YES! Organic Market in Petworth - My Assessment

Finally, I got the chance to visit the new YES! Organic Market in Petworth. Here is my assessment; the good and the bad:


The produce section is pretty decent. For a specialty store, the prices are reasonable for DC standards and they had a lot of variety. The Romaine lettuce was $1.69 each (good price) and looked really fresh. Just note that not all the items are organic. The apple above is a Gala apple and is a VERY LARGE Gala apple which leads me to believe that is has been genetically altered. I don't trust apples that are too large. They are never sweet enough and just don't taste as good as a small apple. The sign for this stated that it was "locally grown" but didn't say organic.

The potatoes were stored in a refrigerated area which is an abnormal place to store potatoes. The other thing I noticed is that though most of the vegetables looked good, there were a few that were dehydrated and wrinkled. Nothing turns me off more about a grocery store than one that doesn't keep it's produce section fresh and hydrated. If the produce item has gone bad, take it off the shelf. Hopefully this market won't try to push aged produce to the point of turning off customers.
The best part of this market are its bulk items. Spices in bulk!!! I like the idea of buying small quantities of spices when I experiment with recipes instead of investing in an entire bottle of something I would probably not use again...like Juniper Berries.

There is an Oriental Salad that I used order at a sub shop near my old college that I LOVED. It has this great sesame dressing and has cashews in it. It will be nice to buy just a enough cashews for the salad instead of having a jar go stale in my pantry.

YES! has a great selection of olive oils. There are several that are cold pressed and the prices are very decent. Several were on sale.

This bottle was $6.99.

This one was $10.99
They have a lot of good cheeses. This goat cheese was $2.99 (at Trader Joes, its $2.49 for the same size.)

$3.49 per lb for the Feta.

Organic milk is $6.99 per gallon and $4.39 per half gallon. This is a little more expensive than the organic milk sold at other stores.

The meat looked all right. There were some chicken legs that didn't look appealing to me but this whole chicken looked very fresh. The steaks also looked pretty decent. Prices are higher than what you would spend at Giant or Safeway but about the same as Whole Foods. Unfortunately, the quality is not as good.

The salmon and scallops looked good but the labels didn't give me enough information to buy it. Were these farm raised or wild caught? Were the scallops previously frozen?

The bread section had some good whole grain loaves and some stuff from Firehook bakery. The French baguette were hard and stale which was disappointing. These croissants above were not crisp like you would find at a french bakery but it smelled so buttery that I bet two minutes in a toaster oven would make this a very satisfying breakfast.


This place is great for locals who are vegan or allergic to gluten. There are so many vegan and gluten free products in this store. Here are some brown rice low-sodium breadcrumbs.

Best thing #2: All the Asian products. I'm pretty sure the owners or managers of this store and the one on 14th and V are Asian. These thin bean noodles above are an example of a product I wouldn't find at Safeway (there is this delicious Vietnamese chicken noodle soup that can be made from these noodles).

Fish Sauce


Sriracha Hot Sauce


For $2.09, I would like to attempt to make some cold soba noodle dishes.


My mom used to use these shower clothes and her skin was always smooth. Maybe this is the secret to the smooth skin of "women from the Orient."


I'm a little speechless? Mild? White? Kimchi? What is this???? What is this suppose to taste like if there is no chili in it? The label makes me think that this product is going to taste wrong.


For those who do not like to cook, there are a lot of prepared foods to choose from.


These Indian Lentils are great for lazy nights when I don't want to cook. I like to eat these with some steamed cauliflower, brown rice, and a dollop of plain yogurt. These were only $2.00 each which is the cheapest I've seen anywhere.

These are only $26.99 which is the same price as the ones they were selling at Costco.

Here are prices of some other items sold here

Gala Apples - $1.89 per lb
Organic Krimson Star Pears - $1.99 per lb
Barlett Pears - $1.69 per lb
Valencia Oranges - $0.59 each (Good Deal)
Organic Green Grapes - $1.99 per lb (Great Deal!)
Romaine Lettuce - $1.69 each
Butter Lettuce - $1.99 each
Organic Bananas - $0.89 per lb (Same price as Whole Foods)
Organic Iceberg Lettuce - $3.59 each (EXPENSIVE)
Tisdale Wines - $3.69 for a bottle (great for when I need some white wine for cooking)
Barefoot Wines - $5.99 for a bottle
Boca Burgers - $4.19 for a package of four patties
Salmon - $8.19 per lb
Scallops - $9.99 per lb
Almond Breeze - $2 per 32 Fl oz

Someone mentioned in the Prince of Petworth comments that they kept getting static shock in the store. It happened to me too! Overall, I'm very happy to have YES! Organic Market in my neighborhood. You are going to spend more money here than you would at Giant or Safeway but if you look for the deals, you will find them. You will spend more money on meat and dairy products but will save on some of the produce and wines. The cutest thing that happened was seeing some young boys run around the market eating up the samples and hearing one genuinely say "this is the best store I have ever been to."