Ava’s Downtown Market & Deli

Ava’s is my main lunchtime spot when work lunch is lack luster.
I love their deli sandwiches, you can’t really go wrong, though my fave is the Cajun chicken with avo. A little crispy, a little spicy, delicious.
They also have a hot lunch of the day, which I’ve had good experiences with in the past, and salads if you’re into that kind of thing.

Great local grocery store. Helpful and friendly staff. The prices here is comparable to Whole Foods. Great to support this local small business.

So glad we found this hidden gem. The deli and poke bar is amazing. The poke bar is such a good deal for what they give you. So many toppings and fish for only $ 10!
The chicken breast they use at the deli is actually real and doesn’t taste like its processed nor full of nitrates. I still need to try all their other sandwiches!

Great cool place with amazing food options. Juan is always helping us out with what ever we need. And the sandwiches from the Deli are great for lunch! They also just got a new POkE place which is amazing!

Great place to come to eat for lunch or to come grocery shop! Place is great the owner is a great guy! It now has Poké Bar which is great! Overall it’s A+! Ima come here all the time!

Great grocery store conveniently located on Castro. The staff are all very friendly and produce seems fresh. Even for a small store then had everything I needed (including pickled seranno peppers and enchilada sauce). I tried the dining court recently and it was actually very good. I think it was $ 9 or so and I got pistachio encrusted salmon, mashed potatoes, and fried cauliflower. I’ll definitely be back for a sandwich in their deli area and I recently saw a sign saying they’re having a poke bar opening soon. That will probably be super popular since the closest poke bar is in SJ. Anyway, support small businesses! They have loads of produce, ice cream, and other important things sourced locally.

LOVE this place. Juan and Ann always works so hard, and they bring wonderful fresh, local, organic and eco-​conscious produces and products.
What makes this places so precious to me is that they really care about the people who come into their store. It comes natural to them to take care of people. Juan is like everyone’s dad– always making sure you got what you need. He’s always thriving to be better at what he does, and you gotta respect his dedication to making this place better for everyone in the community.
They are super flexible and helpful, and willing to and want to hear your comments and requests. I’ve asked for variety of favors, and they always tried their best to get things that I asked for. I really do feel like this is a community joint where I can go in and chat with people there and get excited about what’s for dinner tonight with all the fun ingredients they got there. I feel like I’m part of their community because they are so friendly, and I honestly look forward to go there and say hi to everyone.
It may not be the fanciest grocery store in the Bay, but who cares about the surface wrapper when it got good products and a real personality with real people who are dedicated to the community. It gives downtown MV a feel of home, and I really appreciate that :)
Shout out to Juan, Ann and all the awesome peeps there! :) Much love ;)

Had a bad customer service experience here today. I was helped very nicely when making my choice of beer I wanted to buy. Picked a pack that was recommended and saw the price tag at $ 8.99. Worth a try I thought…
When I wanted to check out, the register showed almost $ 20 after tax. I told the cashier about the price tag and we went to the aisle together to check on it. It showed only one price tag with that brand/​type of beer and that was the only case of beer with that name. The cashier said that its for the smaller case, which it actually didn’t say on the price tag and the case I grabbed was the only available size. When I explained exactly that I get a «You’re still not getting that beer for $ 8.99» as a reply. That was not even what I expected! Getting back to the cash register basically nothing changed. No apologies for THEIR mistake, no making up for it, nothing.
Long story short: Customer service level –5000!

Customer service is superb and the food is top notch! Recommend this place to anyone planning to visit!

Since I was last here, things have improved dramatically. The staff who are working behind the deli counter know what they’re doing — my sandwich, during lunch time, was made quickly and super delicious. Had a number associated with my sandwich, so no second guessing on whose order was ready. Also noticed that salads, and, quick to go items were individually priced. Will definitely return.

Pesticide free strawberries for 2.50…
Samples for dried fruits and nuts…
Glass not plastic containers…
Ice cream from Santa Cruz…
Wait…am I in heaven? No, I’m at Ava’s deli where organic isn’t just a buzzword, it’s the lifeblood of this place.
Let me unexaggerate myself. So you have whole foods right? Expensive and organic. Then you got trader joe’s, more affordable but not always organic.
This place is like the cross between both of them.
You got no sugar added coconut drinks mixed with quirky soda brands and handwritten notes on whether something is local or not. Pesticide free strawberries alongside organic ones. Apples from local growers mixed alongside nationwide bagged ones. It’s the ying in the yin and yang.
You also get a feeling of a neighborhood store. The cashier told me to go for a sample and a customer helped me find an employee to ask for one. Whole wheat SF bar.
If this place were a girl, I’d marry her. It. Whatever. Don’t let my exaggerated anthromorphization scare ya. Oh and try a sample.

Popped in to see their revised menu, and they still serve the same things only with the exception of a small breakfast menu. When I say small, I mean like 3 things.
Nonetheless, I still like this place. I love specialty sandwiches.

Met the owner a few years ago at a mountain view festival. Been always meaning to come back, but moved out of MV and rarely found myself here.
TO THE OWNERS:
This place has the potential to be a really darn good grocery store and community asset, but it still seems to be run with a ‘retailer’s focus’. One example is the deli counter. There are a wide variety of entrees and sandwiches with a focus on the healthy, foodie, gourmet who wants something that is not typically found at a national grocery chain. Yet that deli counter is surrounded with cheap processed junk food (candy bars, vending-​machine style potato chip bags, and the like). Yes they might be high-​margin, but they completely clash with what you’re (hopefully) looking to communicate.
I enjoyed a meal at your deli tables, and saw so many people walking by. What you had in the sidewalk displays weren’t items that were timely and relevant (e.g. bottled coconut water, nutrition bars, or samples of today’s lunch special). They were grapefruits and mangoes — or something of the like. When your stomach is rumbling and your rapidly walking down Castro street to get some food to take back to your 12:30 meeting, do you really give a damn about a whether a bag of oranges is on sale??? Don’t put out items that they can buy in bulk at a grocery store closer to home, unless your goal is to compete on price with the big chain grocery stores.
While eating in your deli section, not only was there nothing to read, but the décor within a 3-​yard radius of my seat was very bright and antiseptic, I could have been eating in a corner of a Walgreen’s store and not known the difference. If your goal is for people to eat and leave, then you’re doing a great job. If your intent is for people to eat in a welcoming atmosphere that leaves them wanting to return with their co-​workers or family for supper/​dinner, then you’re failing.
If you want to get a pulse of the Mountain View foot traffic and find out what’s stopping people from coming to the market, then just ask them. Put out a survey — ideally next to the samples of the daily special. Ask them to fill out one sentence: «I haven’t frequently shopped at Ava’s Downtown Market & Deli because_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​.»
Give them a $ 5 off $ 25 coupon, or a free scoop of ice cream or something like that for filling out the survey.

This place looks inviting based on the storefront, with colorful fruit displays, but when you enter it’s a different story. First, I wanted an eggplant and saw that they were over 2 bucks apiece. This would have been ok, except that they looked old with big brown spots, and as if they had been refrigerated for a while. Much of the produce is withered and not worth the price. The meat and seafood also looks like it is not fresh. Salmon was split apart and looked a little mushy, the red meat was discolored.
This wasn’t the worst thing however. The store seems to have disdain for it’s customers with all of the signs posted like-​Smile, you’re on camera, (not so bad, maybe a little humorous) then there are the signs warning shoplifters that they will get a free ride in a police car.
Really tacky, uninviting and poor quality merchandise.

Great small neighborhood market in downtown Mountain View. Large deli, with indoor sitdown area, extensive beer and wine selection, gourmet ice cream, and they still have most of the basics! I usually go for a sandwich from the deli counter but have also picked up snacks for the big game from there. They have a great selection of gourmet chips and crackers. Street parking in front, but there is a lot behind the building and across the alley.
A great place to grab a sandwich and a cone on a summer day!

I cannot believe this precious gem in the middle of Castro Street in Mountain View!
I went there just to show a newcomer from my country some local flavor and got so hooked up into the atmosphere of old times grocery store and almost faint when found out they cater SO MANY Spanish products, like pre-​packaged paella (I already cooked it and was delicious), mantecados from Estepa, different spices, Bomba rice from Valencia, chorizo from Leon, manchego cheese, Cola Cao and even Nenuco… the eau de toilette of my childhood! I love this store, everything looks cute in it, prices are affordable (including these imported items, they don’t overprice) and the service is great and friendly. Very happy to have found this place, I would have never thought they will have Spanish products among many other delicious treats.

I only go to Ava’s when I’m desperate, and it’s always a disappointment. I walk to Ava’s, don’t find what I’m looking for, and then end up driving to Safeway, Milk Pail, or Whole Foods instead.
I’m not interested in the sandwiches or prepared foods. I want produce, and I want dairy. Ava’s is horrible for both of these. Their produce aisle gets smaller and smaller each time I find myself in there, which is the best that can happen. The last time that I made the mistake of going in, there was a pile of moldy tomatoes in the middle of the produce aisle. I’m not talking about one tomato being slightly imperfect or maybe a little squishy. I’m talking about the whole pile of tomatoes having large mold spots. Then I walked to the back of the store for milk, and all of the skim and 2% milk was past its sell-​by date. I swung by the oils on the way out, trying desperately to salvage something out of my trip to the market, and found peanut oil that was a whole year past its sell-​by date. Since I can’t trust the produce and dairy, I don’t look at the meat. I want fresh food, not botulism.

I was walking around at the Art & Wine festival and saw this hidden gem and I can’t pass up local markets, I just love them because they always have unique items. The first thing I saw when I walked in was Marianne’s ice cream! I love their ice cream. They had their own ice cream counter with about 10 flavors and they also had frozen treats such as chocolate covered bananas and chocolate covered ice cream bars.
Once I got over my infatuation with the ice cream i walked around towards the deli and meat section. They had a nice variety of deli meats and other items like steaks, chicken and such. Everything looked very fresh, like they have a butcher on site. They also had a very good wine selection.
This store had a few specialty items and items I have either never seen or rarely see in other stores and that’s what sets them apart from the rest.

Cool little local downtown MV market… I’d been interested in coming over since I saw a friend’s check-​in here. Good thing too, because otherwise I think I’d probably walk right by it completely oblivious.
So Ava’s is mainly a small market right in the middle of Castro St… they have all your basic essentials at what appears to be fair prices. Obviously not quite as much selection as your standard issue grocery store, but then again Ava’s is like ¹⁄₈ the size. But you’ll find produce, dairy, meat and seafood, fresh bread, frozen, and dry goods. There is also an in-​store dessert/​juice bar and a deli counter.
I came to hit the deli counter to grab a sandwich. Nice amount of selection here with both hot and cold sandwiches, limited breakfast items, salads, soups and chips. I had a meatball sandwich and it was very good… meatballs tender with a kick of spice and a bright tomato sauce, cheese, lettuce, all on a nice ciabatta roll (likely from Acme Bread) — for $ 7. Delicious! My gf had the «Bacon with Benefits»…I think basically a BLT w/​avocado. Also very good and on the same ciabatta.
I’d definitely recommend Ava’s solely for the sandwiches! And if you’re in or around the neighborhood, maybe even for your grocery shopping too.

(See my past reviews, which Unilocal displays below this one, for Tested Comfort-​Food RECIPES #1, #1a, #2, and #3 using Ava’s ingredients. #4 is below.)
Since my last Update late 2012, Ava’s added a full-​service deli counter with creative sandwiches and light meals, and improved other facilities. Ava’s now qualifies as a SANDWICH RESTAURANT and DELICATESSEN as well as grocer. Sidewalk tables recently opened, and more services are coming.
Inventories now include some British and Irish goods (real Cadbury sweets, «crisps,» and, yes, Bisto — «Ahh!»), which began during a local cultural fair and continued with steady demand.
Lately a new part-​time butcher, Dustin, joined the team and makes fresh in-​house sausages with excellent subtle seasonings, like the fine-​grained «Sicilian» pork; chicken-​basil; and breakfast links. Quality compares to Schaub’s in Stanford Center, or Dittmer’s in Los Altos. (The fresh batches sometimes sell out quickly.) Leading to another Tested Comfort-​Food RECIPE:
#4: HANDY NON-​GRILL USES FOR AVA’S FRESH SAUSAGES:
I’ve used the Sicilian and Spicy Sicilian pork sausages for these, but any raw sausages would be good:
(a) Simmered in a large batch of tomato-​vegetable sauce (I save or freeze most of this sauce afterwards for later use). The sauce was based on Pomi’s excellent dark Italian chopped tomatoes (sold at Ava’s in brick packs) and finely chopped onions, celery, carrots. Simmered the raw sausages (well pricked with a fork) an hour or two in the slowly cooking UNSALTED tomato sauce, then removed them. The sausage juices give flavor and seasonings (including salt) to the sauce.
(b) Simmering in meat broth. Starting with Kitchen Basics brand unsalted chicken broth (available — guess where?) and some chopped fresh vegetables, simmer the well-​pricked sausages about 1.5 hours very gently, then remove. The strained broth, now intensely flavored, can be chilled and frozen for later use. Also, toss some of the simmering broth with freshly cooked noodles and grated cheese, and keep warm for a while; noodles absorb broth and cheese.
In each case, the cooked sausages can be served hot immediately (or kept handy in the simmering pot), used to flavor a bean dish such as Louisiana red beans & rice, or chilled and sliced for hors-d’oeuvres with raw vegetables, or used in sandwiches. A length of fresh Acme baguette bread, with a little unsalted butter below, and mango chutney above, a cooled cooked Ava’s sausage makes an easy epicurean treat.