Agata & Valentina — Attraction in New York

Edit: Relabeling dates has become the new common. Please stop. When pastries are not sold they just put a new date on top of the old one... No dates on pastries in window as well. No idea how they track how long those muffins have been there but I once made the mistake of buying a vanilla muffin, the butter topping tasted like old blue cheese!

There is good and bad at Agata, but as long as you go only for the good things you'll be fine.

Good: #1 Avocadoes - one of the rare place in New York where they set the Avocadoes by a window and turn them around so they all get ripe. It is easy there to get a ripe avocado 2 days after they set them up and I never experienced a brown one. #2 Prepared food and chicken at the window - the prepared food is good. From experience I prefer getting it fresh from the counter than prepackaged from previous days. #3 Deli dry sausage, Paté and smoked salmon - good selection #4 Cheese - good selection

Price is alright. It used to be ridiculously expensive but after Fairway arrived they mostly aligned their prices.

Bad: #1 Pastries - this is bad, although, it is supermarket pastries. Better go to a real bakery. #2 Space - even though I understand it's the only way to get as much things as possible in such a small place, it is very easily cluttered. #3 Meat - ridiculous prices. Non-competitive. #4 checkout - no space and it seems their system is...

I have a hard time giving this rating because this place is half amazing half a rip off…This place has some rare finds and if you are going for those hard to find esoteric items they have then the price is worth it I highly recommend them for fine cheeses pates those luxe items that you want to know come from a good source this is a great place to get them they are very pricey but for that this place is worth it for sure! Now on the other hand they have a far more pedestrian selection of food and it is all well prepared and this is where the 3 star rating comes in because I’ve never had anything bad here but unless you can wipe your behind with dollar bills because money is no issue thé every day stuff just basic good eats are truly good but at a price point that only makes since if you are a robber baron of the golden age at their prices for every day things, even though they’re wonderful, they better be able to wash my dishes and clean my house after I eat them because I could hire a maid and a cook on what you can spend there in a week just on basic items it’s all very good and their prices on the more Luxe items are in line with what they should be which I’m willing to pay for oysters and caviar, but for chicken salad and a cookie I’m not willing to pay oyster and caviar prices no matter how good that damn chicken salad...

I've been shopping at Agata & Valentina for a long time, but this recent incident pushed me over the edge. It's always been hit or miss and you should certainly never buy produce there late Sunday or earl Monday when they're just leaving the dregs of the weekend out hoping people will buy the low grade produce, but the false pricing I experiences was one incident too many. I was buying something at the deli counter Sunday evening around 6:00 and noticed that it was coming up on the scale at a higher price that the label in the deli counter. I pointed this out and the two idiots behind the counter argued that this was the correct price. After a lot of back and forth I finally got them to actually look at the tag they were advertising and the y told me it was a mistake. I pointed out that it didn't matter and they needed to sell it at the correct price and they should fix it. Long story short, they flat out refused to honor the advertised price, even after the guy from the fish counter came over and told them that I was right. This seems to be especially a problem with deli as the folks who used to know the job are gone and most of those left are utterly incompetent. Watch yourself there, because items don't always ring up for the price they are advertised. This is not the first time something like this...