Key Food

I must say, I’ve scanned most of the reviews that have been posted here already, and I’m stumped: Key Food isn’t exactly Whole Foods, but it ain’t bad. I’ve shopped there from time to time for the past 15+ years, and have seldom had a bad experience. It’s considerably better than Fine Fare at 4776 Broadway, that’s for sure.
I find the selection of foods here to be to be quite good, and a welcome change of pace from the more limited selections available at other supermarkets in the neighborhood. Mostly I purchase packaged items such as breads, crackers, cereals, condiments, sodas, dairy products, etc., though the quality of the meats and the produce I’ve bought here has been fine as well.
The prices, for the most part, are not unreasonable. On-​site service is available, though you sometimes must assert yourself in order to obtain it. On the other hand, they do deliver, which can come in very handy. I really have no complaints.

Reasons why to avoid this place:
–expensive
–old and rotten fruits & vegetables
–selection is poor
–staff is rude
–a lot of items do not have a price tag
–meat & fish are not fresh
–and did I say expensive
Shop in Fresh Direct. Better prices, fresh, great selections and quick.

There should be an option for no stars. I’ve handed rotten produce to staff members who simply shrugged and gave it back to me with the attitude that I was somehow putting them out. Sale items are often charged full price and the cashiers seem to be hired strictly on the criteria that they be young and numb. This is the kind of place that makes c-​town and gristedes look like top notch establishments.

Good selection for the neighborhood, but that ain’t saying a lot.
Check your receipt though. Sale prices almost never show up at the register, and management acts like it’s a bother to correct their mistake. They put the wrong tags in places and refuse to give you the price since it’s the wrong tag.
The produce is really bad.

They sell disgusting, on its way out meat and refuse to take it back. The owner is clueless on customer service.

Lately I’ve noticed the prices in here are getting pretty crazy. It’s almost like a «white person food» tax to combat the gentrification in the area? For example, 4 red bell peppers today cost me $ 8.50 (!!!). A tub of Fage yogurt was also $ 8.50. Lean ground turkey was $ 9.50. WTF. I just checked, and this is all substantially more expensive than even on FreshDirect, which is not a cheap site. There still are good deals to be had here, as for example I paid $ 0.39 per can of black beans, but be careful to actually see how much things cost (sometimes they are marked poorly) to avoid multiple heart attacks at the register.

Don’t bother coming here. Worthless excuse for a grocery store. Employees are rude and act like you are their worst enemy because you are buying groceries. Beyond nasty: smells and old merchandise mixed into newer merchandise and nothing seems fresh

Really a pretty good grocery store; I appreciate its being in the neighborhood, and carrying kosher foods (I don’t keep kosher, but I love to pick up macaroons and holiday treats when they are stocked, as well as matzah all year round). Their produce is definitely not the worst; I haven’t noticed much bruising, and they do have a very small organic section, which I wish they would expand. They have specialty veggie items, like burgers, tofu, hotdogs, tempeh, etc., which not every place will stock. Ice cream is a pretty good range, and they often stock nice new flavors. I like that they have pickles of many kinds, including some locally made (Brooklyn). The cashiers are efficient and friendly, as is the other staff and management. They’re often the only option when I’m coming home close to 9pm – so, although I guess they could have longer hours, I feel like they are actually already offering some of the best hours in the area. Overall, a nice place to shop in the ‘hood.

Pros: Only supermarket in the immediate area with a good selection of kosher products. They also stock stuff for Jewish holidays/​Sabbath and some low-​percentage (2.5−5% abv) kosher wines. Good selection of kosher cheeses.
Cons: The fresh kosher meat, especially the chickens, are not being stored at the proper temperature. Be sure to check for freshness before you buy and freeze or cook the day of purchase. I’ve bought meats here a week before the sell-​by date only to have them turn rancid in my refrigerator within a day or two.
I don’t know if this problem exists with the non-​kosher meats, but it’s a real bother. An 8-​pc cut up kosher chicken costs 11 – 15 $ here. I have not noticed this issue with the kosher dairy products.
Buy: kosher cheese, dairy products, kosher pantry products and baked goods
Avoid: fresh kosher meat. Buy it at Trader Joe’s instead, it’ll cost less and stay fresh longer.

I’ve shopped here for years in the neighborhood and it has everything I need because I’m easy to please. Good dairy selection, good frozen food. The produce is fine and they do have a good artisan meat section. Honestly, I do feel like it’s in between Walmart and Trader Joes without having the best of either but the location makes me a regular.

Incompetent managers that make you wait 20 minutes to correct a cashiers double ring up and just an overall terrible supermarket with over priced produce.

Smells like dirty washcloths and the produce is usually bruised. Once I dropped my wallet there but no worries I found it pretty quick didn’t have no cash in there anyways who would want to steal it LOL. I’m poor. Sometimes I wonder why we give so much money in food aid to other countries while people right here in U S A are forced to eat boston baked beans 6 days a week. The cashiers at this grocery store are knowledgeable.

This is one of the worst supermarkets to shop at in this area, long lines, cashiers that can’t do simple addition/​subtraction, few of them can identify the produce, and use the wrong codes which are the wrong price. Often things that are on sale don’t come up as the correct price, you always have to read through your receipts and count your change because on many occasions it will be off by a little or a lot.
The store sells all sorts of beverages, when you want to refund them you have to use their recycling kiosk, it only takes back very select bottles/​cans due to the lack of programming by management, half the time the machines are out of order or full. If you are thinking of shopping here may I suggest visiting the recycling room, which is filthy, reeks of garbage, and located adjacent to the meat preparation room. One look and you’ll never buy meat from here again.
As mentioned in earlier comments the produce is either unripe, or spoiled, and always overpriced. (I’ve also seen loaves of moldy bread) As for the check out lines, the cashiers are clueless, you’ll find they hold the lines because someone has forgotten an item, there might be 3 – 4 cashiers and none are able to check anyone out because of this. Keyfoods should fire every employee at this place, including management, and condemn the store. I don’t know how it passes health inspection laws.

a little pricey if you ask me

moldy fruits, bought a jar of pickles last week, got home, the pickles are so old they were inedible. Prices are very high, old stinky smell. Just a bad place.

This is the worst managed location of keyfood in the city, every time I go there they never adjust some items on their sales flyers, check your receipt before you leave the market, plus they never apologize to their customers if mustakes is made, poorly trained employees, the corporate headquarter should inspect this location !

I have been here once and there is a reason for that. It is expensive and the fruits and veggies were not only overpriced but they were not either not even ripe or they were moldy, not really a good impression. When I go into a market the first thing you hit is the veggie and fruit isles and it needs to look good and healthy. If it does not look good and healthy, which was the opposite for this store I get immediately turned off. And that was the experience with this store.

An awful place! The first time I came in I should’ve known from the ‘smell’ that I should turn around and go somewhere else but I was on an ice cream hunt. The time I returned to actually shopped I couldn’t believe how overpriced everything was. How is it my grocery bill when living in midtown is less or equal in value? We’re basically living in the suburbs up here, get with the income of your residents. As I was going down the aisles I thought that maybe prices had just inflated naturally but when I got home and looked at my Target receipt from 225^th two weeks prior I was shocked. Literally, everything at Key Food was nearly double if not more.
I will never come back here again. I would rather commute 40 blocks than to put up with this place.

this is not a very good super market. employees don’t know anything and the aisles are so small you can barely fit a shopping cart through. the prices are all so expensive and when its on sale for the weekly ad, they don’t advertise it so you have to question that you are getting the correct one by checking the price at the check out. its very close to me but i don’t think i’ll be coming here too much for my groceries. not a big selection for the deli or chips. nothing special about this place to make me give them my money. double check everything!

2.5 stars.
This large supermarket has a huge selection of kosher food (refrigerated, frozen and fresh as well as packaged) and kosher certified household products, as well as a large selection of Goya brand items. There is a wide variety of top notch beer, which I continue to find surprising.
Why 2.5 stars? The produce here is only marginally better than in the scrappier little markets (which isn’t very good) and the lines are SO SLOW. The cashiers here always take forever. If it’s not fresh then yes, they’ll basically have what I need but it’s a bit of a pain to shop here.
I think they deliver.