After a day of running errands, my brother was giving me a ride home when he says, "I need to get…read moresome flatbread..." I remembered a place on Jackson Street that I had gone to 5 years ago that had a tremendous selection - looked it up on Yelp and it was no longer on Jackson, but was listed in Castro Valley. So we went thought we'd go by and give it a try. Great decision! The "new" store in Castro Valley is much brighter, cleaner, nicer than the old location. I think the old location had more stuff from Eastern Europe, but this new location seems to have a broader selection, with more stuff from Western Europe and the Middle East. The guy behind the counter was very friendly and helpful - always willing to answer questions and even give tips on how to use the products that they sell. And his recommendations have been great - we asked him about which tahini and zaatar to get (they have many different brands/types of each...) and the ones he recommended have been way tastier than any of the brands that you find in most markets. Especially good was his recommendation on lebnah - he said that the brands they carry are all good, but they have some that they package in-house that was special. I tried it - it was less expensive than the other brands, but was the very best lebnah that I have ever tasted! Richer, creamier, with just the right amount of tang. Wonderful stuff! Anyway, Crossroads is a nice, clean, well-lit place with a great selection of unique products, and friendly, knowledgeable sales staff. Well worth a trip!

Tons of European groceries here. Happy of them I done even have any ideas of what they are. It was…read morenice to go through the store. Ended up getting some pelmini and chocolate banana gummies from Croatia. They have all the stuff for your Dubai chocolates. And panettone! Will be back to try other stuff.

A lot of nice selection of products I've never seen before. Dubai chocolates were abundant here…read more Really liked the variety and will be coming here more often. Really enjoyed their fresh pastries as well. They were really fresh and made a nice sharing snack for a picnic.

I've wanted to go to European. market for a long time. After living in Pittsburgh, I get the…read moreoccasional craving for pierogies. Mr. T's don't quite cut it, so I was hoping to find a good selection. They have it, but I didn't find the veggie ones I was hoping for. They all seemed to be pork and beef. On another day, I probably wouldn't have cared, but that was what my mind was fixed on. Still, I managed to find a nice pear lemonade (plum too) and makes a couple of tarragon sodas to try when I am feeling braver. I also saw some Dubai chocolates and Milka products (tortes, cookies, candy bars) to buy for various holidays. They had fresh bread and a good selection of frozen fish (turbot, Sturgeon, etc...). My friend and I tried the fresh pasties. Her Sour Cherry Cake was delicious. It was nicely spiced, light, and delicious. I wish it had more sour cherry flavor, but it was good. My Kyiv Cake had good flavor, but I guess I've lost my tolerance for so much meringue. I thought the hazelnuts a chocolate glaze would carry me, but I don't like my cake to crunch. So, not for me. Although that won't keep me from trying other things. I want to go back after I do a little research. The Georgian wines and their wide selection of hard candies looked. Really appealing, but I couldn't read the labels. Next time. If you go visit, know that it's tucked away behind the Round Table pizza. It's also within easy walking distance of the Castro Valley BART, so don't let its location deter you.

Finally stopped at Luccas Deli after driving past it a hundred times and yeah... I've been missing…read moreout. Came through with my wife and kids, we all kept it simple and got the same thing. ham + salami on a sweet roll with everything. First bite told me everything I needed to know. bread was soft, meat fresh, nothing overdone just straight up good. Place runs smooth too. You walk in, grab a number, and they call you up. Sign tells you exactly where to go so you're not standing there confused like some spots. Staff were cool and quick. They got a solid setup with drinks, chips, even frozen stuff to take home. Didn't try the potato salad this time (kinda regret that lol) but I'll be back for sure.

Great sandwich and great spot. I ordered the roasted turkey sandwich and it was really good. The…read moreturkey tasted fresh, the bread was soft, and everything was well balanced. Simple but very flavorful. Service was quick and the place has that classic Italian deli feel. Definitely a solid spot for a good sandwich. I'll be back to try more.

Showed up once i forgot to review. Showed up again and was also amazed so i remembered to do the…read morereview. This store has a lot of specialty products!!! Bread from El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and others. They sell alcohol from such places as well. Saw other products from other places, and service was good! Definitely recommend

Monarcas Supermercado is the newest Mexican grocery in this space. the infrastructure has been…read moretotally renovated. a larger grocery, produce, dairy, soft drinks, and beer sections are clean, well stacked. there's also some mexican bakes, a coffee/drinks section, a meat counter, and a taqueria take out counter. the taqueria doesn't have it's menu nor proteins availability posted. eats: pastor, lengua, asada tacos (3/$5) -garnish: radish, lime squeeze, onions, cilantro, salsa -doubled grilled tortillas was toasty, fillings were amply -lengua was moist, juicy, pastor was deep fried, asada was dry tasting. *good value, the scoop ready protein section was slightly off, tastewise. one table available for eat in.

While you can shop here for groceries, they have a taqueria with hot food ready to be plated. You…read morecan also order the food fresh to go. Quick and fast to go out the door or stay and eat.

Worst food I've ever had from Chavez, I usually buy tortas and tacos, today we went a different…read morepath Birria de res: clearly written on the menu as birria de res, I got lecture by the cook telling me is named barbacoa and no birria, even tho is written wrong, I'm supposed to know that the menu describes the item wrong, and the surprise when I realize the had dump the salt box while making the recipe, it was waaaaay to salty Nachos with pastor: this time there was no corrections to what was on the menu, maybe they call them "Ignacio's" where that cook is from, taste? Bland... to be generous. Mocha tres leches: what milk did you use for this? It tastes chalky and not sweet or wasn't able to eat it at all Plantains: this is what made us come here, we tried ordering them, but when we saw them they were dried and the look like they were cooked last year... sorry the cooks suck and they have a really bad attitude, please look for other careers, cooking is not for you, my check was $70 and I couldn't even eat the food, I feel like I got scammed

I love Asian markets, the produce is always low priced and the variety is much wider. Decided to…read moretry Mei Mei after all the insta ads. I guess you could say I was "influenced." Stopped by on a Monday evening after dinner. The store wasn't too busy this day and we remembered to take our grocery bags. Upon entering, the store was clean and well stocked. The entrance takes you through the produce sections. The veggies were standard veggies like bok choy, cabbages, root veggies etc. There were some things I was looking for that didn't have labels, just "general produce." No biggie, I know how to use my phone to scan images. The produce section also has a freezer section with frozen dumplings, buns, and other stuff. The selection was amazing. The meat department had plenty of options from poultry to beef to seafood. They also had frozen meat and poultry in ice chests. I did come for loose leaf teas and found just what I needed. Everything is really great quality and they have different jujube options. I also loved their frozen ice cream and sweets. We got the viral ice creams to try and they also had tanghulu but only the hawthorn ones. We get to the register and the cashiers were really nice. Overall the experience is great!

This Asian supermarket is a gem. It looked clean and very well organized, making shopping easy and…read moreenjoyable. The variety is impressive--they offer a huge selection of fresh Asian produce along with a wide range of authentic products you don't always find elsewhere. I was absolutely blown away from the different variety of tofu they carry, and also so many different noodles. For me it's a trip (since I live in the bay area), but absolutely worth it!

This place is located in the Niles District of Fremont. They sell a large variety of Olive oils…read moreand pastas as well as breads, corn snacks and flavored popcorn. The artichoke bread which is made locally is DELICIOUS and is only available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. There were other varieties which I'll probably go back to try. The owner helped us and gave us a brief history of the store and where the items were made. Very nice experience, I'll be back for an Olive oil tasting soon.

sapore messo was a bit of a mess-o! as much as i like supporting niles and small businesses this…read moreexperience was just a bit weird. the products are not bad though. i've been to this store like 3 times probably and bought their olive oil/balsamic. their stuff is pricey but good and the flavor is amazing...and there are samples as well as smaller bottles. last time i went there was local raw honey too! as for the owner dude he is a little weird. i kinda feel bad adding to all the unfavorable reviews around him but like...a girl's gotta talk. it feels like sometimes he likes you and sometimes he doesn't. like sometimes bro be on his deriod and gives me the crappiest stankiest attitude and other times he is mildly accommodating. it's giving hormonally unbalanced teen girl. this is hilarious since yk..he's an old man. no offense. ALSO - the last time i went he was lowkirkuinely a lil racist. maybe i'm just imagining things..okay guys you're the jury! help me decide. i went with a friend (we r both asian) and he just like looked at us. okay cool maybe we r both baddies idk. we asked for recommendations and samples and he was like teetering between polite and pissed. AND THEN this white couple came in and he was like hey guys!!! lemme help you out!!! big smiles etc. me and my friend were just standing there while this guy spends a long time making convo with this couple, helping them out, etc. when they leave we have to wait another like 5 min for him to even consider our presence and his tone COMPLETELY changes. back to polite/pissed. i decide to buy the small bottle and he looks at me and says something like "wow that's not even going to last you a minute if you buy that" LIKE HELLO I'M BROKE sorry i can't buy a bigger bottle. then he just processes our purchase and doesn't say anything for the rest of the time. i'm still not sure if that was racist or just a bad attitude but either way i'm sending my white friend to shop for me in the future

This is where to buy fatayers! The major cafes purchase from here and resale for 4x the cost…read more The owners are the sweetest people and food is so delicious!

If I had to make a "gems of Fremont" or even a "gems of the Bay Area" list, this place would be…read moreamong my top picks. Why? Because you can't get freshly baked Middle Eastern / Levantine pastries just anywhere in the Bay! If you've been to a Yemeni coffeeshop in the Bay Area, especially if it's in the East Bay, you might have seen this bakery's fatayer and manakeesh sold there since they supply a bunch of the coffeeshops. They bake all day and you can stop by at any given time and find freshly made pastries sitting on the table by the bakery section. In terms of selection, they generally have different types of fatayer (spinach, beef, chicken, cheese, more recently potato), manakeesh, lahm bi ajeen (soft flatbreads with a meat and tomato mixture on top), and chicken musakhan rolls. They don't always have every item available but they'll let you know what's in the oven. The pastries are 6 for $15 currently. They freeze well too. I've been here often and the customer service has always been friendly.