JJ & F Food Store
Categories: Grocery, Beer, Wine & Spirits, Fruits & Veggies, Delis, Meat Shops [Edit]
520 College AvePalo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 857-0901
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 8:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Sat 8:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Sun 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street, Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
31 Reviews for JJ & F Food Store
One of JJ & F Food Store's Favorite Reviews
Great sandwich! Had the roast beef and jalapeno jack on crunchy sourdough roll and seriously, I have no complaints. Huge sando, great portion of meat, and all the trimmings to boot. Another plus: they have a sandwich card that gets you your 11th sandwich free. I will certainly be back.
A hidden gem! At least that's what I thought when I was introduced to JJ & F's delicious sandwiches. The sandwiches are huge! Also, the veggies to meat to cheese ratio is perfect! Price is fair and the employees are very friendly. If you order a turkey sandwich you have the option of choosing between several different turkey flavors such as cracked pepper, herb, salsa, etc. Their pre-made pasta salads i.e. the Asiago is TO DIE!!
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This hidden spot is a local favorite. They make great sandwiches. Ingredients are fresh and they have great portions. I love that places like this are still around and able to stay open.
Everything else is pretty mediocre here. If you don't want a sandwich the rest of the prepared food and deli are mediocre. I walk in here often without buying anything because I can't find something I am excited to eat.
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Review is only based on the deli as I never shopped at the market....
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I used to eat these sandwiches like 3 times a week my senior year at Stanford. Most of my friends got hooked on them (except for the Cheese House faithful whom I will never relate to). Sandwiches are HUGE and usually make for a great post class / pre-nap lunch.
Ingredients are fresh and if your'e a dutch crunch fan, that's a must have. My personal favorite is the oven roasted turkey on dutch crunch with everything on it plus cranberry.
Note: Pick up a sandwich card the first time you're there and always remember to get it stamped. After 8 sandwiches you get a free one.
ALL other Dutch Crunch rolls must bow down to JJ & F's deli-section Dutch Crunch rolls. I don't know how "Dutch" they are (why are they called "Dutch Crunch" in the first place? What do they do to the top to make it look that way? Is that the "Dutch" or the "Crunch" part? I have typed "Dutch Crunch" so many times it now looks, and sounds, wrong.)
Bar none, they are the perfect taste and textural manifestation of a Dutch Crunch sandwich roll
Say it, "Dutch Crunch". You know you want it
Periodically, I find myself at one of several of our clients in Palo Alto and JJ & F is one of my favorite lunch spots as well as being mighty convenient to pick up a few sundry items when I'm about to head back to SF. It's a small, jam-packed store with a surprisingly wide selection of produce, groceries and sundries. Not the cheapest, but very friendly (many customers are greeted by name) and it's (yay!) independent.
In the deli, there is a huge selection of very good meats, cheeses and other sandwich fixings as well as other pre-made lunch selections and salads. They usually have a couple of soups.
The deli is great and the guys that work behind the counter are very nice, efficient and as fast as they can be. This place can get very busy at lunch, so my best advice is to call-in your order for pick-up.
Whisper it, "Dutch Crunch".
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Big fat sandwiches with top notch bread and generous helping of meat that would make Subway weep with envy. I've had their sandwiches more than a few times (pepper turkey with sourdough roll, provolone cheese and pepperoncini) and I don't even know where JJ is located - all I know is my administrative assistant, who is always nice enough to bring in the sandwiches for me whenever I don't have the luxury of a full hour for lunch, swears by it.
And so do I.
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The veggie sandwich at JJs was double the size of that from Simply Sandwich, and was tastier than the turkey from Max's. Come to think of it though, it's more like a cheese sandwich...they put three slices!!! But cheese is a good fat right? So rock on, JJs....so far you are my favorite sandwich shop in Paly next to Driftwood.
Update 4/29/2008:
They are downgraded from 4 star to 3 star. I ordered the veggie again specifying no onions and no mustard. These two items I absolutely cannot eat. I bring it back to my office and it is SMOOTHERED in mustard on both sides of the bread! I tried scraping it off. I took a few bites and thought, Jenny, you can eat mustard. Ate two bites and I knew it was a lost cause. I was on a tight timeline today or else I will go back and complain....so I took the non-mustard infesting parts of my veggie sandwish and put it on a plate...and woohoo, I had a salad. I'm totally no being a B!#@$. I would understand if it was a mad lunch rush, but I went at 11am, and there were more workers than there were customers....
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I do like the independent, family-owned nature of this market and it's location is very convenient off El Camino, but it just wasn't that appealing to me. I walked in and it had the stench of old meat and the place itself is very cramped. I didn't get to try the deli as many others have recommended. The bakery area had tons of different packaged cookies and cakes from local bakeries. They were friendly as a stock person say hello to me.
Bottom line: Not bad, but think I'll stick with Mollie Stones for overall groceries. I may come back and check out their sandwiches.
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Honestly, JJ&F (JJ's as my friends and I call it) makes the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. Let me explain how much I love them:
I grew up on JJ's sandwiches, I even played on the JJ&F baseball team in first grade. But when I left California to go to school in Philadelphia, I left JJ's behind. So when I learned my friend was visiting Stanford for two days, I talked her into bringing me back a sandwich, 3000 miles, to Philadelphia. My sister bought it and dropped it off, and 10 hours later I was eating my favorite sandwich, but back in Philly.
The sandwiches are just that good. (Though it's usually best to eat them within 2 hours, not 10).
If you order a turkey sandwich, be sure to get "oven roasted" not regular meat. And ask for "the spread," a great combination of mustard and mayonaise (or something) that tastes like neither.
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Do yourself a favor and get a roast pork sandwich with jack cheese on a soft seeded roll with all the fixings except sprouts and pepperocinis at JJ&F. You'll be less of a clueless tomfool for it.
JJ&F was my go-to sandwich place when I lived in the neighborhood years ago. While I've tried the delis at Mollie Stone's and Draegers Market, JJ&F's remains my favorite, offering sandwiches bulging with deli meat deftly crafted by conscientious artisans. I've recently branched out and had some of their other deli counter options. The tamales and barbecue pulled pork are quite good. The over-sized empanadas, however, are exceptional; I highly recommend them. (The piroshkis, I must say, I did not enjoy.) I also have come to prefer the fresh bagels that they offer, which are boiled and baked, not steamed, and delivered daily from the House of Bagels (http://www.yelp.com/bi...).
My experience with the store outside of the meat & deli area is limited but has been nothing less than satisfying. I've found that the butchers, deli staff, and checkout clerks all exhibit a vintage geniality that one might have thought had gone the way of drive-ins and hula-hoops. The inventory is narrow but carefully chosen, positioning the store somewhere between modest corner market and extravagant gourmet grocery store.
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Bomb sandwiches! Although I probably wouldn't choose JJ&F for a sandwich on a regular basis, I do, once in a while crave their roast beef on dark rye...SOOOOOO good!
I just have to make sure that I have dental floss with me, because the roast beef gets stuck in my teeth!
Since it is a grocery store, they also sell food items, but it is small, so unless you just need to pick up a quick thing or two, I would not recommend doing weekly shopping here. It is basically a good place to grab some food for a picnic or lunch!
Pretty overpriced stuff. I don't like to shop here because I always get tempted by the butcher/deli area and that is definitely over priced. I know shopping at independent stores ought to be good for the community and all, but since I can get to Safeway, I'd rather pay market price (instead of a mark up) for my groceries.
Excelent sandwiches. The meat, cheeses, bread, and veges are all fresh. Reminds me of a good NY deli. Don't forget your sandwich card!
I like going to JJ & F Food. I like the sandwiches. I'll be back.
Really nice non-chain store. Prices are a bit high, but carry nice stuff. Prepared food and chicken are good, never gotten sandwhiches there, could be good, don't know. Produce varies, sometimes questionable, sometimes excellent. As Borat would say, Very Nice!
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This family-owned grocery store is located at the edge of the College Terrace neighborhood and about two blocks from Escondido Village. The employees are very friendly and helpful.
The produce is fresh and generally cheaper than Safeway and has an excellent selection of wines and cheeses. The meat counter is awesome...I hear they butcher their own meat so it's nice and fresh.
The grocery items are usually only sold in small quantities and are more expensive than Safeway, but very convenient for forgotten items at the last minute.
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I still remember the first time I ordered a sandwich here. It was a turkey on wheat with every-thang (my default selection when venturing into uncharted delis) and my initial reaction was "uh oh, not good" when the guy behind the counter laid two Safeway Select-sized pieces of generic wheat bread on the plastic cutting board. What ended up between the two slices was anything but disappointing. The motto for J&J's sandwiches should be what we lack in "sandwich" we make up for in "meat." I've been to J&J's enough to fill up two sandwich cards now and the meat to non-meat ratio of their sandwiches has always been around 4 to 1. "Every thang" at J&J's includes mayo, mstrd, alfalfa, pickles, onions, banana peppers, one token slice of lettuce and one or two slices of tomato depending on who's working behind the counter. Even though the finished product tastes no better than what I could probably make at home, I'll stop going to J&J's when my conscience allows me to stack an entire Butterball on the 3x3 squares I have in my breadbin. Until that day comes, I'll gladly drop $7 for my disproportionate meat on wheat.
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It should be 6 stars!! I've been shopping here for as long as I can remember. One of the only independently run grocery stores on the peninsula with impeccable service and the best selection of meat, fish, and poultry. Who needs Andronico's when you can have JJ & F?
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JJ&F's got strong points where it counts. It's got a great produce section and butcher counter: better quality and prices than any large chain grocery store around here. The bread variety is great too, especially for a store their size. They also have a pretty amazing wine variety for a little neighborhood market.
It's also got a great atmosphere. There's something a little urban about it even though it's in the 'burbs.
Their dry goods, alcohol, and dairy items are priced a little high, but not at the rip-off level of a convenience store, and I'm willing to pay the small additional fare for the ability to walk there.
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I just love this grocery store so much that I needed to give it a second 5-star review. While the hours are not always the most convenient, the store actually makes grocery shopping enjoyable. The place is never crowded, the selection of cheeses are amazing, the produce is so fresh (and so cheap!), and there is nothing overwhelming about this shop. It's the best of all worlds with good variety and selection, more reasonable prices (especially on the fresh stuff), and a comfortable environment.
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Fantastic deli. The prices for the regular stuff are high but not worse than draegers, molly stone's, etc. But the sandwiches are fantastic and unbeatable for the price.
update: 1/16/2007
On sunday I got a horrible sandwich here, when I broght it home the roast pork was ice cold, literally near frozen( despite asking for it hot), the peperoncini were missing, and the paper was still on the jack cheese so when I bit in I got a rude surprise.
being the picky guy that I am I called in and mentioned it to them. Gustavo appologized and explained it was because the butcher counter guy was working the sandwich counter and he wasn't used to making sandwiches, and he offered to remake my sandwich AND give me a free one. I had already salvaged the sandwich so I just took them up on the freebie today, I got a lox sandwich on an onion roll with onions tomatoes peperoncini and cream cheese and it was delicious. My faith in JJ&F is completely restored
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Their sandwich bar rocks! Where else can I get a roasted pork sandwich on a Dutch crunch roll with brown mustard and not have to deal with a snotty waiter? Their list of sandwich meats and fixings will give the indecisive indigestion before they even start to eat. The combinations aren't endless but they feel that way went people are waiting for you to order. Word of caution - don't pull a number before you're ready to order or you should expect "Soup Nazi" worthy scorn.
Not into sandwiches? Their prepared food area is right there as well, providing a huge selection of meatballs and rotisserie chicken among other things. Make sure to try the empanadas!
This place is surprisingly good. They have good produce, a good meat department, cheese, wine, bread. I wish they had a better sandwich board and were open a bit later, but the people are friendly and they sell a good range of groceries--including a decent 'ethnic' section.
every time i went by the deli with my mother when i was a kid, they gave me a free piece of cheese.
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Sorry, my produce wasn't fresh, and I found the dry goods to be priced a little high. I think this place is best for the butcher section, but I find the rest of the store unimpressive. Biggest selling point: Closest grocery store to Stanford campus.
To be honest, I have only been here because of its proximity to my office and I have only had their sandwiches. That said, their sandwiches are great, and they use great quality meats, cheeses, condiments and their staff is friendly - even the checker! One can be certain that if I am in the area, and in the mood for a sandwich, I will be going here.
best place for deli sandwiches!
grande portions, nice staff, and conveniently located. A+
Overpriced produce but great sandwiches, bread and deli meats. Great service, too.
If there was ever a place for roast beef sandwhiches, this is it folks. They use Boar's Head meat and keep your roast beef rare for you. Its a mom-n-pops store that doesn't skimp on quality. Cant go wrong with that!
kind of expensive, but their produce is super good. their portabello mushrooms are an entirely different experience from the shrink-wrapped ones at safeway. cheeses are great. bakery items are great.
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Update: They're closing while the landlord is remodeling the space, and apparently the lease is still under negotiation. The girl at the register told me they'll be closed for at least a year... I'm going to be really sad.
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Great place to go for knick knacks.! Highly recommended
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