359 Deli & Grocery

This place is great. I can understand a lot of people’s concerns about poor service or price fixing BUT…
These guys are legit and they treat valued customers properly. If you are uptight or in a rush or rude, they will give you bad service intentionally. If you are proper, then they go the opposite direction. One of the guys who delivers, I’ll call him mi hermano because I love the dude like a brother. He comes fast and even offers to take my trash down for me if it is there because he is passing by the dumpster anyway.
Williamsburg has changed a lot and this deli has had to deal with the new influx of entitled hipsters. They still crush and, maybe unfortunately, they treat newbies with attitude like crap. I am ok with that :)
Aside from that. Their selection is amazing, the quality of their food is awesome and you can order anything ²⁴⁄₇. yes ANYTHING. They just opened up a new korean menu too. Sounds strange but the place is owned by a Korean family so I’m very interested to give it a try.
Don’t knock my deli. 359 til I die son.

For all the people that have realized how sneaky these guys are at the register trying to get over on you. I applaud you. For the rest of you that are clueless– you either have lots of money to burn or just clueless. WAKE UP !!! I gave it one star for convenience. Thats the extinct of it.
They are SOOOOOO over priced same eggs are HALF the price at C-​TOWN. Iv’e purchased bad milk– moldy old bread several times. Its true what some say they over charge at register, never give you a receipt. And depending on the hour of day– night customers really get raped badly…
This one guy very nice but you can tell is the brown nose of Mr Cho… Will do anything for an extra dollar raise. BEWARE with MIGUEL… Always at the register charging you ALL MORE MONEY THAT THE ACTUAL COST. With a thank you and smile on his face. Ohhhh it does it well– practice makes perfect…
I go to C– TOWN and am so much happier… When I need something different I head to whole foods. I know what i’m getting… nothing old or spoiled like in 359 graham ave deli… And pay the same, or in some cases a little less than them,…

Sometimes it’s hard to let go of convenience, but I’m saying goodbye forever to 359. They sent me a moldy bacon, egg & cheese on a bagel & then treated me like crap when I called to let them know. Seriously? Seriously. The guy on the phone tried to make me believe that the mold had developed while the sandwich was in my hands. I asked him to reimburse my card & he actually told me that I had to come in. WHAT? I got my food delivered for a reason, right? He argued with me & when I had enough of his rudeness & I asked him to just let me speak with someone else.
The other guy on the phone said that they would reimburse me, but I knew that it wasn’t going to happen. They just wanted me off the phone. I popped in later that night & spoke with the «girl in charge,» explaining what happened. Then I showed her a picture of my moldy sandwich. She tried to make excuses for it. «It could be anything!»
It wasn’t anything, it wasn’t relish, or avocado, or anything edible & green. It was mold. Simple as. S#*t happens. It wasn’t the money that I was really upset about. It was that they just acted like I was liar & treating me like an idiot. WTF, 359?! WTF! Anyway, it was mold. I discovered the mold because I smelled it before I ate it. Then I saw it & died a little.
You know, in past, I’d overlooked the fact they use selective pricing here. I just shrugged my shoulders & watched the dollars fluctuate with every same order & then this? It’s ok, though. In the meantime I’ve stopped ordering & I call Anthony & Son Panini Shoppe down the block for sandwiches & deli items & I fully intend to ask the other delis around if they deliver.
My money? Gone. They never bothered to reimburse me. Long story short, stick to pre-​packaged goods here that aren’t made on the premises & expect to be overcharged for them sometimes. Including a photo of my moldy breakfast.

The deli makes a great sandwich and fresh salads. Their pre-​made salads are great too. Fruit is always good.

Warning. As if their high prices weren’t enough. I’ve caught them at the till twice adding extra to my bill. I called the guy on it the second time and caught him adding ice to my bill that I didn’t buy. If you do business with this place it’s worth adding up your bill, making sure the prices match what’s labeled.

Mr. Park’s Store! That’s what we use to call it when my cousins and I grew up in this area while attending P. S. 132. They made a lot of improvements to this store over the years. Back then, it was just a small deli that made some sandwiches. Now they have expanded their store. The back part of the store is much larger now. I assume it use to be a storage room, now it’s all part of the store. They also have a pretty decent selection of beers here. All of the guys who work here are all pretty cool. They’re all friendly and helpful. The L and G train is just a block away and Carmine’s Pizzeria is right across the street.

If you’re way out to Graham avenue, this deli has everything. The onion you came in to buy, Itoen Green Tea you didn’t know you wanted, seltzer in various flavors, and good looking patrons to boot. I like dat.
Plus the counter folks are super friendly, like come back again soon friendly. I think I will!

I like the sandwiches at this place — they are cheap, fast and tasty. They also have a variety of basically everything — don’t forget the frozen food section in the back, and a good beer selection. They also have a good selection of gourmet-​ish stuff — if it was 3:00 a.m. and I needed to buy pâté, Ronnybrook cinnamon butter, English tea, gluten-​free cookies, and Belgian chocolate, I’m all set. I have mixed reviews of their prices — some things are totally reasonable (sandwiches, pre-​made salads, beer –depending on the brand). C-​Town is definitely cheaper, but I think they’re in line with the other bodegas in the hood in terms of pricing. I specifically bought blueberries from them all summer because it was $ 2.00 cheaper than anywhere else. Then again, I just paid like $ 17 for ONE Britta filter, so… I think it depends on what you’re buying whether you’re getting raped on price or not. I’ve always found the staff friendly, although there’s one guy I can never understand. Still, it’s my bodega of choice for the hood.

I used to shop here when I first moved to the neighborhood a few years ago. True, they have a good selection of all sorts of fancy and non-​fancy crap, and the prices are generally in line with what you should expect to pay at a 24 hour/​OMG I urgently need fancy hummus and goat cheese at 4am-​type bodega.
HOWEVER! Did you ever notice how not everything has a pricetag? Yeah, so one day I stop by at about 2pm and pick up a 6 pack of Yuengling. It cost $ 9. Mid-​party, at about midnight, I come back for the exact same 6 pack of Yuengling. It’s $ 12 this time. So… the price went up $ 3 in 10 hours, huh? When the guy rang me up, I asked him what the deal was, and he laughed and pretended not to understand me. This is bullshit. I’d probably had about 50 brief, friendly chats with this dude at this point, and there’s no way he didn’t understand «why did the price go up since 2pm?» I decided that was just a misunderstanding and came back a few more times. Until it happened again, with strawberries. Don’t tell me the price changed in an hour and pretend you don’t understand the question, when I know you speak better English than I do.
Fucking scam.
Also, why are they the only bodega in the neighborhood that allows that crackhead to panhandle on their front steps?
No love whatsoever for 359 Deli.

This is probably the most price-​gouged grocery I’ve ever been in. The cost is about what you’d expect at Whole Foods or Commodities (small fancy organic grocery), but 359’s prices are attached to food on par with something more like C-​Town. Everything is priced roughy 150% of what it’s worth. It’s absurd, and it really feels like a grand insult to oneself to patronize them. It leaves you with that «I just got screwed» feeling after leaving the counter.
What could possibly promote the success of a place like this? Well, they’re well aware that they’re the only grocery with health food nods directly off the Graham stop, and they’re using the presence of a few hippie specialty items (kombucha, vegan ice cream, etc) to mask the fact that it is otherwise just a bodega, with bodega quality food. About ⁴⁄₅^th of what you see here is standard fare for a corner store, but I suppose that the idea is that if you supply a few specialty items, the price can go up on everything. So you’re basically paying organic produce prices for government-​issue conventional stuff. There is an Associated just across the street, but people come here and pay for the same thing because they can top off their purchase with an $ 8 pint of vegan ice cream.
So, I have an alternative: a viable, real-​life healthfood store is just up the street of Graham and Ainslie. It’s called «Quechol Products Organic Mini Market», and it kind of LOOKS like a bodega, but inside is basically a tiny version of what you might see at The Garden in Greenpoint, or other similar organic groceries. Their prices are totally fair, if not low, they have a little bulk section, and they offer growlers of beer on a rotating basis. The prices are LOWER than 359 Deli, but the quality is what the prices suggest, as opposed to a gross incongruity. The selection is also about 1000 times better, and you might actually be able to cook from there.
These people at Quechol are sweet and descent and they’re really proud of their little operation, so give them a try! Between Millennium Market and 359, which seem to share a certain strategy, and this place it is the only actual health food store in the neighborhood, and it gets forgotten down there with its dour little sign. And they’re open til 11pm, which ain’t bad!
359 is there for midnight runs of desperation, and nothing more. Paying their convenience fee in the daylight hours is an insult. I see no purpose in a place who’s quality is the same as a grocery store half as expensive right across the street, and which cost will fetch you nice organic produce three blocks away.
Forget this place.

I managed to visit this place a half dozen times during my 3 day stay with my friend across the street. Coming from SF, where few convenience stores stay open 24/​7, this place was amazing. Being able to get food and cold medicine in the middle of the night — and I think I only visited this place during the night shift — was a godsend. And yeah, it’s pricier than a real supermarket — but you pay for convenience.
I wish there was a market like this across the street from my house.

I don’t understand why people hate on Mr. Cho’s, a.k.a. 359 Deli.
I get that it’s expensive, that’s why I took one star off of what should be a 5 star review. But the pros really outweigh the cons.
Why it’s Essential:
Convenience, people! It’s open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s open during snowstorms and rainstorms. When you need to read the paper at 7 am, it’s open. When you need beer at 3 am, it’s open. And it’s close to home. That alone is worth the extra money. Also, when you want to buy beer PAST 4 am, well let’s just say it hasn’t been an issue here.
Why it’s Extra Awesome:
Choices galore! There are so many different kinds of food stuffs and snacks to choose from, it can make your head spin! Fresh veggies and fruit, dry groceries, frozen stuff, snacks, candy, soda, juice, ice cream… in every flavor, organic or non-​organic, that you can think of. Plus pet foods, condoms, cleaning products, CA$H at the ATM, and a whole ton of health stuff from Advil to Echinacea, they have it. A huge selection of tea and coffee, every variation of soy milk every conceived, and organic milk, half and half, and yogurt. These are just a few examples of the vast array of stuff in there. Plus they have great flower arrangements for when you need to treat yourself to something pretty.
In regards to the staff, they are mostly Hispanic these days and don’t speak a lot of English, so maybe they are talking amongst themselves and not paying as much attention to what the customers are saying, leading them to think they are laughing at them. Mr. Cho (the owner) used to be there regularly, but I haven’t seen him in awhile. They aren’t sneaky and most likely are not snickering at you, unless you look funny or something.
The homeless dudes who beg for money outside are rather annoying. Do not make eye contact, engage them in conversation, and for God’s sake don’t give them any money. Eventually they will die out, or so we hope.

Totally agree with the other poster about getting raped up the ass… The guys at the counter always snicker at me when I check out, like they’re totally getting away with something. They’re not rude, just seem sneaky. And there’s this one homeless guy who is always in front of the store asking for change, when you’re on your way in and then again when you go out. I prefer the corner market on Graham & Metropolitan, or the Khim’s on Graham and Devoe. But darn this place for being so convenient to where I live.