Treasure Island Foods

Update please. Old Town is a nice area of Chicago and this store does not fit in with the area. The setup in there is very awkward. Salad bar looks like a pick nick someone threw together. But I do have to say nice people work there. I just think they need to gut the inside and create a warm and welcoming store.

Our local treasure Island is very convenient for the neighborhood. They have a good variety for a smallish store but often more expensive than other supermarkets in the area. My only real beef with them, no pun intended, is there butcher section. On many occasions the ground beef appears fresh and pink but when I get home I discover that the meet is actually Broun green in the center as if they had covered old meet with fresh meat on the outside to appear fresh. The poultry often smells bad and feels slimy.

In general, Treasure Island is a good grocery store and this particular location is no exception.

This is a terrific store. The butchers are some of the most helpful, friendly people around. Prices aren’t that bad for the area and convenience. Good selection of quality products + friendly staff = this is my go-​to grocery store.

Variety and prices as this store are usually lacking. I went earlier this week and every freezer was room temperature — probably really unsafe.
Regardless, I bought a frozen pizza anyway. When I went to cook it I realized I bought it about a week past its ‘Enjoy By’ date.
Liquor is expensive, produce is expensive and bad. Service is always nice though…

This chain is very dated and sort of nasty in general, but you can usually count on a nice selection of free samples (perhaps because they have to give away stuff that is about to spoil?) but this location is pretty sad — just as nasty as the others, and hardly any samples.
In the days of beautiful stores like Mariano’s, I’m not sure why anyone would shop at the treasure island. They need to invest a ton in their stores if they want to survive.
Good luck!

Love the cut up variety of fresh fruit in the plastic containers. Makes delicious smoothies, but feel it is way over priced. I depend on TI to have these in stock everyday and they do. They come in small and large containers. The fresh flower section is sparse. They carry a great selection of tomatoes and produce, and the bakery selection is not as good as other grocery stores. I’ll continue to shop here because it’s convenient and close for me.

The produce is consistently sub-​par to say the least. I have bought peaches that appear normal, but are rotten on the inside. I have bought cooked chicken from the deli that had absolutely no flavor, other than «refrigerator flavor» (when it’s left in there for too long). Today, I bought 5 organic apples. I ate one, tasted different but… it was ok. Ate the second one, and while it was fine for the first few bites… I took a couple more and saw that it was ROTTEN inside. Literally brown.
Yes, they gave me a refund for the three apples that I brought back this evening. However it is important to note that this is a consistent issue found at Treasure Island. I generally cannot buy most of my groceries here due to the poor quality. If I’m going to eat something more than 1 day in the future, I won’t buy it. After the apples today, it’s clear that I can’t even eat food the day I buy it. Thanks for the stomach ache, Treasure Island. I will never return.

Sky high prices. Few things ever on sale. Managers are not interested in providing good customer service.

I live one block from this store, but I only go here for absolute emergencies. And I’m a very lazy person so this says something. The meat department is horrible… even for ground beef. There is a very friendly butcher there, who I think is probably a nice guy, but hes told me things are fresh and when I look at the label today is the «sell by» date. The produce is Jewel quality but Whole Foods pricing. There is a Whole Foods about a mile down North Avenue and a Plum Market 4 blocks down Divisiion. Both have parking and my business.
I’m writing this review because we were in a rush and went to TI tonight for steaks. None of them looked out, so we bought ground beef for burgers… when we got home and opened the meat, it looked horrible. Guess we’ll be eating them well done tonight.
Meh.

Treasure Island, I love the idea of you so much. But the execution? Not what I pictured. I stopped by the other day because I needed a couple of items, one of which was from the Spice House and this was the closest grocery store (kiddie corner).
I went in and immediately started searching for the two items I needed: tomatoes and eggs. As I’m walking through the produce section, a customer and an employee got into a huge yelling match. There were slurs and some minor violence and I was immediately uncomfortable. I had to do the best I could to find my two items and get out. I went to the produce area and was dismayed to see that none of the tomatoes were good except for the prepackaged ones. I didn’t quite understand this, but went and bought the pre-​packaged number of tomatoes since they were the only good ones. I went to look for half a dozen eggs, but every pack of those, for whatever reason, cost as much as a full dozen of eggs.
When I went to check out, it seemed like the employees wanted to leave as badly as I did. I try to go to Treasure Island for better produce at prices that aren’t going to kill me like Whole Foods, but I ended up feeling hurried out with food I wasn’t happy paying for. That, and I receive a lot better service and better prices at Jewel. Oh well, this location is much nicer than the one on Broadway, at least.

This location is across the street from some friend’s place and this is their go-​to grocery store.
As you walk in you see that it is a dated grocery store. The alcohol section is pretty respectable in the variety that you see.
The selection of food and goods are your standard grocery items at great prices. Definitely your store to find your staples yet won’t have any of the fancier or speciality needs items.

Good for necessities and nothing more. Slightly better than a convenient store only because it has a greater variety.
Stay away from anything that can go stale, breads, cakes, buns and their entire homemade sweet section.
Produce is ok but not WF or Plum market quality.
I’m seriously nervous about the temperatures in their refrigerator cases and what’s with all the paper towels on the floor sucking up the condensation. Can’t they get that fixed.
At the end of the day, I’m glad I can walk there but if I ever had to get in the car, I’d go to WF or Plum.

Yes, I buy the bulk of my groceries at Whole Foods.
When I need something for the meal I am cooking that day, I pop into Treasure Island. When I know a conventional produce item is ridiculously priced at Whole Foods, I get it here.
Though their selection of organic items is small, it has grown in the last 6 months. If you buy organic packaged food, that selection is much larger as well.
And, I will shop here before I walk the extra half mile to Plum Market, where the prices are much higher and the berries rot within a day.
The staff is always chatty and friendly to me.

yeah, I wound up here on one of my many wandering around the city evenings. I went to one in the past at a different location & thought it was good though I wasn’t WOWED, as I was used to shopping at Pete’s Markets, Trader Joes & Shop’N’Save’s around the south side of the city. Still, they were a neat market though I thought some packaged goods were WAY overpriced

Can’t wait till some new markets in the area force the owners to invest some much needed $ in this store. Overpriced, but that would be OK if quality was high. It is not. Fruit is always old.

I can’t stand this place. Their products are WAAAAYY overpriced. You’re basically paying for the «privilege» of shopping at «the most European store» blah blah blah. As a former soldier stationed in Europe for 3 years, this slogan is ridiculous to me. But, people with money to burn (and those who’ve never been to Europe) will shop there and swear by it. The staff is unfriendly, has no clue where their products are located and the place generally reeks of spoiled food. If there was a Jewel or Dominick’s that was closer, I would never go to this establishment. The only thing it has going for it is it’s proximity to my apartment.
And for goodness sake, if you’re shopping for alcohol, take the time to go to Wal-Green’s and compare prices. You’ll see that WG’s prices on basic beer (Bud, Miller, etc) are AT LEAST $ 2 cheaper.

On recent trips to Chicago, I’ve gone to Treasure Island for the first time in many years. I didn’t realize it growing up, but this place has an astounding selection of specialty items. It’s just amazing that they have the guts to stock rare items (tins of giant greek lima beans, Pritikin canned soup) that you would think were in relatively low demand.
The deli counter people are helpful, and this location has free parking, which is really what makes shopping here possible.
But don’t go on an empty stomach, lest you walk out having bought a thousand impulse items from around the world.

When I used to live across the street from Treasure Island, my roomie and I would go over there to «eat dinner.» No seriously, we would go snack on all their samples, and then build a salad from the salad bar to go. Love their salad bar – great selection, and reasonably priced.
Overall, TI is a decent specialty store. For many products (non-​specialty especially), it is outrageously expensive when compared to Jewel or Dominicks. I would never recommend shopping here for the bulk of your groceries. But, there are some specialty products there that are downright pretty reasonable – I’m thinking random condiments from odd areas of the world (holler vegemite and Bavarian sweet mustard), crackers and cheeses, etc. It’s definitely worth a trip in to just browse to see what oddities you can find.
I always found the produce to be overpriced, except if something is on special. They have great deals on berries during the summer months.
In addition to the salad bar, they have a great prepared foods section, and some really tasty soups. Great for those times when you don’t want to cook.

Okay, I don’t know why everyone is so fascinated with this place (when I say everyone, I mean coworkers and neighbors). I abhor this place. To me, it felt dirty and not well taken care of. The selection was okay, but with larger grocery stores beginning to branch out into more ethnic foods, there was not as big a selection as I thought there would be. Plus, the prices were way too high, especially for the items I can find elsewhere cheaper.
To top it off, the customer service was horrible! I saw a worker roll his eyes and raise his voice to a customer who was looking for a certain item. My cashier was cleaning her finger nails with paper while waiting for my receipt to print. Not a «Hello» or «Thank you» anywhere.
My experience was not a good one here and I doubt I’ll be coming back unless there is something I really need from here. However, I will probably try Dominick’s first or go to specialized local stores.