Tesco Stroud Green - poor hygiene

Pembe

I just read that the Tescos in Finsbury Park got disturbingly low hygiene ratings when recently inspected. I'm interested to know, where do SG.orgers do their shopping?

gardener-joe

...

grenners

Tesco Stroud green for baby products, Tesco nappies are great. Ocado for a delivery. Topped up with things forgotten from Londis and some nice veg or meat from butchers and grocers in crouch end......

HolbornFox

I tend to walk down peaceful Sussex Way to Morrisons or Iceland (the shame).

This is not always followed by a menage a toi with The Enkel, The Swimmers and The Landseer on the way back.

Ali

Try this
http://ratings.food.gov.uk/business/416882

Scruffy

You "just read" it without saying where, @Pembe ?

A less trusting person might suspect you're just trolling or trying to generate anti-Tesco feeling (hardly a challenge).

So, what IS your source, hm?

Pembe

Keep your hair on Scruffy. The hygiene rating was from the FSA inspection earlier this year. It made me feel a bit ill and I've been meaning to ask where people shop as I find the SG veg shop good but so expensive so I hoped to unearth some local knowledge about shops to look out for. The two together motivated this post.

Ali

The inspection was on the 30th January. I wonder what they have done to improve the situation

Scruffy

@Pembe , you're assuming I have hair to keep on in the first place.

I use Tesco because it's close, mainly for pre-packaged goods and the odd bit of produce (never anything from the bakery, and I wouldn't use their deli counter if they had one), which I imagine is pretty safe under these reported hygiene circumstances. I prefer to go to Co-Op in Crouch End, and if there's anything they don't have that I need, I grudgingly go a few doors down to Waitrose.

Tesco, SG, are in my bad books: they ran out of Guinness yesterday!

Clock Tower Store in Crouch End (would you believe, facing the Clock Tower) has good produce, as do many of the (probably cheaper) shops along the Harringay stretch of Green Lanes. Some of those Green Lane Shops look small because they have narrow fronts, but they can go back a long way and have a dazzling range of groceries (I'd never seen so many different kinds of olive!) One particular shop on GL (can't remember the name) has lots of low-priced but decent quality dry pasta (Barilla) right at the back, and they do a few Italian cheeses too.

Expensive, but reliably consistent; I don't think you can beat M&S (Crouch End Hill) for excellent salad tomatoes.

Ali

Lots of other places around here doing badly.

http://ratings.food.gov.uk/enhanced-search/en-GB/^/n4/desc_alpha/0/^/LessThanOrEqual2/1/1/10

They should be made to display this on the front door bet standards would go up

Scruffy

Thanks, @Ali . It was interesting to change the parameters and see all the listings, good and bad. What surprised me the most was Kee Foods on SGR getting 5 out of 5. Every time I pass their open door, there's a really foul smell coming from inside. Difficult to believe it's hygienic.

HolbornFox

@Scruffy if shitco run out of black gold in the future do yourself a favour and get 3 Etrella for a fiver, it's fabulous.

I've had to stop buying it as it's just too moreish, nearly as bad as my ruby port obsession...

-noodles-

this is fascinating - pleased to see SGR stalwarts pappagone & petek scoring highly - firm
favorites in our house.
few shockers too - particularly wb yates.
i've used tesco for years for top-up shops, but hate going due to its general untidiness & leaky fridges. think this is the final nail in the coffin for me.

TheMimsy

I was under the impression that Tesco had greatly improved, surely in terms of customer service, stock (eg gluten free range, ethnic foods, etc). Sorry to hear hygiene is poor...

trainspotter

I get an online delivery from Sainsburys about once every 3 weeks for tins, cleaning products, nappies etc. Then I do my meat shopping largely at Baldwins on Green Lanes, fruit and veg from Yassar Halim (also Green lanes) or the fab stall by Finsbury Park station that sells things in bowls for £1. Fish I get from Walter Purkis in Crouch End and SoleShare who deliver to the Deli@80. Top-ups I get from the little Sainsburys, Tesco or Londis. And I get my fix of Turkish yoghurt from the Stroud Green Convenience Store.

grenners

This post makes me hungry.

Scruffy

Londis (Ferme Pk Rd) is a bit off my beaten track, but worth the occasional visit as they have a wide range of things.

Ocado are a pretty good delivery service which we use every three or four weeks for bulk things such as cat litter (especially since I don't have a car). They are Waitrose, but there's a wider choice of things on the website than at their Crouch End shop.

conformable_kate

Not forgetting stroud green fruit and veg, full of good stuff! And the organic shop opposite the little sainsbury in sgr is still a very useful resource, though it has adopted a hipster name (urban native??) and reduced the greengrocery to accommodate a lot of wacky expensive pastes and grains etc. But it still does palestinian olive oil.

therattle

The Tesco gluten-free selection is pretty good. That's about all I use it for, if I can help it. I get fruit and veg from the greengrocer just down the road from them (opposite Nandos), or Urban Native. UN has a worse selection but is closer; on the other hand, they have a lot of good gluten-free stuff too.

I like Clocktower and Broadway Fruiterers in Crouch End; a CE native tells me that the shop down Tottenham Lane is very good too, and cheaper.

Pembe

Fish tips excellent, thank you. Where is the Stroud Green Convenience Store? I like all this Londis, Coop malark, I need to get more creative with my supermarkets.

trainspotter

I think Stroud Green Convenience Store is the name of the place with the Turkish yoghurt. It's a greengrocer/corner shop type place near La Porchetta. I had forgotten about Stroud Green Fruit and Veg. It's great I think - similar to Clocktower in Crouch End, but pricier than the stall, which is my go-to place for fruit and veg now, though you have to buy quite a bit of each thing. A whole fruit bowl of cherry tomatoes for a quid is great.

Ali

I changed the search to show all the establishments in our area. 38 pages but all is revealed !
SG Convenience Store is just up the road from La Porchetta almost opposite the Thai Massage place which has the lady who tries wave you in with a smile when you walk past in an evening

http://ratings.food.gov.uk/enhanced-search/en-GB/^/n4/desc_alpha/0/^/EqualAll/1/1/10

Ali

For the third time in the last week or so we have had blue top milk bought at Tesco go off three days before the use by date. This time it was off when opened. Anyone else been having the same problem? Thought it might be Thier useless fridges

Scruffy

"Travis" @Ali? Was that a typo for Tesco, or is it another shop I've never heard of?

Ali

Thanks Scruffy

Scruffy

@Ali , I buy my milk from Tesco and I've never had that problem. Maybe it's to do with blue top in particular. You might want to have a word with their manager, or see if there's a way to complain on line.

@HolbornFox , thanks for the Estrella recommendation. It's quite good (interesting that they use rice in the mash!), but if I'm going to drink lager I prefer something like Peroni or Menebrea. Guinness is my standby when I find myself in a pub where the closest thing they have to bitter (my preference) is pale ale (what happened to all that bitter‽) I buy Guinness in cans now because I have my elderly mother hooked on it as a dinner accompaniment. She was told to drink it when she was expecting (both me and my sister), and many years later when she was undergoing chemo- and radio- therapies. She's probably been convinced over the decades that it's medicine!

JefkeVanHoornzehout

@Scruffy, I agree with you about the lack of bitter in these parts.

Are you and I the only ones who notice that horrible smell from that run-down looking shop on Stroud Green Road?

HolbornFox

@Scruffy Menebrea is delicious (similar to Estrella IMO), as is Ichnusa which is more 'beery' but still a lager!

My family were also fans of the iron and my Grandad liked Mackeson Stout as well, he wasn't far wrong there, it's lovely!


Not sure I've ever had a decent bitter, does surreptitiously drinking Ruddles at 12 count?

What is a decent (non-craft) bitter?

grenners

A decent Samuel Smith's pub in town is a safe bet for a decent bitter. Where I grew up (in a field) there were lots of Thwaites and also Theakston brewery pubs. A pint of Theakston Old Peculiar is a treat if you come across it but try to avoid turning violent. Farmers wife beater.

Scruffy

Well, we've gone off topic again, but it's been so quiet around here lately!

I agree with @grenners , Sam Smith's is good. Old Peculier is even better if you find it bottled. But my favourite if I'm in a pub is Fuller's London Pride: not very hoppy, and with a nice malty finish.

(Er, "Farmers wife beater", @grenners???)