Aj’s Fine Foods

Very nice atmosphere, most of the prepared foods in the deli area that I have tried, over this past year since I have been in the area, are very good, but I have had a couple of items that were not so good, primarily over cooked and dried out salmon. The staff are exceptionally nice, the only exception being the chef, he seems a bit snobby sometimes.

I visited the grill to have a Hamburger with Pepperjack Cheese. I went inside while my hamburger was on the grill to pick out a Hawaiian Kale Salad from the deli and some Blackberry Green Tea. I like that I can put my own ingredients on my hamburger and that I can have a wheat bun. I do not care for white buns. Although, they have thise too and sometimes they have a pretzel bun or sourdough bun. In any case, the hamburgers are great. The Hawaiian Kale Salad is nice. It had garbanzo beans, quinoa, chopped kale and some mandrian oranges. They have so many wonderful freshly brewed tea selections among two separate counters. The grill is usually open from 11a-​2p Wed-​Sat. However, in the summer it sometimes is only open on Fri and Sat.

This is the place for a healthier lunch choice! My husband and I went here today during our lunch break and was amazed at the wide selection. you know it’s the place to be for lunch when there’s a crowd of people! I got the salmon, butternut squash, and mixed vegetables. It was amazing!

Normally their food is super yummy! I often get the salad bar or soup, or a combination of both. Today the soup selection didn’t thrill me so I went for the salad. I love the chicken chunks AJ’s offers! Today the chicken was really tough, not up to the typical standard. Paying nearly $ 8 for the small salad was disappointing. However, my dog seemed to enjoy the tough chicken chunks.

The staff here is awesome. They’re so nice! They have a good wine selection and deals sometimes. The fruit tray with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries is always so fresh and delicious. There is not one single berry that is bad or overripe. Great quality!
I have eaten dinner here before to try. I had some chicken dish with vegetables. I was a little bit sad because the vegetables weren’t as fresh as I expected and the chicken was dry.
I love shopping here, love the meat selections, and the freshness of the produce.

Way way too much, they are more expensive than whole foods and they repackage goods and sell them at a higher price. However they have a great inexpensive sushi bar in the back that is worth eating out especially on happy hour.

I went to Aj’s for catering 3 times, and will not be back. The first time was amazing, that is what led me to the second time. My second catering experience was less than stellar. The macaroni and cheese that I ordered the first time was creamy and delicious and was devoured in no time at all. I ordered more the second time around, it was awful, dry not creamy not cheesy at all. My guests were under-​whelmed to say the least, I was left with over ¾’s of the dish. I also ordered the spicy walnut salad for both dinners. The first was wonderful, walnuts had a bit of a spicy kick. So, I thought I would order the same thing for the second dinner. The walnuts in that salad were plain no spice added at all, it had way too much bleu cheese, my guests gagged on it. Too bad we had already placed and paid for our Christmas dinner. Called the catering director who told us she would give us 15% off our next catering order, not the one that was already paid for and yet to be delivered. We picked up our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve not realizing they didn’t give us everything we had ordered. Needless to say we didn’t have enough food for Christmas dinner. Called them again today spoke with the manager (Julia), received no apology, we were just told the missing items would be credited back to our card. This is not the way to run a business, you should want to make it right with the customer if you expect them to come back in the future.

I the. I always get a vanilla ice coffee and a ice tea. It’s so much better than Starbucks. My best friend @ work was in with Starbucks she needed a ice coffee and I brought her one and she been a fan since. She says the coffee has a fresher taste. I try to make this my morning stop. So I leave early.

I came here on a Sunday for their patio bbq as I used to come here alot on the weekends for that but hadn’t been in a couple years. I was saddened to see how much the quality of the food and service had gone down. The guy working at the grill was incredibly rude and unprofessional. On top of that the burgers and sausages we got were way overcooked and ended up being very dry and burnt tasting. Super disappointed and will not be returning.

More than your average corner market or grocery store.
You can certainly do your everyday grocery shopping here but it wouldn’t be the most cost effective option. If you are looking for a high-​end grocery store with fresh sushi, meals, salad bar, pastries and much much more than this is the place for you.
OMG! The wine and liquor section puts Total Wine to shame. As a sales rep /​promotional model for a major liquor company I can be picky but always find what I’m looking for here. :)
I’ve never been disappointed with the service, even if it’s just coming in for a little gift and card. The gift section is great too.
You must try their chocolate covered strawberries if you like that kinda thing.

I love AJ’s! They offer so many unique products. Their sushi bar is pretty good for a quick sushi fix, and they have specials each day. I do wish they offered a little more organic produce, and at times it isn’t always the freshest, being in small supply. I like that pretty much anything you can pick up in here, you can buy. It’s just fun to browse, and you can always find something.

Don’t come to AJ’s expecting higher quality groceries. It’s the same crappy food as albertsons just way more expensive. Nothing organic whatsoever. You’re basically paying a premium for the bourgeois décor and the poorly made «French» pastries.
The café, bakery and sushi bar (ready made foods) are the only reason to come here. If you want decent quick lunch you’ll get it.
Do your grocery shopping at a standard store which carries all of the same stuff at reasonable prices. Or go to whole foods or sprouts for better quality /​health food. How disappointing!

Who is in charge of this place? The lines at the deli and bakery are almost out the door. Despite four or five people behind each counter, it seems impossible for more than one customer to be served at a time. Today, I was forced to step aside (twice) by what appeared to be managers walking two abreast through the store, totally unconcerned with their customers. Then, after noticing a huge rack canned food items in the «kitchen,» behind the deli, and realizing that it was from those cans that the «gourmet» food I was waiting to purchase must have come, I gave up and moved to the bakery counter. After taking yet another DMV-​style wait-​to-​be-​served number, and waiting several minutes longer, I noticed that the case was filled with flies. I walked out, and I won’t be back.

Bakery is always understaffed, if it wasn’t for my ice tea addiction I would pass. Bakery staff have a super unfriendly attitude but the check out regular line staff always bring there A Game!

Honestly, I have never done any grocery shopping here. I only set foot into AJ’s for the Boulangerie or the Food Counter! I’ve had the caprese wrap and a nice pasta salad to go with it. Amazing! Most recently, I stopped in because it was PI DAY!!! I usually never celebrate it but since it was 3÷14÷15 (or 3.1415 for all of us math/​science nerds) I decided to celebrate. I knew I didn’t want any of those frozen or generic grocery store pies so I knew AJ’s boulangerie was going to be the winner. I walked out with a slice of peanut butter pie and a slice of key lime pie (my new favorite!) and boy was I satisfied. Both were delicious and I couldn’t be happier. The key lime pie was somehow a perfect blend of sweet and tangy and the peanut butter pie was surprisingly not overwhelming at all. They ARE a bit on the sweet side so if you pair it with some tea or some coffee you cannot go wrong!
I will probably be back again. There are more food items that I have to check out and there is a HUGE cheese selection!!! It IS a bit more on the pricey side so I can’t be shopping here on the daily, or even the weekly. But I will be back. I do want to sit out on the patio and enjoy my meal… or a dessert. =]

Good for desserts, pizza, and high-​end items
AJ’s is exactly what you expect for a high-​end market. They have some rarer and high-​end items that you just cannot find easily, so they are a go-​to place for those.
Pros:
1) A very good dessert counter with everything from truffles to Giada’s cookies to buche de noel to kosher candies. Good stuff!
2) Pizzas are quite tasty. Especially the white.
3) Candy and cookie aisles have one of the best selections and some great brands. Now, if only we could get them to carry Compartes Chocolates…
4) Beautiful store entry that feels more like a café.
5) Excellent selection of exotic fruits during periods. They had lychee!
6) They carry Pickled Perfection, which we love after being introduced to their products at Williams Sonoma.
Negatives:
1) Every second to third time, the pastries at the dessert counter are wet and/​or stale.
2) We stay away from the meats and seafoods. Super high prices without any detectable difference in quality. Really after top-​grade meat? Look for a butcher via Unilocal!and you’ll find a couple great ones. And there was that lawsuit they settled for mislabeling the meat quality too high…
3) Checkout can take a while and the people aren’t as consistently friendly as we expect from visits to comparable places.
Still A-​OK and they aren’t that far from four-​stars for me.

Every time I come here it’s always nicely setup and super clean. I always have to stop by at the bakery and buy something because they have all sorts of sweets you can choose from! I absolutely love their cookies, macaroons, fruit tarts and Italian soda! I’m sure the other sweets are just as yummy, but I always stick to these items.

They hAve an awesome deli. Pizza is delicious and they are more than generous with the slices. They are cooked in a brick oven. They also have a Sushi bar and specials on take out dinners, a great salad bar. Just about anything you could ask for.

This is the first time I’ve been to AJ’s. I went to a fine foods store because I wanted a really fantastic ribeye steak and I was willing to pay top dollar for it.
I purchased said steak and when I got home was really angry to find that it had been HORRIBLY butchered. It was basically sawed in half and stuck back together with a toothpick. I paid 13 bucks for this steak.
I called and spoke to a manager Stephanie. She said that because the ribeyes were too lean they were cut like that. Huh?!? How does cutting a steak in half make it less lean? If it was too lean than they shouldn’t have sold it in the first place. A ribeye is meant to be well marbled.
She offered to let the butcher explain why they had done it like that. (Side note: person behind the meat counter said the butcher was gone for the day. Am I being lied to and they’re suddenly back in the store?) I honestly didn’t need an explanation about how it was to fix something wrong with the original cut. It makes me mad that the when the steak wasn’t up to par they decide to patch it together with sticks and sell it at the same price. If it wasn’t a good cut to begin with why the heck are they still trying to sell it at a fine foods store?!?
To Stepanie’s credit, she is going to refund me for the steak. However, they still get a one star review. The fact that they KNEW the steak was not up to quality standards and pieced it together so it looked halfway decent in the case is why the one star review is well deserved.
If they had a bad cut they should have sold it at a discounted price and informed their customers about why it’s pieced together with a stick. They should also have quality ribeyes at the normal price next to the discounted ones so the customer can choose if they want to pay more for the better steak.
I will come back to get my money back but I won’t be shopping at AJ’s anymore. Why am I going to pay top dollar when they try to trick me into buying shoddy products? It’s the knowingly dishonest practice that really infuriates me.
–Worked 8 years at a steakhouse. Don’t mess with my steak.

This is a very nice, upscale grocery store. I would compare it to whole foods, but I feel as though Whole Foods aims for a more fresh, organic lifestyle while AJ’s aims for a more niche, older clientele.
This review is for the bakery — the Agave Arnold Palmer is simply scrumptious! I could drink it every day! I’ve also ordered macarons and cupcakes from their bakery which were good as well. The cupcake I had was a little dry — I don’t know if it’s because it was old or if it’s because it was refrigerated — but that didn’t stop me from devouring the whole thing.
Cute place, great iced tea, I’m a fan.