Tag: safeway (Page 1 of 6)

Safeway is a super market chain operating in Northern California under that name and in Southern California under the name Vons. From time to time it buys other chains or is itself acquired by others. It’s hard to keep up. It’s the closest full size supermarket to my house, and the only one that does pick-up/delivery without a third party, so it’s where I do most of my shopping.

Safeway Tri Tip Steak is not what’s depicted

October 9, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

Tri-tip, that so-very California cut, was on sale at Safeway last week. It was $7/lb for the untrimmed roast and $10/lb for the steaks (down from $19/lb regular price). Last time I got the roast, it has almost as much fat as meat, so I decided to give the steaks a try this time. In the photo on their website, the steaks looked trimmed. I had bought this cut before in the past, and had worked quite well.

Alas, instead of getting three trimmed tri-tip steaks, I got a bunch of untrimmed smaller steaks. Here is the picture of just one:

I did trim them before grilling them, but the flavor was also sort of off – not as having gone bad, but just not having the great flavor that tri-tip usually has. I’m not an expert on beef, but I wonder if Safeway is getting worse quality meat to be able to put it on sale. The problem is that not knowing whether this is the case, makes me feel reluctant to buy it at regular price as well.

Now, don’t get me wrong, in these times when beef is so astronomically expensive, I very much appreciate Safeway’s sale prices, which I suspect may be loss leaders – but I also want to get what I think I’m ordering.

Signature Select French Onion Soup is a No for me

October 9, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

Lacks onions

I’m not a huge soup lover, but Safeway deli soups can be a quick and fairly tasty meal, particularly in winter. These soups were on sale a couple of weeks ago ($5, from $9 regular price), so I tried the French Onion soup, which I hadn’t tried before. I was disappointed.

The soup, which doesn’t come with cheese or croutons (understandably), has too high a ratio of broth to onions. The onion slices are cut into short pieces, which I didn’t realize would so interfere with the texture of the sauce. The flavor was just OK, it was a bit too bitter, and it didn’t feel like the onions had been caramelized at all. In all, though I love French Onion soup, I wouldn’t buy this one again.

Safeway’s “Farmstyle” Bread is Moldy

October 8, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

Orowheat Buttermilk Bread is Good

I was looking for the sliced bread with the thinnest slices to make alitos when I came across this Bakery Famous Bake Farmstyle Bread at Safeway. It is unsliced, which meant I had, at least, the possibility of slicing it thinner than regular sandwich bread. I also liked the idea of actually getting fresh sandwich bread. When I was a kid, my aunt Gladys would buy a loaf of fresh sandwich bread, along with one of rye bread for my granny, and this brought me back to those days.

I did read the reviews and several mentioned this item came hard or expired, but I figured I’d take my chances. I shouldn’t have. I order my groceries online and the loaf of bread they selected expired the same day I placed my order. Within a couple of days it was moldy all over.

I should have listened to the reviews

Still needing bread for the sandwiches, I sent my husband to Grocery Outlet (the closest store to my house, and usually less busy than Safeway) and he brought me some Oroweat Buttermilk bread. While it wasn’t the ideal bread for these sandwiches, the bread itself was tasty enough and, most importantly, it was free of mold.

Safeway Tamales are All Right

September 22, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

Good Meat to Masa Ratio

Safeway had their deli tamales on sale this week for $1.66 (regularly $2.50), so I decided to give them a try. I ordered the shredded pork tamal(e) and I was actually quite happy with it. There are two things I want in a tamal: a good tasting, not too spicy filling, and a good filling to masa ratio. The latter means that there should be more filling than masa, rather than vice versa. This tamal fulfilled both of my requirements. Indeed, the ratio was close to perfect.

I had a similar positive experience with Trader Joe’s frozen tamales last week. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the fresh tamales we occasionally buy at the farmer’s market, which have much more masa than filling.

There we no instructions on how to reheat this (refrigerated) tamal, so I microwaved it for 1 minute in the corn wrapping. That worked well enough.

I feel that even in this economy, paying $3 for a supermarket tamal is ridiculous (though you can buy 4 for $10) – that’s the farmer market’s/homemade price – but I’ll definitely buy them again when on sale.

Safeway Boneless Chicken Thighs disappoint

September 19, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

Last week, Safeway had Signature Select boneless, skinless chicken thighs on sale for $3/lb – down from the $6.50 regular price. Given how expensive groceries are now, I figured I’d give them a try. I was less than happy.

The thighs are HUGE. I’m afraid to imagine how big those chickens have to be to have such big thighs. And they are also extremely fatty. There are now laws in California that force chicken farmers to give chickens a minimum amount of space and access to the outdoors, but I can’t imagine these chickens have ever gotten any exercise. For that reason alone, I’m unlikely to buy Safeway chicken again.

On the plus side, I was able to cut the thighs into nicely sized cubes for Madura-style satay, and the chicken was quite tender.

Safeway’s Top Sirloin Roast is really Sirloin Cap (Picanha)

August 5, 2026 / marga / 2 Comments

Great and cheap cut made famous by Brazilians

Top Sirloin roast was on sale this week at Safeway this week, for just $7/lb, and I ordered one with a couple of dishes in mind (Beef Stroganoff and Cambodian beef sticks). What I got was sirloin cap. This is, indeed, part of the top sirloin, a triangular cut with a thick layer of fat on top – which Safeway nicely trimmed (though I had to trim it away for my uses).

This cut is prized in Brazil as picanha and has become popular in the US in recent years, as other once cheap cuts that could be used for steaks have become too expensive for regular use. I have no doubt that the same will happen to sirloin cap.

I will try making an actual roast next time it goes on sale, but for the time being I can say that the cut worked well for grilling as thin strips – it was tender but with a nice grain/pull -, but it failed as cubes for the stroganoff. I’m not surprised as sirloin in general tends to acquire a dusty texture when cooked wet. It might work if I’d cut it into thin slices here as well.

A word on Thai chilies at Safeway

July 1, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

One name, two types

Chile peppers originated in South America, but they spread throughout the world pretty much as soon as the Europeans and Portuguese got a hold of them. There are 22 species of wild peppers and 5 domesticated ones, but within those five there are thousands of varieties, with differing amounts of of sweetness, fruitiness and spiciness. Most of us, however, have access to only a handful of fresh peppers – those of the varieties most commonly grown where we live – and only a handful more of dry peppers. This means, that when we cook dishes from other countries and regions that call for peppers, figuring out what local pepper to substitute is a challenge.

One common pepper that shows up in Luso cuisines, those from countries once colonized by Portugal, are peri peri peppers. Also known as piri piri or African Bird’s Eye, these are cultivars of Capsicum frutescens. They are young, small and very hot but still red peppers, that will apparently develop into Malagueta peppers as they grow. They particularly prized in Africa and used in many dishes directly or as peri peri sauce. While you can get the sauce in many places in America, including Trader Joe’s, which imports it from South Africa, getting the pepper itself is much harder.

One suggested alternative for recipes that call for peri peri peppers are Bird’s eye chiles, aka Prik Kee Noo, an Asian chili which is also small and very hot. It’s used prominently in South East Asian cuisine. Indeed, peri peri peppers are supposed to be a subcategory of bird’s eye chiles. In America, bird’s eye peppers are often called Thai peppers. And, indeed, if you order green Thai peppers at Safeway (or at least my Safeway), that is what you usually get. Now, red Thai peppers are simply the ripe stage of Thai peppers, so they are usually larger and less spicy than the green kind. But at Safeway, the red Thai peppers they sell are actually Thai spur chilies. Now bird’s eye chiles and Thai spur chilies are both species of Capsicum annuum – as are bell peppers -, but the latter is much larger and less spicy than the former, which makes it not really a suitable alternative for peri peri peppers. It looks easy enough to get dried red bird’s eye peppers, and it might be possible to get fresh ones from Facebook Marketplace or Asian supermarkets. Or, I guess, to just use green ones.

Celentano frozen ravioli review

April 19, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

Pretty tasty

Frozen ravioli have long been a savior for busy moms – and just regular people. They are easy (though a bit bulky) to keep in the freezer, quick enough to make, and, combined with store-bought sauce, a super easy weeknight meal. I’m going through yet another cooking strike, so frozen ravioli have reappeared in our lives.

I’ve been buying Celentano frozen ravioli quite a bit lately because they are often on sale at Safeway ($4-5 for 20-24 oz, from a $8 purported regular price), and at that price they are cheaper than Safeway’s own brand. Safeway only carries the cheese, spinach & cheese and beef ravioli, so they are they only ones we tried.

They are pretty good, not dramatically different in taste than other brands. My daughters don’t like the spinach & cheese flavor, but they are happy enough with the cheese ones. These come in both regular and “mini” version, the latter are easier to eat. The regular sized ravioli are too large to eat with one bite, so you need to cut them in two, though you can accomplish this with a fork if you cook them past al dente (which I do). Like other raviolis, if you do this they tend to open in the boiling water and the filling comes out.

The beef ravioli have a subtle flavor, as is often the case in ravioli, but not really different than Safeway’s own brand. There is enough flavor to eat them with butter and cheese instead of sauce.

In all, if you are watching your pennies, there is no particular reason to not buy this brand versus other regular frozen ravioli brands – obviously they are not as good at Genova ravioli, my favorite brand, but they are about 1/3 the price.

Is the Safeway hold music meant to drive you nuts?

March 28, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

The saga of getting a refund

I just had to call Safeway – again. Last week I ordered, among other items, grapes and lamb chops. I tried the grapes right away, and while they were very tasty, they were clearly on their way out – some already inedible. So I filed for a refund online.

A couple of days later, I opened the lamb to cook them – only to find that some of the chops were unquestionably rotten. They smell so bad, even the dog was offended. As I had already requested the refund for the grapes online, I had to call to get the refund for the lamb. That time, the call was answer quickly but the connection to the foreign customer service was quite choppy. Still, I thought they had approved the refund and that was that.

Six days later, I still hadn’t received it so I called back today. After wasting my time with the AI, I was put on hold while connecting to a customer representative. And god, they have the worst hold music I can imagine. I’m the exact opposite of a music connoisseur, but this made me think of 70’s psychedelic music. The main element was a loud drum that forced me to turn down the volume. It was so painful that, had it been a lesser amount, I’d probably would have hang out.

I do have to give to Safeway for their tricky way to avoid phone calls. I do wonder if bad connections and agents with thick accents are also used on purpose to disuade customers from calling.

OTOH, getting a refund online has gotten much easier – though now I’ve learned that I should wait to check on the status of any perishable before requesting a refund for any originally missing or spoiled items.

Signature Farms Apple Cider With Honey Crisp Apples Review

January 19, 2026 / marga / 0 Comments

The bottle fooled me: this is just a generic apple juice

In a recent post, I raved about Amazon Grocery apple cider, which tastes very similar to the fresh apple juice from the farmer’s market. But Amazon has not had it available for a while now, so I went looking for alternatives. Safeway’s Signature Farms Apple Cider With Honey Crisp Apples came in a milk-bottle look alike, rather than in the clear plastic bottles apple juice regularly comes in, and seemed to not come from concentrate, so I thought I’d give it a try – despite the fact that it listed glycolipids as preservatives.

Well, it turns out that it tastes just like the typical commercial non-filtered apple juice. It’s not bad, I prefer it to filtered apple juice, but it does not have the deliciousness of fresh apple juice.

Tag: safeway (Page 1 of 6)

Safeway Tri Tip Steak is not what’s depicted