Marketplace at Guilford Food Center

Such a great addition to downtown Guilford! Love it for their delicious selection of soups that change daily and also their freshly made to order fruit smoothies. I also have tried their salad bar which is prepared in front of you as you select/​create your salad. Salad is fresh and tasty. I also really like the vibe and décor of the place… relaxed and open to all young to old.

Unparalleled customer service and an unrivaled call to perfection. Upon surveying the menu options, we settled upon the edamame bean burger as it appealed to our vegetarian tendencies. Alas! the last of the burgers had recently been purchased by another hungry traveler. Fraught with despair, we reluctantly contemplated continuing our search for sustenance elsewhere, as the siren song of warm beans and bread beckoned us so. Hark! a kindhearted voice from behind the counter called to us, it spoke of crafting more burgers from scratch if we could only find it in our hearts to remain for a short while longer. We excitedly agreed and took our rest as a nearby table. Fine ales were poured and artisan soups were ladled. With astonishing speed our bounty arrived in a brisk and expeditious 15 minutes. From the oat and grain laden breads to the expertly sourced and meticulously sculpted patty, to the tantalizing sauce drizzled a top, our masticatory session was second to none. We leisurely consumed our libations and took our leave with a song in our hearts and resolved to shout our review from the mountaintops of the Internet in hopes that all the townsfolk will come flocking with good gastronomic intentions. Should you find yourself on the dusty trail short of wares, be sure to tie your horse at The Marketplace
Good food to all!
–Satisfied Travelers

First time here. Split a sandwich and some chicken salad. Food was amazing! Friendly and attentive employees. A great local business to support. Very clean establishment as well. Will definitely come back!

I live in Guilford and frequented the old Guilford Food Center and now really enjoy the Marketplace at Guilford Food Center. I have been there for breakfast, lunch and picked up dinner. It is warm and inviting and great addition to the Guilford green. The staff are extremely friendly and very helpful. The salad bar is wonderful as is the deli. We have had meat from the butcher counter and it is always excellent. There are always at least three different soups that are always unique. The lobster chowder in the fall was the best I have ever had. The addition of the coffee/​espresso counter was a great idea. My wife and I have had some of their specialty coffees, smoothies and hot chocolates. All were great, although I prefer the salted caramel. In addition, there are still groceries available so you can one stop shop on your way home for dinner. As a recent addition, we can now have a glass of wine or beer from a brewery in Connecticut with our lunch, just when I thought it couldn’t get better! Bravo!

Great atmosphere, excellent customer service– hot cocoa is to die for! Soups are always delicious and their salads are the best! You can’t go wrong here! Oh, their m&m cookies are homemade and a great 3pm snack ;)

Ordered a couple of excellent sandwiches from the deli. The service was extremely fast and friendly! The bread was very fresh. I highly recommend this place if you are looking for a quick, affordable lunch.

Good place to sit at the window and watch the park outside. The grilled cheese sandwich was pretty good with tomato and avocado. I’m not a fan of the Willoughbys coffee so I’m not a fan of the coffee here. The tea was great here! The staff was very friendly!

Good coffee, better than Cilantro. Disappointed by service; woman behind counter more interested in socializing with coworkers than getting my order right. Will go back for coffee as well as butcher shop. Feel better about spending money here than Fresh Market (phony).

I am challenged by this place. We walked in for the first time and it was hard to tell if it was a restaurant, deli, food market, coffee place. There is no direction. The staff is friendly and took our quest for help seriously. The food was fair. The ham and cheese sandwich was made clumsily. Fresh squeezed juice was tasty but took forever and was overpriced. A second visit was better but probably not the star attraction for me.

Cool gourmet market/​café. I had an iced coffee and coffee cake muffin, which was super tasty and very filling — I couldn’t even finish the muffin!
I returned later and tried the colossal junior’s chocolate cake — insanely good and rich enough for 3 people to share — and my friends enjoyed their mocha coffee and almond croissant. I want to try one of their specialty hot chocolates — they have a ton of varieties.

Just stopped by with my mother and checked out the «renovated» Guilford Food Center. It was like, as if, Whole Food Market and the old Guilford Food Center had a love child; perfect for a town far from a WFM or even a Trader Joe’s.
I was impressed with how clean it was and the coffee/​pastry bar with Willoughbys coffee. I applaud the novel soup flavors like the Thai Coconut Chicken and the salad bar with all the toppings one’s heart desire. The prepackaged foods were priced way too far and I am used to seeing high West Hartford prices too. For instance, a little package of chicken salad was priced $ 11; granted it was homemade and needed money to repay for the renovations. They need to take a page from The Crown Market in West Hartford’s book on how to prepare and price food because they take the crown for takeout.
Their rotisserie chicken at $ 6.99 per bird looked delicious and was the most reasonably priced item.
One of these days, I will purchase something because I love supporting local businesses. The business was very busy for a Tuesday afternoon, which is encouraging for the Town of Guilford.

This is a spectacular place for fresh fruits and vegetables. I also enjoyed the variety of choices of coffee, pastries, and other temptations. My coffee was really good! I have no idea what to call the spinach filled quiche-​like pastry I ate, but that was also amazing.

Love the prepared foods section (quinoa taboule salad, hijiki seaweed salad, Asian pressed kale salad), homemade pasta in the freezer, fresh squeezed juices made to order. Lots of organic and gluten free options. It doesn’t have everything, but it has enough to keep us coming back. The checkout line is confusing. They should have a retractable rope like at Starbucks so people know where to line up. As of now, they line up along the counter as well as into the dining space and nobody knows who is next.

First off what kind of name is The Marketplace at Guilford Food Center? It strikes me as both pretentious and a little confusing. In my opinion they should have kept the old name or come up with entirely new one. Compromises are never a good thing.
And confusing is a good word to describe this store. I can’t tell what it wants to be. Does it want to be a coffee house? Does it want to be a deli? Does it want to be a grocery store? It’s almost like it couldn’t decide what it wants to be so it combined everything together. Again compromises are never a good thing.
Plus, the atmosphere just comes across as being a little too manufactured. The old Food Center was the real deal. What I mean is the old store actually stocked several rows of grocery store type goods and they sat upon an ancient wood floor. It truly looked authentic. The new store has a fraction of those items and they’re sparsely placed along the perimeter walls. Are they there only to provide ambience? It seems that way. The soda machine is out of the way up front and the bread is located in a weird spot. In my opinion labeling this store a «marketplace» is a real stretch.
Perhaps I would be more receptive if the deli section were improved from the old store. Unfortunately it’s not. I can’t see any differences from the old deli. They serve Boar’s Head products. Big whoop de do. The bread for the sandwiches is boring. It would be nice if they displayed some of their popular sandwiches behind the counter, sort of like what Whole Foods does. Also, it’d be nice if they had more reasonable prices. $ 2 for an ordinary Coke is too high. And their cole slaw is perhaps the absolute worst cole slaw I’ve ever had in my life.
Lastly OMG, what were they thinking by removing the old red and white stripped awning? Yes I’m familiar with Guilford High’s team colors but the old colors were a classic staple on the Guilford Green.
So hear yee, hear yee, the old store is dead. Long live the Guilford Food Center. Unfortunately the Marketplace is a big disappointment.

I hope to update this review, because I do think the place is capable of improvement and can be really good. That said, my first two experiences have been poor.
We had to wait in 4 lines to get a meal here:
Line 1 total chaos for a sandwich.
Line 2 at least it resembles a line for a coffee, but other people are in line to pay so no one knows what’s going on.
Then the sandwich guy yells across the restaurant for us to pick up the sandwiches — a little odd, but effective.
Line 3 trying to pay. Get to the register and are informed the scale is broken so they can’t check us out and we need to go to the other register.
Line 4 back to the drink order/​checkout line. The people in front of us are also frustrated the scale was broken and are confused why the people in front of them are waiting to order. We let them know they are in the right place and we get checked out after some general confusion.
28 minutes after arrival we are on our way. The only place in Guilford which is less efficient than this one this is fortes. Not sure if anyone has experienced that boondoggle of sandwich making. We need a field trip to Deli U and watch them whip a sandwich out.

New owner and a half hearted remodel, and what do you get? The Food Center Light. I always felt like the critters were winning the battle in the building before and there is no indication that they displace any bugs or rodents. The deli always did a decent job with sandwiches, depending on who made them they were either stuffed or lean on meat. The new counter for coffee and more is I OK, but I don’t really get the coffee thing. The previous owner didn’t find it profitable anymore and by removing the grocery part and adding a coffee counter??? I don’t get it. At least they got rid of the wilted produce.

This is a makeover of the old Guilford Food Center. The Deli and Meat counter still remain, staffed with some of the same employees but the groceries are gone, for the most part. Add some tables, coffee and bakery bar supplemented with specialty foods from local establishments is a beautiful start to this old locations rebirth. Things I have noticed… whole pieces of. lettuce leaves on sandwiches instead of shredded lettuce (good!), smaller fresh baked chocolate cookies at higher prices (bad!). renovations continue to be made on old neglected facility (good!).
I hope they bring in some nice breads and gourmet items, This is a work in process. Keep this on your radar.