Ideal Discount Market

Just off Canal St. on North Broad, This is a great little market with all sorts of Central American cooking ingredients at really good prices. Yesterday, for instance, 10 limes for a dollar and fifty cent cilantro bunches. If you need tomatillos, they have the best prices in town.
Amazing produce prices & a great selection for Mexican or Central American-​style cooking, plus most of the other things one would expect at a grocery store. I haven’t tried the lunch counter in the back, but it all smells DELICIOUS! My favorite part about this Latin market is that it makes me feel like I have just stepped into another country.
The parking is sort of tight, especially around lunch time, but they have a few skinny spots behind the store.

As soon as I walked in the doors I immediately knew I was in the right place. From the outside it can appear to be nothing but a hood little grocery store but in the inside are cramped little aisles full of all of my favorite things. Call me corny but an aisle full of Goya products and Spanish seasonings for the low low $$ excites me. Certain items that I cringe at buying at Winn Dixie and other grocery stores in N. O because I know I’m paying probably triple the price I can now get here without feeling like I’m getting raped. Although the produce section isn’t huge, everything is fresh and CHEAP. They have seasonings for days and tons of other little Spanish treats throughout the store. Glad to know this is here and am even more glad I decided to go inside after driving by it constantly. Be warned its crowded to the max on Saturdays but whatever just move swiftly and get in and out and you’ll be fine.

I absolutely love this little grocery; phenomenal deals on produce, homemade bread, and an incredible selection of Latin products. The main draw, even still, is the food prepared in the kitchen and served in the hot bar.
It is phenomenal food, authentic and perfectly prepared. The barbacoa is tender and flavorful. The carnitas have the perfect smoky sweetness and caramelized edge. The rice and the beans are simple and excellent; loved the fried rice also, it is loaded with meat and could constitute a meal on its own. Our favorite, and what has become a staple, is the whole grilled chicken; ask for the pollo asado. They have this beautiful red shade from a seasoned marinade, are constantly watched and turned over a large open grill and develop a perfect char. They come with grilled jalapeños and baby leeks.
You should go eat here. Don’t expect anyone to speak English but if you are persistent you will receive the prize.

Latin Grocery! Moving from San Diego, I never realized how much I would miss Mexican Food Marts and listening and speaking to people in Spanish. This grocery store all around makes me feel good and reminds me of where I came from. As for the market its self, it has a great selection of meats and prepared foods. Tons of spices and goods that cannot be found at your local markets and a decent selection of produce. Check it out!

Impeccable market with the widest selection you could ever hope to find in this kind of store. Didn’t get anything from the hot food bar, but everything looked great. Prices are low and the wide variety is impressive. Will definitely be back, and I want to check out their other locations, as they seem even bigger!

Amazing Mexican/​Latin American grocery and deli. Large selection of very fresh fruit and produce at good prices. Food at the deli looks authentic and easy to put together a good meal. House made corn tortillas are available. Butcher shop has a good selection including marinated meats. Anyone looking to cook a Mexican meal can’t skip shopping here. A little Spanish is helpful, but the staff tries very hard to help overcome any language barrier. The store is very clean and well organized.

A LATINO «SUPER ROUSES»: and once inside it’s like Mary Poppins’ carpet bag, seemingly getting deeper and wider with squeaky-​clean «WholeFoods-​ian» aisles of groceries & produce.
HUGE 40+ FOOT BUTCHERY & HOT FOODS COUNTER: located in the back (to the left of the Western Union kiosk) and the prices are reasonable.
KNOW YER SPANISH: ordering is reminiscent of Madrid’s El Corte Inglés cafeteria. I employ «Rick Steve’s» broken language method: point and ask «tu favorita?». This trick almost always yields satisfactory results. Today I had the delicious chorizo breakfast burrito on freshly made corn tortillas, $ 2!

Great grocery store with awesome latin inspired prepared foods. I generally check out the produce as it can be significantly cheaper than Winn-​Dixie/​Rouses (let alone Whole Foods) although sometime quality can be sketchy. Great selection of tropical fruits so my go to when I am craving some papaya. However the highlight of this joint is the prepared food and the meat counter. The prepared food is always delicious — just wait in line and point and you have enough delicious meat and rice for the entire day for less than $ 10 (seriously — split it between two people for a regular sized meal). Also a huge fan of the al pastor spit they have in the back — although it is often not ready or sometimes not even on. Pick up some ready made salsas from the bin near the meat counter including my personal favorite the spicy guacamole con chili. The meat counter is also serious business. You can’t beat the pre-​marinated carne asada (get the whole flank steak version — not the fajita strips). It is around $ 6 a pound and comes out perfect and delicious each time. Also a surprisingly good place to pick up flanken style short ribs — which I use for Korean BBQ at home.

Suprisingly nice produce section & reasonably priced; popular, hot Mexican food. So many specialty items, but I prefer food without additives, chemicals, etc. — didn’t find any, not in the salsa or tuna section anyway… Didn’t bother me — but might bother some — got some looks as the only white person in the store.

This place is like the narnia of latin american foodie goodness. It doesn’t appear to be that big from the outside, but if you walk inside you’ll find yourself surrounded by a grocery store and cafeteria style fooderie (sadly, no faunos). The food is pretty decent, perhaps not the best you’ll ever have but it’s tasty, cheap, and pretty authentic.
The service is also pretty quick and friendly, so I can get behind that. In spite of it’s wardrobesque appearance, it’s still a relatively small store so while the prices may not be dirt cheap, they aren’t bad if you need something quick (and are no worse than Rouses «ethnic» section). I’ll definitely be going back, so if you see a fat guy on the curbside of broad street nuzzling a gallon of horchata, please don’t step on me.

1 cashier is horrible, older gentleman with a mustache I believed was involved in a couple crack heads stealing 20 dollars from me. I asked if there was video after I realized that I had been ripped off I asked if there was any video and he said he didn’t know what I was talking about. I have also recieved dried fried chicken from this establishment. I am really curious if older gentleman was involved in this heist.

This is such a great addition to MidCity, A real Latin market, clean and well stocked. My wife and I go and just walk the admittedly narrow aisles staring at the exotic offerings. We get our usual items to support her Mexican cooking, but occasionally succumb to the deli items. A roasted chicken we got there was sublime, juicy and ringed with grilled green onions. We did find the guacamole too fiery, but bought some avocadas (plentiful and RIPE!) and added them til the guac took on a yancqui spice level. The staff is tolerant of the occasional «gringo» and is very pleasant and engaging when asked about the products. Not a place for xenophobes, but for those enjoying our community’s diversity, well worth it!

tortilla flip out.
delicious.

The best thing I’ve got to getting the Mexican grocery items that I need in NOLA!
Rouses hardly ever has the speciality items I’m looking for, so I make the double grocery trip to IDEAL. I’m just happy to have a place to get the little things I love like pan dulce, sopa de estrellas, my enchilada sauce, etc. They also have great meat, including some already marinated for ya.
And it’s nice to go somewhere in this city and be able to speak Spanish.

Great Mexican /​Central American grocery. Nice Mexican cheese selection, great meat counter (they have a real butcher, evidently) and complete selection of Mexican produce and cheeses. The lunch counter is quite good as well, but no seating. This is the place for hard to find Mexican and Central American items in town. The parking’s terrible but what can you do.
Aisles are narrow and when the place is packed with customers, err, almost any weekday evening — and can be a chore to shop, but totally worth it. If you are into Central American/​Mexican food this is the only place in town that has what you will want.
Most of the staff does not speak English at all so brush up on your Spanish! I don’t know Spanish at all, but get by with just pointing at things. The butcher counter is just amazing.