This place is fantastic. I am visiting Kitchener from out of town. It's been a grueling, summer of…read moretravel, and instead of eating in airports and restaurants, I have been trying to go to grocery stores and buy fruit and vegetables and like, rotisserie chickens and stuff so I'm not eating garbage. First of all. This place smells amazing! I saw a lot of comments about the fragrance of the store and it reminds me of Hong Kong and all the fantastic times I have had there. Clearly, this is an Asian grocery store. It's not where you would go to get regular, every day western sundries. I bought some oolong tea, some kimchi, a beautiful, ripe, delicious papaya, some frozen jackfruit, and avocado, a jar of fermented, spicy bean curd. I wish there was a place like this in my neighborhood. Oh! There was a ton of beautiful, beautiful, looking fresh fish, a tank, full of shellfish, a ton of spicy, funky, sauces, and every kind of exotic Asian item you could ever look for. They're super nice. Bring a debit card or cash. There's an ATM in the store anyway.

almost everything is ok. once you buy a poor quality product and they make sure you are honest ,…read moreand then offer kind returning

Central Fresh Market is one of the few remaining locally owned, independent grocery stores in K-W…read more Their modest selection caters slightly towards the local Eastern-European population (rye breads, offal, and a broad selection of Mr. Goudas canned goods). Although there is no butcher counter, their selection of fresh, pre-cut meat is decent -- Central is my first stop when looking for steak for the grill, or a pork shoulder for the smoker. A treasure if you live in the neighbourhood. Probably not worth a drive across town.

I went to the bakery in Central Meats and I bought 2 packages of the powered donuts lemon filled…read moreand Raspberry filled I was so excited when seen them those donuts are part of my childhood minus the powered sugar I had a lemon filled when I got home it was Deeelious! But the next day all my donuts were wet, and the powered sugar all nasty they were a turn off it's a Shame they looked horrible I threw them out please make them without the powered sugar..

Tips: - Collect Moi points here…read more - You do not need any coins to unlock a shopping cart. However, the cart will lock its wheels if you take it beyond the parking lot. After having lunch at Country Boy Family Restaurant, I needed to get a few grocery items. I did a search and found this Food Basics across the street. Perfect! There was lots of parking. i backed into a spot and walked over. I like that you don't need any coinage to unlock a cart. There is a sign on each cart that says that the cart will lock its wheels if you take it out of the parking lot. After grabbing a cart, I was mesmerized by the display of Tostitos and Lay's. The price was decent for a bag. I have always loved shopping at Food Basics. Prices are good for the quality that you get. The produce section greeted me. Everything looked fresh. The celery looked healthy. The avocados came in every form of ripeness imaginable. I liked looking at the cut-up fruit. The pineapple and watermelon spears were much cheaper here than at Walmart. I bought one of each. They were delicious. This place has a decent tofu section. Daiya and Gusta products were above the tofu. The variety was excellent. Silk beverage was a steal. This store even had the dark chocolate variety. The international food section was amazing. It had kewpie mayo, ghee, and more. I finally got a small drink box of Grace peanut punch. It was enjoyable. I wish I had this drink when I was in high school. I'd be all over it instead of my usual fruit punch. I was excited to see Canada Dry zero-sugar strawberry lemonade ginger ale. I hadn't planned on getting a case of pop, but I made an exception here. It's refreshing! This store has self-checkout kiosks and humans at the checkout. I chose a human. She was cheerful and bubbly. I had her scan my Moi points barcode. She was great with helping me check out. A male staffer decided to pass by my cart and me. It was such a tight space. Why? It was so distracting that I nearly forgot to take my phone off the small table by the payment area. This cashier apologized. I'm thinking that this guy could have chosen to cut through the self-checkout area instead of inconveniencing me with his let-me-squeeze-through-a-tiny-space-like-the-snake-that-I-aspire-to-be move. I was not impressed. I paid with a credit card. I tapped. Done! I packed everything in a reusable bag, except for the case of pop. I thanked this woman and left the store. After loading my car with my goods, I put away my cart. I then left. I enjoyed shopping here, minus dealing with the male staffer. I'd drop by again the next time I'm in the area and need groceries. (211)

I bought deli roast beef for subs a couple of weeks ago. It was 3 weeks til the expiry date so it…read moreshould have been fine. Much to my surprise, when I opened it to make roast beef subs that evening, the meat was slimy! It was disgusting and had obviously been 'left out' at some point and started to rot. Needless to say, no subs were had! Today, I returned to Food Basics to return it for a refund. After a little rigmarole, a 12 year old 'manager' checked with his supervisor, came back and told me that they they couldn't refund me. Apparently their policy is if it's beyond 14 days from the time you bought the stuff, they can't refund you because they can't put it back on the counter and try to sell it to some other sucker! (They couldn't have put it back out anyway because it was disgusting, slimy and rotting!) I couldn't eat any of it, and it was $11 worth of roast beef! I've been a good and frequent customer at FoodBasics on Highland Rd. in Kitchener for years. Apparently that means nothing there. I won't be returning any time soon if this is how they choose to treat their loyal customers!

I really like this grocer! It is within walking distance to my home otherwise I probably wouldn't…read morepick it first. I mostly go because they have nice stuff to window shop and good / affordable snacks :) they kind of remind me of Whole Foods. My favourite things to get from here: - they have an artisan bread section so I like getting their sourdough/baguettes - they have a little bakery with really good macarons, cheesecake, Portuguese tarts, and cannoli (among other goodies!) - they have fresh sushi which is pretty good most of the time. - in terms of snacks in the isles, they sell really cheap instant ramen, plantain chips, and drinks which I love to try - they also have decently priced ($12-20) flower bouquets and their selection is always changing. They also carry cute plants - ive also gotten a few cute mugs and plates from here for very cheap! - there is a tim hortons inside with a large sitting area Produce and regular groceries are typically 1-5 dollars more expensive than competing grocers. So keep that in mind.

Rocks found in Zehrs in-house made pasta…read more I feel that the public at large has the right to know about this rather serious food contamination issue and the total lack of care and action on the part of both Zehrs and Loblaw Companies Limited. I had purchased a tray of penne alfredo with chicken, made in-house at Zehrs #560 in the Laurentian Shopping Center 750 Ottawa St S. in Kitchener Ontario on June 6, only to find rocks and sand throughout the entire dish. After reporting it to Zehrs and getting no reply within 24 hours I called customer service and was told that someone would call me. They responded by e-mail saying that they will investigate and as "goodwill" deposited 15K PC Optimum points ($15 value) into my account. I should note that they never even asked if I had an account, and the account that they allegedly deposited to has had an error for years and simply doesn't work. Nobody ever followed up to investigate. E-mailing them back to inform them that the value of my money back plus less than $2 was not really goodwill and that the account doesn't even work, well, they didn't respond. The account still doesn't work. So I let the public relations department at Loblaw Companies know... after 4 full business days they didn't respond either. I might add that reporting the issue to Region of Waterloo Public Health effectively went nowhere as well. They filed a report with the CFIA, despite being informed that it had been already by myself. CFIA's recommendation was to report it to Region of Waterloo Public Health as it was outside of their jurisdiction, sending me in a circle. In short, if you get rocks and sand in your in-house made food from Zehrs, don't expect to get any meaningful response. Don't expect them to take the matter of contaminated food seriously. How did rocks get into the food in the first place? Don't even expect to get your money back, as a goodwill refund of money back plus less than $2 may actually just go into an abyss. They may not even care if anyone suffered any injuries nor take any action at all to remedy the situation. So I'm left with a frozen sample of the product for review, 3 weeks of frustration and hours lost to communications with nothing to show but a complete loss of trust in the brands and representatives of Zehrs and Loblaw Companies. All that I'm seeking out of this is to be recognized, acknowledged and made whole, to simply be heard. So much for their Core Values of Care, Ownership, Respect and Excellence. Perhaps this could be a catalyzing event to enact a change in their handling of such situations. One could only hope. Sincerely, Disheartened Customer

I love this grocer. Really close to me. Prices are usually good. The place feels really easy to…read morenavigate and go through. Not a big range of options for international goods or items in general, but good if you need to pick up a couple quick things or snacks!

This is our local FreshCo supermarket near where I live. It replaced an aging Price Chopper that…read morepreviously occupied this location and the updated clean and fresh look is very welcome. My wife and I shop here often, and we love the low prices on many of the items that we purchase regularly. The staff have always been friendly to us, and are willing to help you find what you are looking for. They also have a low price guarantee, which can help save even more money. On the downside, there are at times epic line-ups at the registers during peak periods.

I visited two grocery stores in the Kitchener-Waterloo area within two hours. Both visits were…read morehighly unexpected. After lunch, I had originally thought of going to see a movie. I was heading to the VIP theatre in Kitchener when I saw Farm Boy. I got more excited visiting this store that I ended up deferring my movie. I had heard good things about Farm Boy. The closest one to my home is in Pickering. I have yet to go. This Farm Boy shares the same parking lot as Canadian Tire. As a result, there is tons of parking. It felt like an epiphany when I walked through the automatic doors. Lots of leafy greens on my left. I was so happy! Farm Boy reminds me of visiting Trader Joe's in the States. You can basically find a variety of yummy food items no matter what dietary restrictions that you may have. I found bags of Vegan Rob's snacks. I am borderline lactose-intolerant. Three bags were going for $4. Naturally, I bought three. The dairy-free cheddar puffs are amazing! And then, I got all happy at the bakery. My beloved Portuguese egg tarts were here! You can get six for $7.99. Done! They are even better the day after. So yummy! I also bought some dairy-free hot chocolate. It's perfect for this time of year. I am also a hot chocolate addict. I went to cash out. A cheerful woman asked if I needed a bag. At first, I said no. I then remembered that I have a bag clipped to my purse. It's a penguin that you unstuff to get your shopping bag. She thought that it was so cute. She bagged my goodies, which was wonderful. Prices are pretty good. I liked the variety of items. They all looked good and fresh. Whenever I am in the area, I'd definitely coming over here. (20)

I came here after the Rugged Maniac race and the hot food section was amazing and very reasonably…read morepriced. The hot bar was $2.19/100g as opposed to Whole Foods which is $2.49/100g. While $0.30 may not sound like much, but if you get 400 to 500g that's just around $1.00 to $1.50 which is a big difference. I ordered the 10 inch vegan pizza and it was delicious. It was made in a wood oven and the crust was great. Best of all, it was only $8.99. Loved it. I didn't take a look around elsewhere, but I will be sure to check out the location closer to home.

I wasn't impressed. I don't think they should be able to call themselves wholesale for a couple of…read morereasons. We went to this location in order to purchase small sample size cups for an event. Their cup supplies were not very well organized and it took some time to find it. We went through the grocery section and noticed that the prices are basically grocery store prices. There is no wholesale. If someone was looking for much larger sizes of things for a restaurant, they could certainly find it there. However, I found it expensive they have fresh produce which could be purchased more cheaply at Costco at the cash register. We were asked if we would use our PC optimum card and that's when we realized this is a grocery store with some restaurant supplies, one of the big things that should have triggered that thought was that there's no membership required. In terms of the staff, I found people very friendly, and the location is quite good. If I were just reading the staff, they would get a five star.

I stood in line behind a problem customer. Jinny the cashier handled the matter professionally…read moreworking to scan his items and answers his questions and stood strong to nuisance remarks. This location has essentially costco size items at superior to Costco price and does not require membership. It's one of my favourite places to go to. The staff are very nice, no line ups and price scanner error lives here. My favourite item to buy is the Chapman bucket ice cream. Buffet quality ice cream serve to enjoy at home. Cheers!

After visiting Kenzo Ramen for lunch, I noted this Asian supermarket next door. Since I love food…read moreand shopping, I stopped by to browse. It looks like you can order hot food here. I wasn't paying full attention, as I was stuffed from lunch! There is also a mini bakery section where you can get non-meat buns, such as coconut cream buns. They also have sticky coconut peanut balls. The selection is extensive. Prices are higher than what I am used to, which is expected since Markham has a large Asian population in comparison. As an example, a five-pack of ramen is just under $6. I can get the same thing at my local grocery store for half that price. I bought a can of coconut cream peanuts. I blame my manager for getting me hooked on them. Yummy! I also got a ton of cough drops. They are effective. I bought them just in case I need them. The woman at the checkout was friendly and engaging. You can use debit and cash. I am not sure about credit cards, but I suspect that you can. It's a decent store for all your Asian groceries. I'd be happy to shop there if I lived in Waterloo. (77)

Times have surely changed. I went to the University of Waterloo during the mid-90s and there wasn't…read morean Asian Grocery store anywhere near both Universities. Heck, I don't even remember having a Sushi place nearby. Flash forward to 2019, and there's an Asian Grocery store servicing Asian students in both Universities. There's not a lot of variety in terms of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats but man, do they have an extensive variety of Chinese, Korean and Japanese snacks and grocery. We found Korean snacks and flavours that even the North York Galleria don't carry in their stores. We were very impressed. However, as indicated in the other reviews, the price point is a bit higher than in Toronto. This is an ideal store for homesick students wanting a taste of home. #22 of 2019

Ammar is the top notch Arab shop With my favourite Lebanese imports. It's clean and not busy at…read moreall. It's been the best place to get snacks and drinks for me since years.

I walked out because it was so horrible. The food is not fresh. The liver has tumors in it. They…read morewould not serve me because I am a female. I waited for 10 minutes. They would not even make eye contact with me. I had to walk out if you are not a male, they will not serve you.

As it says, they do sell fresh goods and for a good price. Freshco does indeed live up to it's…read morename. It's probably one of the best supermarkets in the area. Beside it is a barber shop called great clips, there is a glasses clinic, and theres a subway beside it along with a Tim Hortons and a gas station. That's pretty nice if you ask me.

So today was my first shopping trip since Covid precautions were put in place…read more Shoppers are bringing in their own bags. There is no hand sanitizer or wiping down of carts. All aisles are free range and two way. The only 2 meter spaces are at the cash register. Shoppers were self distancing while in line. Folks still not practicing common sense. When packing my groceries, I was 2-3 feet from the person who had gone through the same cashier. They need to step up the safety measures. I can say the shelves were mostly well stocked.