Pusateri’s Fine Foods

How can anyone not love Pusateris? The clientele can be a challenge, if you don’t like brushing arms with stuck up rich people that is. But the food and staff are all so fantastic and welcoming. That makes up for every negative point!

The good — large and specialized selections of everyday food (anything from peanut butter to different types of oils to salt and spices… the list goes on -*note — if you need to buy a specialty item for a gift, this is the grocery store you look to), really good and large variety of prepared foods (sandwiches, salads, meatloaf, pasta etc.)
The bad — price is RIDICULOUS (for regular items the price is sometimes double what you would find at a regular grocery store), store layout is a crowded messy maze, stale items as they carry so much random inventory, and worst off is the clientele — avenue road and lawrence is filled with a lot of rich housewives with absolutely no tact or etiquette and they all think they run the world. The stop in the middle of aisles in their yoga gear and bleached hair while they yap on their cell phones, run you over with their carts while they yap on their cell phones, cut into line at the deli/​fresh food/​dessert counters as they yap on their cellphones… you get the point. Usually wouldn’t be so annoying, but this place is so crowded and small and rammed all the time you may have the urge to trip someone while you are there :)
Service is decent and friendly most of the time. Not worth coming to buy your regular groceries at but if you are close by and need a specific rare item then go in and out as fast as you can ~

Putting price aside for a moment, what i love about Pusateri’s is the breadth and depth of options. You just don’t get 15 different types of mustard, or 10 different types of proscuitto at other regular stores.
But where Pusateri’s falls short is in the obvious over pricing of certain products, balery freshness issues, and really terrible store layouts — jam packed.
In the end, Pusateri’s will never be my neighbourhood every day store, but will definately remain a store i go to, to pick up particular items.

They may carry great produce, meat and other products, but I cannot get past the stressful misery of the shopping experience. Challenges with traffic and parking, crowded dark, narrow aisles etc. Clearly they have so many patrons who love them that management is not concerned about customer experience. I find shopping there irritating on so many fronts (including price) that I cannot summon up the motivation to put myself through it. Just can’t stand it.

This place is off. It’s not what it was. Fruit is poor. Looks nice but doesn’t taste equally as good. Veggies lack. Nice on outside but sometimes rotting inside. We all know it’s overpriced. Ok a dollar or two more for quality but when I find the same for exact product for $ 5 less? The meats are excellent. That’s about it. Since that Sam guy was bought out the produce is not the same. Since the infestations, it’s gone downhill. I shopped there all the time. I wanted quality. One thing for sure. The kids that work there are so polite, friendly & helpful. I’ve had enough. I’m moving on.

If there’s a business operating within this city that has a more heinous clientele I haven’t found it.
That being said, if you absolutely need to find some quality, over priced foodstuffs then the key is to go before 11am on a weekend. You think I’d be wrong but all the «regulars» are at spin class.

So this is the flagship store for Pusateri’s? I hope it doesn’t set the standard for the rest of the stores, because it was shut down temporarily in 2011 (I think) over health violations.
There could not be a more prime location for a grocery store, high-​end or otherwise. There is just zero competition at this scale anywhere nearby. Across the street is Havergal College, an all-​girls private school, one of the top in Canada. The surrounding neighborhood is an affluent location in Toronto, this store was set for success.
I never had any trouble with parking even with my truck, but must mentioned that despite the small space allotted for vehicles, still there are people who insist on waiting with their cars by the entrance, which blocks off an significant amount of space for flowing traffic. It always seems that it is a Benz or a Continental GT too.
The store manages to appear small, despite being rather large. Dimly lit, there seems to be more staff servicing the prepared cook section than any other. The arrangement of the isles doesn’t make much sense, and I always forget where what item are located. I have never came here with the purpose of buying fresh vegetables, thus I can’t recall ever seeing that section. There is an excellent selection of fresh juices, in fact; the juices here even tastes better than any other locations. I have no idea why this is. Maybe because they have teenage girls to sell to thus more sugar, most likely this is not the case. Just a random guess.
Problem is, this is location is SO boring. There is nothing that would attract me to this store in particular. I travel all across the GTA to experience different grocers, and I only come here when I am in the area, and without any options. I can’t imagine any reason why I should travel specifically to this Pusateri’s. It is among one of the most unremarkable grocery stores within the GTA.
If I am forced to think of one reason to come here, it would be for the comedy.
I always get a good laugh at the framed painting of Gale Weston at the check-​out.

Though the store is fancy, unless you like getting glared at and being pushed around, don’t bother going.

I bought 4 green salads yesterday. There are small green insects inside. They are live. They are moving. My inside came out. I will never go there. It ruins whole may day. Before I heard it was closed by Toronto Public Health. When I heard it I didn’t believe. Now I believe. I see it with my eyes. This is my last shopping.

I’ll skimp on some things in this life, but groceries is not one of them.
I love Pusateri’s (Yonge/​Lawrence location) and I’m not ashamed to admit it! Here’s a tip: don’t buy your household «staples» here… paper towels, detergent, potato chips. It’s true they’re more expensive than getting the exact same things down the street at No Frills. But come here for the following:
–Above-​average quality fruits, veggies and herbs, year-​round
–First-​rate butcher with many beautiful cuts of meat, fine steaks and pre-​marinated yummies
–Excellent prepared foods: soups, salads, good chili, tomato/​meat sauce, fresh and frozen pastas, mac n cheese, awesome ready-​to-​eat BBQ chickens, other hot dinners/​sidedishes that change daily, sandwiches, etc. The prepared section isn’t nearly as extensive as Summerhill Market (the south of st. clair location) but quite suffiicient and all of it is good quality, though expensive for sure!
–AMAZING bakery/​dessert section with a dedicated chocolate shop and a nice selection of coffees and teas as well
–Awesome selection of sauces and high-​end olive oils
–The best fresh-​squeezed OJ and other fresh juices
–Great deli counter, cheese section, breads (Ace, Harbord, Thobors, yum) and crackers/​flatbreads
–Fun things you simply can’t get at regular grocery stores! Too many of them to mention here.
All in all, highly recommended.

I almost want to give up… it was a nightmare!
The Parking of this Pusatreri’s was so busy even on a weekday afternoon. I know it is free parking. The spots here were all so tight, and you have to squeeze through all these big delivery trucks blocking the lane ways.
The store itself was great. I like how they have quite a few cashiers opened so there’s no line at all to cash out! Good selections of gourmet condiments, tea and the hot table does have fantastic choices.
I really won’t be coming here to shop on weekends. or I may not even bother?

No.
You can buy a little takeout thingy of sushi here for over $ 20. Why do that when you can buy like four of the same thing from Loblaws for the same price?
Ok ok, so Pusateris is high quality or whatever. Big deal.
I might actually be convinced to like this place if it weren’t for the fact that someone I know worked here.
At the end of the day, every day, she was instructed to throw away all of the bread they have. None of the cashiers can take any of it home. If they don’t sell it within the day, they’re discarded.
I didn’t think high quality garbage existed until I heard that.

This location was my favourite when I used to live at Yonge and Lawrence.
Once walking in you immediately need to grab one of their CUTE shopping carts! This is the reason why I kept going there. they are the best thing thats ever happened. if you shop here you understand what im talking about.
PLUS! The store is so small, and the isles are so small these carts are very handy! :)
Also,
alot of the food at Pusateries is imported or even made infront of your eyes!
I used to buy mini pizzas and they make them custom for you and seal them and you can put them in your freezer or put them in the oven right away when you get home.
They also have a WICKED chocolate/​bakery section with TONES of yummy treats!
The pre-​made food in the deli? isle is AMAZING TOO!
They have seasoned Salmons, Steaks ect which are pricey but VERYVERY worth it. Typing this now makes me want to go buy a steak and grill it right now! Mmm.
Even the cashiers are EXTREMLY friendly.
There is always someone bagging your grocceries for you and can even help bring them to your car for you.
I swear, people come to Pusateri’s just because they think they are celebrities. you will always see people with their sunglasses on acting like big shots.
If you want to pay double — tripple the price on food but experience the finest quality foods/​service then deffinitly go to Pusateri’s!

Ok, I’d admit it! Part of me actually goes into this place to humour myself and the other goes in to oogle the raw meat section. My hair salon is down the street and since it’s a nightmare to get up there via transit I take advantage of my time when I am there on a Saturday. There’s a cop directly traffic into the parking lot, a parking lot FULL of Mercedes Suvs mind you. You will never see another store that can sell pasta for 15.00 a bag. If you have ever been there in the summer you may see the display near the cash register of $ 100.00 square watermelons. Impulse buy anyone? There’s a huge deli counter of prepared foods and it’s rammed with people who are willing to pay. I stood there one day and watched girl-​with-​too-​much-​money flip out on the girl behind the counter because she coudn’t just buy HALF of a dill sauce topped piece of salmon. We’re talking about an itsy bitsy piece! They have your normal grocery items too although priced higher than your standard Loblaws or Metro. They do have a great bakery section that I have succumbed to on one occasion or two. If you’re ever in the area, pop in for some cheap (or not so cheap, depending on how you look at it) entertainment.

Lived right next door for years. I got really tired of being able to carry my 74 $ groceries on my pinky. EXPENSIVE. And the pushy west of Avenue lady’s…
The parking scene is awful. So bad in fact that a cop is there on busy days to keep tempers from flaring up.
I go only when desperate for high end ingredients. Once every other year I forget to plan ahead. I would rather bake my own cake than wait to by one of these.
Hey! if someone is doing the shopping for you and you have lots of dough then this may be the place for you. But not me.

Its a great store… eye candy for gourmets and gourmands. There are actually customer who do all their shopping there. I guess it depends on your bankroll and how much you value a deal…
The displays are beautiful, especially the fresh meats. They have a large assortment of packaged good much like Jensen’s in Palm Springs. Its beautiful to look at.
The meat is well aged, but really no better than at a good quality meat store. The packaged goods are fine but they are found elsewhere, and in quantity in the many ethnic stores in Toronto, and ‘burbs.
But its a nice snooty store, a window on the good life. In our current economic conditions one must wonder if it is as busy as in previous so-​called «good times».
The one item I recommend and that I use for all my other shopping elsewhere is to purchase the black re-​usable shopping bags. When you shop elsewhere it will give you that «je né sais quoi…»

Smells like heaven, priced like hell. Still, for a special treat, a birthday cake, an elegant gift, or a stocking stuffer, get thy butt over to Pusateri’s. It’s claustrophobic, and you may faint at the price of the organic mangoes, but it’s… nice. Really nice. I love going in.
NB: avoid for 24 hrs. before any long weekend, when the Muskoka-​bound cottagers descend and pick the store’s carcass clean.

Save money– shop Pusateris. That’s right– instead of spending 2 hours of your valuable time cooking from scratch OR dropping six figures on a nice meal in the neighborhood, strike a balance. example: prepared Smoked salmon Fritatta with goat cheese & asparagus served w/​rice-​wrapped rhubard and ricotta rolls. Reheated in the over 15 minutes, happy fiancé all evening. Total cost $ 14.
if you are claustrophobic or grumpy, i don’t recommend shopping here as cart wars could ensue.

Before venturing to Pusateri’s you need to know 2 things about it:
1. The North location is the real location
2. It is expensive
That said, I don’t care if I have to be waved in by a police man (this is true by the way, the place does have a police man on Avenue road stopping traffic for the place), or if I have to wait 3 hours for a parking spot while some Louis Vuitton vixen chats to her pool-​boy on her cell phone before pulling out, or if some precocious princess yells at me for taking her mommy’s number at the deli, I’m going to Pusateri’s and I’m going to like it!
Part of the Pusateri’s experience is hating every, single moment that you’re there on one level but at another level being absolutely amazed by their goods. Not to be confused with Whole foods that tricks you into believing their food is actually tasty and of good quality, Pusateri’s is far and away the best fine foods store in Toronto. Their deli is spectacular (try their homemade turkey breast it’s incredible), their produce is beautiful and their meats are Grade A. I have yet to try a disappointing prepared food from that section of the store. Pusateri’s also has an extensive and intricate bakery, interesting cheese department, and everyday grocery section. The store is amazing! Even for those on a budget it’s worth going shopping for that extra special night or if you are in the mood to splurge.