Whole Foods Market

I don’t know where I would shop without this store. Raw milk cheeses, homemade chocolate croissant, La Duena whole bean organic coffee, basic raw healthy whole foods. Easy in and out (most times). Free range meets. It’s a little pricey but you get what you pay for. Friendly, helpful staff. Not for mega brand name purchases. You can get those items for less elsewhere.

This store is ridiculously expensive, they are often out of things and the people who work there are arrogant and clueless. I arrived home tonight and discovered that a bagger had placed a tray of cooked shrimp sideways in a paper bag on top of several items of produce. Juice from the shrimp leaked all over the produce, including lettuce. I often discover broken eggs, or other crushed items after I shop at this store. It happens because the baggers and checkers are so busy chatting, mostly with each other, that they do not pay attention to what they are doing. Also, tonight they appeared to be short of help and two different baggers as well as the checker bagged my groceries. I took the time to call a manager to complain. Did he apologize? No. He condescendingly lectured me about how it is store policy to encourage employees to be friendly and chat with people, and how that improves customer relations, etc., etc. Well, it didn’t improve relations with this customer. He completely missed the point of why I was calling. Although Whole Foods is closest to my home, there are multiple other, better and cheaper grocers in my neighborhood. Treasure Island staff are far more friendly and helpful. Does Whole Foods not realize it is wildly overpriced and facing stiff competition from other grocers such as Mariano’s?

Let me be very clear from the outset– this review is 100% focused on WF’s chocolate chip banana bread, not the store itself. Although, I must add that my humiliating experience with their banana bread will make me think twice about buying ANY baked goods from this particular chain. My office recently had a «bring baked goods to work» day. The concept was that everyone would bring a baked homemade item to work, people would sample the items and a winner would be chosen. I didn’t have time to bake something, so I figured I’d rig the contest a bit by buying a banana bread from WF’s and wrapping it in foil to look homemade. This way I would get credit for participating in the office event AND I might actually win it. Clever plan you’re thinking right? WRONG! My little plan completely blew up in my face when the banana bread I bought from WF’s was 100% tasteless and dry as sand– no it was actually dryer than sand but I can’t think of an example of what that could be. It was, hands down, the worst baked good in the competition, and, mind you, these weren’t a bunch of experienced bakers. I got one winning vote in the contest (I voted for myself to try to save face) and some co-​workers actually thanked me for bringing the nasty banana bread because it made their baked cook seem even better. I even confessed to the group that I bought the damn banana bread at Whole Foods that morning, but no one believed me. «Banana bread from Whole Foods would be SO MUCH tastier» they said. Maybe this was just karma for me trying to rig the contest in my favor, but what gives Whole Foods? Your baked goods are so bad they come in last place at a company bake-​off? Have you sampled your banana bread lately? Are you purposely making it extra dry so you sell a lot more if your very expensive milk? This thing was so dry and tasteless that if I was blindfolded, I would have guessed I was eating drywall. Anyways, you all get my point. If you are at Whole Foods and the banana bread happens to catch your eye, for the love of God just keep moving. You don’t want any part of it. Consider yourself warned. Me, I will have to wait an entire year to try to redeem myself at next year’s bake-​off event. If I’m even allowed to participate…

I like to try something new every once in a while. Today I tried the vegan raspberry parfait which was surprisingly tasty. It has pecans for a nutty flavor and is sweetened with dates and apricots.
I also tried Temple tumeric elixir. The base is made from coconut milk. Just the right amount of sweet. The spices include cloves. And FYI… Turmeric is good for inflammation.
My all time favorite, introduced to me by a friend, is the greek quinoa salad at the salad bar. It’s chocked full of olives, onions, feta cheese. I tried to duplicate it at home… well let’s just say that’s why we have WF’s.

I like how small the store is I needed help with buying tea and the employees took the time to explain to me the herbs and the good parts about the product everything in the store is not expensive and eating healthy maybe costly but its worth it right? But its good to buy a couple of good items there its whole foods not aldi lol

I got up out of my cozy bed to come HERE to get a couple of gallons of «distilled» water and they don’t have ANY distilled water in gallons today… The manager said they ran out… WHO the F runs out of WATER!!!
Nowww, I’m about to run to another grocery store… when I should be going home now. The race is today and the streets are mostly blocked off… Getting around is not good in this…
Shame on Whole Foods…
They are NOT my favorite store… never was…
OK!!! So… the manager Jeffrey is the coolest dude EVER and was honestly apologetic about this. Sad face… He more than made up for my inconvenience… AND called the Lakeview location to put water on hold, so I can grab it and go back home!
Love this guy!!!

Extremely helpful staff and that includes Frank.
One Problem as I see it is that since grocery has taken over ordering for items previously ordered by produce, they are too often out of stock on items I usually buy, Need to either get on the ball or let produce order the dried chilies and salad dressings again.

This review is specifically for my experience with this store’s CATERING. Realize I love the store itself — super clean, great selections, awesome employees.
But the catering — wow, what a bad experience! I was having a brunch get together and ordered almost all the finger foods from Whole Foods. By comparison, prices were about equal to a previous party I had ordered foods from Southport Grocery, and from what I gandered online they seemed about in line with Treasure Island, but slightly higher than Jewel. My hope was the quality would be much better than Jewel but man was I wrong. Here is what I ordered:
Thai chicken skewers — these were so dried out and flavorless they didn’t get eaten. I would expect like a vibrant thai peanut sauce but I guess they were simply marinated — maybe in water? Cuz I didnt taste any flavor on this rubbery meat on a stick.
Teriyaki chicken skewers — these had more flavor than the above, but the same dried out problem.
Soy steak skewers — these had a GREAT flavor and were a little tough but not as dried out as the chickens. Some of the pieces were tiny though, too.
Shrimp cocktail platter — this was good! The shrimp were not huge, but were fresh and the cocktail sauce great.
Mac and Cheese Croquettes — these were good too, but HUGE. Wish I would’ve known that they were baseball sized and not like those you order at a bar/restaurant…but that’s a nominal complaint. But due to their size I ended up with way too many and wasted a ton.
Smoked Salmon Canapés — these were the worst! The cream cheese was caking off the bread, like it was a week old or something. They looked bad, but a few (brave) friends did try them and well… I’m just glad the salmon must’ve been fresh b/​c they did not get food poisoning but they did not grab a second piece, either.
In addition, I had called in after placing my order online to see if I could add an extra order of the beef skewers and the person on the phone said «no problem!» — thankfully when I picked up the order that was not included.
I have had catered food ordered for a few various events, and lets just say that I’ve had people be way more impressed by Jewel pinwheel sandwiches than anything from this order. You’ve been warned — for the money catered food cost, try elsewhere!

The «Whole Foods is overexpensive» complaint is pretty tired at this point, but it is true and you know what does not help? Overcharging for something that is already overpriced. I got a container of mac and cheese from the hot bar for lunch. It was far less than a pound in weight and when I got to the register the cashier charged me $ 16. I questioned it and she insisted the scale wasn’t off and that was the price. I was in a hurry so I paid and left but will definitely not be giving them business ever again. In the neighborhood? Go to Treasure Island instead.

This Whole Foods Market has a great cheese selection. Also, I love their mini cheesecakes.

I just happened to be in boys town today and I decided to stop at a local whole foods market. I was thirsty, so why not right. They should have the best lemonade around.
I was really frustrated when I got to the front door because it wasn’t working. It didn’t open automatically like it was supposed to, so I almost ran into it. Which was a big issue with me because I hate being embarrassed. I am officially docking 1 star for this.
Any who, I was able to get in through the exit door to continue my journey to quench my thirst. As usual, customer service was great and whole foods came through for me on my nice cold lemonade. I will come back to this location in the future however they need to have that door fixed.

I live in Edgewater. I have a new Whole Foods just a couple of blocks away. I still am going to be coming to the Halsted Street store to do my shopping. Great selection in every department. Great customer service! Nuff said. I now really appreciate the Halsted Street store!

I feel safe here and love the diversity!
The staff are friendly and the selection of quality produce, products and finer wine and beer keeps me coming back.
The fresh food bar is excellent, easy and is my go to when I want a fast quality meal.

I am a fan of this whole foods.
I have found recently that whole foods locations as of late have morphed into this large healthy mini malls but this location is lovely!
I feel that they have everything you need in a concise space, they have a great location, free parking and awesome food bars, an awesome little juice bar… Basically all of the things you love whole foods for!
I did not expect them to skimp on Greektown but I’m definitely proud to call this one my own
Great pickle bar too and a quint little wine room!

I went around with my friend because he is into the healthy lifestyle. There were so many cheese samples which was awesome since I am a huge fan of cheese. I also got a mini gelato and it was the bomb! I got the flavor Bitter Blood Orange. It was bitter, had bite size pieces of who knows what, and it was so creamy. This gelato by far beats Mariano’s and is my favorite gelato flavor to date.

OK, I get the Whole Paycheck jokes. You do have to shop intelligently here, aggressively looking for the Whole Foods 360 brand and taking advantage of their sales.
The cheese selection here is excellent. Look for their frequent sales, The bakery also features quality bread. There’s always one on sale.
The beer selection features mainly craft brews. Daisy Cutter is usually available for $ 9.99 for 4 pints. There is also a selection of coffee beans from local Chicago places such as Intelligentsia and Metropolis.
This Whole Foods is connected to the Center on Halsted. You can buy freshly prepared food from Whole Foods and eat it over at the tables at the Center. The Center offers free Wi Fi.
I use Peapod for monthly grocery deliveries of basics, but supplement with this Whole Foods. I’m in here at least twice a week.

The salad bar is the BOMB! Well organized, nice enough service, yummy food. But why only 2 stars?
They have got to get control of the punks in the lobby! I despise random people eyeballing me every time I take a spoonful of my mashed potatoes!

Overpriced food.
Top shelf food and drink.
Healthy food.
If you like organic shit, this place is for you!

This Whole Foods is larger and therefore less crowded than the one on Ashland, and probably has more variety. My only gripe is that the entrance/​exit is a little difficult to manuever, but they are taking advantage of floor space I suppose.
The cheese selection is good and the staff there are really helpful. They also have lots of coffee and craft beer to choose from.
Over, it’s not really a spectacular experience, but if you need those things that you can only find at specialty stores (e.g. saffron, tempeh, fresh olives) they probably carry it and the staff probably knows where it is.

I don’t know what interview process they have, but I swear, they have the absolute best employees. Not once have I ever had a bad experience. In fact, the employees ALWAYS stand out as being exceptionally helpful, compassionate, and knowledgeable. And if they aren’t familiar with something you ask them, they will make sure you get to the right person. Unbelievable customer service.
Then of course, amazing produce. I won’t get my kale anywhere else, as well as my carrots. The kale is fresher than any other source of organic produce. While the organic carrots are more per lb than other stores, the freshness and quality make up for it.
Tons of organic spices, bulk items, & vegan items! I love that they have seitan, tofu, tempeh, and my vegan products! Their hot bar is also super vegan friendly!