Manor Métro-Shopping

The food is fresh. And I love the top floor you get anything from pizza to a full meal.

As everyone knows (or should be aware of), Geneva is ridiculously expensive. As a long-​term traveler, I couldn’t afford $ 25 meals every lunch and dinner, so I settled for bad $ 11 gyros during my first day in Geneva. That clearly wasn’t going to cut it for my 5 day stay so I searched out grocery stores. The one nearest my hostel, Lidl, was OK, but it was extremely small and still quite pricey. Then I found Manor and my life was changed. Ohhh large grocery stores with extensive prepared food sections! How I love thee! I don’t mean to mislead — this store is still expensive, but I was able to get a sufficient amount of food for 2 meals for $ 16 without using an oven or stove top. I call that a success for Geneva standards.
This store also has clothing and other items, but I stuck to the grocery section.

With the renovation of the railway station, the stores inside are improving by leaps and bounds. No longer is this place the dank, dreary place it used to be with more and more new stores opening with fresher and more interesting fare. 2013 will see the opening of a Gilles Desplanches bakery/​chocolate/​coffee bar which will be the best place to have a cuppa before taking your train.

I finally had a few minutes to write a review for the Manor Metro Shopping location. This is a quick stop for any last minute shopping that you might have on your list as you are running to catch the train. I often think this place is put together for tourists wanting to grab that last Swiss item, or for any sale items that Manor wants to get rid of. There is no food available at this small location. The great review written below by Carolen is not for this location, as the pictures and review are written for the main Manor located just a brief walk from the train station. This is not the same place.

I wish we had a Manor in the US. All in one department store with Restaurant/​Café, Grocery Store, Department Store, and CHOCOLATE area. It’s multilevel and there’s a parking lot underneath, just not that many spaces so during high traffic, you’ll be lucky to find a spot. When we went, the parking sign said 9 spaces open. Crap. Luckily we did get a spot on the last floor.
We headed to the elevator and as we approached our final destination, I smell… what do I smell? Bread? The doors open and I see sushi? And all these artisan breads and king cakes. We bee lined to the escalator as we were not ready to do grocery or chocolate shopping yet. So we climbed… all the way to the tippity top passing the women’s section, men’s section, kid’s section, shoes, etc. to the top floor where it was electronics and passed that was the restaurant. More like a cafeteria, where you can have pizza made to order with your selected toppings, freshly made pastas, breads, desserts, smoothies, juices, and espresso drinks. All pretty well priced and everyone seemed to be there. Water is thankfully free. We got a dessert and a smoothie. Definitely not your standard cafeteria fare. I would think Google cafeteria quality.
After getting our lunch on, we headed down back to the grocery area to do some shopping. There was so much to think about buying that I didn’t know where to start. Definitely a sensory overload. We went straight to the biscuit aisle where we decided on some capucines. Then saw some 50% panettone and got a pandoro for 3.50 CHF! Then we went to the cheese and salami area where there were some sales on cheeses. So many! We basically got a bunch of on sale cheeses and a dried sausage with walnuts. SO GOOD. It’s definitely a grocery store with your standard meats, fruits, veggies, etc. but the quality seemed a whole lot better than your Safeway or Luckys here in California. After playing in the grocery store, we went to the chocolate area where every bar you can think of was there from Lindt & Cailler to just random ones like Ovalmaltine. You will not find Ghirardhelli or Scharfenberger so definitely expect very european chocolates. There were liquor/​liqueur filled ones even with Absinthe. It’s like a chocoholic’s paradise.
Manor is definitely a great place to get your grocery goods as well as everything else for that matter! I will definitely go back here for the food.