Andronico’s Community Markets

This is our go-​to neighborhood grocery store for the mid-​week ingredient pick up. I especially love their produce and cheese departments and the beverage aisle. The generous parking lot is nice, too, for when we don’t feel like walking. I wish we could do all of our regular shopping here, but it’s just so much more expensive than Trader Joe’s that we use it to supplement our TJ runs. Some reviews have mentioned poor customer service, but we’ve been coming here for years and I have never had a problem.

This store is truly a community market. Went in this afternoon and the butcher asked me how my son was doing, the cheese lady helped me choose some wonderful cheese for a dinner party, there was a wine tasting on one side of the store and live music on the other side. Not your average supermarket.

Despite being one of the most expensive grocery stores in the bay area (or because of it?), many of the employees are arrogant and seem to hate helping customers. This is especially the case in the meat department. A case in point was this afternoon. While the line of customers got longer, the six or seven butchers seemed determine to keep up their private joking around. When they could not help but help us, one came over and angrily asked what I wanted. No need to say «sorry to keep you waiting» to the customer. How pathetic.
There are some friendly people working here. Hence the two stars.

Thanks goodness for creative sandwiches. I’m only here a couple of times in the year when I’m in the Inner Sunset but this particular sandwich is fantastic. Soft French sour dole bread with slices of papaya, cranberry filling, and for the main meat ingredient — turkey slices. Oh, man, is this heavenly eatery or what. And also, the surrounding area is so quiet and peaceful.

Amazing! I was just fed up to buy my meat at Safeway, too far and a bit expensive. I was actually looking for lamb meat, pretty rare and not that cheap. I came to Andronicos and found my lamb meat and guess what? Cheaper than Safeway! :)
I could buy some amazing goat cheese with honey flavour :)
Definitely an amazing place!

Terrible! I have to keep coming back here since it is the only food market in my neighborhood. Otherwise I would never go to this particular location.
I bought 4 chicken legs (3.49 per lb) and they charged me 8.99 per lb (boneless breast). I didn’t pay attention till I got home. Ok. It was pouring outside so I came back and explained the situation. I wanted them to return the difference in price, as anyone could make the mistake. Neither the guy who’s made this mistake nor manager ever apologized to me. I was super upset. Since I didn’t want to make a scene, people don’t think they owe you an apology for the mistakes they’ve made.
It was on January 29^th around pm

Please be careful when buying produce. We bought blackberries an hour ago– the top layer looked great but everyone of the hidden bottom layer was moldy. Speaks to sloppy maintenance of the groceries. Note this is not the first time it’s happened.

Coming from a family in the commercial real estate biz, I’ve always had a fondness associated with this particular Andronico’s, just because of who helped close the deal, and being walked through the shiny new store upon opening getting to feel a bit of pride at the matter (although as a kid, not really understanding what the fuss was THAT much).
Fast forward to 2015, and I was drawn into Andronico’s again to see what fun offerings this high-​end grocery store may be stocking. I was more than happy to walk out clutching:
— Smoked grey sea salt
— Italian hazelnut paste
— Cracked rye flour
— Dark demerara sugar
— Naturally dyed sprinkles
I’m blanking on what other treats we had to stuff my purse with after we paid at the cashier (as we forgot a shopping bag, and didn’t feel like paying for a reusable bag), but we had a good haul. I wouldn’t dream of shopping here for daily groceries ($$$), but for specialty items, Andronico’s is golden.

Unjustifiably over priced. I refer to it as ‘the white trash Whole Foods’ because that’s exactly what it is. Every person working there looks like a former, or future, meth addict. At least at Whole Foods they clearly smoke and drink, and you know SOME of them have dabbled in heroin. More importantly, Andronico’s prices are OUTRAGEOUS compared to Whole Foods, and WF also offers their own 365 labeled items even cheaper yet.
I have purchased the occasional bakery item, not good. I go for the GREAT milk selection (where else are you gonna buy sheep’s milk? Or raw unpasteurized milk in a gallon?), the rather reasonably priced organic vegetables, and the escargot. Yes they sell escargot in the meat section. But that’s kinda it. Easy to spend $ 60 and still not be able to make a ‘meal’.

I love Andronico’s and if money was no object I’d shop here all the time. I do buy many basics from Trader Joes but love the produce /​salad bar /​cheese/​butcher sections. Much more enjoyable to shop here than Whole Foods in my opinion with a much larger selection. The bakery is also really good, try the muffins.
Staff are friendly and they often have cheese samples and wine tasting on Fridays.

Great neighborhood market. It’s your typical local neighborhood organics/​quality market. They have incredibly fresh produce and great cheeses. They’re appropriately priced and what you would expect for the quality. For those who don’t like spending that kinda dollar for good stuff, it’s still a great place to treat yourself if you wanted to splurge a little bit on a nice home cooked meal, or cheese. Always go for cheese.

I have yet to go into Andronico’s and have a good experience, the shoppers are rude, the workers are indifferent and dismissive, prices are extremely high and the quality food not as good say Mollie Stones or Lunardi’s.
So my Mom picks out a roasted chicken for $ 9.99 the Deli/​butcher says he will cut it for her — no cutting charge. He hands it back to her — the price$ 6.99.
For ¹⁄₃ off the price she gets half the chicken? Keep the chicken, keep your store.

Amazing cheese. Great wine and beer too. Open till 10pm
Hot and cold food. Fresh salads bar. Deli is on point. Ask for samples.
Fresh meat and seafood.
The bakery section is just adorable.
Plenty of bulk food. Nuts. Fruits. Granola.
Parking lot in the back or street parking

Next to a friend’s house we mostly came here out of convenience. Turns out a six pack, a loaf of bread, and brie cheese will cost you 32 somehow… YIKES!

This place is so expensive — however!
Great cheese bar. Great olive bar. Great hot bar. Very good meat counter. Well curated liquor and wine and beer selection.
But still — exorbitantly expensive. I’ve made the mistake of doing a full grocery trip once or twice before.
Bigger, better, and more complete selection than Whole Foods. Do not go here to buy staples.
Glad it’s around, though.

3÷1÷2016
Their fried chicken had a wee bit of salt in it!!!
— — — –
Unfortunately Jenni’s ice cream is not stocked there right now because of the listeria scare some time ago at the Jenni’s Ohio production plant. Oh well.
Andronico’s savory baked/​cooked items seem to be devoid of flavor. I’ve had their fried chicken and chicken pot pies, and they all tasted so bland. The other seasonings were there, but no (or not enough) salt. Terribly bland. I’m not the type to use a lot of salt in my foods either. Very disappointing.

Arrived at 12:32 PM today to pick up some chicken noodle soup for my son.
Empty. Gone. A bunch of mush (see picture) at the bottom of the large, still hot, metal soup container. Mentioned it to the store manager who hollered back to the deli folks. «Ten minutes,» they professed. A 30-​minute wait for chicken soup with a bunch of pretty disorganized, aloof, apathetic folks behind the deli counter?
Service = Not for these prices. Back to Whole Foods.

This grocery store has some decent quality food, but the markup is insane.
The cheese lady is extremely helpful.
The butchers are extremely helpful, except that one of them lied to me about their bacon prices once. Their bacon is about $ 10 per pound and he told me that that was roughly the price everywhere because «bacon prices rose.» You can get the same quality bacon in lots of other places for $ 7 per pound.
There’s always a line at the checkout, and for a little overpriced community market in San Francisco like this, you’d hope that they’d make some environmental effort like compostable tubs or produce bags, but instead they have plastic ones that are the color green so that people think they’re somehow better.
I’ve started trying really hard to shop elsewhere. The markup really isn’t worth the convenience.

Somewhere between a Whole Foods and a normal super market. Their prices are high, but the quality of their produce and meats are great. This is also the place to go if you’re looking for something a bit more exotic or specialized than a normal grocery store. Parking is always available in the private lot, which is a plus. Only real complaint is they’re habitually understaffed at the checkout area, so expect long lines and you’ll more than likely have to bag your own groceries because they’ve only got one guy bagging for 3 busy lines.

Andronico’s is a small Bay Area chain and I supported their Berkeley locations when I was an undergraduate. Those closed a few years ago, which really bummed me out. I’m glad to see this branch seems to be doing well and I’m proud to continue shopping here while I live in the area.
With that said, I can’t imagine why anyone who isn’t a Sunset resident would want to shop at Andronico’s, but I live in Inner Sunset so I love it. There’s a great selection of produce and an even better selection of gouda! I’m obsessed with their cheeses and the lady working there who does the samples is super sweet. You can ask for a sample of ANY of their cheeses and there’s usually great samples all around the store too.
And yes, Andronico’s isn’t cheap… but seriously, what grocery store in SF is? There’s a free parking lot here and the lines aren’t as crazy as Safeway or Whole Foods. I have never walked into Andronico’s and not gotten what I needed (well, except one time we came really late and they ran out of their amazing rotisserie chicken). It’s stress-​free for me to shop here and, again, their gouda is amazing.