Aj’s Fine Foods

I always have a good experience when I go to AJ’s. When it was time to get platters for a wedding open house, I just didn’t consider anyplace else! I called the catering director, and even though it was a busy season, he let me know when he would be available to help me order. The plates were not only beautiful but the fruits and cheeses were the finest quality. Guests were so pleased! They cost a bit more than grocery or warehouse store fare, but they are so worth it!

We live in Val Vista Lakes so sometimes we like to walk over here and browse. They have a great bakery, an outdoor grill to get fresh burgers and hotdogs and a cute little sushi bar inside. You can find some fun gourmet snacks here.

Super helpful employees, finest quality, selection and always clean. Limited high end select brands. The display layouts are close to works of art. The meat and seafood section is worth a visit to see how the 1%‘s eat. You can find items here that are hard to find on the internet. For example: Halloumi Cheese. The World’s Best Grilling cheese and the checkout lady says «This is very popular, we sell a lot of it.» Try finding it on the internet and you will see how pleased I was to see not one, but 12 packages of it in the cheese section. I also went by the deli for some premium pastrami and the bread rack for a great smelling Brooklyn rye. My wife select an aged Feta. Guess what we are having tonight with our grilled Halloumi cheese. Wish you were here, it’s going to be an evening to remember..

The butcher section is amazing! The guys who work back there are always polite, friendly, and helpful. They even have English bangers. This is the only worthwhile section in the store! Promote these people to store management not whatever joke is running the place now. The bakery has tasty treats but the staff and beverages are hit and miss. I also like the teas. So I can only upgrade my star by one due to the other reasons listed below.

I love this place. I go almost daily. They are the friendliest group of people! The best food, the best service! I get all my papyrus cards there for any occasion, as well as treats for my kids, husband and myself. The «Magic Bars» are to die for!

Great sushi bar w/​happy hour! The deli is fantastic (delish green chicken tamales + pizza) as is the bakery, too. Huge spirits selection.

Worst AJs in the valley. Salad bar is always empty or the the items are frozen. The hot food is always over cooked and dried out. Not to mention they never have more than one cashier. I drive 10 miles to the by Kyrene and Ray. That is a what an AJs should be. This isn’t a one time thing, this store in Dana Park is horrible.

Always clean, helpful staff who lend great opinions and options on a variety of products. Brands are limited to a few select ones and although they seem to be the higher quality or caliber than most they arent always the preferred favorites of some.
Pricing is sometimes steep also but again this isnt food city its in a class all to its own.
I highly recommend trying the cappuccino muffin it is nothing short of amazing.

In the past few months, I have seen some new smiling, friendly faces manning the registers and restocking the produce. It is a welcomed change, as my last rating was so low because of the poor attitudes of the staff. The personnel that is still the same has become seemingly happier and more welcoming. Hopefully they have been reading customer feedback and realized life is too short to be miserable. Whatever works! Im happy to adjust my rating because they adjusted their outlooks on life (and the avocados are still the best in town).

This place is a gem, because you can find things here that you just *CAN’T* find elsewhere. Now, that being said… there’s a LOT of stuff here that you CAN find elsewhere, and I’d encourage you to do so. This isn’t your one-​stop-​shop. Go to Fry’s first, and get everything you need. But if you’re preparing a special recipe and want to find something with an extra ‘oomph’, then you owe it to yourself to stop by here. Their USDA Prime meats are *AMAZING*. I’m not kidding. If you’re a regular meat eater then you OWE it to yourself to treat yourself to the Prime meats at some point (for Choice and lower, you can get good cuts at other places).
Sometimes, for recipes, you need fancy things, and this is the place to come for those things. COquilles Saint-​Jacques recipe calling for fish stock? No problem– pop on down here, buy a box, and pour the leftover into an ice cube tray for your next recipe. Walk down the aisles and dream. In the words of Tom and Donna from Parks and Rec:
«TREAT YOSELF!»

There’s a big sign saying Hand Crafted Coffees on a sandwich board over the Bakery/​Coffee (and Teas) area. Now, doesn’t the genteel phrase «hand crafted» mean to you roasting awesome coffee in batches made to your personal specifications? Isn’t it a place for bean-​savvy sophistication? Or, at the very least they’ll make your coffee the way you’d like to drink it? Let me say that my «Carl’s Jnr» coffee from Phoenix the previous day was better, cheaper and served by a happier, friendlier employee glad to see us in her store.
I was not asked my choice of milk. The very skinny and very tall female employee gave me two percent Shamrock milk. I noticed it wasn’t my usual so asked for skim. Her response was to toss out the coffee from the paper cup and refill the same cup with coffee and skim milk.
Were I not concerned for the environment, I might have asked her for a clean cup, too. I don’t want fattier milk and her chucking things around is certainly no Fine Food and «hand-​crafted» experience. It showed reflection of attitude to this customer’s very simple request.
I was too afraid to speak for I thought I’d darken her day further and that she might end up screaming at me. I have no idea what personal calamity she had experienced prior to me ordering my coffee but she looked angry, miserable and I must add has been unfriendly every other time I’ve purchased something at the bakery and tea/​coffee department there.
It’s at least three different times that I’ve had a bland coffee at this purveyor of fine foods and several made with this female employee so I feel it’s fair to suggest to Unilocalers to go to the nearby «Barnes & Noble.» You will have a happier day and most certainly a better coffee experience. I’ll add that I’m very surprised others who take coffee haven’t complained about the staff. The older woman who didn’t serve me on this occasion looked unhappy as well. I’d walked past the open staff room on the way to the restrooms. There’s a sign there stating «Effort not Excuses». Perhaps this should be brought to the attention of this section’s staff?
I’ll finish on a positive note in saying that other staff from other areas don’t give out such negative vibes and actually offer to help you when you’re walking past.

OK, this isn’t the first time I’ve been in an AJ’s but it’s the first time I’ve been in THIS one. AJ’s has the categories of foodstuffs that you’d find in a Safeway or Sprouts, but think of it as not as much to choose from in each category. The produce is very nicely laid out, and even includes locally-​grown items. Meat and seafood is in the back in a fairly elaborate case – seafood, beef, chicken, pork, and various combinations like bacon-​wrapped scallops and pecan-​encrusted tilapia.
There is a nice wine «cellar» and a deli area. There’s even a small outdoor seating area for eating.
AJ’s is nice on one hand because you can find one-​of-​a-​kind items. One the other hand, my experience in here was almost enough to induce a panic attack if you don’t like small spaces crowded with people. There also isn’t very logical organization of items.
So while it’s nice for some things, I don’t think I’ll be shopping here every week.

It’s as if Williams-​Sonoma and Wegmans gave birth and named their baby AJ’s. We’re from the east coast, and I miss my Wegmans dearly… We’ve tried Albertsons, Frys, and Safeway, and none came close to Wegmans until I discovered AJ’s.
It’s a smaller grocery store, and they seem to focus on specialty, gourmet, and prepared foods more than anything else. So I’m not going to go here for toilet paper in bulk or anything, but if I need to get last minute sides for dinner or something, or beer, the beer selection looked insane… Never have I ever seen pineapple beer until I ventured into this glorious store. Not sure if I’d actually want to drink pineapple beer for that matter, but if I change my mind I know where I can buy it!
And I don’t think it’s that much more expensive than other grocery stores. The Shamrock milk cost the same as it did in the regular grocery, they just didn’t have generic brands like the cheaper generic milk, and bulk and all that business. Anyways, bought great humongous desserts from the bakery case, that were worth every bit of the $ 2.99 that they cost. Awesome sushi, broccoli salad, and random groceries.

I hate to give AJs such a low rating, but get real people. Prices are twice as high as Trader Joes and Sprouts. Unfortunately, the food is not twice as good. I was hoping to pick up something for dinner from the deli today, but the food did not look good and for the price I could get a nice take-​out meal at a dozen local restaurants (which is what I ended up doing).
Yes, they do carry some products that you don’t find in some other stores, but that does not excuse the price gouging issue. Calling a store and its merchandise «upscale» doesn’t make it so or justify these prices.

What a pity, great store but incredibly lousy customer service.
We had an issue and the manager was called and was unbelievably rude.
I sent a comment and someone by the name of Bill H. defended her attitude as following company policy, a portion of his response below.
«My manager was not trying to be „quite rude“ but only following company policy and doing her job».
We also asked for some help in the wine area and wow this person chased us to Total Wine. They do have some helpful employees but unfortunately when you are led by these types of people it filters down. So I’m done with this place and will tell everyone my experience.

This place is pretty pricey, but you get what you pay for! Everything seems to be top quality. I really like their outside grill and their bakery is tough to beat. VERY good food! I just wouldn’t really do my grocery shopping here.

Well, came in to try out the Reuben sandwich. The name itself sounds pretty good. It came to the point that I was a little disappointed. I wanted my sandwich hot and guess what I got? Warm sandwich. The corned beef and Swiss cheese was already prepped in their fridge. I was expecting fresh cut from the deli machine. The sauerkraut came from a small packet, not fresh. The guy probably only toasted the bread for a minute so it’s not toasty. The corned beef was a little salty for my opinion. Definetely not getting that again.
On the other side, you get a small side order of anything as long as $ 7.99 and below. I got the cucumber and tomatoes that was soaked on oil (not sure what kind of oil) so it was kinda mushy. I didn’t really liked it but I ate it coz I was hungry lol.
I think the best part was the small dark chocolate that they give you for free. I love dark chocolate so that’s a plus.
Overall, was ok. That sandwich cost me $ 9 doesn’t come with any drink. Oh well!

Having recently moved here from Las Vegas, AJ’s is filling the Whole Foods hole in my life. They both serve the same purpose: wallet busting options for natural, organic, local and/​or specialty foods.
If you’ve been to an AJ’s you know the prices can be outrageous; jars of salsa for $ 7, pastas for $ 10+ a box, and don’t get me started on the fresh produce. But. They have a lot of items that can’t be found elsewhere and if you’re a home cook or just trying to fancy up your dinner options, you can likely find anything you’ll need to make that happen at AJ’s.
They have a fantastic dessert bar/​bakery, hot food bar, sushi bar (with chef!) and their cheese selection is pretty great. They also have a fun little olive bar with different kinds of marinated olives and I think artichokes and roasted tomatoes.
As someone who frequents the meat counter (there’s a joke in there somewhere…), I was happy to find that the employees back there helpful and friendly. They have mostly natural beef, poultry, pork and lamb, but I wish they had more organic and free range options.
The staff for the most part is super friendly and helpful and are pretty chatty at checkout which I don’t mind because they’ll sometimes point out in-​store deals that I missed.
Even if a Whole Foods did pop up in this area, I’d probably still keep AJ’s in my rotation. They house a lot of fun local goodies (like that $ 7 salsa) that I doubt WF carries. Whether you’re making a special meal, looking to get some local or organic produce, or you have some money to burn on unique but unnecessary food stuffs AJ’s is your spot.

Superior deli, akin to Eatzi’s in Dallas. Lots of fancy pre made foods, scads of high end dressings, spices and other food adornments. They even have a lavish little boutique area featuring fancy aprons, cook wear and compelling Doo dads.
Loves, Salami, cheeses, nuts and crackers its pricy, but it is Snotsdale!

I think I just gained 10 pounds by looking at the Bakery case. I told my five year old to be careful and not get her hand prints all over the glass but I think I was being just as bad. I’m kicking myself now for walking away with nothing, but I couldn’t make up my mind. Everything looked so good and they have a great selection of different items.
I love this store. Today was probably the busiest I have seen it (lunch time on a Wednesday) but it was easy to get around. The deli could have used some more staff. I was going to get the pizza special but decided against it because we were waiting for too long.
They carry some great items and are reasonably priced, but if you are expecting Fry’s type deals, you won’t find it here. Yes, it’s part of a chain (a local one at that), but not a big box, fluorescent lighted, SUPERmarket.
The only area I don’t like is checkout. One cashier… on a Wednesday at lunch rush. She called for two other people to come help but they didn’t show. Instead the Store Director hopped on register to help… always happy to see a manager jump in where needed.