Dan’s Supermarket #2

A pervasive nauseating smell as soon as you walk in. The produce, especially bananas, is nasty and over-​ripened. Peanut butter is expired. Prices are not that good, either.
I live across the street and when I first moved in, we had a huge rodent problem. I heard across the vine that rats and mice «migrated» from Dan’s over to our building, following the renovation.
I hate this store. Shopping for ingredients to sustain you should NEVER be an experience which kills your appetite.

Be careful!!!
I bought 20 items, for only 3 of them the price I payed was the same written on the product!
Cannot be a simple mistake!

Stay away from this place. Their prices are high and the food is not fresh. Twice they took my meat into the back and switched the good product for the cheaper poorer product. Never, never again will I shop there, and I live next door.

This supermarket is a good convenient spot to buy conventional tropical fruits, veggies, and root vegetables. Their selection of yautia, name, yuca, batata is the best I’ve seen in the area. They have renovated the place so that it caters to the aesthetic likes of the rowing gentrified population.
Because this supermarket is in an immigrant enclave, its products and structure will resemble its third world origins of how to set up produce or packaging of products. It has that feel that only of you’ve been in Latin America you’ll understand.
Don’t be disgusted or scared to walk into this place. Check your ignorance at the door and instead educate yourself about «Latino» cuisine.

They’ve finally replaced the bare-​naked subfloor with a new, shiny floor. That’s worth another star. You still won’t catch me buying meat there, or produce if I can avoid it.

This is a mixed review…
The good: They have been upgrading the store with new floors and lighting. They have tons of canned beans, rice, and other such, a good supply of soy and almond milk, fresh bread that is cheap each day, and some of their produce is good,. Otherwise they are generally like most small town grocery stores.
Staff is very nice, checkout persons are always pleasant. Good prices.
The bad: The produce is often not of the greatest quality and has an odd mix of things different from what one would expect, they have almost no chip section (although lots of cookies if your a cookie person), they carry very little in the way of vegan healthy or junk foods, aisles tend to be oddly organized (I go there often and still find myself wandering up and down them trying to figure out where things are kept), and the big thing:
It smells.
Bad.
It used to be all the time, but since the upgrades I’ve noticed it is only now and then, but the fish/​meat section in the back often makes the entire store –especially when you walk in, due to locations of the door and meat section — stink like rotting fish. There have been a number of times I’ve held my breath as much as possible and/​or put my sleeve over my nose while grabbing my food as fast as I could to get out. Truly that bad.
But again, this has gotten to be only now and then now since they’ve been fixing up the store. So I’m hoping that’ll fade away completely as things progress.

This is indeed your classic neighbourhood supermarket largely catering to the Latino community which resides here. The «quality» as many say is usual for this neighbourhood and other ones nearby. The prices and service indeed are good. I’ve grown up in this area (now live away) and Dan is a newer much needed edition. The selection of meat is hit or miss but often well priced compared to other places. This is no Fairway or Gristedes (obviously) so to place it in that category is not a correct comparison. For good products (Goya, La Fe, and other reputable Latino brands) this is a good spot for the area. Also they have well priced and often good quality Yucca, Yautía (sweet potatoe) and other good products to whip up a Caribbean-​flavoured dish.

Horrible and disgusting!!! Idk how this place passed department of health inspections. The fruits and veggies and deli meats have mold on them and some shelf items have surpassed their expiration dates. Will be reporting this place to 311 for sure!!! So gross!!!

I bought cream from here, got it home, opened it, SPOILED. Yogurt, also spoiled. Nasty store. I think they take advantage of the fact that a lot of people from the projects shop here and are using WIC/​stamps and won’t bother to return stuff that is too old (if they are even allowed to get cash back on it, IDK). This place needs a visit from the health department.

Dan’s is all right with me. I’ve never had gross produce or meat here (I don’t cook with dairy or eggs, so I can’t speak to those items), and my major gripe with the store is the bag check. I always go early in the morning on weekends or just before closing on weeknights and have no problems getting in and out. Dan’s prices are competitive, especially for canned and dry goods. When it comes to the meat products specifically: I never buy anything I don’t plan to cook or freeze immediately. I find that a lot of complaints about this market belong to people who (a) have never lived in a community like Washington Heights/​Inwood, or (b) have lived below 96^th street during their entire time in NYC. It’s not the same place. And if you didn’t know that before moving, it seems you’ll have to adjust to that fact now. Dan’s isn’t Fairway. But it also isn’t a bodega.

As supermarkets go, this place is a little rough around the edges but the prices are more competitive than other stores in the Inwood area.
The meat selection is hit or miss, but when the meat is what you want and it looks to be good to cook, the prices are a great steal. The chicken breast prices are excellent.
The produce prices are excellent and decently fresh.
The dry goods selection is great. They have a wide selection of dry goods, such as canned beans, flours, rice, breakfast cereals, as well as peanut butters. Frozen treats are good prices also.
I enjoyed looking at the spices most of all. There were dried chili peppers of a wide variety. There were Indian, Thai and Latin spices which ranged in formats from seed, ground, or whole.
It is worth the trip over to see it and your wallet will not scream «Ouch!» when you leave the store.

This certainly isn’t the worst grocery store that I’ve been to above 96^th Street… but the same basic rules apply to «Tony’s ‘above 96^th street’ Grocery Guide»:
Don’t buy dairy, either in milk or cheese form. You can’t trust their refrigeration.
Don’t buy eggs. Ever.
Don’t buy any «store packaged» protein (chicken, beef, pork…). It is shockingly cheap for NYC… which to me means additives, hormones, health code violations and – again – poor refrigeration that can’t be trusted.
Check expiration dates. I bought Prego Pasta Sauce… which was expired. Check the dates.
They have a $ 10 credit card minimum… high for a grocery store… so be aware of that.
Good luck finding products you actually want. Or buy stock in Goya… since that is the product of choice at Dan’s Supermarket #2.
I’d come here for some basics… but only when I’m desperate and unable to go to Trader Joe’s, Fairway or Whole Foods.

This is my closest supermarket, and I definitely use it and will continue to use it for some things, but the nearby International Fine Fare Supermarket is nicer.
My complaints about this place are the irregular availability of Haas Avocados (I guess if I were serious about reducing my carbon footprint I would forego those, but as a native Californian I really have yet to develop a taste for their Florida counterparts), the lack of fresh seafood, and occasional lapses in hygiene (specifically, seeing pigeons roosting over containers of dried beans by the entrance that had been left uncovered … oops.
That said, I’ve never had any complaints about anything I did by there — I just try to choose wisely!

The sign outside Dan’s Supermarket has a big number 2 on it. Number 2 is about right. Scatological jokes aside, that would imply that this is Dan’s second attempt at a supermarket. I’d hate to see his first go.
As you enter this market, there’s always someone demanding you check your bag. Now, I would totally get the concept of not shoplifting but, for Pete’s sake, there’s nothing in there I would want to steal. The produce is awful, the groceries are products you might find anywhere else. The «International» aisle only translates to Caribbean products, which does me very little good. The music is offensively loud. And the staff could frankly give better service if they just stayed home.
Oh, it is bright.
When you consider that every business starts with one star, they do get a second one for having the lights on.