Citarella Gourmet Market – Upper West Side

Without question the best fish and meat in the City. Some other wonderful items too… but a contentious managers like Anthony doesn’t make the customer feel especially welcome. I’ve seen him deal with other customers too, with a complete lack of empathy or a practical and doable resolution. Makes one feel like they are trying to get away with something. Completely a bad and inaccurate read!

Very friendly staff.
The fish is why I come here. It is clean, fresh and the color looks healthy. I used to buy fish at Whole Foods, but now I walk the extra 20 blocks just for the fish.
It is expensive, but you get what you pay for.
I take one star off because they need more locations and they are expensive.
Everything else is really good and I often buy their ready to go salads too.

Overpriced? For some items, even considering the neighborhood.
Overrated? Not in my opinion.
Staff ran the gamut of friendly and eager to please, willing to please with no personality, and slow because they obviously didn’t want to be there. But this is par for the course in most grocery stores.
I loved the selection in their bakery, the breads, the prepared foods, and can’t wait to go back to try the Rotisserie Duck (which I felt was reasonably priced).
A good selection of high-​end to mid-​level products across the board. Really nice butcher case, and great quality.
The check out is the single worst I’ve ever experienced. It would be cramped for children, let alone grown adults of any size. Absolute cluster fuck. They would be far better suited to expand the spacing in that area even slightly and lose a little product space to increase customer comfort. It is ludicrous to give just enough space for one person to stand, and expect two people to maneuver hand carts and bodies.
Still, I plan to return.

I bought yellowtail tuna and sushi-​grade salmon yesterday, about $ 100 worth, to be used by my caterers last night. They told me that I’d been sold the least edible parts of both kinds of fish, and that there were significant parts they couldn’t use. Clearly the fish staff thought I was a nobody, elderly lady, who could be tricked. I was certainly a nobody and it was easy to trick me but that is not a reason to gyp a customer. We were short of both kinds of fish last night and I will never shop at Citarella again.

Citarella has the best cakes I have tried so far in town (I particularly love the walnut cake, the cheese cake, and the Italian almond bars). Not as overly sweet as the average desserts. Love it!

over rated
over priced
The fish I bought was dry and the fresh pasta not so fresh

The best looking seafood counter I have ever seen, other than ones I have been responsible for. Absolutely top notch. The meat counter was well equipped, but could have had bone in, dry aged hips. Highly recommended.

A great place to go for fresh fish. They always are stocked with so many options. Wonderful prepared foods. And I always stock up on their soups! My favorite market. Hands down.

Wonderful selection especially if you are entertaining. Great deli.
A New York landmark.
Go.

The smallest of three grocery stores on this stretch of Broadway, Citarella is my quite respite from the crowds at Fairway and Trader Joe’s down the street. I don’t have to push or be pushed here. I can get my groceries, not bump into anyone and get good customer service. And for that I am willing to pay a bit more. Citarella is probably priced the same as Fairway (but more expensive than Trader Joe’s), but their selection is quite limited. I used to get food from their deli section all the time here, but it was starting to add up so I had to start cooking my own meals at home. But do visit them if you need a quick, delicious, prepared meal. Their salmon is phenomenal, as is their chicken parmesan. They also have a variety of pre-​packaged salads and those are great too when you’re too tired and/​or lazy to cook.

I used to love Citarella fresh fish, however, last two times, both my husband and i got sick after we ate fresh halibut, very expensive, grilled at home. The «fresh» fish did not smell well when I brought it home but trusting the source I proceeded and grilled it with olive oil and little garlic. Aftermath was horrendous for both of us. The same happened few weeks later, after I bought octopus. I wonder why we had gi problems after buying Citarella fish? What is Citarella doing/​not doing with «fresh fish? Of course upon a call to store all was denied. I am not going to Citarella any more.

This place sells quality stuff! The price isn’t the cheapest but it’s not that bad. It’s definitely worth it to pay extra for some better quality stuff. This place is smaller than the Fairway next door but it’s a lot less crowded. It’s a lot more comfortable to shop here than the crowded Fairway next door. What we like about this place the most is the fish. They do sell some good quality fish here. If you live nearby or happen to be in the area, this place is definitely worth checking out.

I love this place! If I need some fish or dry aged beef, this is my goto place on the UWS! The pastries are also delicious.

The Saks of supermarkets. Ultra high quality fish and meats and cheeses. You will pay a lot of money for these things so I would do my main shopping at fairway or trader joes and get select things (like meat, fish, citarella sauces) here. They have awesome salad dressings, sauces, and juices!

I like this store a lot. The addition of the 2^nd floor some years ago really helped expand the appeal of this Adult super market. Some of the best butchers in Manhattan

I love it this store for its strawberry shortcake. I remember being a tiny five year old eating this wonderful cake. However, I am heartbroken by the fact that they discontinued it. PLEASE PLEASE BRING IT BACK!
Aside from this, citarella is home to gourmet ingredients, such as truffles and pâté. The produce and meat are quite pricey. I feel like citarella is losing customers by the day. I barely see anyone in here. But if you come here during rush hour, this place is PACKED. I literally don’t even know where to walk in here! The aisles are a bit narrow too!
I love the fact that citarella bakes amazing cakes and tarts. The cupcakes are just okay though (I miss you crumbs!). There are many unique ingredients here that you can find nowhere else. Hopefully, this place never goes out of business.

I was going to rate Citarella one star but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping things will improve. .
I’ve been a customer for many years and always had to put up with rude, uninformed employees (with the exception of a couple of dependable old timers); but you have to take the good with the bad a lot of the time. However, lately, I noticed that this store is really going downhill and it’s a shame. I like the boutique aspect of the store. I like the different departments. It has all the right stuff going for it.
I tried to place an Easter order yesterday morning over the phone and was placed on hold for over 15 minutes! I have no idea how they allow this to happen or how they remain in business with that kind of service. Since I live not too far away, I hung up and went into the store instead to do my Easter shopping. I had to wait way too long because there weren’t enough staff. You would think that before a major holiday (and Passover comes out over the same weekend this year) they would have the place well staffed and well stocked. I’ve been noticing this problem lately even on normal days without any holiday. Also, the store is dirty. The windows and displays are beautiful but inside the store is uncared for. The prepared food doesn’t seem as fresh as I remember it used to be. The overall quality is just not there anymore and the staff is just rude. I would guess this is a problem of bad management.
Without that special extra something I wonder if I want to continue paying top dollar for bad service and mediocre quality.

Citeralla is known for its array of fresh fish. However they are the only fish store I have ever been in that does not allow customers to smell the fish. Sometimes a piece looks iffy and you don’t want to unwrap it at home to discover it is over the hill. The manager told me its unhygienic to have customers noses next to the fish even if the nose doesn’t touch. «Then you can’t put the fish back of a customer doesn’t like it» he said. So why don’t they wash the fish off after the customer smells it? The reason I wanted to smell the very expensive sea bass was because it didn’t look so good and I had in the past gotten a bad piece from them. This is ridiculous and they are ridiculous.

Awesome new Juice line! Can’t figure out my favorite one yet… I’m between Neptune and Uranus.

I’ve passed this place many times and today was my first time in here and its Super Clean~!! All the seafood looks soo fresh that it almost made me want to actually buy it and eat it! And I never eat seafood!!! Hehe

I love this grocery store. It’s expensive, but I know that everything I buy here is good quality and very fresh, so when I’m making an occasion dinner I don’t mind paying for it.
I always get beautiful service here, with several people helping me, making sure I have everything I need to make dinner that evening.
They have some of the best meat in town, I always stop at their meat counter when I can. The butchers at the counter are very knowledgable and helpful, and I’ve made some of my best dinners with their help. I have never been frustrated or disappointed by this place, and love that I live so close.

Pricey but good for gourmet goods– their burrata is heavenly!

The mean staff and strange smell outside don’t keep me from coming back because I am obsessed with their split pea soup!!!

Fabulous market with meats, fish and a nice selection of prepared foods to take out. You can smell the chicken roasting as soon as you walk in. I think the pricing was reasonable given the quality of the food.

This is the place to go for prepared food, but it is not cheap. It is good though, so you get what you pay for.

Fairway giving you a panic attack? Come here instead. Surprisingly vast selection for a seemingly small space. I promise the prices are no higher than Fairway (I know, it is surprising).