Galvan’s Market

We’re so glad we’ve found such a great butcher! We’ve been coming here for several years. Their meat and seafood are fantastic. Yes they are more expensive than supermarkets, but the quality of their meats and seafood is much much better than other places. They can tell you where everything came from. Around the holidays, their crab is incredible. Each crab and claw is full of sweet succulent meat. Their steaks are great!!! Their selection varies by what’s available and up to their high standards. Others have commented that the store smells like meat. Thankfully it does. It’s a butcher shop. That’s the way it should smell. It’s a clean smell. NEVER the strong smell of spoiled meat or fish I’ve smelled at other meat counters and grocery chains. Everyone here is very friendly and is happy to give preparation helpful suggestions. It is so good to find a local butcher shop for people who love great meat and seafood.

This place is awesome. We are new to San Leandro and we’re looking for a good quality butcher. This place exceeded expectations. The staff was friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable. We picked out two ribeyes and they cut to order to our thickness specs. Those steaks cooked up so juicy and tender on the grill. We were thrilled at the quality. We will be going back regularly.

Great service and pleasant. Yes the odor of meat is present as others have commented but its a meat shop so what do you expect? They had better hours than competitors and were able to offer me recommendations to improve a recipe I discussed with them. I’m holding out on the 4 star rank to see if I get the same treatment next time.

I wanted to write an update… I thought we got a great deal from the butcher, but all day yesterday I kept thinking something smelled off in our refrigerator (and I keep it very clean). I opened up the chicken wings to marinate them and they smell awful. It has only been 2 days. I threw them out (and the sausage we got) and doubt I will come back here.

Asked for a dozen chicken wings, cut up and I asked them to toss the wing tips. The owner said «they usually charge extra for that, because it was so labor intensive, but he would have one of his boys do it, since it was only a dozen». I held my tongue and did not bother to tell him that I usually get the same order from «Farmer Joes» grocery store on Fruitvale, never any extra charge, and in a full service grocery store offering one stop shopping. The sour smell of this place put me off on the first visit, this will be my last. Arrogance is the curse of the small independent store. Such a lack of service cannot last in a competitive environment, nor should it. Maybe it’s time to let the kids take over.

If you need a fresh meat butcher and seafood counter this is your place. They referred me to Estudillo Produce right across the street, which was awesome. I was looking for a local SL version of Berkeley Bowl. With both Estudillo Produce and Galvan’s Market it comes pretty close.
Galvan’s Market has a fresh selection of different meats and seafood. I ordered some fresh oysters that I shucked/​opened when I got home. Yum! They even gave me tips on how to open them without a shucker tool, using a screw driver, lol.

First off, this place is not cheap and the selection is highly varied and limited — don’t go here with an agenda of what to buy.
Great, now walk in and ask what they have they made themselves. Oct-​Dec one of the answers will be Gravlax (Scandanavian dill encrusted salmon) which is amazing. Over the summer, they’ll have housemade sausages which are the best I’ve ever had. All year round they have their own chorizo.
They also bring in the best meats they can find — they don’t have a license to smoke so anything smoked is from somewhere else. Great linguisa from San Jose, smoked pork chops, and more.
Fish selection highly varies and is always fresh; so far we’ve just tried the gravlax and king salmon.

I love supporting small local businesses. I’ve been buying high quality delicious meats, excellent selection of fresh and frozen seafood, and amazing sandwiches from them since the late 90’s. It is expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. Just was in last night and bought eight of the largest sea scallops i’ve seen anywhere.($ 24.99/lb.) They were so fresh and cleaned perfectly.
The negative reviews confuse me. The gentlemen that assisted me cleaned his hands between the scallops and the chicken I ordered. There was no offensive odor coming from the market. The meats and seafood looked excellent.
Keep doing what you are doing. I’ll be back on my next trip down.

I saw in the window that they have deli sandwiches, so I thought I’d give them a try. I ordered two sandwiches, and they were really good and fresh! I will definitely be back!

First time going there today for my lunch thought id try a deli sandwich from there since I always pass by and wonder how it is. Got a turkey and Swiss cheese everything tasted really fresh and definitely quality meat! very good I don’t mind the $ 6.50 for a quality sandwich.
Pretty clean place, it was comforting the guy who made my sandwich washed his hands.
Will definitely be coming back again (:

If someone wanted to give you a couple hundred dollars worth of profit, wouldn’t you get off your butt to have that conversation? Apparently not these guys. I was utterly unimpressed by the «shout over the counter & strain to hear me while you’re at it, I’m way too comfortable to give good customer service» attitude.
Really? Someone else gets the job then!

I am fortunate enough to live in the neighbor behind Galvan’s Market. A fine selection of meat, poultry and seafood not found at the supermarkets including Costco.
Friendly staff and owners greet you with a smile or by first name if a regular.
While everything is excellent quality, the Martinelli’s.chicken here has to be the most tender on the planet. That alone keeps us coming back.
Galvan’s is more than a local business, it’s a good neighbor and a friend.

I have been shopping there for over 16 years.
The service is great.
The fresh meat products are just that FRESH.
Joe the owner is very conscientious about the products he sells.
He purchase from only natural (free from chemical adulteration) farmed sources.
He always has a wide selection of fish products which are always fresh.
They have a excellent selections of in store produced specialty meat products
which include sausage and marinated meats.
He or his wife Judi have always been very helpful with preparation recommendations.
If on the rare occasion a product has not met my expectation he has made a compensation.
If you care about the quality of the meat products you consume then Galvan’s Market is the place for you to shop.

I really wanted this to be a good experience, as I like to support family owned business’.
First visit: purchased some sausage, Italian, Chicken and a Hot Sausage, a loaf of bread and some bread sticks. Got home, discovered no Italian sausage, only two different kinds of hot sausage and the bread sticks were out of code in June.(I don’t think they charged full price, but never said they were out of code). So ok, maybe they misunderstood what kind of sausage I wanted and maybe they don’t check their codes often.
Second visit: Wanted to try their deli sandwiches. While the clerk was making the sandwiches I started looking around and noticed that the cheeses in the deli case were all moldy and old looking, the salametti, was beyond old and when I asked if they had any fresh ones, he just shook his head, no. That wasn’t even the bad part, I looked around and noticed the FILTH on the floors and the massive cob webs under the table/​counter where they display food items. UGGGGG! The floor looked like it hasn’t been mopped or swept in ages! When buying sandwiches, you usually want to purchase a beverage, their selection was limited to a few cans of soda and a few other beverages, maybe ten items in all!
I thought ok, so it’s not so clean, maybe the sandwich will be good. My first clue was that it was around noontime and I was the only one in the store, not a good sign. I only work a few blocks away and by the time I got back to work, the bottom of the bread was soggy and the meat was rather dark looking, not pinkish like it should be and the cheese was starting to or had gotten hard. I actually threw everything but the veggies away!
I owned a deli for ⁷¹⁄₂ years and would NEVER allow my establishment to be that dirty, my deli was so clean, the Health Inspectors ate there! I read in some of the other reviews that they don’t even clean off the moldy cheeses before they sell them, charge for uneatable cheese! How can they stay in business???
The reason for one star is because you can’t just give one and the clerk was polite.

Why all the negative reviews people? I don’t get it. Granted, I only get the sandwiches there and yes, a little pricey but you get what you pay for. If you want a budget sandwich, go to safeway~ If you want quality, go to Galvans!
I got 2 sandwiches today, one with extra meat and cheese and only paid 14 bucks. Definitely a better bargain than Subway and on Semifreddi’s bread!
I will say the prices are a little high on the meat side but the service is on point. And for all you haters that say they don’t clean up, I saw my sandwich guy wash his hands 3 times during the course of my stay there. Once to start, 2^nd time finishing, and 3^rd time after he handled my cash. So kuddos to y’all and keep them sammies coming!

Worst service ever!!! If others did not give similar reviews, I would think that they were racist. Apparently I turn invisible when I’m there and have to beg for service, even when the place is near empty. I’ve gotten treated this way from several staff there.
I just wanted some cheese and could not have been treated worse. The first time it happened I thought it must have been a fluke, so I went back again and the same thing happened with with a different person… Then I thought OK, third time is a charm, but no such luck. I ended up leaving instead of being disrespected.
I would give negative stars if I could.

Knowledgable staff, great service and great selection of seafood and meats. Hands down the best sandwiches (roast beef my fav), chorizo and selection of unique spanish and portuguese products. True can get expensive but the quality of the meats and knowledge of staff make it well worth it.
Cheers,
Rafa

Terrible service. I asked the guy behind the counter to select two pieces of fish that were similar in size. The man behind the counter said that he would not do that. That was the second time that we had an encounter like that in the store so I pretty much decided, and so did my husband, that we would never come back to this store. Their meats and fish are good quality but you pay for it, it’s very expensive. Stay away from the cheese counter it gets old and when you want to buy a piece they don’t cut the end away… they sell the funky end to you.

When making sandwiches they do not wash and dry hands or wear gloves. When asked about it, he said he didn’t have to. Great, no need to finish making the sandwich and don’t worry about me ever spending my money there.

I have purchased meat and fish here several times over the years and was impressed on some occasions and disappointed on others.
I decided to give them a try again today and was very happy with their rosemary garlic chicken, it was superb! I will definitely try them in the next few weeks and as long as they stay consistent I would be inclined to raise them to 5 stars and remove my comment about thier inconsistency.
One last thing, I went right before closing time and I did not feel rushed. They were very helpful and willing to uncover meat they had already wrapped up for the night.