Cermak Produce

Check out the pictures i posted. I get home and my hot dog buns have been munched on. You tell me what you think this looks like? mice/​rats, Correct. I’m disgusted too.

Good go to place in the neighborhood to pick up missed items during my normal grocery stop at Mariano’s. Also a great place to purchase Mexican/​Latin groceries for special dishes. This place is usually jumping though! The parking lots are Holiday style busy almost everyday during peak hours. During the weekends don’t come here unless you have a ton of patience. Fun to walk around and look at unique items. Clean and well stocked.

My husband and I had gone to this grocery store for the last 5 yrs! It was our favorite everything was always fresh and clean. The staff was always helpful and happy! We were so sad when we moved to the suburbs and realized there are no cermaks out here! :(We sometimes find ourselves driving all the way to the city just to pick up a few of our fav’s.

Just moved into the neighborhood, Cermak by far surpasses all others when it comes to stock, pricing and cleanliness. Good-​bye «Mariano’s «.f

This place is great. I stopped in here to buy a molcajete and some other things to cook with and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. They were willing to stop what they were doing and help me find what I needed. I will definitely be back when I come through town again.

First and foremost, I will never go to a Jewel, Trader Joe’s, or Whole Foods ever again for produce. This place has such a great variety of fresh produce and the quality may even be better than the other stores.
Prices here for produce, eggs, and meats were so low that we filled our cart and I expected to pay over $ 160. Our final bill was roughly $ 100 for a variety of meats, seafoods, produce, and eggs.
The only issues I had were that canned goods and other products were a little over priced and for that will be the only reason I ever go back to Jewel. Also, they didn’t have much of a cheese selection. I also couldn’t find turkey bacon anywhere, so I did have to make a special trip to another store for these items.
Anyone who lives near or around Lakeview should hop an el or bus an be going to this store if they want the freshest produce and very cheap, affordable high quality meats.

I like this Cermak Produce location; it’s much larger than the one on North Ave. in Humboldt Park. It’s not impossible to walk to from my apartment in Albany Park, even though it can be difficult somewhat when the grounds are full of dirty slushes and ice.
Anyways, I was glad that hubby and I made it there. The fresh produce department is just beautiful. We picked some of the fresh fruit on sale for the week. For example, $ 0.99 for one (1) box of strawberries? Yes, I’m getting them. How about $ 0.10 for each California naval orange? Please count me in! I love oranges and apples. Gala apples are priced at $ 0.99/lb. currently this week. There are many deals to be had for sure.
We also picked up a two (2)-liter bottle Inca Cola, one (1) bag of seedless grapes ($ 0.99/lb., for approximately $ 2), one (1) bundle of unripened bananas, one (1) 8-​lb. bag of potatoes, and two (2) dozen large eggs (on sale…2 for $ 3). The total came to $ 15.62 after tax. I think Cermak Produce is the winner of the grocery-​store competition in the Albany/​Irving Park neighborhoods.
From now on, I will make a point going there for my grocery shopping. That’s definitely worth of a twenty (20) to twenty-​five (25) minute walk in my book.

Abundant stacks of tomatoes, apples, oranges, piles of leafy green kale, collard greens, boxes of mangoes, strawberries, mini portobella mushroom, papayas and much more. It’s a mexican grocery store so avocados, limes and cilantro are often very fresh and typically less than a $ 1.50. Whenever I’m there, there’s always a guy stacking produce nicely. Cermak is my goto on picking up fresh produce and prices are good.
Meat section has a weird smell of cleaning agents or bleach mixed with barnyard, so I typically avoid getting it. Not being a snob, but I’ve purchased before and it tastes that way too. More veggies, less meat, better for me anyways.
French bread — it’s good, soft and chewy too. It’s the typical brand in most grocery stores, but it’s WARM and fresh sitting in a basket. Also, I’ve bought this same brand at different places, but it’s not as good as here. How they do that?
Small hot foods area in the corner, makes for a cheap take out. On the weekends, the parking lot is a mess. I swear they have 3 separate lots, one on premise and two across the street. Sometimes, if you are lucky, they have small food carts outside by the sidewalk. I haven’t tried it, but maybe I should!

I’ve always been a fan of Mexican stores and when I moved here I wasn’t sure where I would go, well I was introduced to this lovely place.
The meat & produce is cheap and fresh. Their prepared meat is great especially for a BBQ.
This is my go to store since I Love cooking Mexican food. I can find everything I need here.

Love this place, I can go in spend $ 15 and have grocery’s to last me more than a week! The produce is so cheap and fresh, they also have different things that you may not find at Jewels or Wal-​Mart. I always leave happy!

Great produce with reasonable prices. I go here frequently for my fruits and vegetables. Also a large selection of nuts. I purchase flax seed for half the price of other stores.
Definitely worth a look!

I always go to this specific location. Everything they sell is fresh, good and really good prices. The other day I went with my son and I overheard one of the managers talking really rude to one the merchants. The cashiers are so serious but I never cared because they are not rude. But what I heard from the «leader» really upset me. I’m a manager myself and I have taken classes to learn how to treat my employees. I think they are happy with the way I manage them. I don’t know if I want to keep shopping here. Specially if my little one hears bad words coming from the place I shop.

This place was an awesome find. They have tons of produce and it is neatly organized and sooooo much cheaper than jewel! Still had to stop at Jewel bc they didnt have some stuff I needed, but this is my place for produce!

I love and dont love this place simply because it gets busy and parking plus shopping can be a battle depending on when you go there. the prices can be little higher and just right on things .I especially love the cooked food. delicious I swear! But you have to pay in cash but its worth it, especially if your on the go they have spoons and forks. desserts and pastries yum yum.

This place is great. The hours are super convenient. The veggies and fruit are really excellent and are definitely unique from a lot of the chain grocery stores. I love their ready made guacamole and pico de gallo. They often don’t have a lot of mainstream items so you will have to go to other stores for those items.

I don’t live too close to here, but I make the trek down because I really like this place. There’s a wide assortment of fruits and veggies, meats, bread, and Mexican candy available at very reasonable prices. This is where people come to buy food for their families for the week, you know, so it’s good quality, lots of variety, and well… pretty typical Chicago Mexican-​American grocery kind of place.

Decent place and if you disagree dial #311 and report a problem.
*places hand on my hip*
It’s so different from the stores in Lakeview! First of all, every time I go past, you know, minding my biz, it if it’s at dawn or late I get myriad compliments. Which is nice.
Second, there’s always several food carts selling stuff. They’re hard working to be out there so looooooong. I’ve never had anything but might soon.
Third, cheap! Good sales on produce and chicken. I’ve had meat, tortillas, produce ect from here.
Fourth, it’s not a human ant farm all crowded like the bougie stores in Lakeview.
Fifth, hmm? There’s lots of stuff I never saw before like interesting pastries. Omg they had a pork rind that was the size of an entire pig! WTF lol. The pastries, produce, and meat are great quality. There’s tons of ethnic choices for the home chef. Which I’m not. Duh, but do get privileges *wink*
To sum up: CHEAP! Food carts, interesting and cool Mexican products, food carts.
And you can always compliment me for no reason like the guys around there cuz you like stating facts.

In the desert section, right next to the Tres Leches Cake, hiding out all this time, was HOMEMADE FLAN…
I am so happy they never got Reymundo Flan six packs, because it forced me to try something new.
$ 1.99 /​slice. Good to share.

Fantastic produce at absurdly low prices. I could end the review right here.
I’ve never frequented a place that has so many employees devoted entirely to restocking produce. I’ve seen as many as four guys moving as fast as they can stacking onions and replenishing avocados, trading out tomato’s and piling peppers. I love the fresh pressed olive oil at Stanley’s but Cermak is easily 30% cheaper across the board, the sales are incredible and the fruits and veggies are as good or better.
They regularly have limes, tomato’s, onions, potato’s, etc. ten for a buck. Yesterday they had two giant heads of romaine for .99. The selection of vegetables skews Latin but is broad (no shallots or parsley). The fruit selection is more global.
But by far my favorite thing about Cermak is the cut, cubed and packaged melons (cantaloupe, honey dew and watermelon) are the same cost as buying one whole. I love grabbing a quart sized container of precut watermelon for $ 1.29 (.99 a lb). I no longer have to go home and butcher a 10 pounder or take the pipe at bigger chains where I’ve pad $ 5 for the same thing.
They have good, cheap taziki sauce for about a buck a pint (it’s hidden by the fresh pico de gallo and guacamole). Couple all that with it’s proximity to the 10 for a dollar fresh pita at Sanabel Bakery across the street and that’s a Captain Coupon two for one. I’ve got a great dinner almost ready to go from the bag after two quick stops.
I don’t touch the dry or frozen products (too expensive) or use the deli (Tony’s has the market cornered in my opinion). But the bolillos are big, fresh and 3 for $ 1 and the hot carnitas are juicy and $ 3.99 lb.
Winner.

I was there today. They were back to $ 3.99, those little roasted Pollos. They’re messin’ with me. I know it. The birds were a little smaller, but that was OK. I wanna say something like my hero Stuie from Family Guy would say, but I can’t think of anything. How about «when I rule the world, you will all have rotisserie chicken followed by a swift and painless death.?»
Right next to the Pollos are all the pastries. Big hunkin’ slices of Flan and individual slices of cake: chocolate, and my favorite: Tres leches. And others. There is a bin of smaller pastries for as little as 79 cents. The cakes slices and flans are $ 1.99. Whole cakes, which would probably serve around 15 – 20, are only $ 21.99. A full Tres leches cake at other bakeries can be upwards of $ 30. So this is a good pastry stop.