Canyon Gas & Propane

Always friendly; clean neighborhood station.

I stopped in at this gas station to purchase motor oil for my car. This should have been a simple, short interaction. Instead, the cashier asked me if I was old enough to drive, and took several minutes to ring me up. I am almost 20, and although I am small, I do not need this sort of condescension in simple everyday interactions.
The man proceeded to insist that I must only be 16, while smiling creepily at me. I told him no, and tried to move things along. He finally rang up the motor oil, and I left as quick as I could.
Regardless of how old you think I am because of my size and lack of makeup, I deserve to be treated well. I came for motor oil, and received condescension and sexual harassment. Do not provide this place with business, or let your daughters near the creep that works there.

As a resident of Emerald Hills, it’s probably worth a few minutes to talk about the place where I buy 95% of my gasoline.
Canyon Gas and Propane is definitely a no-​frills shop. I’ve never taken my car here for maintenance, but I buy gas here at least once a week. It’s generally cheaper than most places and I certainly can’t beat the convenience. They don’t have debit/​credit card payments at the pump, you have to go inside. They do have air, water, and squeegees, although they don’t really have paper towels available.
The inside is a little cluttered, but the service is always really friendly. The best, by far, is their propane service. As a guy who uses his grill more often than his stove, the relief of knowing that I can run down with my propane tank and have them fill it up instead of waiting 15 minutes for the 16 year-​old to show up, find the key for the cage, and double check that the one he’s giving me isn’t empty already. Even better is they fill it up for cost of the propane. Other places would be 20 bucks minimum for propane, here it’s about 15 or less.
They close a little early, around 8:00, but the convenience, cheap prices and propane make it worth recommending.

Best mechanics in town. Quick, efficient, friendly service. Been taking my Honda CRV here for about a year. Very honest and affordable.

Some of the time this is my closest gas station and it’s fine for what it is. Not the cheapest in Redwood City, but cheaper than most. Main drawbacks are minor: the (relatively) limited hours of operation, separate prices for cash/​plastic, and the fact that you need to spend a little extra time to pay inside, regardless of payment method.

A strange phenomenon: a ghetto-​fabulous gas station in the middle of a high-​end neighborhood. What the heck? Call it supernatural. Considering their gas prices with cash are relatively decent, they get 3 stars. What pushes them to 4 stars is the fact that you can get a fantastic deal here with propane when you use their online or Pennysaver coupons. What makes them definitely not a 5-​star establishment is not only their ghetto setup but the station operator there is somewhat of an idiot. Seeing him handle the propane tank refill process was more painful than watching a dentist pull teeth… and how hard is it to operate a cash register? They need to train their station operators just a tad more so they don’t look so incompetent.

This place is close to my house, so I frequent it every time I need to fill up.
It’s much easier to access than the Jefferson gas station (which would be the next closest choice) since it has six different ways you can pull into or out of, unlike the Jefferson gas station that has only one entrance and one exit. This causes the entry approach for the Jefferson gas station to be a struggle sometimes, and there is usually always a line there.
Once you get familiar with Canyon gas you’ll get used to the times that are a good time to fill up and the times that are a bad time to fill up. For example, filling up at 9am on a Monday is the worst idea you’ll ever have in your life. There will be cars at all the pumps and people waiting for a spot to open up. Then when a spot opens up, some jerk will come flying in off Canyon Road and pull right into the pump you’ve been waiting to use for 10 minutes because the car in front of you was a Suburban with a 50 gallon tank.
And then the yelling and screaming starts because everyone’s late for work, out of gas, and has been stuck waiting in a gas line, and some hot shot strolls in thinking he owns the place.
Filling up on a Monday at 9am is a bad idea.
Filling up close to closing time, during the middle of the day during the week, or usually on the weekend is a great time to fill up.
They also sell proprane, so sometimes you can kill to birds with one stone and fill up your car and your BBQ propane tank.
This place is always $ 0.01 cheaper than Jefferson, and only a few pennies higher than Costco on Middlefield, if not the same price, making this by far the best gas fill up station in the Emerald Hills/​Redwood City area.
While they charge extra for using credit cards, you still get a cash price and no additional fees for using debit card.
Over all, this place is as good as it gets!

Taking off a star because they now charge about 6 cents more per gallon if you pay with credit card, making their prices the same as Woodside Road stations (which have lowered their prices to compete with Costco on Middlefield). Still no card readers, you pay inside. Thus, it’s no longer worth taking a side trip to go here unless you plan to pay cash.

Did you even know that there was a gas station up here in this sneaky little center of commerce?
This place gets 4 stars for convenience (location for me), price (generally lower than the massive stations), being independent, and having gas pumps that actually flow at a decent pace. (Pet peeve… gas pumps that go slow. They make me have to pee like something fierce, no matter if my bladder is full or not).
Note, these pumps don’t have credit card readers in them, so you have to pay inside, which is a pain.