Nugget Market

I don't live in Murieta, but I am a friend of Matt's and he asked me to post my review of the nugget market.

Ok, this is not exactly a restaurant but they do serve fresh made sandwiches, pizza's, soups, salads, and other hot foods that can be enjoyed in a second floor area with a beverage... so I decided to post this review of The Nugget Market




The Nugget Market
http://www.nuggetmarket.com/

A new market opened in El Dorado Hills called The Nugget that is really worth checking out.

Located off hwy 50 and Latrobe Road at 4500 Post Street, El Dorado Hills, Phone (916) 933-1433, you’ll find The Nugget Market somewhat near the EDH Theaters.

Normally I could care less about a new market in town (or in this case outside of town) , but this place has been getting serious kudos for a long time for the locations in Sacramento, so my wife and I decided to go see what all the hype is about… and we found out.

Hands down I have to say The Nugget Market is by far the most outstanding grocery store I’ve ever been to. As a wanna-be chef, I found myself in culinary nirvana with all the fine foods of every kind of variety that they had to offer. The store was really well designed and laid out very nice, when you walk in there is a cornucopia of items and departments before your eyes. To start right off, there was a cheese station that had over 350 cheeses of every imaginable kind. I like a good cheese and they really have an outstanding selection of cheeses from all over the globe.



One of the many things I found I liked about this market was the way they display their food products , in some cases it was almost like looking at art



There is a food court called The Kitchen Area, which has a coffee and juice bar, a bakery with incredible bagels, breads, pastries. There is also a sandwich shop, a Pizzeria, a section with hot food such as soups, Chinese food and more. There was a deli’s entrees section and even a sushi place, and everything everywhere appeared to be very fresh and smelled fantastic.

I really enjoyed a section they had with outstanding fresh made varieties of mixes, dips and more, such as hummus, olive tapenade, salsa’s, pesto’s and so many different and unique flavors I’d not seen mixed before. We got some hummus and a Sicilian olive tapenade….I want to go back and try out a lot more of this stuff.

In the middle of the store is the standard grocery aisles, we found it was really nice that they had so many different varieties of some items. For example, the great selection of tea. They must have had over fifty different types of unique and interesting teas – they even had white tea and some brands with interesting ways the tea bags, that I’d never seen these before. We got some black tea that comes in a bag that you pour the hot water thru instead of setting into the tea, it’s got some very good flavors (we had a few cups when we got home).

The next amazing thing we came across was the beef section – it was unbelievable, so many really good fresh cuts of all kinds – from Harris Ranch and Porter Ranch. There was even a representative from Harris ranch giving out some samples of their steak and sausages that he was cooking right there – that was great tasting beef, good stuff and what a great item to offer for samples. We later got some pepper and garlic sausages that I can’t wait to try!

There was the butcher and fish market that was an experience unto itself, such an amazing display of meats and the fish display was the best I’ve ever seen around, with so many very good very fresh looking fish varieties from all over. Check out the photo.



Can it get any better than this? Yes it can, I looked up to see the wine section and my jaw just about hit the floor.. They have such a very large selection of great wines from all over the world. They even had sections setup for our local wines from Apple Hill, Fairplay, Amador, Napa and more. There were two guys working there who I can only describe as wine experts, it was a pleasure talking to one and learning a few things and finding that they had some really good wines, needless to say we picked up a few bottles. There prices were pretty good, some were expensive and some were cheap, its on par with the same prices at Savemart (formerly Albertsons) and the like.



Last was the produce section – this area of the market was practically like going to an art show, the way all the fresh produce was setup, the colors, the patterns, the items on ice, it was really neat to see. Best of all, it was the most diverse and freshest produce I’ve ever seen in a local market here (other than the Sunday farmers market). There were so many incredible varieties of produce… and although some were expensive, many others were priced pretty well. We picked up some asparagus (1.88/lb), yellow tomatoes and a couple varieties of lettuce.







Another unique thing about the Nugget Market is that staff is truly outstanding, there were employees everywhere offering help, guiding to people to the things they were looking for, and often asking if they could help you with anything out of the blue. Their level of enthusiasm was truly impressive, they must really like working there because it showed in their work and that was a nice touch on top of the place having such a great variety of outstanding high quality foods.

The Nugget Market is a really nice place, one that I’d recommend, but bottom-line, we will continue to do the majority of our shopping at Winco, Savemart and Trader Joes. For us The Nugget Market will be a place that will supplement our regular grocery stores, we’ll go there now and then to get some of the incredible quality beef, fish, produce and oh yeah…… the vino.

To summarize, I have to say this was more of an experience then it was a grocery shopping trip. It’s really something to see, but then again, maybe I’m just a food geek.