Whole Foods Market
Grocery/Bakery/Deli
Natural and organic food store and deli
Many vegan and vegetarian organic foods and products. Vegan and vegetarian options served at sandwich counter, buffet, and salad bar. In-store seating area by food counters.
at Harrison
- (Mostly) Organic
- Buffet
Added by earlapricot on Dec 20 04 (updated Dec 20 04)
Reviews
I was in San Francisco for a conference. I was happy to find a Whole Foods downtown, where I was staying. Everything is so expensive downtown, so it was cool to be able to go to Whole Foods and grab some organic fruit, bread, etc. I also got some stuff to put in my hair since they confiscated my hair gel at the airport (they confiscated my sun block too because it was over 3 oz, and Whole Foods has some little ones too that I could have got). I like going to Whole Foods and know that I'll find what I need.
Whole Foods is an OK place for a quick lunch to bring back to the office, but it's not exactly a culinary treat...especially when compared to other places to eat in San Francisco. The store has an extensive array of prepared foods that are sold by the pound: salad bar, Indian dishes, asian food, mexican, and a host of other things. But many times the food comes up short of expectations. It's impossible to get a table at lunchtime too, so you pretty much have to bring whatever you buy back to your office.
This is the perfect place to spend a lunch break - collect some necessities, peruse some yoga books, look at all the colorful kitchen utensils, pick up some odwalla juice, grab a sandwich piled high with avocados and nayonnaise, sit and eat with all the other cool people, and visit the recycle bins on your way out. the customer service desk also offers up no resistance to requests for quarters, in case you're needing to do laundry later or pay muni fare.
Whole Foods is Whole Foods, which is good (you know what you're getting, it beats most grocery stores for veg selections, and the deli admittedly is great), but also is not so good (they have become too corporate).
I started avoiding WF when they deliberately ran the downtown Pacific Grove co-op out of business -- bought 'em out and shut 'em down in favor of their own store in the mall by the freeway. Now I only use WF when the only alternative is another corporate chain with fewer options.