Strack and Van Til

I love this store now that they have remodeled! Fresh bakery with sample cookies for the kiddos, sushi counter, cheese counter, the deli offers both hot and cold options for a ready made meal, the seafood counter will fry your selection to order, an extensive salad bar, fresh produce, great meat process if you catch a sale. They have a specialized aisle for organic products with a much bigger selection than you would think. The only issue I’ve had here, and I’ve had it for years, is the frozen food. I do not recommend purchasing your ice cream here. It is ALWAYS grainy and icy and weird, like it does if you re-​freeze melted ice cream. They obviously have an issue with maintaining temperature. But if you skip the ice cream aisle is a great store.

Gross. They are trying to be whole foods but are not even almost whole foods Should change their name to almost whole foods., Moldy cheese. If you buy ANYTHING here check the freshness date as this store gets all the leftovers. The bakery is a mess, Not even the doughnuts are fresh. The people that work the deli counter are the slowest moving blobs I have ever seen. They like to talk more than work. The meat department is marginal at best.

Forget the bakery, I had to wait for someone to even acknowledge me, then it was like brain surgery trying to get what I wanted.

This is my favorite grocery store in the area, especially since the remodeling.
It has a huge bakery section, where the cupcakes are massive. They have really good cakes and turnovers too. The deli case is massive, and there’s a wide variety of cheeses complete with samples so that you can try them all. They sell both hot and cold food in the deli section. Their chicken tenders are good, but I’d skip the wings. The deli salads section is like a full aisle, including the basic coleslaw and potato salad, but including a bunch of dessert salads and jellos as well. I recommend the Strawberry Cloud, which is about $ 1 for a small container.
I love their new organic/​healthier aisle. They now carry my favorite brand of yogurt, Greek Gods, and almond flour, which makes it easier for me to make my beloved macarons.
It’s always clean and the staff is always friendly and helpful and the prices are pretty standard grocery prices.
The only real issues that I have here are with ice cream, and it’s been this way for years. Whether I buy Popsicles or ice cream, it is always obvious that there have been temperature issues in the store. The ice cream is usually weird and icy, and the Popsicles deformed. I also love that they have a sushi bar now.

Customer service is great, cashiers and most of the baggers are very polite. The produce and dairy are always fresh. Unlike other stores, I’ve never found expired items on the shelf (at least not since the remodel). The store is beautiful, I just wish the lighting was a bit brighter. I also like most of the organic items being in one aisle.

Had a really odd experience w the «cheese dept» lady. I guess you can’t buy the whole wheel of cheese. I think she thought I was going to put it under my blouse and steal it? I don’t know. Was very strange. Strange cheese lady.

Well this is week 4 my going in to purchase Edy’s Outshine Strawberry frozen bars.
Again nothing. I have talked to different managers, who where very polite, but said it was up to the supplier. Give me a break they fill in 6 different flavors but not strawberry. Or they just blow me off. The upshot is that I am not going to go from
one grocery to another.
So today I went back to Jewel and bought my usual 6 boxes of the Strawberry bars, and while I was there I finished my shopping.
I was happy with Strack and Van til, but unfortunately they weren’t able or willing to
please me.
Carol Goldman
Munster

I love this store especially the bakery section. Everything is always fresh and made to perfection!

good selection of ethnic foods… thier selection of bottled salsas is amazing… the usualls that all stores sell plus Frontera Grill and Ditka’s to over 20 different varieties from small companies from Mexico, Texas and all over the country…

i LOVE my Stracks… long an Indiana tradition… and now i find out Chicago Unilocalers have been enjoyin the great prices and service we have been getting for years, with the Stracks on Elston… i was reading reviews of that one and im glad to see all the Unilocalers up that way are loving it as well… one thing i was laughing at though was 50% of the reviews from my north side buddies was how they all thought the name was very funny for a grocery store… its the last names of two guys that went into bizz together… Mr. Strack and a Mr. Van Till… how people think that is funny for some reason cracks me up…
now back to MY Stacks :-) large parking lot… the cool little community message board right inside to put up flyers about your garage sale, church dinner or lost kitty… a manager usually standing right there as you walk in… always with a welcome
very clean and wide aisles… first stop is when i walk by the deli to munch some samples they put out everyday… crab or 7-​layer dip… yumm…a huge selection of meants an cheeses to choose from… hot food for takeout… one drawback here though is the fried chicken looks a light light brown, not the dark crispy skin that makes fried chicken what it needs to be…
seafood counter just past the deli… they will even fry up your fish for you, no extra charge… nice selection but some fish looks like it has seen a better day… the only reason to go down the street to Jewel…
super produce prices and selection… check out the freezer there, a small farm up in MI, flash freezes thier own fruit and you can get it here…
good selection of ethnic foods… thier selection of bottled salsas is amazing… the usualls that all stores sell plus Frontera Grill and Ditka’s to over 20 different varieties from small companies from Mexico, Texas and all over the country…
meat dept is good along with prices… pork shoulder for your BBQ on sale alot for 99 cents a pound… and one of the only places ive seen tri-​tip sold… they call it sizzle steak and the week of this review its on sale for $ 3.99 lb… thats craziness :-) ask them for a tri-​tip roast and grill that thing… yummi in my tummi…
the bakery is just ok, nothing special… but free cookies alway handed out to the kiddies… and they do make a good in house italian bread.
its just really cool store and everyone seems to want to go out of thier way to help you…