Gardner’s Markets

According to ver recent New Times article, this location has CLOSED and is OUT OF BUSINESS !!!

Absolutely LOVE this place. I am so glad I came across this location and that it is still open, after I nearly cried when the south Miami and pinecrest locations closed.
First off, no one can compete with gardner’s prepared foods. The tower they make out of pesto and sundried tomatoes is the best in its kind. They also have all kinds of fresh salads, meats and spreads. It’s like Joanna’s Marketplace on sterroids. They have the best soups ever, they are fresh made daily, and you can call to hear what is fresh each day. They make all kinds of awesome custom order sandwiches, and for 9.95 you can get any one of them, chips, cookie, and drink of choice. The cookies are fresh made each day. I would go with the smore cookie. SO GOOD! They have espresso, they make cuban coffee. They also have a good size parking lot, hard to find in this area of the grove.
This is the ideal place to grab some solid items for entertaining or awesome lunches on a budget. It’s like a much cheaper epicure and totally underrated. I am so glad I came across the fabulous neighborhood gem!

Everything here is between $ 2 and $ 5 overpriced.
I love to come here for the salad bar at lunch but it has to be on a rare occasion because it is soooooooo overpriced. I don’t get subs anymore because the ladies at the sub counter are always miserable and have attitude.

I dont know what anyone will see in the place. It’s dilapidated. Selection is limited and expensive.

This place is ok. It’s very small-​so there aren’t many options available in the store. Also a little pricey. Their customer service is good and they are very courteous. You’ll have more variety at Fresh market.

One word, desserts! Love their desserts! Excellent flan, delicious chocolate cake! Everything else including service, I don’t know. Prices on desserts are good. Prices on everything else, I’m not so sure. 3 stars for you! Although it’s centrally located, I think the fact it’s not adjacent to a big shopping center and kind of hidden may be affecting store traffic, sadly.

A nice market with delicious items. Price is expensive, about the same as your local whole foods. But that isn’t my issue here. This is what just happened to me an hour ago:
I just purchased their groupon, which allowed $ 30 of groceries for $ 15. A great deal – however. Upon asking an employee the protocol with redeeming the groupon, she pointed to the manager at the cash register and said «ask the white girl». Was that necessary? Definitely not. A very uncomfortable comment.
Don’t think I will be returning

It is painful for me to write this review.
I’ve been to Gardner’s Market on nearly every trip back to Miami in the last 5 years and each time I get more and more concerned about it’s longevity. My trip there this weekend was probably my last.
The shelves are bare, even old mother hubbard’s shelves were fuller than gardner’s. The knife in my heart was when they told me they were out of honey mustard for over a week.
Guys, it’s going to happen. This location is going to close. So head their quickly if you want your last Gardner’s sandwich.
It is so hard saying goodbye to old friends.

Yes this place is pricey. But they have great sandwiches and a fresh salad bar. I wouldn’t do any major shopping here but the place has some great unique items that are good for a party or to bring to a picnic.

Frankly, I don’t understand how this place survives when they have nothing to offer that you can’t get at Fresh Market, Whole Foods or Milams. There is no reason to shop here other than to pick up a quick prepared lunch from the salad bar, deli counter or a soup of the day. They do have a small selection of ready made pizzas, quiches, salsas, meat balls, salads etc.
The actual groceries are overpriced and the selection is very limited. Most items are missing prices altogether.
They had NO sushi on Saturday afternoon. My primary reason for checking them out (bought a Groupon) was that they advertise a fresh seafood counter and daily fresh made sushi on their website. They had zero, zilch, none at all. WTF? Picked up the next closest thing, the last vegetarian summer roll, which are a million times better at Milams. These had nothing but shredded lettuce inside, were falling apart and the only thing that gave them any flavor at all was the peanut sauce.
Was going to try their lentil soup, until I read that it was made with chicken stock. Great, let’s take a perfectly healthful vegetarian dish and load it up with some animal fat. That makes sense.
Salad bar looks decent but again no prices. I picked up some cooked beets since they had no fresh ones. Got home and they tasted salty. Yuck. Not even sure they didn’t come out of a can because they had no color whatsoever. Anyone who roasts or steams fresh beets at home knows how much color comes off when you pick them up.
The produce section is measly and downright depressing. Most of the produce is wilted, costs about double what you’d pay at Milams and the selection is very limited. Biggest faux pas, it does not tell you where it was grown (a place like this should be proudly serving locally grown farm products) nor whether it’s conventional or organic. My guess would be non-​organic if not otherwise stated.
Their pastry selection looks quite appetizing and they have some pretty good looking empanadas. I’d given those a try if I weren’t off wheat and sugar. All in all not impressed.

I literally drove past Gardner’s Market 100 times before I stopped in for breakfast one morning. It was the sign out front that screamed «OPEN FOR BREAKFAST». The place was busy, not so much with customers but with workers preparing the store for their daily clients. It was early and yes, it took a little longer to get waited on than at some places, but the store was quiet and the food was excellent.
I had something that basically was scrambled eggs with bacon mixed in, with toast and coffee. Not a bad idea and was very good.
I’ll be back the next time I am in Miami and am in less of a morning rush.

So much hype around the Grove regarding this place. I’ve been in a few times, reluctant to shop. Not convinced on getting a meal. So I decided to venture in and get something simple.
Coffee and a Crossaint. This should be easy right?
Parking lot was virtually empty on a Tuesday AM at 8:00. Understandable, not it’s peak hour.
Went inside and to the right is the coffee with pastries. For a market place I was expecting some off the chart pastries to accompany my coffee. No, they did not have almond crossaints or anything attempting to strike my palet. Ordered an American Coffee to go — tasted burned.
I have experienced better, and I really expected it because of the great rap this place gets. So I will try it out one more time, perhaps venture for a lunch meal. But for now, 2 stars.

Small market that will help out on a quick lunch. Sandwiches, soups, some groceries and some other stuff. It’s a very small version of a supermarket. If you are in a hurry, you might want to stop by and quickly get your item, but they night have everything you want!

Fresh food, nice salad bar, coffee and pastries. A bit overpriced, but the sandwich combo comes with a fresh baked cookie, bag of chips, and a soda all for under $ 10 and is a good lunch break option. They also have a nice gourmet selection of goods and drinks.
The breakfast was VERY disappointing though. Stopped for some omelets before work, and they were each $ 7 for nothing but a small 2-​egg omelet the size of a chocolate chip cookie. No sides, no home fries, not even a piece of toast. When we were going to be charged $ 14 for these, we were gonna leave it behind and walk out, but luckily the boss/​owner/​somebody important let us take them free of charge, claiming the morning cook who usually makes the breakfast was not in yet.

I forgot this place is here!
After a hard workout at the gym with my brother, I invited him to come out to lunch with me and asked him to suggest some place where we could get a healthy lunch nearby. He brought me here.
I hadn’t been here in ages. What a good call! Great salad bar, though a tad pricier than Whole Foods. They also have an excellent deli where you can get made-​to-​order sandwiches, and prepared foods/​daily specials.

Gardner’s market has totally disappointed me. I bought a groupon in early 2012 for meat and fish platter and the expiration date was on May 2^nd. I called them in early April to say that I would like to make an order for May 5^th pick-​up and would it be okay to place the order prior to the deadline of May 2^nd and pick up the food on the 5^th. The woman I spoke to said that would be no problem and to call a couple days in advance. I thanked her and explained that I was having a party on the 5^th and that is when the food platter would be used, otherwise I would have picked it up on the 2^nd. She was very kind and say no problem.
Therefore, when I called to place my order for the groupon on April 29^th I was very surprised when I spoke to Athena and she said I could not get the platter unless I picked it up on the 2^nd. I explained my situation to her and let her know that I spoke to someone last month and they said it would be no problem. She promised to speak to the owner and call me back. I did not hear back from her. Then I called again on May 1^st and asked to speak to the manage. The manager promised me he could do nothing and that that was just the way it is. I dont really understand what the problem is. Why cant I pick it up on another day? It is already paid for. He agreed but said it was the owners policy and I would need to speak with Luis in the morning. Runaround again…
So i called Luis on May 2^nd (the last day of the groupon) and of course he was in but not available but I was promised he would call me back. I did not get a call from Luis and I am sure he couldn’t care less about my situation. I will never go to Garder’s market again and will not recommend to anyone. I have heard that the service was bad and now I know why. It comes from the top.
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Good soups and you can make your own salad at the salad bar.
It’s a little over priced but its good quality food.

I’ll be honest here. I was *really* yearning for Gardners Market to be my local gourmet/​healthy-​ish food shop after moving in practically next door. I’ll never forget that first day after moving, revved up with the excitement of a new place I exclaimed «I can get my post-​workout Zico Chocolate Coconut Water only a few steps outside my front door!»
Then it happened. The shiny gift-​wrapping faded, the Zico well ran dry and was never replenished (a grave error I expect to be corrected, ya hear Gardners!?). I was heartbroken but with that delicious selection of ready-​to-​stuff-​down-​your-​gullet prepared foods, luscious produce (seriously, I can get a HUGE Grok-​friendly bowl of berries ready to pile in my face!) and, uh…, oh, I can’t remember the third…
Oh, that’s right! They NOW SERVE BREAKFAST! I’ve gone twice to taste it but I’ve yet to try it. Bear with me while I give you the elevator synopsis. Both times the UM Student behind the counter was given our order of meat & veg omelettes from their modest breakfast menu. Seriously, it’s a few sandwishes and egg products which is not a complaint but it is to note that it would take me a day or two on the job to memorize. Said UM Dude had to look at the menu about 8 times in order to write it down, pass to the cook, to remind the cook what was in there, and to check again just because an egg white omelette with meat and veg was a bit too much to recall. After waiting about 15 minutes each time only to discover the UM/​cook duo were *still* trying to figure it out, we walked.
Long story short? Gardners has some good coffee and pastries (if you’re into that sort of thing), and they’re a great pit stop for some last minute beer, wine and Santana Champ but they’re a little overpriced and don’t be in a hurry when it’s time to pick up breakfast…

I hate to do this, but any time I see evidence of food sanitation procedures not being followed, I have to bust a place down to one star.
I’m standing there at the sandwich counter, having just ordered a roast beef. I think nothing of it, I’m messing around with my phone while I wait. To my horror, I noticed that my sandwich had been prepared on the dirty cutting board, without any wax paper serving as a buffer.
I was in a hurry and didn’t want to make a scene, so I just took the sandwich and forked out the roast beef, tossing the bread that had come in contact with the probably-​contaminated cutting board. I suspect that this is also what happened back in January, when I contracted some odd gastrointestinal ailment several hours after eating a Gardners sandwich.
To be fair, I’m pretty sure sandwiches are prepared on wax paper much of the time, but when it comes to food sanitation, «much of the time» is nowhere near good enough. I don’t know how anyone could think that preparing food in a deli setting directly on an oft-​used synthetic cutting board is OK.
Making matters worse, I also purchased a bottle of Honest Tea. I took a few sips and noticed that there was something just a little off. I sniffed the bottle and caught a faint, but definitely present, scent of ammonia. I trust Honest Tea to not spray ammonia anywhere near its beverages, so in this case I blame careless application of an industrial detergent by whoever cleans this market.
I tossed my bottle out in disgust along with the carbohydrate portion of my sandwich. Needless to say, I was pretty grossed out by my lunch.

We were on our way into Home Depot and it’s the first time I’ve spotted this place, even though I’ve passed it so many times.
It’s really cute and has a small-​town market feel to it. The items are a little more expensive than they would be at a place like Publix, but they have some pretty neat local sauces and jellies. I can see this being a great little spot for people to pick up last minute foodstuffs if they live in the area. Next time, I’ll have to try some of their food