Northgate Gonzalez Markets

Watch the cash register screen as things are scanned at checkout! They overcharged me for tamales today. There was a large sign advertising half dozen tamales for $ 8.99. When I checked out, they cashier charged me for the single price. When I brought up the discounted price, she had no idea what i was talking about. It’s only $.55 but who knows what else they’re over-​charging on!

This Supermarket chain should get over the ignorance of dealing with diversity… You want to be respected and your culture respected but when diversity enters your store, you treat them them like crap. The staff at this store in particular treats you like they don’t want you there… which should have been a sign because the cheese tamales had no cheese and the chicken tamales were SPOILED

Extremely disappointed in there food. The three person dinner of carnitas tasted like wood. The salsa was not fresh. Hell even the tortillas were stone cold. I hate it when they put them in the microwave. Lastly, the chicharones were stale as Gomer Pyle! I have visited el D.F. (Mexico) and have tasted the best in Mexican cuisine. Although my nine year old loved the chicharones I could not bare to disappoint her that they were the worst I ever tasted in my life! Also el pan blanco was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It was hard as a brick. Hey Manager some us still eat at 7pm don’t be mean put a fresh batch of bread. One last thing my Spanish is not the best, it would be nice to hire a bilingual person.

Esta tienda, tiene los baños más asquerosos que e visto, ellos tienen bastante cajeras mucha gente que te a tiende, pero se an olvidado de algo muy importante los baños lo dicen todo, me imagino cómo están las bodegas donde tienen los vegetales!!! Qué horror !!
Quisiera saber a dónde acudir aparte de Unilocal donde reportar eso !!!

Watch out for the breads ! I saw 5 FLIES SWORMING inside the pastries case with cookies and muffins. Notified an employee and they didn’t care. Nasty! Do not buy their breads here… So dirty! Very cheap groceries, but remember you get what you pay for!!!

I like this market specifically for their produce department. It is really excellent. Everything is fresh and most importantly (to me) their avocados are always just how I like them: not too ripe and not too hard.

I would never come here again after what I experienced today at the hot foods section.
There were three people working in the hot foods station… I stood there for a good 5 minutes, and I even made eye contact with all of them, but not a single one even acknowledged me. What. The. Hell. Not even a «hello». I worked in the food service for 6 years and no matter how busy and tired I got, I always acknowledge the customer. I would say «hi, can you hold on a sec. While I attend to this other customer» or something… If you had the time to stand there and wait for the bread to toast and look at me, then you had the time to at least say something.
I like their choices of fruits and vegetables and was hoping that this would be my go-​to for grocery when I’m in the area, but from my experience today, I definitely won’t be coming here anymore. People who work here just seem like they don’t care, and just wanna get through the day… Sorry, Northgate, but you just lost a customer, and probably many more in the future … #sorrynotsorry

Wow, I remember when this use to be some funky furniture store, we are talking, over 15 years ago, when my girls were still small and at the time, I had limited options on where to get Latin products, I think my only option was Value Plus, which I wasn’t too crazy about back then. Anyhow… on to the review.
I must say, I read the previous reviews and was a little concerned. But to be honest, with what some have mentioned, when one lives in San Gabriel Valley all their life, some of the complaints sadly are what you get use to. Doesn’t make it better, in fact it use to annoy me every trip to the market. And yes, I can see that happening here too. But to be honest, because of all the old neighborhoods changing drastically as time passes, and imagine when they finally decide if and when they’ll build a football stadium (or whatever attracts the masses), I imagine this area will have to play catch up with more changes. So it wasn’t that bad of experience. It wasn’t bad at all. Of course I came here with my husband, I don’t feel confident coming out here at night, but I’ve been that way since I got sick last year. But will continue to come to this market, because it’s the only decent Hispanic market (that I know of, correct me if I’m wrong, I’d really like to know, the more, the merrier and spreading good karma to local businesses that need it).
Yea parking lot can be scary, people zooming in and out like grand central station. Just watch out for them. Park a little further and it shouldn’t be bad. (Everyone wants upfront parking to the entrance).
They had everything I’m use to getting. Prices were not too bad on some items, however I did notice the carne/​meat a little higher, also saw some items that I’d find cheaper at Food 4 Less. Tortillas, meat, pan dulce, chips, bollilos, etc., all fresh. Produce wasn’t too bad at all. My only pet peeve (this is when people start to wonder if I’m a real Latina or not), because of my on going acid reflux issues, I can’t eat really spicy salsa. All of their fresh salsas are HOT! Out of the Pico de Gallo, I must have strained a bazillion tiny pieces of finely minced serranos & jalapenos bits out and it was still piping hot! And that is almost all Hispanic markets, small mom & pop Carneceria’s, Panaderia’s, heck even the Wateria’s sell hot hot hot spicy salsa… WTF?
Market is big, aisles a little more wider than the others and it was very organized and clean.
I didn’t really look at the alcohol too much, but did notice Stella Rosa (wine) was a lot cheaper than the big chains.
Atmosphere wasn’t bad either, of course this was a week night, I’m sure the weekends & week days during rush hour might be a little mad house. People were just going in, getting their stuff and getting out. Why can’t it be like that always? I just can never figure that out and just try to go when it’s not the crazy busy times.
Well it’s going to have to be my go to, because I don’t know what other Hispanic markets there are in the South bay and do not want to travel too far or to the less desirable areas to get my Latino products — if that’s the case, might as well go back to the SGV or East Los.
Lol at the review of the «Taking the whole Familia to buy one item»…that is so true though, it wouldn’t be an authentic experience without that (among other little happenings/​things growing up I’ve observed amongst my old communities) occurring.

The first time I came here it was for beer.
I’m Guatemalan. Yes, weird. I know; but this place has Gallo beer.
If you talk to any Guatemalan just ask them if they know about this beer. 9 times out of ten they will tell you yes and that one of their family members is an alcoholic who drinks this shit all the time.
So yeah, I gave this place 5 stars for that.
Fast forward a second trip and I walked to the meat section. Grabbed my ticket. Unfortunately I was behind a middle-​aged couple who had a cart-​load of meat and getting more. Usually this is alright in my book if you’re getting like 10 lbs of this and 20 lbs of that… but they were literally getting like a pound of this and a pound of that. It irritated the hell out of me.
After standing in line for almost 5 minutes watching this stupid couple ordering tiny amounts of meat, something came across me. For the first time in my life, even though I wasn’t working or anything, I felt like my time was being wasted. Like, one of those epiphanies that I am actually wasting money, time, and life waiting for this pair to finish up.
I crumpled up my ticket and threw it away and walked out. I knocked this place to 2 stars.
But then I came here again and walked the aisles and the store and found that this place has a lot to offer. They have fresh-​made tamales, and prepared meat in case you’re feeling too lazy to cook. Ready-​made cakes and pies too.
I’m glad I gave this place a third try. I’m sure i’ll be back again.
Just a warning to the ladies: you will be eye-​molested by the customers and workers. You get that whole perverted vibe here.

Is it necessary to take four generations to the market to grab a 2lb bag of rice? Lmao great ceviches but not worth the hassle.

First Time shopping here and it was good experience everything was clean and orderly the produce section look fresh. They have a hot food section I will come back to try it looked good and smelled yummy. You will find lots of latin american type items…
Big Parking Lot…

Clean, spacious, quick service at the registers. Warm food available by the pound and awesome choice of pre seasoned meats. Reasonably priced too!

Not the best Northgate I have been too, but this is the best Latin market in the South Bay. I come here specifically for chicharron, pollo asado, tortillas, and chiles.
I am a huge fan of their pollo asado, which for a whole chicken is $ 6.99 and way better than the rotisserie chicken at ralph’s. It is not salty and dry like Ralph’s chicken can be.
I also love their chicharron (the fried pork belly thick cut strips with meat attached to skin) which is $ 12.99/lb. A bit steep, but they are delicious.
I also come for their serranos which I use for making Korean chile kimchi. They have huge piles, so I can get a good amount of them without cleaning the place out. They are usually 99 cents/​lb.
I’ve tried their salsa verde, roja, and their guac. Not a fan of any of them. They are too sour for my taste. YMMV.

Best mexican market in south bay. Great meat market. I like to pick out my meat from a case and not pre packaged. The deli is the place to go to get a hot dinner to go. They have cervice in the front delish. Their guacamole is not for gringos. Very spicey. Fresh made tortillas, bollios, pan dulce, and chips. The veggies and fruit taste fresher than at Vons. On weekends they will grill any marinated meat bought at the store. Not to mention real birria on weekends. But it is always crowded.

Rip off! More expensive than Ralphs. And the food that is made is expressive too. The bean are good though. The rest is garbage. I hate shopping here. Some one once told me to shop along the borders of that store. Don’t go down an Isle or you will be ripped off!

Always super crowded. I got grilled chicken and white rice from here. Alright. Had better

Crowded, crowded, crowded. No matter what day or time, this place is always crowded. The cashiers act as if they hate their jobs. Parking is horrible.
On the pros, the meat here is pretty good, and the ready made food is alright.

Not good, for produce, not a store you would shop in for quality food.

This place is always sooo damn packed with people, it feels like they’re giving away free stuff half the time because of the amount of people here. This is especially true on Wednesdays which are when their specials are live. Aside from that small inconvenience they always have the stuff I need for Mexican inspired dishes and the generic kitchen items.
I thought the opening of the Northgate, north of this store would alleviate the crowded issue. No dice. =\
Price: ³⁄₅
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Service: ⁴⁄₅

I’ve shopped at three different Northgage Market locations and out of those three, this is the one that’s going to give me nightmares.
You must utilize your Christmas parking stratigies here and brave the humanity lurking about in the parking lot and infront of the store. Then once in the store you’ll find dirty floors, expired food on the shelves, a line so large at the bakery its almost out the door PLUS, take a number to purchase meat because 99% of it is within refrigerated cases only the butchers can get to. EEW.
And the topper is they don’t carry the refried beans with bacon I was looking for here either.

This Northgate is pretty big. The fruit/​vegetable section takes up ¼ of the store. It’s not as big as some of the other ones I’ve been to but big enough. There is a huge meat section which takes up another ¼ of the store… and there’s usually a wait. The Al Pastor I got from here was good. A little spicy.
Also, the ready made meat section is pretty good. I came here for their carnitas and they gave us samples of the Chicharron. It left my hand greasy. so they gave me a napkin. :)
You’re able to get free samples of the ready made food they serve. I asked for samples of 2 of their ceviches. and another kind of pork they made. Their ceviche is good. I took some home. Frank spiced it to his taste. and it ended up tasting yummy. I am craving some right now!
Their bakery section is not that big. There were only about four doors. If you know what I mean.? I don’t know how to explain it. Although. I can’t complain. because they had the ones I usually get from there. :)
Parking is okay. They have their own lot.