Big Bear Produce

Unilocal should offer a «no star «option for this reason. Big Bear Produce needs LOTS of help !! Let me start by saying, there are MANY Iraqi Markets to choose from in El Cajon. And all of these Markets have the same exact products. Usually the only difference comes in the quality of product in the «fresh meat «section and if they have a deli/​kitchen (which they all have).
This week Big Bear Produce has ground beef (who knows what the fat/​meat ratio is) for $ 1.99/lb, so that drew me in. Once inside, I found a few other deals that I decided to partake of, and then I found their deli/​kitchen.
They had Chicken Shawarma on sale for $ 1.99/ lb, and beef or chicken kabobs for 79 cents each. Wow … What a deal right? WRONG !!
First… The Chicken Shawarma was so dried out, and had a VERY sour taste to it. I’m not sure about you, but I have NEVER had Chicken Shawarma that had a powdery texture to it. When you tried eating it, it dissolved in your mouth. Really? It was unlike anything I had ever eaten.
Then came the kabobs…
I was excited that they were on sale for only 79 cents each. Usually you pay 99 cents each for Chicken, and $ 1.25 each for beef. So this price was perfect… But unfortunately… the kabobs were far from it. They were over cooked and were SO SMALL, it looked like they cut a regular sized kabob in half.
Then to top it off… The «Manager «offered to give us some rice for free, for ordering so much food. That would have been fine, but he gave us a container of yellow rice that was so dried out it was CRUNCHY when eating it. Now having gone to Culinary school, I know you DO NOT serve Customers this quality of food !! The Health Department would have a field day in this place, considering there are no times/​dates on anything there and food under the lamps look to sit out all day long.
My advice… AVOID THIS PLACE !! If you head further East on Main Street, you will find Valley Foods. Their deli/​kitchen is the absolute BEST in El Cajon.

When I’m in this part of el cajon, I’ll sometimes stop by here. Many middle eastern markets are in el cajon and being middle eastern myself, I have an idea of good quality products and what middle eastern food should taste like. First off, the parking lot, don’t enter. You’re better off parking on the street. Much safer. The store is small and usually always packed. A lot of the fruits and veggies look bad. Make sure you take a good look at what you’re buying. The highlight of the groceries here though, the organic eggplant! It will definitely catch your eye. A very cool addition that I don’t see very often. Now, many of these middle eastern markets sell hot foods. So, I decided to try big bear market out. Beef shwarma, you can never go wrong with that right? Sadly, big bear market was very wrong. The meat was very dry. It was thick pieces, but so dry it was hard to swallow. It didn’t have that fresh cut, juicy taste to it. It’s not always cheap, so this was a waste of money. The service by the hot foods isn’t very welcoming either. It seems like no one likes their job and doesn’t wanna take your order. I don’t think I’ll be coming back here.

This place is amazing. A huge variety of middle eastern foods. Fresh bread & pizzas made daily. Good (and oddball) produce. Friendly people. GREAT smells! Very clean. I could browse for hours checking out the exotic foods they sell. Mostly, the people are very helpful and friendly. They don’t mind explaining what things are to an anglo like me. :)

Small sized Mediteranian Store, so no wonder if they have limited variety. Sometimes, they have good price on produce and kabob. This store is replacing the former store, International Market. For local resident nearby, this store helps a lot beside babilonia located in the next

Definitely an huge upgrade from the store that occupied the place before. Nicely done renovation inside and out. The service is much better with these people as well.
The store is relatively small, with 4 short aisles for the non perishables, but they stock those up neatly and fully. Being that this neighborhood has a large ethnic population (I intentionally omitted what ethnicity, because I would hate to get it wrong), This store stocks up with that in mind. Unfortunately, I’m unfamiliar with the cuisine so I can’t speak for the variety, but they have several choices of many of each of particular items including larger sizes of those items that you wouldn’t normally see in a supermarket.
So, whatever the dishes are that they enjoy that they use olive oil, powdered milk, green olives, black olives, bunches of canned beans and so on, they have that. I will offer this tip: I don’t know what the hell they use the liquid yogurt that looks just like milk for, but just make sure you watch what your doing when you are gathering your items. It may look like milk and in a milk jug, but it does not taste like milk or yogurt that you would find in a small cup.
The produce section is not bad at all for the size and they stock up surprisingly quality produce. They stock the items that are in season mostly but at good prices.
If that doesn’t seem worth going a few blocks away from your usual market, The meat department is. It is always fresh, always stocked and displayed and nice cuts of beef and fresh ground beef and chicken. I won’t leave out the lamb and other items that I don’t know that much about, but they have it.
The butcher is helpful and friendly and even proud of his selection and weekly sales. When I am considering trying a cut of meat that I don’t know much about, he’ll give me the nicest piece he has in the case for my first go at it. Nice man.
There are a few other meat products, including some nice fresh fish that he keeps in there but you would have to check those out yourself, because I do know about fish dishes, but I haven’t found the recipe that the lamb tongues, some animal feet, hearts, livers and kidneys so I haven’t picked any of those up yet.
I did work up the nerve to ask him about how the big tray of lamb testicles are normally prepared, but I kind of whispered it so no one would hear me and he must have thought I was asking for them and started pulling them out for me. I stopped him but felt embarrassed.
Side note: For lambs not being a huge animal, I would never have thought they would be packing a couple of good sized dumplings. A little extra educational tidbit for free.
To round it out, they have a little bakery they keep busy with fresh bread and hot foods.
I like that place and go there for meat first. If there is anything that I would say may be the tiniest of difficulties for me is many of their labels and signs are in Arabic, but that’s not a huge deal, because if I don’t recognize what it is, I probably don’t use it anyway. It wouldn’t have mattered if there was a sign, in English with audio and illustrations, those lamb balls were not coming home with me.

I went in there today for the first time to buy some produce and was extremely disgusted. RUN from this place is my kindest comment. First of all, when you go somewhere to spend your hard-​earned money, you expect FRESH produce, not apples that were obviously old, as half the bin was rotten, the lettuce and the spinach were all wilted, the bell peppers were all wrinkled, the strawberries looked like they would mold before getting them home, etc, Then you add in the unfriendly, snobby cashiers, and the picture is pretty complete. SAVE YOUR MONEY and go to Food 4 Less, or Vineripe or any other market!

Main St. in El Cajon has become a hub for Mediterranean/​Middle Eastern grocery stores and another one has opened, Big Bear Produce. What an adorable name, right? They even have a bear on their big, bright signage. For me what sets them apart is that they’re a full-​service market compressed in a smaller, easily navigable space. They have a hot food section offering beef and chicken shawarma and a handful of other dishes like lentil soup, rice and potatoes. They make their own bread and baklava (they’re pretty good!) and also have a meat section with halal/​non-​halal meats.
The staff here has always been friendly and greet me with a smile when I walk in. On one occasion when I picked up some beef shawarma, the lovely lady threw in two complimentary sammoon bread with my order! How sweet of her :)
btw they cut their shawarma really thick here… and it’s always been very moist and nicely seasoned. Delish!
Produce is fresh and reasonably priced. It may be limited at times, but they always have a decent selection.
It’s my new favorite Mediterranean grocery store.