Southdown Marketplace - West Islip, NY — Attraction in Town of Islip

As a regular customer of Southdown Market, I've always appreciated the convenience of having a local store close to my home. Unfortunately, my recent experience has left me deeply disappointed and concerned for the safety of others. Last weekend, I purchased a premade sandwich labeled as "Chicken Cutlet Mozzarella" to enjoy with my family at the beach. On the back of the packaging, the ingredients list mentioned basil pesto in small print. Being severely allergic to nuts, I immediately called Southdown Market to clarify whether their pesto contained pine nuts.

Despite my efforts, the Southdown Market location I called did not answer the phone. I then reached out to the Smithtown location, where the staff was extremely helpful and assured me that their pesto did not contain pine nuts. However, they also informed me that they would contact the West Islip location to confirm. To my shock, I discovered that the West Islip Southdown Market does use pine nuts in their pesto. Nowhere on the ingredients list was there any mention of nuts, which is a serious oversight considering the potentially life-threatening nature of allergies.

When I visited the store today to address this issue, I found that the ingredients list had not been updated to include the presence of pine nuts, as I was previously told it would be. The manager I spoke with was incredibly dismissive and insensitive to the severity of my concern, even going so far as to laugh and sarcastically ask, "Have you ever had pesto?" This response felt like a slap in the face, given the seriousness of my allergy.

As a result of this alarming experience, I can no longer trust Southdown Market to provide safe and accurate product information. I will not be supporting this business in the future, and I strongly urge anyone with food allergies to exercise caution if considering shopping here. Safety and transparency should be a top priority for any food establishment, and Southdown Market has failed on...

Loved Southdown when they first opened and the months following. However my wife and I have experienced a steady decline in a couple of areas past few months. Especially their vegetables, lettuce and some chicken on skewers. Mold appearing a few times on newly purchased oranges and most recently the vine tomato’s. We shared our disappointment with their team and management prior. Where I come from that’s what you do, you give one another a chance to fix. However for what ever reason the decline continues in my opinion. Maybe it’s where they getting their product, possibly some on site storage issues or some are not examining properly prior to placing product out. Have to share they definitely have some of the most courteous and helpful team members whom are always willing to step up. Southdown for me is also extremely convenient to get to. It’s a shame this is happening. The other day I noticed as I left in my vehicle that their back door was opened and (what appeared to be, not positive) fruit boxes on shelves. They also had oranges and apples in wood cart in front photo take. Maybe temperature issues etc I don’t know but something is up. Wish them the best will give a few months and head...

Holy Moldy this place...

Being from Huntington, I'm very familiar with Southdown Marketplace - the original. Having a BBQ to visit on the south shore I figured I'd stop in to their new location for some salads to bring.

The store is setup so the bakery and deli departments are when you walk in, fresh produce on the other side of the front and 7 rows in the back with the refrigeration units along the walls.

The A/C is not properly configured so everything in those 7 rows that can grow mold, does. It was absolutely disgusting seeing condensation on jars in even the most inner rows. It makes you wonder how long your fresh produce is going to last.

What was particularly odd, is with COVID-19; everywhere you go, near the entrance is some form of hand sanitizer. Here there is a push jar by the entrance door that I used, but it's filled with soap and no sink to wash it off until you visit the pizza place next door. Not a single wipe to be found in the store. So I was forced to walk around with dried soap on my hands the entire time.

As the other reviewers mentioned, this place is expensive. And I knew that going in. But this is not worth...