethe best prices. Our products are hand selected by our food specialists to meet customer's needs. We source products directly from North, Central and South of Vietnam, as well as other Far East countries, including China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines.' In case you feel like cooking, eating, supplying on anything remotely asian come here! My favourite place to stock up on frozen fish and sea food, odd sauce of some kind and candies with (warning, haha) signs I cannot read. Have some fun experimenting with unknown food (you can't go that wrong really.) However if you think that is not so much fun, ask the knowledgeable staff, they are happy to help you as a translator and a recipe book in one. For those who play it supersafe you can find your delicious sushi, dumplings, mochi desserts (flushing them down with Hite optional, but highly recommended) or tea, all ready to takeaway. ps_1kg of frozen broad squid=£5=bargain!

Asian supermarket with a 'bubble tea and bahn mi' bar!? SIGN ME UP. For everything…read more I've walked past Logndan Express (why is it express? I do not know...maybe there is a bigger slower sister market somewhere) many times on my pilgrimage to the Columbia Road Flower Market. I always vow to pop in for a bubble tea (one of my vices) and finally, finally -- I made it. With a boba virgin, no less! So my pal and I sidle up and make some decisions. They have a pretty good setup, not super super extensive, but surely cover the basics. I go for a red bean milk tea with boba, she goes for a passionfruit juice tea (clear) with boba. Both are hits! Both with actually honest to god ICE. So they are cold and boba-y and perfect. They use powders (not real fruit) but so it goes. The guys were friendly and there is a whole market of oddities (to me) that I'll be back to explore. I'll also be hitting up the fresh made bahn mi bar, where you can customise the toppings and get it rarin' to go. The stuff looked pretty fresh, we'll see. They also let me know they are opening a new bubble tea shop on Kingsland road with a more extensive line of bubble teas, so I'll 1. locate it and 2. review it ASAP. Because I love all of you. And bubble tea.

It's like Whole Foods! With the price tag to match!…read more You know how they refer to Whole Foods affectionately as 'Whole Paycheck?' Well, similarly -- As Nature Intended (me to be broke). I suppose. This mini-chain is very similar to my favored "The Grocery" up on Kingsland Road but I just so happen to be down by Spitalfields often enough that I've popped in to this market a few times for the (not-so) essentials. Let's face it, it's a bleak state of affairs down Commercial Street at Tesco Local. I can't even bring myself to go in there. The amount of plastic wrapping and pre-packaged foods just makes me want to barf, no joke. I just can't most of the time, I'd rather go anywhere else. So yes, while As Nature Intended is a bit pricier -- it's also a LOT nicer, has WAY better food things in it and if I want to pay 100 quid for a bag of (basically) snacks, so it shall be done. Sometimes one just wants to feel wholesome, right? Yes. Of particular interest here is their health and beauty section -- well stocked and comprehensive. They carry REN, which I adore and also full range of Wedela which I buy often for the little person in our house. The soups are great, and they have CO-YO (coconut milk yogurt) which is my favorite thing of 2015 thus far. Staff is friendly. You'll be broke but you'll be happy. Good organic food stuffs up in here.

I LOVE this shop it is probably my favourite on earth and as they say outside their shop "Wealth is…read morewell and truly health". It is fully stocked with healthy foods and goodies to help you get through the week and help you to feel like an amazing human being. To add the staff are super friendly and delightful whenever I visit, always displaying a smile on their face and asking if any help is required (it is always the small gestures that count). I can literally spend near to an hour browsing the nut butters, chocolate aisle and fruit pantry, and last but not least - they even provide a sink for you to wash your fruit and veg if you wish to consume it straight away. Also, if you are lucky you may be greeted with a sample of peanut butter or other tasty snack to help you through your shop. If you're a true foodie and health and fitness fiend like me, you'll fall in love with this place!