Windmill Farms
(between Madra Ave & Marne Ave)
San Diego, CA 92120 (619) 287-1400
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
18 Reviews for Windmill Farms
Similar to Henry's. However, you can find more bread variety. It would be nice if they had more muffins available, they are always out or almost out in the evenings. Henry's has a nice display for their muffins with labels.
They have pretty much everything Henry's does but it is better in some ways. I feel like I am in a small town grocery store.
They sell the salsa I love!
They don't carry the dog food my doggies like (I do have to go to Henry's for that). Other than that, I recommend Windmill Farms.
Nice service.
Windmill Farms is one of the best natural/organic grocery stores that you will find in San Diego. I love this place! Far superior in my opinion to Henry's in terms of cleanliness, produce and supplements. They have the usual bins with everything from granolas to flours just like Henry's. The difference is that you don't see dirty kids and nasty people digging their hands in the bins and spilling crap all over the counters. I walked out of the Henry's in El Cajon after seeing just that... Disgusting. Windmill Farms is just cleaner and seems better run. The deli section always has a good selection of meats and store made sausages as well- I love the apple wood smoked chicken sausage. They have fresh made sushi that works in a pinch when I don't feel like driving far to satisfy my sushi craving. The supplement section is huge also and the produce is always great. I love the fresh bread selection and get all my flax seed bread products here. Just an all around good store to shop at and worth the drive even if you don't live nearby. Highly recommended.
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I live only a half mile away from Windmill Farms, so I often walk there with my two Boxer dogs and my baby girl in her stroller. I tie the dogs up inside and use the stroller as my cart.
My husband and I love this market! The staff is all very friendly here, the produce selection always looks fresh and there is usually a good stock of everything, good bulk foods section, and they have a decent selection of natural and organic foods. Their produce prices are definitely the best in town, other non perishable items are about average.
Almost everything we need we can find here. Though there are a few items that we still have to drive to Whole Foods for. The wine prices aren't that great, and the dessert selection isn't fabulous, but overall this is a great store. Love shopping here!
Wow.
This place is pretty neat!
I tend to avoid hippie-ish grocery stores (as, I do most my grocery shopping at 7-11), but a friend brought me here today to check out their whole "help yourself" method to buying candy, nuts, pasta, grains. I'd say it's similar to the other hippie markets, but there was definitely a much larger selection. They also carried non-all-natural products in case you want Kraft Mac'n'Cheese instead of that lousy organic stuff.
And the stuff they carried! Oh man, there was a deli, and a butcher... lots of alcohol, fruit and veggies, vitamins and pills, and every sort of "flavoring" type item you could come up with.
I need to make special mention of some items I found.
Stone Brewery BBQ sauces. I can't remember all the flavors, but there was at least a Smoked Porter, and a Ruination IPA one.
Stone Brewery Hot sauces. They had Arrogant Bastard (which I bought, and is damn hot and delicious), Oaked Arrogant Bastard, and Double Bastard... which looked like it would be an atomic explosion in my mouth.
The sushi? I wouldn't trust it at this place... but they did have a lot of other great looking fresh seafood at the butcher counter. And the breads... lots of breads to pick from.
The entire time in the store, we were not greeted or smiled at by any employee, despite having passed and looked at a couple of 'em. Although to make up for that, there was a friendly old man (customer) walking around talking to people with babies.
The cashier didn't greet us until she was halfway through the transaction. Not cool, in my book.
But y'know... this is a neat little place that she be checked out every once in a while. I'm currently enjoying some parmesan garlic risotto (dabbed with a little Arrogant Bastard hot sauce) with some chicken cordon bleu that I picked up there.
Delicious.
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Fabulous fresh produce, always clean and well-stocked. Fantastic array of vitamins and supplements - and the nice lady who works in that section knows everything about everything on those shelves. Most of the tubs of powder protein are just a little bit more expensive than you can get on like, vitacost.com or something, but they are still decent, with a great selection. They also have a great selection of yummy breads that are not typically found at your regular grocery store. My bf and I used to get marinated chicken breasts there all the time, till we started thinking that they don't cook up as well as the one's we had gotten at Albertsons - not as moist or tender after grilling. But still decent.
Overall, similiar to Trader Joes, but not as fussy, with much bigger aisles. Plus it's waaaay closer to me that Joes is. I grew up in the area and remember it being Stump's market - WF is a great, great replacement to that dump.
((Sidebar: I hope owner Scott Boney is able to recover from that horrible accident he had - thoughts and well wishes to him and his family. http://www.signonsandi... ))
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Excellent grocery store located in Del Cerro, I love this place because of the great beer selection. My wife is Vegan so we come here for a lot of non-dairy products and I swear to god this is the only place in town you can find key lime Tofutti ice cream sandwiches. They have a great selection of sauces and mustards which is great, including Stone Brewing Co. products. you can find anything you would want and probably a few things you never knew existed.
They also carry the full line of Earth shoes which is a plus. The staff here is courteous and will help you find whatever you need. I would place this store somewhere between Henry's/Sprouts and Jimbo's up in Del Mar. We tend to spend a little more on our grocery bill when we go here, and I'm not sure if it because the prices are a little higher or if we are just buying a bunch of crap thats not on the list because there are so many great finds here. Definitely worth checking out.
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I love Windmill Farms. I live in a house with 3 other girls and probably 50% of our diet is fruit, which can get a little pricey but Windmill has such an amazing selection and really really really good prices (that can only be beat by Costco). I will never buy a pack of strawberries from Ralph's or Von's again because i will twice as many at half the price if i go to windmill. granted you will need to make two trips because windmill doesn't have a great selection of most general foods (everything is organic, and some things just aren't meant to be organic ha ha). Also, if you're planning on making a dinner (romantic or not) they have a really really good meat market type thingy that's already marinated and will last awhile if you need it to. And if you need something even quicker, they have a sandwhich station that some people...aka a larger majority of my friends...live and die for. Just go look around if you're bored and you'll become a windmill groupie.
Oh and if you're a student, go during the first week of every semester and if you can sing the fight song (SUDSY) you get discounts or free stuff :-) and every college student loves free stuff
I love Windmill farms for the selection of vitamins. The also have a wonderful employee names Susan that works in the vitamin department that knows her stuff and can make good recommendations!
Like Henry's, but better.
The bulk section is wonderful. I like to go here when I need enough flour or sugar for a recipe, but don't need to buy 5 lbs at once. Scoop out as much as you need and yer done. They have about everything you can imagine in bulk from baking ingrediets, to beans, to nuts, to candy.....I can't think of anything not in bulk containers here. They also have every spice you can imagine same set up. Also nice when you need something like Thyme for a recipe but don't want to buy a whole bottle of it that you won't use again until it's already been in the cupboard for a couple years.
Their deli is excellent and you can get sandwiches and hot soups here as well for lunch. The Lindsey Special is one knockout of a sandwich.
It's worth heading to Del Cerro to shop here.
They lose a star because if you just want some Coke or Cherrios, good luck. Though you can find some "healthy" version of Cheerios for about a bazillion dollars a box if that's your thing.
That all being said. I'm in here 3-4 times every week.
This store is owned by Scott Boney, founder of Boney's, now known as Henry's. It's the same deal as Henry's - lots of fresh food, prepared foods, and a mix of health foods and specialty products.
It's always going down at Windmill Farms. Actually they have a decent selection of off the record beverages.
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Even though I lived at State for 2 years, I never knew about this place that was right across the freeway. I was turned onto Windmill farms by their "Lindsay Special" deli sandwich and their chocolate pretzels, which are both treats in themselves.
Prices are reasonable for almost everything (think Trader Joe's), but there are certain things that they just DON'T carry. So it's technically not "one-stop" grocery shopping.
I DON'T recommend going around 11am-2pm on the weekdays, because that's when the Seniors go. The people whose one trip out the whole entire week is THAT time/place, so they are taking their sweet freaking time. And you better believe that they are getting their money's worth when they take up TEN minutes talking to the checker (usually the only one) and writing out their check ever so slightly, dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. Just in time for everyone behind them to FREAK OUT!
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This is like Super Henry's Marketplace without the mob scene of the Hillcrest store and about twice the size. The Lindsey Special is a quality sandwich and they have a nice selection in the beer cooler. They distance themselves from Henry's by having a gourmet section of sauces, marinades and other ingredients that the average Wild Oats market does not have.
Plus, it's seldom crowded. The freewheeling queue at the sandwich counter can get a little testy if the sandwich artist gets a little behind and overwhelmed, but start swinging a baguette around and people will get out of the way. If you time your trip there correctly, it's Sample City and basically a free meal. They often have the bbq going outside so you can get tri tip sandwiches or kebabs to go.
I often will drive the extra few miles to go here over the Henrys just for all the added benefits. If they only sold my preferred toilet paper, then it'd be the only place I need to shop at.
Windmill Farms is Henry's meets Vons. This specific location is nice, organized, and airy. Everything is very easily findable. The health supplements area is fairly consequent, as well as the cosmetics and other personal care sections. The produce part is very standard and redundant with the Vons or Ralphs grocery stores 'similar sections. Their tea and spice selections are well rounded. This is a grocery destination I place slightly above Vons and largely under Whole Foods.
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They have a really excellent deli. I definitely recommend you try the sundried tomato turkey slices. Also, the Lindsey special and tastes so good on a long road trip.
Produce selection is phenom. but the real treat is the candy section because you can buy in bulk which means you can get a lot of gummy bears for really cheap.
Oh yeah, they have this olive/french bread that goes good with one of their garlic spreads.
Yummy...
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as i walked in for the first time, it caught me by surprised at how clean and airy and well clean this market is. i didn't know what to expect at first but just wanted to try it out because i saw a recycling center out front. (yeah, people here don't recycle and it bugs the hell out of me). anyway just having that recycling center out front did it for me.
anyways, i stopped by there the other day just to pick up some eggs on my way home and my was i surprised. there are so many great selections and cheeses and organic veggies and many many different kinds of dried fruits and whatnot. i was in a rush so i didn't have time to look through everything. but i walked out of this market with cage-free organic eggs, deli meat, bagels and bread. i will be returning to check out their grocery aisle. i'm sure they carry things that trader joe's doesn't have.
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this is the closest grocery store to my house, and i'm lucky it is. it offers these organic blue corn chips i can't find anywhere else, and has lots of other organic foods. i get my wheatgrass from here, which is only a dolar. at jamba juice, it costs more than that just for a shot of it, so that's a good deal. the fruit is fresh, the deli is delicious, and it's just a really good community market. the staff is really helpful, they'll teach you how to know when certian fruits and vegetables are too ripe or just right. the only problem is they don't really sell pomegranates, which is my favorite food, but oh well. and lately it seems like a lot of their fruit has been bruised, but i think it's only temporarily.
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This store is very similar to Henry's and was started by people from the same family. In the Del Cerro community across the 8 from SDSU, this market features healthy foods, fresh produce and meats, a deli, nutrional supplements, etc.
Their web site at http://www.windmillfar... has link to the weekly print ads. How cool! I wish other places did this.
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