Whole Foods Market

I was passing and didn’t fancy going into any restaurants until I chanced upon a Whole Foods.
Ohhhh I thought. I have been to the ones in Kensington, Piccadilly to ones stateside like Seattle. They are huge in comparison. This one is relatively tiny.
Take away beer came in the form of the very Hoppy Christmas from Brewdog Festive IPA which was at a cheaper price and a tray of sushi. Obviously you should know it’s pricey in here. Mostly organic healthy offerings but I always like Whole Foods. Will stick to the big stores though for more choice.

This is kind of like a Whole Foods Local in that it’s much smaller than a lot of the other Whole Foods. You often have to awkwardly squeeze between people and aisles and try not to knock any organic potatoes off the shelf in the process. That said, they have managed to cram a good number of Whole Foods things into the small space (including £30 ostrich eggs), and it is open later than most Whole Foods which is really convenient.

Compared to the rest of the whole food market stores this place is tiny. As a result you won’t find a lot of items you are used to see on the other stores but they do have the essentials & a good deli counter. Also, during peak times when the queue builds up it is almost impossible to browse the lower floor.
The fruits/​veggies tend to be consistently out of date so make sure to check the date & condition of the fruit/​veg before you buy it.

Meh. Unilocal suggested I’ve experienced better sums it up. While I applaud the ongoing gentrification of my new ‘hood’, seriously — Camden High Street is kinda gross, change can’t come fast enough — I just can’t get excited about this store.
Understand, this is not a proper full size WF’s store. It’s a mini one, and a lot of the floor space is dedicated to household products, soaps and cosmetics (probably because fair-​trade ethically produced organic vegan candles have stupid high margins compared to kale and sprouts.
For fresh food it’s pretty dire. The green grocer across the street blows the WF produce section away both in quality and price. The meat section is equally useless with a limited selection. Dairy case is also small. The one possible bright spot — for the vegans who can’t/don’t cook and live off of meat substitutes — is a decent selection of overpriced tofu/​tempeh/​gluten products.
I think in the process of trying to be everything to everyone these small WF stores have failed to amount to much of anything. WF does big stores well in North America and British grocery stores can suck at a lot of things (ahem, customer service). But when it comes to small stores — say a mini Waitrose — the Brits are way better at it.
As someone who has a modest financial interest in the future of this company I can’t help wonder WTF they’re doing in the UK with these smaller shops. I have a feeling Waitrose, scheduled to open around the corner this summer (2014), is going to crush this WF location.
ps. Why do the checkout staff look at you like an alien when you bring your own grocery bag?
pps. Why are the employees way less happy working at WF in the UK than in North America?

How exciting?! A «Whole Paycheck» in a foreign country.
I popped in to look around this miniature version here in Camden.
Good selection of gluten free, vegan, and local free range meats.
If you don’t feel like cooking tonight and have trouble with dietary needs pop in and get some ready to eat takeaway.

If you’re looking for a great place to pick up some vegan and veggie delights, Whole Foods is your place. Of course, it is on the pricey side. But most processed vegan food is. They do have a variety of different vegan snacks including some amazing sweets. I have also recently discovered their vegan shitake mushroom pâté. It’s UH-​MAZING.

I love this place with its excellent array of fresh hot soups and broths, and its excellent selection of gluten free and organic foods. Everything is fresh, yummy and healthy-​and the ultimate gluten free choice puts Sainsburys and Tescos to shame. Expensive well maybe-​but well worth the price. And as a bonus staff are pleasant and helpful too. A rare thing!

I never thought that I would find myself writing a bad review about my beloved Whole Foods, but this location in Camden was a bit disappointing. It’s not your typical whole foods layout, it’s very small and selection of products I found to be very limited. As this was my first trip to one in London… I am on a quest for a better location and hopefully selection of products. The Camden location seemed more like a small organic delicatessen than the proper Whole Foods that I’m used to. It’s good for a quick produce shop and the basics. My local friends told me I would prefer the Stoke Newington WF so I’ll be trying that one next.

This store has a nice range of Organic products but not very affordable pricing.
The staff are typically well meaning but went through a stage of crucifying anybody that neglected to bring their own shopping bag — before begrudgingly double-​bagging your shopping in their big thick paper bags :-/​
+ good range of supplements
+ nice deli counter
+ nice staff
— beware unlisted ingredients in the deli (if you have allergies)
— out-​of-​date goods
— expensive fruit and veg
— meat is expensive
The music isn’t inobtrusive often a staff member’s CD I’m guessing, so that can be good or bad…

Good range of fresh produce but other than this it was fairly small and carried a limited range — you’d probably need to shop elsewhere to finish your weekly shop. Organic chocolate was delicious.
Has now been rebranded as a Whole Foods (previously Fresh ‘n Wild. Not cheap either, as you’d imagine.

If you don’t fancy schlepping around a large barn of a supermarket and have a bulging wallet this is a decent stop for some organic chocolate, decent sandwiches and all the ethical or organic food you can handle.
The deli counter is a particular treat — it’s great for stopping off at in the evening if you’re feeling too lazy to cook but don’t want your dinner out of a cardboard and tinfoil package.
Apart from the expense one downside is that it could really do with being larger — the queues often hinder access to some counters.

I was so happy when I found Fresh & Wild because I had finally found a place that knows about soy and rice products to replace milk. Its health food but most of it is really good. I am addicted to the wheat and sugar free cookies at £1.69 per cookie. Which leads me to my next point which is that it is way too expensive. Because of costs I am forced to sacrifice my eco ethics and health because I just can’t afford to make Fresh & Wild my local grocer as much as I would like to. When the prices come down I think the industry would grow massively. The selection is a bit lacking and nothing compared to Whole Foods in High Street Kensington but it is still a nice little organic market.

Being a lover of all things green and eco — friendly, I was instantly lured into ‘Fresh & Wild’ by the gorgeously tasty smells wafting through its doors and the sight of wicker baskets piled high with colourful fruit and veg.
From roasted tofu salad to compostable forks, this place offers an impressive range of ethically sound products including fresh foods and drink, massage oils, vitamins, toiletries (like organic cotton buds!), cleaning products, handmade cards and candles, and more. This place isn’t restricted to veggies either (like so many of these health shops tend to be), there are nice organic meats for meat lovers too.
There are both hot and cold food counters to chose from in the deli area whilst the chiller cabinets stcok plenty of freshly prepared, packaged food. My favourite is the seaweed salad for only £2.49, made with brown rice, seaweed, kidney beans, grated carrot, cucumber and all kinds of salads, dressed with soya sauce and lemon juice — delicious!
Dotted around the two levels of shop floor they regularly have tasters to indulge yourself in; I’ve seen various fruits, olives on sticks, cheese, oat biscuits or crisps to dip in humus, salsa, guacamole and vegetable pâté, pieces of chocolate brownie and even sips of good-​for-​you elixirs ready to try.
On the downside, this place definitely isn’t cheap, but the pleasurable shopping experience is definitely worth paying more than a trip to Sainsbury’s would cost you. Plus the tasters help to make you feel like you’ve got your moneys worth. I felt my hunger had already been satisfied before even touching the lunch I had just bought on my last trip.

Everyting in this shop looks so delicious, and particularly enticing is the fact that their organic chocolate is near the entrance. Often there are free samples to be hadand not just of the chocolate! As you walk round the shop you notice that there are a few different things avaiable to sample, houmus, jam, crisps, etc. The range of produce is great, though the big downside is that it can often be expensive. This place is great however for picking up a sanck for lunch out of the fridges near the front– tasty, veggie and reasonably priced.

Everything in this place looks fantastic. They really do a great job of wowing you as you walk in the door. Especially the deli counter. And the price tags. Real ale, a snip at over 2.80 a bottle — more expensive than drinking in the pub! Crazy.
However, they do donate 5% of profits to charity each year, and I’ve heard the goat’s butter is particularly delicious

I get frustrated wandering into large chain supermarkets and not finding the exact food I want. Ok, they are getting better at offering organic produce but I find that going to Fresh and Wild satisfies my needs. They not only offer food, with a deli bar but also sell a large number of beauty products and vitamins with staff on hand to offer advice. There are a couple of seats outside to sample your goodies but as it’s on a very busy, noisy and polluted road, I wouldn’t recommend that side of it. The prices are fairly steep but you have to accept that quality comes at a price. This shop also has a good selection of vegan products. It gets my vote.

Part of a growing chain of whole foods stores, the Camden Fresh and Wild is always guaranteed to be busy. Even though it’s not huge, it stocks most things you want from a supermarket, and also has a fresh deli counter serving hot and cold food and there are a couple of tables outside where you can eat ‘in’. The quality of food here is generally really good, although be careful of the free tasters they put out because invariably — and inexplicably — they are disgusting! And although all the produce is ‘ethical’ and fairtrade etc, so if you care about that kind of thing you can shop with a clear conscience, not everything is actually organic — so read the labels. The staff are effortlessly unfriendly, and work hard to let you know that they are doing you a favour by letting you shop there. And everything is extortionately priced. But none of that has taken away from its popularity, and the freshly baked bread is fantastic.