Urban Fare

³⁄₅ for the baked goods: only because they’re inconsistent and/​or the coffee bar serves up day old (?) muffins and pastries. The single staff behind the coffee bar is usually as friendly as a constantly busy person can be.

I just moved into the neighbourhood a few months back, so I frequent this Urban Fare often. Honestly, between Urban Fare and Whole Foods, I’m all for the Whole Foods experience and prefer their meals as well. For the sake of convenience, however, I’m here a lot more often these days.
Of course, being a more upscale grocery experiences, the prices are also inflated to match. Urban Fare is a part of the Save On Foods chain and you could buy the same thing at Save on Foods for less. Of course, when you get to be as lazy as I am, you’ll end up paying the extra bucks to save time.
I’ve tried many things on their menu. I find a lot of it rather lackluster, high in calorie count, and I’ve gotten sick off a few of their things before. Be cautious when ordering things that look like they might have been sitting for a little while! I do rather like their turkey couscous, and some of their daily carved meat offerings with their mashed potatoes!
Those who work here are pretty helpful though. However, if you’re in the area and looking for something quick to grab, I have plenty of other little places I could suggest, if you don’t want a full sit down meal.

I was staying at a hotel nearby and stopped by a several of times due to the convenience. I will admit, it’s an eye candy. Everything is beautifully layed out and presented. Plus, the restaurant inside is also a bonus serving microbrews. But there’s no denying, everything is way way overpriced. Essentially, you are paying for the experience. Take it for what it is.

Overall the store is very well kept. A good selection but overpriced. I would consider this a specialty grocery chain so I understand the value in paying a little extra.
I have been let down with the restaurant portion of the store. It seems like it is understaffed. The employees behind the counter are busy prepping or cleaning and appear too busy to notice that there are customers. On one occasion I waited 5 minutes for someone help me and an additional 10 minutes to receive the meatloaf and chow mien I ordered. When the food was ready she just set it on the counter and didn’t even try to get my attention to tell me it was ready. The meal itself was tasty but the presentation was poor. It looked like it was just slapped on the plate. I realize that this is a «fast food» restaurant but I expected quicker service and a cleaner presentation for such a high end grocery store.

Convenient location. Friendly and helpful staff at pharmacy. Fresh fruits, bakery, and aesthetically placed merchandise make this store an easy place to browse for grocery, quick or casual lunch or dinner. Freshly prepared meals including sushi albeit mediocre in taste. Prices for everything a premium hence the 3 stars. I would like to see them be more competitive in pricing and provide sale prices to everyone regardless of loyalty/​membership.

Great selection. I came in for one item but walked out with a $ 14 XL papaya! My beau got a bag of cherries for $ 13.
I LOVE THEIR BUFFALO HOT WINGS /​drummettes. These sell out fast because this flavour rocks esp when BBQD.
Helpful staff.

If I could give the takeout sushi from Urban Fare less than one star, I would! I realize that our first mistake was doing takeout sushi, but never mind. My husband bought a bunch of rolls, plus a sockeye salmon sashimi, a toro sashimi and a shrimp sunomono. The salmon sashimi had skin still on the back of each piece, it tasted like it was a week old, and it was absolutely awful. The toro was only slightly less pathetic — tasteless and rubbery when it should taste almost buttery.
The shrimp, sunomono had a blob of something dark brown on one of the shrimp and the noodles were undercooked. One of the maki sushi looked like it had some macerated red stuff in the middle, which I suspect was the leftover salmon sashimi that they couldn’t get rid of from last week.
The whole experience was extremely off-​putting and that is the absolute last time I ever buy sushi from there. For a high-​end food market they should be ashamed of themselves for selling that stuff. And to add insult to injury it was way over-​priced! Enough said.

I can offer kudos on a lot of levels for this, my neighbourhood go-​to store. (1) cheese lady (sorry don’t know your name!) has rescued me many a time…“no, I’d try sage instead of thyme with that… and this goat cheese is more nutty”. Yesterday’s cheese for my lactose-​intolerant friend? Her recommendation was stellar. I loved the stuff, myself, and I’m not lactose intolerant. (2) produce manager… can’t find a soft avocado? Magically one will appear. Fresh figs? Yup, «I have some in the back right now, let me get them for you.» (3) wine/​beer happy hour. I once thought ‘kind of weird having a glass of wine in a grocery store, then I made a habit out of it. What a great way to relax, read, snack, plan dinner, and close the chapter on work-​life for the day. (4) the staff. (5) management and in particular Jason. He/​they respond to anything instantly… washroom wasn’t quite perfect? they ran out of one of the wines for happy hour tasting? represent the best of BC’s food and feature new foodstuffs with fantastic tastings and prominent display? Doesn’t get better.
I kinda look forward to coming in the late afternoons after work. Look forward to it quite a bit actually.
Scott

At the restaurant/​café i ordered the chicken with veggies, i was in a rush to grab something quickly and eat. It took over 15 mins for me to get my meal and when i started cutting through the chicken i felt it was tough, until i cut it with force to find out it was still pink! This is a food hazard and can be hazardous! I think im gonna pass on urban fare’s café, however their sushi is pretty good with lots of variety of quinoa, black rice, ect.

I’m only reviewing on the loafs!
My mom brought back a Banana loaf chocolate Mac nut $ 9.99 and lemon loaf poppy seed $ 12.99. I had to have it with coffee so made that coffee and warmed up my loafs. To my surprise both loaf was Delish. Moist and with lots of flavor. The lemon was tart but it tasted good. The chocolate tastes good not over powering with chocolate.

A very busy spot with quite a confusing checkout system.
I stopped by the café area twice in a day, as I was hosting a booth across the street. I grabbed a coffee in the morning, and they were able to make my decaf iced Americano no problem, although I have no idea why there was only one person working the crazy busy coffee counter when there were four or five staff across the aisle in the (very quiet) pre-​prepared food area. She took 4 – 5 orders at a time then made them all, meaning the line moved in spurts, then was more or less still for a while. She was doing her absolute best, but there’s only so much one person can do when there’s a constant 10 person line up!
My coffee was fine, although it took me a few moments to spot the milk/​sugar station as it’s located quite a ways from the coffee counter.
I returned later that day to grab lunch. I’ve been eating SO much Indian food lately, so when I saw that they had samosas I was instantly sold. I ordered a veggie samosa from one of the many staff behind the food counter who handed me a receipt then immediately went back to chatting to another staff member. At that point I walked down the counter but couldn’t see anywhere to pay. After catching his attention again I asked where to pay — the dreaded coffee counter! At peak lunch rush they have all food and coffee orders going through two registers… This didn’t seem like the most efficient mode of getting people fed and caffeinated, but maybe that’s just me. I waited patiently, paid, then again turned around a few times, lost as to where I was supposed to shuffle off to now! Turns out I had to go back to the food counter at which point the guy took my receipt back then microwaved and panini pressed my samosa.
After this somewhat messy experience I was excited to go sit in the sun with my book and enjoy my samosa. Well, unfortunately, it wasn’t really up to snuff. The flavours were ok, but it tasted a bit pre-​frozen, and the spices were very mild and more like a bland version of what I love about samosas.
In general I really like Urban Fare, but this just wasn’t a great experience.

I like the selection of food stuffs here, especially in the hippy organic fair trade sustainable type stuff. The layout is nice, their in house prosciutto is pretty darn delicious and the have a lot of nice fancy cheeses.
As far as grocery stores go they are a bit pricey, and yet oddly lacking in a lot of the happy ethical meats that I feel like belong in such a Yale-​towny posh type place. Also, I totally want my dead animals to have lived super awesome lives before being tragically murdered to feed the masses, so I would appreciate it if they carried more of that kind of stuff.

They tend to gyp me when I pay in cash, frequently stealing a dollar. I always pay with credit here now.

OK, some of these people are stunned. A clerk with food — colour hair takes my latte order and money. She then continues gossiping with her tranny friend. Two minutes later, she wants to know why I am still waiting there. Duh… I’m waiting for my latte, do I have to make it myself?
The rest of the Store is fine, but double check all your products before you buy them. A couple of times I found things that had been previously opened!

If only I was rich enough to shop here ALL the time. i absolutely love UF.
My favourite thing to get from here is probably the (very expensive) loaf of bread that comes in the green packaging. I also love the blueberry granola from the bins (which is surprisingly cheap for urban fare) and the strawberry-​honey flavoured greek-​yogurt (they go so well together).
The food that you can buy and eat right there is amazing too. i love the burritos/​burrito bowls you can get (it’s like chipotle but better) and also the mushroom turkey risotto, ravioli, etc. it’s all so good! The food that you can dish out yourself (it’s like a salad-​bar) is pretty expensive and isn’t really worth it, in my opinion. i’d go for the burrito/​italian side over that stuff any day.
Their salad bar is worth its weight in gold, and has every protein option you can imagine (roasted chicken, shrimp, hard boiled egg, tofu, edamame, etc) and tons of delicious salad and veggie options (including my favorite, the raw zucchini salad).
A really nice urban fare overall though, super convenient location as well.
This ‘grocery store’ is a great spot for a casual dinner.

I don’t really get it.
This is another Vancouver grocery store that doesn’t know how check out lanes work.
The single line up ends up snaked around the cheese cases (which makes it interesting if you actually want to buy cheese)
At least the cashiers at this one wave a flag so you can see which one is calling you.
They carry a lot of high end brands at high end prices, as you would expect for Yaletown.
The Yaletown price tag also applies to the more commonly available brands and Western Family brand products.
I have spotted more than one NHL hockey player shopping here, so if people watching is your thing, this is a good spot to do it.

Nice grocery store in a great location.
We came here for the meal service and ordered two breakfasts.

I love coming to Urban Fare during the weekday to get my lunch or just stock up on groceries. It can get a little crowded and touristy but nothing beats a Sunday morning walk around and get coffee or breakfast visit there.
For Yaletown location, I found great stopping in for cheese and bacon is a must. Don’t miss out on finesse food selection from cured meat, caviar, chocolates all the way to healthy food alternative.
The only downside is you rarely find friendly staff there. Each time you have any questions or try to find something either they just try to ignored you by pretending didn’t see you waving or listen when you say «Excuse me Miss/​Sir» or busy chatting with their coworker and these segment including the customer service desk (by the chocolate stand). But delicatessen area are pretty friendly.

First time to this location. Lots of choices for lunch to go. Very fresh and not that busy.
I feel so healthy after eating lunch here. Every one here seems so nice. Lol lots of elderly people so you have to be patient here. No steamrolling through the isles.

Organic. Fresh. Close to me.
I tried recently the marinated mushrooms salad, the ”Mardi Gras potatoes salad and their famous turkey-​cranberries sandwich.
The sandwich was delish and the bread was moist and multi grain.
It was cheap 5.59 $ for a huge sandwich filled with stacks of smoked turkey, lettuce and tomatoes and light mayo.
The marinated mushroom salad was so fresh and yummy…
Not the typical marinated mushrooms that I tried before (and hate) from IGA.
And the potatoes salad was so good it was like ”Mardi Gras”.
Also I like the area as it’s close to the sea wall and the patio.
Under the shade it’s perfect!
Located at the beginning of Davie st, this is a super quiet area.
Je t’aime Urban Fare!