Sunac Natural

The food took over an hour to get here. I pre-ordered before they even opened up, and they texted me saying they had "no more home fries." I don't understand how they could run out before they were even open! And, they sent what looked like microwavable sausage patty and a soggy microwavable square hash brown. I ordered vegetarian eggs, and there was a sausage patty in my plate. This was not a good experience, and I won't be ordering from them again.

The review is for the salad bar only.
This is my go to salad bar place. It’s close to home and just an easy grab and go marketplace. They have the toppings I like (cashews — that’s a bit rare at salad places) and the prices are amazing! It’s 6.99 (I think) for 5 toppings but my toppings can include, chicken, avocado, eggs. Normally other places charge extra for the extra protein or the premium topping but not Sunac.

Having been to the other Sunac in Brooklyn, and the one in Chelsea, I can say I was highly disappointed here. The other Sunacs are known for their variety or soups, sandwiches, and hot food. This store has none of that besides a weak salad bar. More importantly, besides water, beer, and juice there are barely any options for drinks. HIGHLY disappointed. The staff is very friendly though!
*edit* I went back to give them another shot and immediately realized they have sandwiches you can order. I got a BLT, it was great. Who knew redemption tasted so good.

Eh, the outdoor seating and the convenient spot are the best parts at the W’burg location of this expanding natural market empire.

This is a great «bodega» or market right by the Bedford L train stop. I get coffee here every morning for $ 1.75 (large coffee) and they have soy milk and sugar in the raw available. I also sometimes stop in for a breakfast sandwich $ 2.50 (bagel, bacon, egg, cheese). Because of its great location and friendly staff, I’ll stop in any time I need something (beer, seltzer, fruit) but I do not do my main shopping here due to the price.

I came here in the morning to get a salad for my lunch and ended up walking out with nothing. This place will never get my business again. I was standing in front of where they make the salad for about 10 minutes and was completely ignored by whoever the cook is. He had his back turned doing some other bullshit instead of doing his job serving customers. Then more people started coming in and started piling up in back of me. When the cook came back from space and finally acknowledges that people are waiting, I get completely skipped by some scrawny hipster male piece of shit with no manners who was in back of me and he asks him for his order first. Well what can you expect, those mama’s boys are all the same right? Besides his clear lack of manners the cook is the most at fault. When you see someone in front that was clearly standing there for a while especially a female, unless his peripherals do not work the right thing to do would have been to be fair and ask who was first or to go straight to the person who was clearly first in line. So unprofessional. Never again will I come here, not even for a bottle of water. It’s clear that they have some moron working the morning shift there that has no respect for a female but get it together and learn to be polite and accommodating to your customers. The food here sucks anyway and I doubt they’ll last for much longer.

DO NOT SHOP HERE. APPALLING! SOLD ME EXPIRED FOOD AND GAVE ME A HARD TIME ABOUT REFUNDING ME!
So I know better than to ever have expected greatness from this lazy, rude, same as every other overpriced grocer in Williamsburg. But in a pinch when I’m running late for work once in a while I’ll stop and pick up something on my way. Never again.
I went in this morning for one of their gnarly, dry, tofu salad sandwiches you find at every other ‘Natural Market’ in town. I thought a bowl of fruit might be nice to go with it. So I’m at work and I start eating my fruit and notice it tastes a bit ferment-​y/​fizzy/​sour. So I try a couple more pieces to make sure and it only gets worse as I go so, grossed out, I stop eating it, and look at the sticker on the container. It was past its sell-​by date, only by 1 day, but expired nonetheless. Now I realize I probably wouldn’t get sick from eating fermented fruit, and 1 day after the sell by date *should* still be basically fine to eat. But it clearly wasn’t, which makes me believe that it wasn’t well kept or prepped in a hygienically safe way in the first place. (I should mention the fruit wasn’t just expired. It was all way under-​ripe and not sweet at all. Which in itself is a big deal when you demand $ 6 for a little bowl of fruit.)
But realizing mistakes happen, I decided I would hang onto it and stop by after work and politely ask for a refund. The blonde woman who never smiles was behind the counter. I believe her to be the manager. «Great,» I think, «she’ll have the business sense to do the right thing here.» WRONG. She first looks at me as I explain what happened as if the flesh on my face was rotting off my bones, and then says, «You can exchange. Is ok.» She didn’t even try to apologize that it happened! I was taken aback but tried to nicely let her know I was no longer interested in their fruit and would simply like to be refunded. (Sidenote: I work in coffee. I refund people without question when asked to, just for not being ‘into it’ even if they are unreasonable. It’s just what you do.) She asked, «You paid credit?» «No, I paid cash,» I responded. With a sigh, and rolling her eyes, she said, «O.K. This time I do it but next time you exchange.» And spitefully tossed my money into my hand.
MEAN BLONDE LADY: REALLY? You expect there to even be a NEXT TIME? So from that I gather you have no interest in preventing these issues from happening again, and you are dense enough to think that I will continue to shop from you after that kind of treatment. There are a number of reasons why you should have been grateful that I returned your shoddy produce. First, it is good to know when your business has a problem that needs to be addressed. Second, I could’ve been unreasonable about it, and even reported it and had you fined which would have cost you a lot more than the $ 5.75 I rightfully asked to have back. For those reasons, you should have APOLOGIZED, thanked me even, volunteered to refund me and offer a replacement on the house, and considered yourself lucky if I ever set foot in your joke of a grocery store again. But you ensured that there will most definitely never be a «next time,» and that’s unfortunate, because as I work just 2 blocks from your store for the past 3 years, I could have given you hundreds in business in years to come, offsetting the cost of the refund many times over.
You would be better to go hungry than to spend your money in this dump.

If a place has the word «natural» in the name, it is usually 5x more expensive than the regular market. Sunac Natural is surprisingly affordable. It’s the only place to get good lunch in Williamsburg for $ 5!
They have an awesome salad bar or you can create your own. They also have really good sandwiches and wraps.

Considering it is off of Bedford you wouldn’t expect the prices to actually be higher than all of the other places on Bedford. Selection is the same as you can get on Bedford, within a block, at a lower price and with more knowledgeable people and better service. They are the same owners as Khims fyi.

This place was great, lots of healthy food options and decent prices (not cheap but not outrageous either). The prepared foods looked pretty good and my buddy said he thought it was tasty. I wish there were more vegan, vegetarian, organic, healthy shops like this one!

This place is fine, just DO NOT order anything with grilled chicken. It is always dry and over cooked. You will be bummed out if you do.

I’m also surprised at all the negative reviews!
Being from Jersey, I only visit this store when I’m in the area on occasion, but I’m always happy at the opportunity to explore all the store’s goodies! Yes, a lot of the products in the store are pricey, but I haven’t found them to be any more pricey than other health markets, not to mention they’re open ²⁴⁄₇.
This store is the first one I’ve found that sells so many awesome snack items that I had previously only seen ads of in my VegNews magazine. I’m a huge fan of the vegan jerky! I love how brightly lit and clean the store is, and it’s just a pleasure to spend time in.
Once I found myself spending a couple hours sitting in their modest dining area waiting on a friend, but was disappointed that they have absolutely no outlets for me to charge my phone at. I know it’s a first world problem, but hey, it would be nice to make that small accommodation. I was put off by the girl who immediately barked «No!» at me when I asked if they had any outlets. She could have been much nicer.

just needed to fill my craving for an assortment of kale chips, of which they had about three different varities… typical natural foods store, no surprises. Decent offering, prices are on the higher side.

sunac is like that guy you know that, when feeling weak, you call.
and after all is said and done, you regret it and vow never to call again.
but after a couple months, you call again. and the cycle begins.
replace guy with overpriced salad, and call with buy… this is getting too complicated.

This is my first exposure to an organic health store. I figured I’d have some time to kill before my bikram yoga class and stumbled upon this place in search of healthy snacks to bring home and keep at work.
The place has pretty much everything a vegan, vegetarian, and well, the average omnivore could hope for — fresh veggies, organic of course, snacks, frozen foods, and many, many other options to live a healthier lifestyle. I did come to notice that as you walk further back into the store, the more unhealthier the food becomes.
Regardless of whether you wanna be a trend follower or just build a healthier you, this place isn’t too bad of a place to start!

i love sunac. especially this one since i work nearby. Love their iced coffees w/​complimentary soy milk for $ 1.50. LOVE their salad/​sandwich bar, the guy who makes my sandwich is super nice and friendly. I always get the California Dreamin’ sandwich (turkey, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, mixed greens, olive oil on a roll) for $ 5.50; amazing! You can create your own salad, i got a large for like under 5 bucks, and they have a variety of things you can pick to put in your salad. I’ve also had their curry chicken salad; super yummy. I also love their yogurt with berries and granola in a cup, and fresh berry bowls. They’re open 24 hours, f y i.

Sunac, I rationalize your unreasonable prices as a means of being a good capitalist (oink oink!) and taking advantage of people like me (the overworked and too passively tired to find an alternative to your 500% markups group). I can even deal with you only selling $ 14 bars of soap from mother Earth (nope, cheap brands like good ol’ Suave isn’t even an option).
But after yesterday, I will never shop at your store and I will make it a point to tell my friends about how much I hate your business.
Why? Because your abusive old asian male cashier (and/​or owner) isn’t worth dealing with anymore after not just giving me the usual scowl, but throwing my credit card to the conveyor belt with an attitude– like I had forced him to scan a hundred coupons whilst lashing him with my leeks… and after seeing some unsanitary looking multi-​legged creatures roaming around.
And mind you, I’m probably one of the top ten least demanding shoppers. I can ignore 99.99 999% of the attitude, 98% of the bugs in your store and still return things to its proper place, group items to what looks most convenient for clerks, and at check out, have my cash or card is ready, with my state ID in tow. Not to mention trying to bag/​stuff everything in my own backpack before wasting your bags.
To think I went to this place more than once a week burning my money.
=====================
To old asian cashier guy:
You, old cashier man, don’t have to be my best friend. You can scowl about whatever it is that you always scowl about and I’ll scowl back, so you won’t feel so alone in the world (it makes me hotter anyway amongst my twentysomething peer group). I’ll even try to smile sometimes, just to change up your day.
But giving the world biggest attitude because your first swipe of my card didn’t work and I insisted that you swipe again, since I know that my overworked ass has an ample amount of funds to purchase your overpriced, infested products… you really don’t have to throw my credit card down and throw the receipt at me.
I wanted to club your sorry ass in the knees and run off with my groceries and call it a day, but I have a conscience. Enough of a conscience to never take out my crap on other people, let alone a paying customer. Unlike you.
So if Sunac wants to continue being in line with good capitalism (oink!), they’ll fire your sorry, replaceable ass with the next drone, perhaps one possessing a slightly more amicable scowl.

I’m giving this place 4-​stars SOLELY on the basis of it’s deli counter and salad bar – both of which in the Bedford Ave neighborhood of Williamsburg are much better than most.
The sandwiches, of which there are many options, are all pretty satisfying and inexpensive (5 – 7 dollars) and the salad bar has a ton of items you can add on different lettuce bases (spinach for the win). This also won’t run you too much and the produce looks/​tastes fresh.
As for the grocery, as seemingly everyone has said, it does seem very expensive. I’m not quite sure the reason for that. I saw a thing of Newman’s Pasta Sauce going for like $ 5.75…he was probably rolling over in his grave.
More important than why are the grocery items so expensive, what you should be asking yourself is, who does their shopping at a bodega? It’s true Bedford Ave neighborhood does lack a true real grocery store for a neighborhood this populated but you just have to be wise or truck it to Tops/​C-​Town for better prices.

Let’s face it: the lack of a really good grocery store in Williamsburg, coupled with the prevailing neighborhood demographic, has created a predatorial niche in which sub-​par gourmet delis thrive. Sunac is the most shameless in a group that also includes Khim’s Millennium Market, et al.
The biggest turn off about Sunac, as widely mentioned in other reviews, is the price. There’s just no reason that Fage yogurt should be $ 2 more expensive here than it is at JSS, the excellent grocery by my apartment in Greenpoint. Everything, from the prepackaged products to the produce, is 25−35% more expensive than it should be.
Nevertheless I try to be nice to the clerk (owner?) who unthinkingly calls everyone «Boss» multiple times in an inhumanly gravelly voice and whose face permanently displays what seems like several centuries worth of extreme weariness and concern.
The only reason I’m awarding Sunac two stars instead of one is because of their custom sandwiches, which are actually pretty good and at $ 5-​$ 6 are a bizarre bargain compared to everything else in the place.

Surprised at all the haters!
What 24-​hour Korean deli ISN’T «overpriced,» pray tell? After all, this is about convenience. You’re in and out of this place. They are extremely efficient at the register. Can’t say that of TOPS (that place gives me the willies).
I’ve had nothing but good experiences with the staff, here, too. Once, I went in at around 4 am drunk out of my mind after a night at the Ale House, and started joking around with the long haired older Korean dude behind the counter and before I knew it, we were throwing F-​bombs left, right and center! I love that guy and hope he’s the owner. Or a relative of the owner. He rocks!!! There is one late night surly dude, but WHATEVs, as long as you pay him, he won’t spit in your soup.
I wish they’d stock Miso Mayo. And more varieties of frozen desserts (they do have a fair amount of the So Delicious frozen soy ice cream). And FIELD ROAST (which you cannot get anywhere in Williamsburg, it seems). And popcorn (the kind that you actually don’t need a microwave for). Actually their snack selection (chips, etc.) used to be a bit better.
There was this one funny time that I had a crazy craving for a pear. I don’t know, they must have been out of season, or hell, maybe it was a pear shortage, but I was warned that my pear was 5 dollars. That was sweet of them. I bought it anyway.

I am a vegetarian and was brought up by hippies on Martha’s Vineyard, (when other kids had fluff and PB sandwiches I had homemade bread and hummus)
So anyway I am always happy to be near a place that can sell me San J soy sauce and miso paste etc… except wait, Sunac didnt have EITHER of those things! and everything else is about $ 3 more expensive than Keyfood. I did a comparison on a few select items… such as cereal which is always pricey.
Basically I cant believe there are always so many people in there… waaaaaay to expensive.