Berkeley Bowl West

Really torn here. The food selection is absolutely amazing, the employees are horrible. I love the bulk bins and the massive produce section. Prices on fresh, organic produce are pretty good too.
Then there are the employees, who are consistently rude, unhelpful, and unprofessional. As I walked in yesterday, a say a woman walking up to a cashier, Angela, and ask if they sold energy drinks. Nobody was in line, but Angela just said flatly «go ask customer service.» Geez.
Then, when it was time for me to check out, Angela’s line was the shortest. I put one of the dividers down between my order and the woman in front of me. After ringing up the woman’s items, Angela removed the divider and started on my items. I politely said «oh, actually those are mine». Angela then proceeded to chastise me for not putting a divider down. When I told her I had and that she removed it, she just stared at me for 10 seconds and continued on – not even a one word response.
And that is how pretty much every interaction I have with the cashiers go. Please up your professionalism. They’re always sidetracked by conversations with other cashiers, move slow as molasses, and are pathetically disinterested in engaging with customers. I get that this is a non-​corporate, Berkeley-​style grocery store, but come on. Have some respect for others in the community and who are keeping you employed.
TL;DR: Selection is outstanding, lines are long, cashiers are rude.

Best grocery store i’ve ever frequented. Fantastic organic produce and bulk foods. Huge selection of non-​organic produce and every sort of boxed food item you could want. Extensive butcher shop and seafood section and a very respectable offering of beer and wine. Best of all the prices are entirely reasonable… this is what Whole Foods should be.
Their deli is okay if not great, the one thing here that is not superlative.

Overwhelmed. The only word I can use to describe my feelings when I first walked in Berkeley Bowl West. There’s just so much to look at.
However, when you get down to the wire, my absolute favorite part of Berkeley Bowl West is their CHEESE COUNTER. There are literally (maybe not literally — I didn’t count them all) 100 types of cheese to choose from. I LOVE cheese, so this was pretty much heaven.
Produce looked fine — nothing really stood out to me. Lots of variety, but honestly, I’d rather just go to Whole Foods. Meat counter looked fine, and I think there were some interesting products in the regular aisles, but that cheese counter. So worth it.
Also grabbed some wine & onigiri & a refrigerated quiche & pizza. Haven’t had the quiche & pizza yet, but I dig their ready-​to-​eat section. Would definitely come back.

This place can’t get any better. Seriously the variety of food is amazing. Since having restrictions on my diet, I was able to din every alternative that I need in my diet.
The gem of this market has to be the produce sections and the healthcare products. When I started to develop eczema, I came and picked up all the supplements, ointments, balms, and creams I needed to help soothe and heal my sensitive skin. This place is definitely my go-​to for all the cooking I do.
Nothing bad to say, it’s al praise.

I put off going here for a long time, thinking it had to be overrated. Boy, was I wrong. Now I see the light, and I can’t get enough of this place!
It has a great selection of produce, dried goods, frozen food, beauty products, and anything else you might want, including a ton of natural and organic products. The prices are excellent as well.
It’s usually pretty crowded (because it’s awesome), but the checkout lines move fairly quickly, and there’s a ton of parking (a lot and a garage).
If you’re in the Berkeley area, you really have to go here!

I’ve been here now twice. Not once was I ever asked if I needed help at any time while looking for my goods. When I was ready to check out, the cashiers, both times, were more concerned about their conversations than doing their job. Dueche-​bag doesn’t quiet seem right but you get the idea. I specifically asked for double bags because they insisted on cramming everything in. I got one bag and it broke as I was leaving. So, I took the bag back to the cashier and started swapping my items out. Did they offer to help? No. They just looked at me like I was weird and continued to talk to each other. Fuckers!
Despite their crappy customer service, the selection is amazing. The price is right. The location is great. Needs improvement on employee’s. Maybe you should pay them more and you’d get better service providers?

This place is the best. Can’t believe I haven’t reviewed already. All the veggies you could ever want, great prices, top notch meat, poultry, seafood etc. I go here as often as I can. I usually don’t get the other stuff, but the beer selection is top notch, they have a million options for any beer lover. The cheese selection is vast and delicious. They have deli meat, hot food, and fresh bread from many local bakeries.
I’ve been here probably a hundred times I’ve just been in check in mode lately and that reminded me to write a review.

Probably my FAVORITE grocery store of ALL TIME! It’s like Whole Foods but less pretentious, Trader Joe’s but more variety, and Sprouts but greater Asian food selection. Plenty of parking and check-​out lines move quickly and efficiently.

Cleaner, nicer, and more ‘Whole Foods’ feeling than the original location. However, the produce and prices are just about the same. Berkeley Bowl is a hipster’s dream. You’ll find everything from polenta to white pepper stocked within the aisles here. Better yet, everything is incredibly fresh and pricing provides better value than major chain competitors like Safeway. The shopping experience here is not too high brow, and I’ve had consistently good service and produce at both locations. Sometimes, I even drive up all the way from Mountain View to buy those cheddar corn nuts (and other stuff of course). Berkeley Bowl is something I miss dearly about being in college at Cal.

I can get some cookies and chocolate there that are a bit harder to find. They also carry Anna’s Daughters Rye bread which I love. Their grocery section is good, but to be honest, nothing beats a local farmers market. When I want to add a coke to my shopping basket I can do just that. I can get pretty much everything there. They also have a bargain grocery section hidden away in the back of the store.
As mentioned by others, parking can be a challenge and at times the lines at the registers are just way too long. Both of which make for annoyed urban dwellers…
I wish the store had smaller carts. I am shopping for myself, baskets can be inconvenient and the big carts are taking up way too much space in the aisles.
I’ve had great experiences with the folks in the beauty/​vitamin department. Their recommendations have always been great!
The place is so busy sometimes that folks working there forget to smile.
One more thing: I’ve seen the guys who collect the carts from the parking lots shouting at and air kicking the dogs who are barking and waiting outside. It’s making a bad impression.

Overall Berkeley Bowl West is perhaps slightly smaller than Berkeley Bowl on Oregon St.
The bulk section might be slightly smaller here yet the produce section is perhaps bigger than Berkeley Bowl on Oregon St.
Great place to stock up on bulk, produce, & everything else you might need even some products you never knew existed. The diversity from high priced rare organic speciality foods to more readily available affordable goods is a unique feature about Berkeley Bowl.
One essential improvement would be to move the fermented food such as sauerkraut & kimchi away from the cold cuts as well as the meat section to put it by the tofu or miso products or another section. That was a turn off as vegans or vegetarians also enjoy fermented foods.
Either Berkeley Bowl is as good as a natural food store gets & Oakland needs one!
I still give Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco the best of the Bay Area honors as it is 100 percent vegetarian & they give you a .05 cent discount for every container you bring to fill up at the bulk bins if you are a package free diet vegan, vegetarian, or homo-​sapien.
Rainbow Grocery also has 100 percent organic produce while both Berkeley Bowl & Berkeley Bowl West offer the option of organic or conventional produce.

Love Berkeley Bowl and their produce — especially the bulk nuts, seeds, and grains section.
Hate the annoying, loud, and whiny middle-​class white people who feel they need to talk freakin loud so that everyone can hear what they’re saying — esp. when they have kids, that’s even worse. stfu. Also, move out of the f-​ing way. Sometimes they are just so insensitive to other shoppers and just block entire sections while thinking, looking aloof. Ugh… white privilege at its best at Berkeley Bowl

Love Love Berkeley Bowl. I can only wish this was my neighborhood grocery store. I would be here almost every day perusing the aisles for goodies and trying out new exotic fruits. They have everything you could ever want! I think of it as a way bigger Whole Foods without the exorbitant prices and with a Trader Joe’s feel to it.
Their produce selection is SUPERB, both organic and non-​organic, and they have a great selection of pretty much everything else. Prices are VERY reasonable.
Of course they have in stock a local milk/​yogurt brand called St Benoit Creamery which I came across recently while at the Marin farmer’s market as well as my favorite Siggi yogurt in multiple flavors (soooo good), some beautiful mitake mushrooms, and a high quality EVOO that was on sale here for $ 9.99 that usually goes for almost double that price at other grocery stores. Score!
Only con I can think of is that it can be a bit of a madhouse especially on the weekends but thankfully the workers are prepared for the onslaught and it seemed like all 20 or so checkout lines were manned so we didn’t have to wait too long.

Unlike the Berkeley Bowl on Shattuck, this one has A TON of parking! There are open parking lots across the street, lots of metered street parking, regular parking lots next to the store, and an underground garage (my personal fave).
There is a ton of fresh produce, meats, and other fun goodies. I like that they have a bulk foods (nuts, beans, etc) section for when I just want ¼ cup of walnuts and not a huge bag for a recipe.
The place is almost always hectic (the weekends are INSANE) but you will be able to find parking and spend a really long time going through every section and finding random goodies!

It’s so big!!! The parking lot across the street is efficient, except when someone tries to drive the opposite direction. The food court area looks really cool, but I didn’t go there. I only went there to look for a bathroom, but I couldn’t find it. :(
The actual store was so large. I usually go to the other Berkeley Bowl and I knew what to expect and thought it was going to be similar in size as the other one, but I think this one is a lot larger. You start off in the bakery/​deli area and then you walk through to the produce area. I didn’t realize I was in the organic section until I got a majority of my produce and I walked to the normal section. Then I was like thinking, damn… this place is humongous. I could probably spend several hours here. Eat a meal, go grocery shopping, check out all the other merchandise, then go outside and admire the other produce. haha
If you’re looking for great produce and have the money to spend a bit more, come here!

Berkeley Bowl West is great. This is a big, independent, and popular grocery store located in Southwest Berkeley. The organic produce section is huge and you can buy several foods in bulk. There’s a bakery-​café serving breakfast and lunch as well as offering delicious made-​to-​order cakes, a flower shop, a meat counter with butchers and a deli, and a seafood department with fresh and interesting selections. They even sell Japanese housewares, cooking supplies, and various ingredients.
You can find a lot of neat and unique stuff such as watermelon gherkins (cucumbers less than the size of grapes that look like watermelons), hard-​to-​find types of pumpkins and squash, cheryimoyas (custard apples), speckled swan gourds, and kiwanos; grass-​fed Wagyu beef, game hen, pheasant, capon (castrated chicken), squab, quail, and ground buffalo, elk and camel; and all sorts of fish and seafood like sushi-​grade fish, Nordic gravlax, and sea urchin (uni). Needless to say, it can be entertaining to simply browse the inventory.
On my last trip to Oakland to visit family, my sister and I came here and loaded up on a variety of groceries and goodies, though nothing too crazy, just a lot of basics. We got a loaf of bread, rolls, English muffins, blueberry muffins, sliced cantaloupe (½), sugar, sour cream, and other cooking ingredients, cartons of organic juice (apple and orange), Berkeley Farms eggnog, ice cream, assorted day-​old pastries, and a spectacular fruit tart which we took to a dinner party for dessert. It was a hit.
Berkeley Bowl has a nice selection of discounted day-​old items from the bakery along with old produce that’s still good to eat. It’s the biggest I’ve seen of any grocery store. It’s a terrific way to save money on yummy snacks/​sweets and organic produce. I ate the day-​old pastries for breakfast over the next few days and each one was delicious. One was made with blueberries, another strawberries, and another with sliced almonds. The fruit tart was beautiful, symmetrical in its design and fruit placement. It came with ripe and sweet raspberries, blueberries, mango, kiwi, strawberries, and blackberries. It had a luscious cream filling and a hard appetizing crust.
Service is good too.
If you’ve never been to Berkeley Bowl, I recommend you check it out. Berkeley Bowl West is the second location. The original Berkeley Bowl is located a couple miles east in South Berkeley. The grocery stores are called Berkeley Bowl because the first store opened inside what used to be a bowling alley. This location, Berkeley Bowl West, has plenty of free parking, both on street level directly outside the store (in surface lots) and inside an underground garage.

I tend to visit Berkeley Bowl primarily for their inexpensive and fresh produce. Don’t get me wrong, some produce is expensive. But it’s usually something extremely foreign, like Buddha fingers, or some crazy blue mushroom. But the staples are generally affordable.
The dairy sections are pretty evenly priced as well. To emphasize, it is expensive, but it’s also high quality. Brands like Straus, and Clover.
Their nuts, pasta, spice, and snack section aren’t bad but can get a little up there. That said, the quality is generally high, thus the price is appropriate. But it is not adequate for a baller on a budget.
Cheese is way, Way up there. Like way marked up (I’ll stick with Cheese Board where the cheese is always freshly cut from the wheel, has a much richer quality, and is literally half the cost). I generally don’t even bother looking at it here. They have an excellent selection of the baked Acme bread. The price isn’t bad… But Tjs offers a similar variety and the cost is about a third less.
I would avoid their interior as much as possible. I think they attract patrons by their produce, and while you happen to be there maybe you will grab some kitchen interior stuff. Although the selection is great, the prices are rrrrridiculoooous. Like $ 2 for a can of beans, or tuna, or whatever. They have nice Kosher, Indian, and Asian foods– which can be hard to find elsewhere. But as far as shelf stable staples. Nnnnope. Trader Joe’s sort of takes the crown there, where prices are generally about half the cost.
One thing other grocery stores can not contend with at Berkeley Bowl, however, it is their produce. It’s simply outstanding.

Even though this is the newer of the two Berkeley Bowl locations, I sort of prefer the old one due to sentimental reasons. Even with that, Berkeley Bowl West is still one of the best grocery stores EVER. Where else can you find a huge organic-​dedicated produce section? Where else can you find an entire aisle of different varieties of eggs? Or organic, antibiotic free meat? And fresh fish? And ethnic foods? And amazing, high quality cheese? And on and on and on… all for pretty reasonable (or at least not outlandish) prices?
Basically, Berkeley Bowl is amazing. You should go there. Parking can be annoying sometimes, but they have a whole underground lot, and 2 exterior lots. So it really isn’t that bad. I have had a few sub-​par experiences with the cashiers (like they completely ignore me and just talk to their coworker friends throughout the whole transaction) but I’m just there to get groceries, so I don’t really mind that much.

One of my most favorite things to do is grocery shopping, sad to admit, but I’m not ashamed to say that grocery shopping makes my heart flutter & fills me with joy more than it should. When I found out BBW was a block away from my workplace, I wanted to cry.
Produce: Large selection of produce. If you’re looking for rare produce, like passion fruit or any other oriental produce, you’ll likely find it here. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted bags of vietnamese rau thom. They also have tons of local produce & other common produce brands like Driscoll and Sunkist. Large bins of leafy greens & other cruciferous veggies. Also, a ton of mushrooms, probably any type you can think of. Great selection of produce overall.
Cheese: Good selection of local and aged cheeses along with a good selection of other large cheese manufactures, such as Kraft.
Breads: Fresh Acme Bread. Need I say more. They carry an okay selection of breads, but not enough wheat in my opinion.
Chocolate: Holy moly, if you love chocolate this place is paradise. I think it was aisle #5. Be careful. They also offer tons of other confectionaries, both American and international.
Customer Service: Twice already I have gone over to the customer service line and asked them if they carried certain products. Each time the employees have been helpful & have gone over and grabbed my products for me. Very friendly personnel.
Parking: It’s insane from what I’ve seen, luckily, I walk here after work & avoid the hustle & bustle.
Price: Super affordable. Specifically the price for produce & anything in the bulk bins (nuts, seeds, grains, etc.) are unbeatable. I walked out with a ton of nuts, beans & an assortment of asian produce for a lot less than I would have found at a WFM or an Asian Market.
Overall: I find myself going to able 2 – 3 grocery stores to get everything I need for the week, BBW somehow houses absolutely everything I need for survival. I’ve been coming here at least twice a week. I would recommend buying produce, cheese, bulk bin items & fresh cuts of meat… I wouldn’t recommend buying products like Kraft cheese or other large American brand items. they are a bit pricier. Although crowds are viscous, this place is worth every penny invested & every minute spent in the long lines.

I love this place but always hate the crowds. doesn’t ever seem to be a good time to come to this place… maybe first thing in the morning on a weekday… i usually go to the original one located on Oregon/​Shattuck but the newer place has better parking.
Great place if you’re looking for different ingredients and ethinic items. The produce here is always fresh with different varieties of potatoes, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, etc. Fresh fish and love their prepared foods counter. Found out they carry B-​dama sushi and chicken karaage… surprisingly, chicken was still crunch-​worthy by the time i brought it back to the office.