Europa Express 2

I come her for Russian Beer Baltika. My girl is Russian so she comes here for the actual food and other things. However she did show me few things she bought which were expired. Do be careful and look at the expiration date when you buy food at any store. This store could have checked and spared the problem. Since it is imported it does cast more so don’t waste your money and save it for things that are fresh. But the beer is great!

I want to share my horrible experience for anyone ever thinking about stopping by there.
Being there previously, I knew the store hours there are 10AM-8:30PM on the weekdays, so I rushed late last Monday to grab some bread. The shop assistant lady was standing behind the closed door at about 8:03PM not letting me in in spite of my claiming that closing time is posted as 8:30. She said it was ordered by the store owner, to my great disappointment.
When I was about to leave, she exited that door accompanied by the STORE OWNER.
I immediately approached and asked for explanation, and he sarcastically replied with a gross soviet joke about posted working hours on the entrance door, without even a slightest hint of apology, but with a disgusting grin instead, what was witnessed by few senior ladies sitting on a nearby bench. What a SCHMUCK! It was so reminiscent of the old communist times when there were no really any rules. I wonder why did people like that rushed here if they really enjoyed the chaos and anarchy so much. No wonder there are so many harsh comments about this dirty soviet den with expired items, rude personnel and disrespectful attitude. Anyone wants back in the U.S.S.R. REALLY GROSS. I regret it makes many others think bad about nice Russian people. There is a very appropriate term «bydlo’ for those like the owner in Russia, which is close to «scum».

The dark rye bread is amazing. Best bread I’ve had in five years. Fresh, dense, moist and properly dark (i’m so sick on insipid rye breads!). Super friendly staff, reasonable prices, great selection. I’m so happy we stumbled upon this place.

horrible. service the worst. all produce is stale. check expiration dates. and if u tell them about it they really get offensive and rude.

This store is like a Virtual Communist Russia video game. Watch out for expired food items on the shelves and the authentic Cold War culinary shopping experience. They should have barbed wire in the aisles and machine guns behind the cashier because you’ll really feel lucky to escape the Gulag after you’re done.
Stay away! The worst part is some of the expired food are sweets for kids to eat. I’ll be sending a nice note to the Food Safety authorities about that one. Simply Awful.

What unbelievably rude, rude people work here. I know grumpy old Russian women are known for their hospitality, but these women were plain awful. When ringing me out at the end, one of them practically threw the receipt and pen at me. When I asked for a bag she tossed it on the counter.
I’ve been coming here for 10+ years, but I can buy just about anything I need from a different Russian store. They won’t be getting any more of my money.

If you write a bad review of this place based on customer service you should really get bent. You Sho ain’t paying for no high priced eastern euro call girl here. So don’t expect any happy endings here. The poor old babushka that runs this place has seen some sheet in her life. So don’t come here and give her any of yours. Consider yourself lucky there is more that beets and cabbage in here. All jokes aside this market is awesome. You can get some good likker here that would require a trip to the motherland to ever get again. I got some vodka in a bottle shaped like a damn hand grenade. Tactical as F++k! After tasting it in sure it doubles as fuel for one of ol Gorbachev’s migs. 5 shots in and I’m in beast mode. For a regular drinker that’s quite an accomplishment. Do yourself a favor. Come here and buy some booze and get some crazy pickled stuff to go with it. You won’t be disappointed.

Come for the old-​school soviet style grocery buying experience!
The first thing you will feel after entering the store is that you are NOT wanted there, that you are disrupting the life of staff — reading magazines, chatting with each other, talking on the phone.
After you are done selecting long-​expired products with scratched (or with price stickers over) expiration dates, cashier will try to cheat you with a double charge (previous buyer’s charge + yours). And if you don’t let them do that, they will throw your receipt on the counter so hard that it would land on the floor. The only thought after leaving the store is the feeling of thankfulness to the force for helping you leave that place alive.

In general it’s a good spot but I’ve only had really bad experiences with the service. If I wasn’t sure what to get, they would probably don’t even care to help me. But there is a bunch of goodies (reminds me of home) I love the pickles, eggplant paste, and the sunflower seeds. Make to check the date for everything though.

Be careful with expired food. I bought sausage in OCTOBER 2014 and my entire family felt sick for several days. The label apparently said SELL BY FEBRUARY 2014. We all had maybe 3 – 4 slices each. This is how bad it was. The seller was using her phone while at least 4 pensioners formed a line to wait for her. So disrespectful to the elderly, not to mention several were disabled, and someone specifically announced to the seller, that a group ready for her and is waiting, while the seller took all the time she needed to finish up her mobile phone texting session. So disappointed.

Waited 15 minutes in line for the cashier to gossip with a customer. She saw me waiting, didn’t care at all. Ridiculous.

I like going to Europa Express 2, because it reminds me of Russian super markets. It has a great food selection. I really enjoy their candy section, my sweet tooth gets in the way!!! Its a place maybe you can find your own addiction.

Europa offers russian and eastern european goods, imported and homemade
the usual variety is here, all of it. looked pricey
buys:
–baltika, dark lager (2.49)
–hora uniru, romanian (2.49)
different pricey.
notes:
–parking hard to find here.
–wouldn’t return…

It would be a great store if not for their snobby Russian attitudes. Lots of stuff is expired so check the dates. We bought Lifeway Kefir recently and realized it was opened when we got home. We called the store to ask if we can get a refund, the lovely Russian man thought we were crazy asking for such a thing as a refund. They already don’t have a lot of costumers since its a Russian-​only store, so I don’t understand their «business strategy» of not even being nice to the Russians that visit their store.
Seems like they will be out of business soon if they keep up with their nasty «fresh off the boat» attitude, which is a shame because there are not many Russian stores around here.
Oh and don’t be fooled into thinking that they are so nice because they gave you a complimentary box of chocolates with a purchase of $ 100 and more, those chocolates we got were opened and «resealed» with a scotch tape, I mean come on now…

My mom is an 86 year old Russian-​American. We thought it would be fun to take her to this market; and it was fun to walk around and see things that I remember growing up. We didn’t notice past expiration dates on any of the items we purchased and the fresh fruits and vegetables were of really nice quality.
With that said, will I go back? That would be a HUGE NO! Why? The grocery staff was so unfriendly that it killed the «Going back to my roots» moment. Too many other options around to ever revisit. Sheesh people can you smile?

This place is full of mysterious cured deli meats, smoked fish, strange cheeses and amazing pickles. There is a massive selection of exotic Russian sweets and chocolates — even real kinder eggs, contraband though they may be. The place is poorly lit and a bit grungy around the edges, but that lends to the ambiance, an atmosphere of furtive, black-​market shopping.
It’s Adventure Grocery! It’s cheap! They also take EBT.

This place is a bit out of the way for us, but the reason we keep coming back is their smoked fish selection. They are the only store we’ve found that sells smoked mackerel «fresh» (i.e, not in vacuum-​packed bags).
Other items are hit-​or-​miss. Lots of things are past their expiration date, so we stay away from meats here. Candy selection is great. All of the ice cream we’ve bought from here was strangely shaped — looked like it had melted and re-​frozen. The bread selection is pretty good also, if you happen to catch it before it goes stale. Pickles are fantastic. But if not for the smoked fish, we’d probably just stick to the other Russian food stores on Geary.

In my family, this store is simply known an «La Playa.» One of the things San Francisco is known for in the Bay Area Russian community is its plethora of delis that feature almost everything from the homeland. We haven’t been to La Playa in a while due to much better stores in the city, but decided to give it a chance this one time, ending up in thorough disappointment.
At first, I was pretty impressed by the selection of some items that I’ve never seen anywhere else. For example, 15+ kinds of cake, plenty of beer, and a fairly decent chocolate selection. However, there is so much more wrong with this place:
1. Check expiration dates on EVERYTHING. There are a lot of products here that are just sitting on the shelves rotting. I found a piece of packaged fish that was set to expire 2 years earlier. Things like cheese are usually fine after their expiration dates, but you can just see that some products are not edible anymore.
2. Dirty raw fruit are sitting side by side with open loaves of bread. There should at least be some separation between the two. I know it’s not a big deal, but its just nasty.
3. The workers are straight up rude. Just because your customers are mostly Russian and don’t care too much about service doesn’t mean you have to have a stick up your ass the whole time. The people behind the counter act like pretentious pricks and answer any questions you have with the worst attitude possible.
I would give them a 1 star, but they do have some things that are worth going there for if you don’t have time to go to other stores. If you do, please avoid it and go somewhere better.

I’ve been coming here for years. I like the selection of deli meats, cheeses, and cakes. The offer fresh pickled cucumbers. I love the eggplant, mushroom salad, smoked fish. Not really impress by their breads. i would rather go to Safeway across the street to pickup a fresh loaf.
Parking could be a challenge so a lot of people I notice park at Safeway and walk over here.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not an ethnic Russian and don’t seek out Russian foods. The review is mostly for the pickles.
This place has amazing pickles. Like, some of the best pickles in the city of San Francisco. They are crunchy, delicious and fresh (but not super cheap at $ 3 a pound, or about $ 0.50 a pickle).
I haven’t really bought anything else here, but they seem to have a good selection of Russian foods and drinks. The layout is pretty bland, it is a no-​nonsense sort of shop. Service is typical curt Eastern European, but that is kind of to be expected.
Did I mention they have great pickles? Mmm, pickles.