Essene Market & Cafe

While I love supporting local businesses and it’s nice to have an alternative to Whole Foods, I find this place lacking on quality and freshness. I got a pre-​made vegan sandwich from here before and was not impressed considering the steep price — very dry and lackluster. A lot of the produce is bruised and slightly wilted. They also don’t carry staples like baguettes.
It’s okay if you just need to stop in to grab a few items, but you’ll find better quality and prices a few blocks farther down South Street at Whole Foods.

This place has great produce. For a small shop, certain items can get pricey, but there is a good range of healthy options. I found organic pears for $ 1.69 per pound — and they are tasty! Milk cartons are an average of $ 4.50 for organic milk. They even have calestravano olives (the bright green juicy/​sweet/​salty ones). Great options of snacks. Organic cereal can even be found on sale 2/​$ 7.00. Not bad knowing that cereal these days is an average of $ 4.50! Great go to shop, but I would probably still need to go to Whole Foods to do the bulk shopping. This market is great for a quick stop.
p. s. they also have a hot food counter/​deli. Food is fantastic, but pricey. Mushrooms are amazing.

Discovered this place during a quick stop in Philly and was very glad I did! I really appreciated the variety of options here. I went in expecting to be able to get some fresh carrots and was able to walk away with some cooked veggies from the hot food bar at the café there.
When I interacted with the staff there they were fairly friendly though no one asked me if I needed any help or was looking for anything in particular.
This is a great spot to grab some groceries or get a bite to eat. Definitely recommended if you prefer vegetables and healthy meal options over cheesesteaks!

So glad to have Essene in the neighborhood! Not only do they sell fresh organic produce, prepared foods, and special diet-​friendly goods, they also sell vitamins and other health-​conscious items. Think Whole Foods but around ¼ the size and independently owned. It’s close enough that I can do a big shop here if need be (although that has yet to happen) and have a fairly easy walk home with all my purchases. I also like that they have a good selection of cold bottled drinks (lightly sweetened Honest iced teas) that I can stop in and buy if I’m in the neighborhood and craving something slightly healthier than a Monster Energy drink. Keep doing what you’re doing, Essene, because all the Queen Village organic lovers are onto it!

I was so glad I found this place when I was walking around South street because there wasn’t anything close to what I can eat around there. I was looking for something healthy and vegetarian and magically after walking around and admiring the shops and bars I found Essene. I was so famished that I first went to their buffet. Everything was vegan. I got seitan beef and veggies. I also got a green smoothie. My cheeks were full of delish-​ness goodness! I bought a few items before I left. They had a great selection of natural and organic products that I was used to seeing back home.

I love having Essene so close to home and lately find myself choosing it over Whole Foods for most things: fresh food and juices, great organic selection, fantastic supplements section, and even though it may not have a zillion selections in the produce section what they carry is almost always the best quality with special care to include items grown nearby. Go Essene! (I’m waiting for them to open in 45 minutes *_*).

This place is the most poorly managed over priced shit hole in all of Philadelphia. For a place that caters to upscale clientele it’s surprising to find no sense of class anywhere in the place.
It starts with the new owner who feels it’s right to pay minimum wage to his employees while charging maximum wage to his customers. The manager must be underpaid as well, because he doesn’t seem to have any idea what customer service is about, and lets the employees walk all over him. He’s just a total dufus and I can’t figure out why he’s been there so long.
A few examples. The juice bar closes at 9 but the girl who runs it cleans the juice bar at 7:15 and then complains if you order juice after that time. I mean she vocally complains and in a few cases has out and out refused to make juice. She makes it clear she doesn’t like to make juice. She’s always frazzled and stressed. There is a cute bubbly girl there on occasion but I usually get the reject. Last time She did offer to make juice after cleaning at 7:30 but it tasted like soap. Ughhh. The manager didn’t respond with any urgency to my complaint. He’s a total space cadet. «No hassles man, like hey, peace and Grateful Dead Man»
The place is dirty. They charge like 20 bucks for a decent plate of the oily and salty slop that they try to pass off as health food, and the place is just visibly filthy. The «Chef» always looks like he just got off a three day drunk binge and his crew look like like slopped up prison cooks. Dirty hands, dirty floors, dirty uncovered hair, and who knows what else. They sit out front and smoke on breaks and sometimes like to glare intimidatingly at customers. Never a «hello“or «how are you» or any courtesy. Straight off the cool bus just the way the manager likes to hire.
Today I went for juice and was told by one of the inmate-​cooks that they were closing the juice bar so they could clean the exhaust vents on the stove. Ok great but any properly managed place would do that kind of work on off hours. They had plastic everywhere. I doubt the health department condones that kind of work being done during hours while the café is open and people are eating from the buffet .
This is all without mentioning the ceiling that has had the same water stains for 18 years. Looks like they tried to cover it finally, but it’s the same moldy drywall that’s been there forever. It confounds me how people don’t call this business out.

We live two blocks away — Essene is our go to place for vitamins, supplements, and natural foods. It’s expensive, so I swing past and pick up sale items mainly… other items like kelp noodles are comparable and you’d only find them on the web. I really like the staff. Very knowledgable — especially in terms of vitamins/​supplements. They have quality, refrigerated probiotics — not drug store stuff. Their folks pointed me to Gotu Kola and Ashwandha for nerve issues and upon further research — they were spot on (at least the rat studies suggest so with some sound rationale for human effectiveness). The place has great feel to it. The café is nice as well — I really like the soups. I’m not vegetarian so my rating is limited in that respect.

This review is purely for the café portion.
I am very excited about the prospect of quick and healthy food. I don’t mind paying a premium for it if it’s yummy. I’ve now been to the café many times and every time I experience varying degrees of disappointment.
The items seem like they come from quality ingredients but the recipes are just NOT tasty. I often load my plate with a little of everything and end up not eating most of it. And I like a lot of foods!
Today will be my last time paying $ 12 for –a plate of yuck.

I love being close to Essene. It has many things other stores don’t have including WF.
They are always friendly and helpful in there.
The shelves are almost always fully stocked. I have rarely not been able to fine something as a replacement there. They don’t have 4 or 5 of every type of thing but rather 1 or 2.
Their produce department left much to be desired until a much needed redesign not too long ago.
Don’t expect much by way of produce and you’ll be surprised. Expect the selection and quality of WF and you’ll be let down. A lot of their produce seems to come from Israel.
I love the bulk herb section! It is absolutely my favorite. They have everything from parsley to vanilla beans to chamomile. I get most of the basics that I don’t dry myself from there such as basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, etc…
The supplement/​vitamin section is a bit strange but better since a redesigned layout. I used to feel that some of the people in that section weren’t very nice or helpful but as of lately I have had a much more pleasant experience.
Expect to find a lot of odd gems here and I know many who swear by the hot food bar in the back of the shop.

Much better now with the new owners. They seem to have gone to the people store and hired better ones.

OBSCENE not essene. The prices are outrageous, especially for produce, and especially when it’s not guaranteed to be good all the way through. A $ 4 bruised pear!!! What?!? I curiously wondered out loud if there’s a discount to damaged goods. Nope. And do they happily take back their item after purchase? Not when I tried.
Often times I rummage and see things past their shelf life. Cheese, yogurts… No discount given when I see a yogurt expiring the next day. Go to WholeFoods and you find that same yogurt at $ 3 cheaper and an expiration of at least 1 month later.
I find expired items all the time. Makes me wonder how much they actually throw away and how many people are turned off by the prices, or else neighbors rich enough not to care, or desperate enough not to make the walk 7 more blocks to Whole Foods.
With those 2 factors of wasted product and less shoppers no wonder the price is high. Forget convenience, seriously drop the prices and maybe you might have more traffic and less expired foods!

They carry some nice products that can’t be found elsewhere — certain Health and Beauty items, Soom Foods Tehina, Miso Master Organic Miso, and some cheeses from local farms. However, I never find the quality to be that good: the produce looks like it has been sitting out for too long, the bananas that are overripe are still being sold for 1.29/pound which is crazy to me (this is when you usually discount the bananas just to get them moving). My latest issue was I bought a nice block of cheese that, once I got home, realized was covered in mold. They took it back and were nice about it, but I don’t always like thinking I have to so closely inspect everything when I purchase it.
I understand they are in a difficult small and specialty grocer niche, but with the new owner that took over I was really expecting a dramatic change to the quality of product as well as the aesthetic. Neither so far.

Health foods markets are something that I enjoy exploring for some silly reason, and thankfully my husband enjoys indulging me. We popped in Essene Market while out strolling, with no real intention of getting anything. We wandered around, checking out their produce, bulk dry goods, the bakery and café area in back with prepared vegetarian/​vegan dishes, pantry items, and frozen goods.
The selection of grocery items is pretty good, there were a number of items/​brands that I haven’t seen elsewhere, and my husband was impressed with the pets section (and that they had one at all). The produce was ok, but looked slightly on the older side. Prices are on the higher end, but about what to expect from a private, specialty grocer. We didn’t try the prepared foods, but I did pick up a vegan chocolate chip cookie which was pretty good (but not as tasty as the ones I make ;D). As much as I love supporting local businesses, when it comes to household staples I’d prefer to save money where I can and shop elsewhere.

I only duck in here when I am in the neighborhood, which is not often. But I have made special trips for shampoos they carry that Whole Foods does not. Their beauty section is pretty extensive. The workers seem friendly. The bathroom is gross. But the rest of the place seems clean.
Hurray for small, independently owned health food stores. They are a rarity these days. This place is old school veggie, vegan, macro-​food the likes of which I don’t eat, but still appreciate is available for those who do. Most health food stores these days are less about healthy and more about marketing overpriced packaged condiments with cute Etsy type packaging. Not the case here.

This place had mulberries and I have been looking everywhere for them!!! I went here for the Joe Cross book signing and loved that 95% of the store is organic!
The prices are a bit extreme, but I am used to paying those kind of prices…
The customer service is subpar, that’s the only down fall… some staff did not know the products in the store.

Essene is everything I’ve ever wanted in a grocery store.
Judging from what I know about macrobiotics (I read a book about it a long time ago) there is a hot macrobiotic buffet bar (I hope that I am right in that assessment of telling you that this is a for real macrobiotic buffet bar) (If I’m wrong, it’s damn near close to being macrobiotic… like, now I’m wondering if I’ve ever noticed eggplant involved in the selection). The bottom line being: it’s delicious, healthy and almost vegan.
There is a really good juice bar that includes wheat grass shots!!!
Now we’re getting random about my love for Essene: I love the variety of sugars; there is more than one kind of of coconut sugar to choose from! The only meat I have seen is fish and it’s in it’s own separate freezer. I love the demo people by the door — there always seems to be a demo person giving out samples of fun things like vegan fudge. I enjoy eavesdropping on other patron’s early dinner convos on Sunday early evenings in the Café.
They have their own tofu tub. They have raw, vegan egg salad. There are bulk nuts and seeds. The produce is always a beautiful rainbow assortment of seasonal goodness, shooting towards the bulk nuts and seeds. They have Metropolitan Bakery bread. They make and sell something in the bakery called «Energy Balls». I can buy my cat a whole lotta grain-​free food. SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF NOODLES. The personal care and beauty section is not to be missed. Kombucha selection. Aesthetically-​pleasing humidifiers. Want.
I once wrote anonymously to them my wish to carry «Nacho Mom’s Vegan Queso» because I felt that I could tell them this. The cat is out of the bag!!!
Generally, there is stuff here that I didn’t even know that I wanted. And it’s all either green, holistic, organic, vegan, raw and always tasting good. This is a [sometimes pricey, but] great alternative to forking over all of your grocery money to Whole Foods, but one could definitely argue the point that it all costs about the same.
Essene is everything I’ve ever wanted in a grocery store. The End.

I have lived in QV for almost 5 years now. In the past I would pop into Essene on a week night to grab a few things; rather than trekking up to Whole Foods. Their prices on packaged foods are pretty high and their prices on fresh produce are somewhat comparable to Whole Foods (aside from any specials WF may be running). They source a decent amount of local produce, and have a different variety of some packaged products than what WF carries.
My problem with Essene is they don’t seem to get enough traffic for the amount of produce that they stock. On multiple occasions I have purchased fresh items that I cut into and they were rotten or rotted in a few days of purchase. One time I cut into a perfectly good looking onion that I had just purchased and it was completely brown and rotted on the inside. Onions have a pretty long shelf life (as far as produce goes), so I can only imagine how long that guy was sitting in their store before I bought it. Produce from Essene is a shot in the dark, after the onion experience I have been avoiding shopping there. This is a shame because I like the premise of Essene and would love to support a local store rather than corporate chains but it isn’t worth the risk/​extra time associated with buying something that isn’t fresh.
Their baked goods and buffet look decent, though I have never tried them. I haven’t noticed many patrons hitting up the buffet when I was there shopping.

WHY? WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN GOING HERE?!
I stopped in Essene after a walk through Fabric Row and then proceeded to kick myself for not coming in sooner. I was stunned by the sheer size of this place. They have their mini café in the back, plus a great assortment of fruits, veggies, nuts, grains… even pet food and a hair care/​beauty aisle. I know it’s kind of pricey, but I’m officially in love with this place.

I love this store for what they represent, as much as for what they sell. It’s a long-​time local business that really strives to provide great customer service & products to the macro, vegan & community in general.
I get that people complain about the prices, but small stores like this just don’t have the purchasing power of their competitors. And although I don’t shop here as much as I’d like these days, it’s always nice to step inside their doors & see some of the same faces from the early 90s & prob earlier.
Great vitamin & beauty department here. I also like the fresh juicebar a lot. Pressed to order, yum!