Eli’s Manhattan Market

The prices here are CRIMINAL. I cannot in good conscience support this business for that reason alone. It has literally been a topic of discussion among friends about why this place is so egregiously priced. The only explanation we can come up with is that Eli is pricing people out to create a more «exclusive» environment? I hope it’s worth it to them.
If you want to pay 2x or more for the same item as any neighboring grocery store or bodega, this is your place. If not, I suggest avoiding it.

Eli’s Market is a dream come true when it comes to supermarkets. I know I’m not the only one who loves to food shop! My fiancé and I headed over to Eli’
Bought a Pepperoni Pizza and Two Cornish hen (Orange Glazed
Drools.) and it was DELICIOUS. A bit up in price but hey! Food this good deserves to be well priced. I come often and continue to do so. My fiancé loves this place just as much as I do.

Why must this place be so expensive? We stopped by to peak around and were so impressed with the selection and options for yummy take-​home food. Everything looks so delicious I wanted to try it all!
We opted for some of their cold salad bar items and soup/​chili for each of us. Their vegetarian chili was incredible! At $ 8 for a small container, it was reasonable as well. That being said, our cold salad bar items came to almost $ 30 themselves for two tiny little containers. I think this place definitely has its gem items, just be aware of cost!
Looking forward to coming back and trying the cheesecake — I’ve heard amazing things!

Butterscotch cookies a great success, tapioca pudding is way too creamy, the produce is better only at the farmers markets, thick, earthy local carrots, antique variety apples of yore, the best of the best, can be pricy though, still the heart’s work of one of the great gourmets, occasionally brilliant, always a noble effort.

Tonight, I thought I’d splurge a little and buy some prepared foods from Eli’s Madison Avenue store (which does not have a Unilocal page). Truly abysmal. How DARE you charge $ 12.95 for the most greasy meatloaf known to mankind. How DARE you charge $ 10.95 for Mac and Cheese that is smothered in so much f*cking cheese that the noodles taste like balls. If you’re going to charge top dollar for the foods you make, step it up. That is all.

This review is for Eli’s Wine store and not the market. The people in the wine store are very rude. The guy who helped me today I called a head and spoke with him about a wine he told me he had and when I arrived there he acted like he never talked to him even when I referenced his name. There are way too many better Wine and Spirit stores on the upper east side to ever go back in there again… 5 thumbs down

don’t forget, eli’s has a great florist! i’ve admired their arrangements in passing for months. they always have a beautiful display and saturday i finally had an excuse to order flowers. the morning before an event, i called for a small white and pink floral arrangement be made. only looking to spend $ 45, quite modest, but alyssa knocked it out of the park. absolutely my taste and i’m a total flower snob.

Amazing service and great products. I find myself popping in a few times a week and always leaving with more than I planned because its hard to pass up all the great treats! Such a great place to have close by. My mom is rarely impressed with anything and this is her favorite place in the city. The raspberry Jam they make is drool worthy. The sushi counter is perfect for a quick snack. I am excited for the grab and go to open!

Ever since he split with his brothers and uncles (from UWS Zabar’s) decades ago, Eli Zabar has been desperately trying to become a famous food guru. Aside from his successful bread business, the only thing for which he’s «famous» is charging outrageous prices to rich UES New Yorkers, who often have more money than taste. His produce is generally God Awful. STAY AWAY FROM HIS HEIRLOOM TOMATOES. His salad bar never looks really fresh and we never trust the dates stamped on his soups.
A few examples of his prices: $ 10 for a quarter of a watermelon; $ 9 for a quart of Ronnybrook milk, for which supermarkets charge $ 4.99; $ 19.99 for a jar of jam.
You are far better off going to Agata & Valentina, blocks away on 79^th Street & 1^st Avenue.

Great tasty salad but for the prices the counter service awful really nasty cashier with way too much attitude

Someone explain to me how this overpriced food museum stays open? Go in there any time. It’s a ghost town. The food is gorgeous. The workers are on duty. But there are no customers. At Fairway or Trader Joes there are so many shoppers they have to assign workers just to manage the lines. At Eli’s, there are always 3 or 4 cashiers looking bored waiting for the occasional customer.
It’s not the selection. It’s great. It’s not the location. Could not be better. It’s the PRICES! Insanely overpriced. I see nobidy buying it and I don’t understand how it doesn’t rot.
Just go in. Look around. You will be stunned.

Ok, I am French by birth! I am not that easily impressed by food products and Eli’s is ultra expensive…
However they offer the best-​you-​can-​find (and money can buy) products:
The bread is AWESOME (the pointy one you buy before the cashier), the cheese department is at the same level as the best Parisian cheese shops, their lox (cut to order) is as good as getting it from Fauchon or Hédiard in Paris.
The sandwiches are excellent (try their egg salad!).
Just one minor point: pastries and catering are subpart in term of appearance, don’t expect Kayser-​French-​style pastries here, just very traditional cheese cake and all alike.
Also: NO LINES, checkout is a breeze!

Very impressed with the variety, layout, and the relatively reasonable prices for the UES.
What a tremendous difference between this place and E.A.T!

Tried to get a slice of the vanilla cake at the Grand Central shop earlier today. No luck — cake’s hadn’t been delivered. Of note, what had been delivered arrived in cardboard boxes.
Eventually found myself on the UES and stopped in for a slice of said cake and a slice of devil’s food.
Waste of money. Cakes were dry, tough and flavorless. Spouse took the frosting off the vanilla cake, added powdered sugar and vanilla, and then it became passable. Devil’s food looked chocolatey, but barely tasted of it.
Both cakes had a distinct cardboard flavor, too, despite being sold in plastic boxes.
Not going back, especially given the absurd prices.

Eli’s has the best meat in the city plus the best butchers. Oscar is a real pro, an artist of meat cutting.
Extraordinary cheese selection. Fruits and vegetables are pricey but generally a notch better in quality, even over Citarella.
Not crowded and check out is fast.
Phone deliveries are very fast.
So not to sound like a planted endorsement, I hate going up and down the escalators.

This is a great wine store. The staff is friendly and helpful and they remember you from one visit to the next. Their selection of French and Italian wines is expansive. They also make great recommendations if you are unsure what to buy.

I don’t feel right reviewing Bottle & Soul without giving a little shout out to my super friendly and wise wine guy at Eli’s. I’m one of those people who prefer to drink domestic wine on principle but sometimes when I grab a baguette and some cheese from Eli’s (more often than I should admit) and Eli’s Wine is just right there, I stop in and grab something. I’m kind of hooked on this one white and still couldn’t tell you the name of it… but Mr. Eli’s Wine knows what it is. He always steers me right.

Today, I saw the owner (or co-​owner) of TASTE meeting with contractors to make renovations to their café space. Thinking she might like some positive feedback, I approached her to explain that our meet-​up group has truly enjoyed the facility that Taste offers, but how awesome just one changing table could be for our lunchtime motherhood-​meeting purposes. Furthermore, I asked if they’d consider installing changing tables in their large single bathrooms next to the coffee station.
It would have been kinder if she’d just said, «No» and been on her way. Instead, she laughed immediately. Like, the kind of laugh someone doles-​out when you say something crazy like how aliens stole you last night, and now you believe you are infected with a third eyeball that only YOU can see in the mirror.
«Oh, no. No. No. No… Thank you, no», she shook her head admiring the ground with her mocking cackle. She explained further, «We are interested in catering to a group of people without children. Oh, no. NOOOO changing tables. We want to attract people who enjoy a higher-​end café and wine bar that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.»
Ummmm, I fit that demographic pretty well. But, I guess my 32 year old self doesn’t compare to the regal and fancy ways of her 70-​plus years of «TASTE». Might I also state, there were about 12 people in their café from 11am-12:30 PM; our three moms and three babies made up half of their customer-​base in that 100+seater. Maybe I am cultivating a tiny human which differentiates me from her ideal purchaser. But last I checked, a business can’t chose the customer; the customer choses the business or the business flops.
So, it appears that the business we’ve been providing them since January 2014 is not being reinvested for our benefit. They don’t want to splurge on the $ 199.31 Koala Changing Station (like, what an eye-​sore next to a poopy old crapper… It would make it look like a place where people do their stinky business!) when I’m paying $ 15-​$ 25 per visit for a muffin, coffee, and nibbles. I can buy $ 19.65 per pound of chicken tenders somewhere else, thank you.
You go ahead and laugh with your best friend, The Floor. Have a good joke on my daughter’s existence. Whilst, I’ll keep cultivating an upstanding citizen and looking elsewhere for a venue that understands that toddlers are people too. They count and actually add to the atmosphere. With all the sweet geriatric folks that lunch there with their aids, I wonder if they will miss the joyful playtime entertainment that our children have offered over the past few months. As far as I’m concerned, Eli Zabar would be mortified if he valued small people at all. It’s not much to ask for clean place to change my little lady so that she can feel as human as the rest of society… things I wish I’d said, but glad I didn’t.
What I did say was, «Well, okay then. We’ll look elsewhere for our group, I guess.» I’ve found out the hard way that the best revenge is none at all. In fact, her place is getting nothing more from me, personally. Feel free to spend your hard-​earned money there regardless of my feedback. The employees are actually really nice, so it’s very sad that the owner was such a disappointment and unwelcoming to mothers, fathers, children… pretty much most people… who are willing to purchase their overly priced fair.

This store looks nice, but when you scratch the surface… it’s all an illusion.
Was wandering the UES with friends (not by my choice) and after a tasty lobster roll, we wanted something sweet. I was jonesing for a brownie so one of my buds said «Let’s go to Eli’s». Sure enough, they had a whole selection of brownies, cake bites, etc.
With glee, I picked up an orange iced pound cake slice and a brownie. Those things were like $ 3 – 4 a pop! To add insult to injury, the cake was very dry and fell apart as I was eating it. How do you not have a moist pound cake? The brownie I didn’t even finish. It was also dry and lacked robust chocolate flavor.
There are many reasons I rarely venture above 60^th St on the East Side, and this is one of them.

Pastries are subpar. I’ve had so much better in so many other places in NYC!
To me this place is total hype.
The space is tiny with little room to walk by other customers. The employees are not super interested in their job.
With so many other specialty food stores in manhattan, I will go elsewhere and have pastry that actually tastes good.
As for the other food items available… I will stick with Whole Foods or Fairway (around the corner) for those items.

The prices… oh, their prices. I mean seriously, $ 12 for small package of biscotti? I make better ones at home for next to nothing.
That said — the quality of freshness of produce I’ve had was excellent and challah bread and some others were very good as well. What I love the most is that on their ingredient labels, the baked goods appear to be all natural — what you would use to bake at home.
Love their potato and tortilla chips and excellent guacamole.
As for other prepared foods, I am wayy too frugal to buy!

This place is heaven for any foodie. I absolutely love it despite my empty wallet. As all gourmet markets, this one is pretty expensive, but it’s definitely worth it.
The bread is exquisite with an amazing crumb and the cheeses! I love that you can pick up a small amount instead of a large chunk so it’s easier to branch out and try new things. Their produce is also beautiful and I hope one day I can shop here whenever I want.

Crazy prices? Yup.
Some unique items that are hard to find at the normal markets in the area? Yup.
Paying through the nose because you are shopping at trendy/​greedy UES Eli’s? Yup.
Getting your eyes gouged out of your head when you see the final bill? Yup.
Living in this hood for many years I have had the chance to shop here on occasion. There are some quality grocery goods here for sure, and many not sold at the local markets. Is it worth the overpricing? Um, no. Sure, I will pay extra for quality but I’m not willing to pay for stupidity.
They have some terrific breads, prepared foods, hot meals, chocolates/​candies, soups, and produce. This I have to admit.
If you shop here on a normal basis and are foolish enough to pay the excessive amounts they charge for normal products you can find in most grocery stores then you need your head examined. To justify it by saying the unique items make it worth the higher costs is just silly. Guess the 1% can afford it, but not us regular folks!
Thank goodness Fairway is now on 86^th street a few minutes away. Yup!!!