Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market

Completely overpriced. Got food poisoning from an item in their prepared foods. Chicken lemon thyme. I wrote to them from their website. Never received a response. Hope they removed it from the case. Alexandria store.

This place was extremely overpriced.
It was a unique market experience but it wasn’t worth the price and selections inside the store.
Associates were friendly and available to assists and answer questions. Free parking for customer on the next street over and little right inside. Maybe next thing we may try with this place is getting or ordering a cake. Otherwise, not our grocery scene in there at all.

Ordered a custom Tiffanys cake on Tuesday for a pickup on Friday.
THE BEST CAKE I’ve had in a long time. Not only CUTE but tasted great with a reasonable price. This made my 40^th birthday party awesome.

Everything tastes better from Balducci’s. Even the sugar cubes (from like France) taste better.

The Balducci experience can’t be beat. The food is fresh and delicious, the people are awesome-​Tim in the wine dept could not be more accommodating and Laura in the Flower dept is amazing. I wish they had more prepared foods but what they have is great!

Balcucci’s has its pros and cons. I will describe them…
(-) Prepared food — often looks better than it actually tastes (Whole foods has them in this category).
(+) Fruits and veggies — less than the Bethesda branch, which I like much better. There are some specialty items, as other reviewers have mentioned.
(-) High prices — but that is to be expected: It’s a gourmet grocer. I can’t go in there, even for lunch, without dropping $ 15-​$ 20. Yet I do return periodically.
(+) Small but respectable wine and beer selection.
(+++) Chopped liver — yay! (Whole foods doesn’t — na-​na, na-​na, boo-​boo).
(+) Has «the Georgetown» sub.
(+) Interesting meat and game selection.
(++) Great cheese selection (and the cheese attendants seem more knowledgeable than the ones working the cheese counter at Whole Foods).
(-) Hot and cold buffet bars — unimpressive /​hot side often dry and overheated (Whole foods has it beat).
(-) Disengaged, subdued staff…
I love going in there and finding stuff I don’t usually find in other grocery stores.

Pass the Shropshire.
Balducci’s covers a lot of bases. U.S.D.A. Prime dry ages steaks? Check. Real Sushi? Check. Shropshire, stilton, red dragon, duck pâté, D’artagnon fois gras, and nuff du pape? Check all around.
Don’t bother griping out the price. This is not the place for coupon clippers… and if you’re going to buy expensive cuts of meat, make sure you know what to do with them.
I love walking over in the evening, or stopping on my way home from work, to buy something completely ridiculous and decedent to spoil my good Lady. There is very little in the store that I actually Need… the point is that I Choose to buy absurdly expensive cheese and caviar because I don’t take a single meal I share with Mary for granted. Balducci’s…an epicurean’s playground.

Jekyll & Hyde…
It may come out to a «C» average – but there’s really no middle ground here:
In a fairly small space, you’ll encounter otherwise hard-​to-​find produce items, cheeses and salamis, wines, pastas, canned goods… But apart from the pastry counter, I would AVOID any prepared foods for take-​home, or fresh meats/​seafood.
Patronage always seems light, at this store (we’ve wondered, for years, how they continue in business), so they just don’t get the turnover … stuff sits around, goes stale – while the prices remain premium!
It’s usually a Friday night, whenever we drop in there – in search of a special taste treat (English cheeses? Prosciutto? A slice of Black Forest cake?) to inaugurate the weekend. But no major shopping… nooooo!

In a nutshell they have extremely inconsistent quality level food at exorbitantly high prices. For instance, if you don’t check every sell by date before purchasing you’ll regret it when you get home and realize your item has already or will expire within 2 days.
Secondly, their prices are outrageous for sometimes disgusting food. I have purchased two steaks for $ 40 bucks which were not even edible. Oh and let me add they weren’t Kobe beef for that price, they were ny strip. We were so angry about the waste of money when we couldn’t eat it, that I called them immediately. The manager said if we came in they’d refund the money. I did that the next day and the cashier seemed bothered when she should have apologized. So I got my money back, returned a few weeks later, spent $ 20 on 7 scallops and was horrified at the quality once again!
I never complained since the first time because they seemed so annoyed before, and I stupidly returned on a handful of occasions for the salad bar and deli. The salad bar literally barely changes every day, so you can’t get a variety. The quality is meh too.
I have had some good roast beef. sandwiches there which were tasty, but before I can compliment too much, I’ll add that my fiancé and I went tonight and had 2 disgusting roast beef sandwiches for $ 17. They most certainly were not rare Kobe roast beef like they sold them as, they were inedible low quality barely chewable well done slop! This is the last time I’ll go! But the owners should take note. You can’t charge like you do for low quality food. I’ll go to whole foods for deliciousness and save money. End of story!!!

Gross – check the expiration and sell-​by dates of anything you buy here. For the prices you pay (about double the price of a regular store), you’d think that their staff would be competent, food would be fresh and of good quality. Nope!
I picked up, among other things, a bag of tortilla chips last week (I’m pregnant and apparently, my baby needs vitamin salsa). When I got home and tucked in, I thought, gee, these fancy tortilla chips are kind of gross. Here, husband, eat one! I looked at the date on the package and they’ve been expired for TWO MONTHS. Totally stale!
PREGGO RAGE!!!
I called Balducci’s to report this, and they directed me to return the chips (Balducci’s is not in my back yard, and did I mention I’m nine months pregnant and it’s 150,000 degrees outside? RAGE!!!) So I did. And they didn’t give a flying fig that they’re selling stale food. Most normal grocery stores might refund your money and replace the item and the manager would apologize profusely. Nope, at Balducci’s it’s here’s your money, GTFO… don’t care if you ever come back.
There’s really no excuse for this place in this day and age. Once upon a time, there were no good grocery stores around DC, it was just Safeway and Giant, duking out who was going to be the prettiest frog, with an odd Magruders or whatever here or there and maybe some one-​off specialty shops that you had to know about to find. Sutton Place (a/​k/​a Balducci’s) was where you went if you needed something outré, fancy, or impressive.
I don’t know if they didn’t get the memo, but a lot of other grocery stores and specialty foods shops have rolled into town in the last 15 years or so, and Balducci’s didn’t just rest on its laurels, it fell asleep on them and the laurels got powdery mildew disease.

OVERALL: Looking for a specific specialty item? They’ll have it here… but you’ll pay for it.
LOCATION: Balducci’s is on the corner of St. Asaph and Franklin, a few blocks out of what I call the Old Town Central Zone along King Street. On the plus side, you may actually be able to find a place to park. On the down side – at least for the store – very little foot traffic wanders in.
SELECTION: There are prepared foods, a deli, a bakery, coolers/​freezers, and shelf-​stable goods. Where Balducci’s excels is the hard-​to-​find stuff, especially the hard-​to-​find ethnic/​international stuff. If you’re a gourmand, you’ll find inspiration here. (If you’re a regular person with a regular palate and a regular budget, not so much.)
PRICE: Expensive. I was expecting something on par with Whole Foods; I got something more on par with Eataly. I had a 10% off coupon, so I grabbed some pasta sauces and interesting baked goods… but I’m not sure I’ll be back. My needs are met by Wegmans and Trader Joe’s. I don’t need $ 5 cookies.
SERVICE: I didn’t need any help while shopping. Checkout was super-​fast, probably because there were twice as many employees as shoppers on the Sunday afternoon when I visited. Yikes. Everything I bought was carefully wrapped, including putting the glass pasta sauce jars in brown paper bags.

A great little neighborhood specialty store. As you approach the automatic doors, you will see hanging baskets available for purchase — the morning glories looked amazing this morning!
Grab a cart as you enter and stock up on fresh fruit, excellent cheeses, and dehydrated kale which is all the rage these days; counters are ready with servers ready make you a fresh sandwich, or buy fresh meat or fish to take home and make yourself.
And there is both indoor and outdoor seating for your convenience!

Stopped by after walking the Bridge and folks needed to use the bathroom. I didnt have money and that was a good thing! It was like a wegmans and whole foods all wrapped in one. It was a bit pricey for certain things, but i think it was worth it as they had items i never seen before!

Just horrible. I got the buffet for lunch. Everything was so dry. The baked chicken was awful and wings we’re equally as bad. Over all, it was so not worth the price. In fact it’s overly priced for as bad as it is. I’ll never go here again. It’s a waste of money and a waste of food.

For me, Balducci’s is a place for special items, and I shop here several times a year.
Here’s what really impresses me: Not only do they stock Seville oranges, but they actually called me when the oranges arrived, and asked if I wanted them to set some aside for me.
Seville oranges are rare in the United States, and they have a very short season. These are the classic oranges used in marmalade. Produce departments in other good stores had never even heard of them.

Ok, I have driven past Balducci’s for years without giving the place a second thought. I mean as you’re flying down Washington street, it really does seem to be a bit of an inconvenience to pull over and search for parking. However, the other day the Gods must have stepped in, because I could feel their foodie food angels turning my steering wheel toward Balducci’s One Hour Free Street Parking. «How bad can it be?» I thought. «I will be in and out in 15» Well, I was wrong, for it really took me about 30 minutes to browse Balducci’s gourmet isles. This place has it All!!!
But let me just say it loud and say it proud: Balducci’s has Chopped Chicken Liver!!! Balducci’s has Chopped Chicken Liver!!! Now, if you live in New York, this really isn’t such a big deal, but here in Alexandria, finding a place that sells my favorite deli staple is about as easy to find as Bilbo Baggins snagging a magic ring in the dark. Why even our «New York» style deli doesn’t carry it. So, Balducci’s, you are my oasis of delicious chopped chicken liver deliciousness.
However, it doesn’t stop here, for Balducci’s has a selection of gormet foods that would make the ghost of Julia Child smile. I really do suspect that she might be haunting Balducci’s isles. Hey, maybe it was her steering me towards a selection of prepackaged Indian meals that have managed to change my refrigerator’s landscape to the truly yummy. Yes, those shelves now overflow with Chicken Vindaloo, Chicken Marsala, and Chopped Chicken Liver. Yum!
Thank you foodie angels wherever you are.

I’ve been to the Balducci’s on the corner of S. Washington and Franklin in Old Town on several occasions, but I have no basis of comparison with other Balducci’s locations since my experience with the Balducci’s chain is limited to this one store. However, this Balducci’s can be compared with its direct competitors in Old Town, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Balducci’s is a very similar grocery store concept carrying fresh produce, meats, and fish, gourmet foodstuffs, wines and craft beer, and Balducci’s branded products. Still, after walking around the store, I thought its produce section was much smaller overall and very limited in its organic selection compared to Whole Foods. It was even more expensive than both Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, yet it looked less fresh than either of them… and that is a deal breaker. The meat selection was good with some items that are not found at Whole Foods such as domestic wagyu, foie gras, ostrich and venison. The fish selection, however, was a bit smaller than Whole Foods, but on par in terms of quality and freshness. Similarly, the cheese section was a bit smaller, but also on par with Whole Foods. The only place that Balducci’s surpassed the Old Town Whole Foods was in its wine section. While it’s not significantly larger than the Old Town Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s for that matter, at least Balducci’s inventory was organized logically, by region, unlike the Old Town Whole Foods store, where I can never easily find what I may be looking for. In the end, Balducci’s isn’t a bad store and it does carry some interesting items. However, it doesn’t have enough at a competitive price to make me shop there over Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. When the Wegmans opens up near Fort Belvoir, this Balducci’s will be in serious trouble!

Poor customer service. I have shopped here for five years and have noticed
A steady decline in customer service and food quality. It is over priced
And needs to correct its game plan and send the staff and checkers
Back to customer service school if it wants to survive.

Excited to have a place relatively near us that has a sufficient fish counter. They seemed to have some unique/​fancy offerings of other things too — the ice cream section was pretty good! But back to the fish counter. they did NOT have sashimi grade fish any of the times we went — I had initially expected them to have it since they seem to be known for unique/​fancy options. I also expected them to have a much better and more diverse wine selection than they had and was a little disappointed. Oh well, a new Harris Teeter is coming soon and I am excited for that!
What else is here: plenty of fancy cheeses, lots of fancy sauces, a small meat section. Not a bad place, but not necessarily worth going out of the way for, especially because it is expensive.

Girlfriend brought me here for a quick lunch. I had a relatively short wait to order. I ordered a tuna sandwich on rye. While it tasted alright at the time, it did not sit well. Without being gross you could say it upset my stomach greatly, churning and gurgling all night. The event kept me at my house for the rest of the day.
The restroom was clean. The people behind the counter were nice.
Based on my «experience» after eating the food, I would not eat here again.