Essene Market & Café

Love this store! Great produce…and can pick up a stalk or 2 of whatever as needed💥
In the middle of cooking, I’ve called ahead to see if they have a forgotten ingredient and run right over. VIP store in QV🏆

Wonderful macrobiotic hot bar. Great heathfoods store. They also have bulk spices.

Everyone working here is kind, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable! Really great if you are in a bind and need some snacks, need a variety of vitamin options, or natural skin care products.

So glad Essene exists! Not only do they sell fresh organic produce, prepared foods, and special diet-friendly goods, they also sell vitamins and other health-conscious items. Think Whole Foods but around 1/4 the size and independently owned. I also like that they have a good selection of cold bottled drinks (lightly sweetened Honest iced teas) that I can stop in and buy if I'm in the neighborhood and craving something slightly healthier than a Monster Energy drink. Keep doing what you're doing, Essene, because all the Queen Village organic lovers are onto it!

I was visiting Philadelphia for the day, and in typical fashion I try to find local coffee and a local grocery when I’m in a new city. I ended up at Essene and it exceeded expectations. Everyone was really nice, which I take rather seriously, for a young person, when I go somewhere with the intentions of spending money. The variety of products, supplements, and ready to eat food was amazing too. I highly recommend swinging through for just about whatever, but particularly if you’re health conscious/like to support cool companies with cool ethics.
Also, don’t know which manager it was, (he had a great beard.) But this guy was super friendly and funny and made my day. Cheers

Essence has everything I’ve ever been looking for when cooking macrobiotically. They also have a wonderful section devoted to cooking/eating tools. I bought a knife at Essence over twenty years ago and I still use it every day. It’s my go to knife and I use it for everything, chopping, slicing, dicing, etc......

Love the natural food selection. Their buffet style foods are really delicious too. Their bakery also has a great selection both for vegans and non-vegans.

I love this place. Although I live on the other side of town, I go to Essene at least once a week. The vegetarian buffet is amazing. I used to love Whole Foods´s buffet, but it pales in comparison to Essene´s. The ingredients Essene uses are much healthier than Whole Foods. The staff is very helpful and friendly. The café area is very nice; again, much nicer than Whole Foods. Not to diss Whole Foods (I like Whole Foods a lot and do much of my shopping there). But, Essene is better, IMO; it has more character, has a lot of great products that Whole Foods doesn´t have, etc. I have only good things to say about this place. Every time I´m there I discover a new delicious something.

My favorite holistic grocery store in Philadelphia.. opened in 1969.. totally worth the trip!! I buy my raw cow milk there, fresh from Lancaster County, PA.

Great little market with tons of vegan options!!!

Cute local grocery with all you need plus healthy snacks and fresh produce. I am always impressed with their ready-to-go food too. Love it here.

Great place if your a health nut. They have a vitamin section as well as a steam room for picking food ready to eat. Bigger than it looks and fair prices.

The store offers unique, hard-to-find vegan options curated from only reliable brands not made in countries with questionable standards and practices. The aged miso is superior to whole foods. Zev's hummus is superior to any brands at Whole foods and is actually the best tasting hummus rated in philly outside of dizengoff israeli restaurant. The amazake and other drinks cannot be found at whole foods. The organic corn cakes, single-ingredient millet cereal, are not found in whole foods. The milk's expiration date is typically further out into the future, than whole foods. The buffet with an interesting Korean twist (bi him bop bowls, scallion pancakes, jap chae noodles, Kimchi) but with a vegan authenticity retained. The selection is small, and none of this is to say you will never need to shop anywhere else, but there are reasons to come here, and those reasons cannot be interchanged by shopping elsewhere. Finally, they offer free lectures in the back room on healthy eating.

They have an excellent selection of organic and non-GMO products! Really cool place wish I had one near me.

In love with this place. Good prices and a wide variety of food to supplements. Exactly what I was looking for as a vegan.

Best selection of organic produce. Yummy healthy foods. Love it!
Been to great lectures here as well.

Excellent quality of goods and selection. Prepared goods are to die for. The original health food store and still the city's best.

Excellent organic food selection. I was immediately drawn to the coffee beans. Nice honey selection.

This is a gem in queen village,the staff is friendly and the food is healthy.i like to support small independent business's and consider this market to be good value.

Love to go on a vegan and vegetarian tour in this store plus you can eat in the back, go to the bathroom, and look over their book selection.