Whole foods

[Autumnovember]

Ok so I FINALLY went to whole foods for the first time ever and I got overwhelmed and ran out of there after 15 mins, haha.

A lot of my friends say its a good place to go for certain items since it can get expensive.

One of my friends goes for meat, another for produce, and another for a few other things.

Any suggestions for anything specific there?

I did get a smoked corn sweet pepper dip there today that I really liked and some garlic and hummus but since my little trip lasted 15 minutes, I didn't get to REALLY check everything out.

 

[ForteKitty]

Their desserts are pretty good. and if you haven't tried chocolate covered bacon yet, you should totally try it! (not in dessert section.. it's w/ the chocolates)

 

[Autumnovember]

Their desserts are pretty good. and if you haven't tried chocolate covered bacon yet, you should totally try it! (not in dessert section.. it's w/ the chocolates)

ooooh!!! Interesting, I will give that bacon a shot!

 

[Gypsy]

You do need to pick and chose what you get there cause it can get pricey otherwise.

Okay so my usual buys at whole foods.

San Marzano tomatoes that taste much better than any other and are significantly cheaper than anywhere else too (they ARE domestically grown, not imported, just as an FYI. But for years we bought imported San Marzano's and these are better and again, cheaper!). Best for italian recipes, period. This is the brand and all three types are great: http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/vegetables/images/group.jpg

Fresh Fruit Tarts for special occassions from the bakery. They are pricey but top quality and everyone loves them.

Their ground chicken thighs. Best ground chicken ever. Great for meatballs, kabob, or just as a beef (or ground turkey) substitute.

Lamb (lamb shanks) and buffalo products are nice. So is the fresh sausage selection. I think their beef is too pricey-- unless you have one with a dry aged selection. Seafood is WAY too pricey too.

Cheese section. Everyone has very different tastes with regard to cheese so I'm not going to give you specifics BUT you can try ANYTHING here. And most of the cheeses that you can get other places are more flavorful and tasty from the wholefoods suppliers. Try everything. Tell them to give you a smaller or larger piece. You are paying for service. This is Nordstroms, not Macy's... so enjoy the perks.


Fruits and veggies. Whole foods get MANY more varieties of different than most stores they have 8 types of pears, 10 types of apples, 6 tangerines, etc. So try different varieties. I have discovered 3 types of pears I adore, and I really didn't care for pears (bosch and bartlett...ick) before. Their herbs (sage, mint, etc.) are much fresher and the bunches are large. Their veggies-- especially their fresh greens rock.

Prepared foods. I love thier picnic potato salad (when it is on sale) and their apple-butter squash soup (seasonal). Their green beans with shallots and onions are nummy.

Cold cuts and sandwiches. GREAT sandwiches. Their cold cuts are wonderful and healthy. And they have the best salt and pepper seasoned in house roasted roast beef. And they slice it perfectly.

Breads. Depends where you are but in Nor Cal we have GREAT bread bakeries and they carry all of them.

That's what I can recall now.

 

[Autumnovember]

You do need to pick and chose what you get there cause it can get pricey otherwise.

Okay so my usual buys at whole foods.

San Marzano tomatoes that taste much better than any other and are significantly cheaper than anywhere else too (they ARE domestically grown, not imported, just as an FYI. But for years we bought imported San Marzano's and these are better and again, cheaper!). Best for italian recipes, period. This is the brand and all three types are great: http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/vegetables/images/group.jpg

Fresh Fruit Tarts for special occassions from the bakery. They are pricey but top quality and everyone loves them.

Their ground chicken thighs. Best ground chicken ever. Great for meatballs, kabob, or just as a beef (or ground turkey) substitute.

Lamb (lamb shanks) and buffalo products are nice. So is the fresh sausage selection. I think their beef is too pricey-- unless you have one with a dry aged selection. Seafood is WAY too pricey too.

Cheese section. Everyone has very different tastes with regard to cheese so I'm not going to give you specifics BUT you can try ANYTHING here. And most of the cheeses that you can get other places are more flavorful and tasty from the wholefoods suppliers. Try everything. Tell them to give you a smaller or larger piece. You are paying for service. This is Nordstroms, not Macy's... so enjoy the perks.


Fruits and veggies. Whole foods get MANY more varieties of different than most stores they have 8 types of pears, 10 types of apples, 6 tangerines, etc. So try different varieties. I have discovered 3 types of pears I adore, and I really didn't care for pears (bosch and bartlett...ick) before. Their herbs (sage, mint, etc.) are much fresher and the bunches are large. Their veggies-- especially their fresh greens rock.

Prepared foods. I love thier picnic potato salad (when it is on sale) and their apple-butter squash soup (seasonal). Their green beans with shallots and onions are nummy.

Cold cuts and sandwiches. GREAT sandwiches. Their cold cuts are wonderful and healthy. And they have the best salt and pepper seasoned in house roasted roast beef. And they slice it perfectly.

Breads. Depends where you are but in Nor Cal we have GREAT bread bakeries and they carry all of them.

That's what I can recall now.

I usually reallllllly love some Jersey tomatoes but I totally wanna try those now. Nothing like a good tomato and a pinch of salt. yuuuuum.

Not too sure what fresh fruit tart is?

Will definitely give the ground chicken a shot, I want to make this one soup that has meatballs in it that my mom makes...I need to replicate

I'm gonna go totally bananas with the cheese section...I am a HUGE cheese lover.

I have been getting so incredibly annoyed with the supermarket I normally go to---every single time I buy veggies/fruit it goes bad in 3 days or its tastes like crap, so this is very good news!

Thanks so much for the suggestions!!!!!!

Looooove potato salad & squash!---will try that very soon.

 

[sphenequeen]

LOVE their fresh ground peanut butter (I get the honey roasted). Whole foods really is a place to go for specialty items, IMO.

 

[Autumnovember]

LOVE their fresh ground peanut butter (I get the honey roasted). Whole foods really is a place to go for specialty items, IMO.

Oh man, I love love love peanut butter (have it every single morning). My one friend gets some really good almond butter that comes in little packets...I couldn't find them!

 

[platinumrock]

I love their cheeses, dessert and entree selections. They had real parmegiano reggiano, and the flavor was unreal. I can never go back to regular parmesan cheese again.

Also, their flash-friend fruits and veggies are awesome too!

 

[centralsquare]

Whole Foods' store brand (called 360) is pretty reasonably priced. They have a pretty good selection.

 

[Gypsy]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/foodspotting-ec2/reviews/555416/thumb_600.jpg?1305046581 Fresh fruit tart.

FYI San Marzano tomatoes are canned, not fresh (at least in the US, so far). I love fresh Jersey tomatoes too!

 

[Imdanny]

Went to one today actually. I think it depends. The one in New Orleans was amazing.

The one here, of course, living in the middle of nowhere, doesn't have nearly the selection, and it's expensive. I went there because I didn't need much and it was on the way home.

We have one organic food store here that's locally owned. The food is much better. The prices are much better. But we're lucky. Other islands have only small organic food stores that have almost no selection with prices that are beyond ridiculous, and no Whole Foods.

 

[ForteKitty]

omg the fresh fruit tart is the best! it's a mini-custard tart w/ berries and kiwi on top. YUM!

 

[kenny]

I've heard it called "Whole Paychecks".

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Whole paychecks, but soooo delicious! We go there for special occasions, or specialty items that we can't or don't want to get elsewhere (parmesean is a perfect example). We also love their prepared foods and go there on occasion for lunch or dinner. Their sonoma chicken salad is to die for (chicken, pecans, red grapes and poppy seeds-found in the deli).

 

[Octavia]

I do a lot of my grocery shopping at WF, I don't find it that much more expensive than regular grocery stores TBH. However, I generally buy organic, so I think the prices tend to level out more than they do with conventional foods. For example, organic chicken breasts at WF are actually significantly cheaper than at the Wegmans near me, even when they're not on sale. Ditto for grass-fed beef. The 365 store brand is generally no more expensive than organics elsewhere, though the "regular brand name" products are.

The 365 brand tomato paste (in the tube) is awesome. Love that stuff.

The big draw for me is the bulk bins -- I get my oatmeal, rice, dry beans, lentils, quinoa, and sometimes nuts there. DH really likes one of their granola cereals, too. I haven't bought honey or olive oil from the vats yet (they don't have them at all the stores, and not at the one nearest me ) but I definitely want to.

They also have the best selection of local produce outside a farmers market. I'm willing to pay a premium for this, though.

The prepared foods are very good, I don't have them often but when I have, I've been pleased.

AN, I think you live near me -- did you go to the one on 73? That one is AMAZING (especially compared to the ones in the city)!

 

[vc10um]

Looooove Whole Paycheck!

I will agree with everyone who has mentioned going there for produce. They definitely have the best produce in the area, and for local or seasonal items, they actually tend to have the best prices (unless safeway or giant is running some sort of fire sale on a particular fruit or veggie). My husband and I are getting really into local and organic produce, not necessarily because of health, but because of the environmental impact of the petrolium-based fertilizers and the transport from long-distances.

I also LOVE their cheese department. Delicious and dangerous. At least the fact that hubby is lactose intolerant keeps me from going overboard. But their selection of goat and sheep cheeses is amazing.

We love their 365 frozen pizzas in a pinch...DH loves the BBQ chicken, I love the roasted veggie, which comes without cheese, and I just add my own lowfat shredded cheddar or a touch of crumbled goat cheese.

I have to ditto everything Octavia said about the bulk bins, but the variety and number of bins varies EXTREMELY from store-to-store. Our current WF doesn't have many, but the one I use to go to in Ann Arbor had a WHOLE AISLE of them!

Also a thumbs-up to Gypsy's suggestion of the in-house roast beef from the deli counter. It's PERFECT. I also like their in-house herb roasted turkey breast.

HH, that sonoma chicken salad is TDF, isn't it!? I really enjoy most of their prepared salads from the deli case. It's been a long time since we've purchased any, but I can't remember a single one I haven't enjoyed.

Enjoy!

 

[cookies]

Whole Foods has been the primary source of my food for a few years. I go there for organic daily stuff, including vegetables, fruits, dried fruits/nuts, cereal, soy milk, tofu, jelly, bread, rice, beans, meat, seafood, etc. WF has a large selection of organic food. The list can go on and on...

For each type of food, WF tends to have a smaller (and pricier) selection than some other supermarkets. Their own brand (365) tends to be a bit cheaper than the original brands. Their selection is usually of decent quality. Since I don't like going through large selections to pick things out, WF works very well for me.

WF seems to bring in fresh vegetables (and maybe other stuff) on Saturday morning, so you can get the best if you go around that time, but it could be a little crowded too. I usually go after work on weekdays.

 

[soocool]

AN, where is the Whole Foods you went to? I have never been to one. There used to be a Carrefour (an international hypermarket) in Franklin Mills that closed down a long time ago. Huge store and phenomenal prices with a great bakery and seafood department.

 

[Autumnovember]

AN, where is the Whole Foods you went to? I have never been to one. There used to be a Carrefour (an international hypermarket) in Franklin Mills that closed down a long time ago. Huge store and phenomenal prices with a great bakery and seafood department.

Hii!!!

I'm actually in North Jersey during the week so I went to one around here.

On the weekends though, I'm going to go to trader joes if I need to. They have one right in the city and one in Jamison.

Oh! And Wegmans in Warminster.

 

[Haven]

We shop at Whole Foods a lot. we typically buy produce from there, and also:
- A Rainbow trout from Whole Foods for our pup Bailee every Sunday.
- We usually order our poultry from local(ish) farms, but if for some reason we need poultry and can't get it from a local farm, we go to Whole Foods for it.

 

[Gypsy]

AN, where is the Whole Foods you went to? I have never been to one. There used to be a Carrefour (an international hypermarket) in Franklin Mills that closed down a long time ago. Huge store and phenomenal prices with a great bakery and seafood department.

Hii!!!

I'm actually in North Jersey during the week so I went to one around here.

On the weekends though, I'm going to go to trader joes if I need to. They have one right in the city and one in Jamison.

Oh! And Wegmans in Warminster.

AN is it Trader Joes that you are having produce issues with? ME TOO. Everything goes rotten in 3 days. I've stopped using them for anything fresh but chopped onion (cause I can be lazy) and mushroom caps (that I use immediately) and Rocket (arugula).

I love Wegmans and miss it. I actually had a dream about their vanilla napoleons a while back. They are my favorites. Can somone Fed Ex me some. LOL.

The Sonoma Chicken salad! I forgot about that. We try not to do prepared foods with meat (exception of good cold cuts) so I don't get it often, but the couple times I have it's been very nice.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Looooove Whole Paycheck!

I will agree with everyone who has mentioned going there for produce. They definitely have the best produce in the area, and for local or seasonal items, they actually tend to have the best prices (unless safeway or giant is running some sort of fire sale on a particular fruit or veggie). My husband and I are getting really into local and organic produce, not necessarily because of health, but because of the environmental impact of the petrolium-based fertilizers and the transport from long-distances.

I also LOVE their cheese department. Delicious and dangerous. At least the fact that hubby is lactose intolerant keeps me from going overboard. But their selection of goat and sheep cheeses is amazing.

We love their 365 frozen pizzas in a pinch...DH loves the BBQ chicken, I love the roasted veggie, which comes without cheese, and I just add my own lowfat shredded cheddar or a touch of crumbled goat cheese.

I have to ditto everything Octavia said about the bulk bins, but the variety and number of bins varies EXTREMELY from store-to-store. Our current WF doesn't have many, but the one I use to go to in Ann Arbor had a WHOLE AISLE of them!

Also a thumbs-up to Gypsy's suggestion of the in-house roast beef from the deli counter. It's PERFECT. I also like their in-house herb roasted turkey breast.

HH, that sonoma chicken salad is TDF, isn't it!? I really enjoy most of their prepared salads from the deli case. It's been a long time since we've purchased any, but I can't remember a single one I haven't enjoyed.

Enjoy!

Totally off topic, but it's awesome to hear you refer to him as your husband

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

AN, where is the Whole Foods you went to? I have never been to one. There used to be a Carrefour (an international hypermarket) in Franklin Mills that closed down a long time ago. Huge store and phenomenal prices with a great bakery and seafood department.

Hii!!!

I'm actually in North Jersey during the week so I went to one around here.

On the weekends though, I'm going to go to trader joes if I need to. They have one right in the city and one in Jamison.

Oh! And Wegmans in Warminster.

AN is it Trader Joes that you are having produce issues with? ME TOO. Everything goes rotten in 3 days. I've stopped using them for anything fresh but chopped onion (cause I can be lazy) and mushroom caps (that I use immediately) and Rocket (arugula).

I love Wegmans and miss it. I actually had a dream about their vanilla napoleons a while back. They are my favorites. Can somone Fed Ex me some. LOL.

The Sonoma Chicken salad! I forgot about that. We try not to do prepared foods with meat (exception of good cold cuts) so I don't get it often, but the couple times I have it's been very nice.

This must be a nationwide issue at TJs, because I bought some fresh prepared veggie kabobs on Saturday and they were spoiled by Sunday night when I went to cook them, and I went to a TJs in RI....

 

[zoebartlett]

I'm bummed because the closest WF to me is 40 minutes away in another state. I might just be crazy enough to try it once, but obviously I can't make that our go-to place. At least now I have a few things to look for if I do try it out.

 

[Gypsy]

Must be. Well, at least I know it's not my imagination. No more produce at TJ's.

 

[NOYFB]

DH and I are vegetarians. Shopping at Whole Foods takes a huge bite out of our grocery budget.
I go about 2x/month and stock up on the following things I cannot find at the local grocery store or produce market:

Vital Farms Eggs (these are the only ethical eggs, from pasture-raised hens). They are $6.99 a dozen.
Morningstar Farms meat-free products (they have a better selection than the local grocery store)
Quorn meat-free products
Prepared meat alternatives (seitan/tempeh)
Non-dairy cheese (we still eat dairy cheese, but I try to limit it)
Vegan wine
Amy's Naturals products (again, better selection than the local grocery store)
Nutritional yeast

 

[pregcurious]

They have decent prices on cheeses and chocolate for baking (big chunks wrapped in Saran Wrap, sold per pound). If you like processed meats, but not the nitrates and the grossness that can go into them, Whole Foods carries non-cured and organic sausages. I like to get white bratwurst here.

They also carry really nice bath products at prices that are low compared to similar brands at Mall stores.

 

[Autumnovember]

AN, where is the Whole Foods you went to? I have never been to one. There used to be a Carrefour (an international hypermarket) in Franklin Mills that closed down a long time ago. Huge store and phenomenal prices with a great bakery and seafood department.

Hii!!!

I'm actually in North Jersey during the week so I went to one around here.

On the weekends though, I'm going to go to trader joes if I need to. They have one right in the city and one in Jamison.

Oh! And Wegmans in Warminster.

AN is it Trader Joes that you are having produce issues with? ME TOO. Everything goes rotten in 3 days. I've stopped using them for anything fresh but chopped onion (cause I can be lazy) and mushroom caps (that I use immediately) and Rocket (arugula).

I love Wegmans and miss it. I actually had a dream about their vanilla napoleons a while back. They are my favorites. Can somone Fed Ex me some. LOL.

The Sonoma Chicken salad! I forgot about that. We try not to do prepared foods with meat (exception of good cold cuts) so I don't get it often, but the couple times I have it's been very nice.

It isn't trader joes---haven't been there yet. It's one called "superfresh" and another called "AP fresh"...there is nothing fresh about them! Perhaps I will fedex you those vanilla napoleons