Bag of carrots rotten, pomegranate very soft on one side, lettuce had virtually no leaves.

Must have been a bad day

Approximate cost: $120

My review is for Organics by La Manna at 399 Sydney Road. Always courteous and friendly service. Excellent stock of both organic fruit+veg. & many other organic grocery and cleaning products. Plenty of gluten-free options. Will reserve your favourite bread for you to collect. As you would expect, organic produce is likely to be more expensive for greengrocery there than in the main La Manna shop but willing refund if you are ever disappointed with the quality.

Very helpful and knowledgeable staff who are always happy to help, especially when you're looking for something outside of the norm. A good range of organic foods as well.

High quality fresh fruit and veg at reasonable prices. great range of cut prices that are very cheap.
They also have La Mama Organic a few doors up

Great value flowers, great for when you don't want to spend too much at traditional florists. And they sell fruit!

Approximate cost: $10.00

Brunswick and Coburg suffer from a terrible lack of decent greengrocers. Fortunately, there is one beacon in the wilderness: La Manna in Brunswick.

I used to be a regular at First Choice in Carlton (see my separate review) when I worked very near it, and I still would be if I still worked there. But First Choice closes for a few weeks from Christmas to mid January. (It's a family-run business; they've got to take a holiday sometime!) So for those few weeks, I had to find somewhere else to buy my fruit and veg.

I detest buying them from The Big Two supermarkets; I'll only do that if I'm desperate. After trying what seemed to be every greengrocer along the length of Sydney Rd, including the Coburg Market, and being distinctly unimpressed with what I found, I discovered La Manna.

It is a spacious store, and well laid out. Even on Saturdays, it's rarely crowded. It has a wide range of fruit, veg, and nuts, and also stocks some cheeses, preserves, antipasto, cakes, honey, and similar items. The quality is good - not quite as good, I think, as First Choice, but still more than satisfactory, and vastly better than anything I've ever found in any other greengrocer in Sydney Rd. The service is friendly and efficient.

So I shopped at La Manna every January for several years when First Choice was closed, until a few years ago when my workplace shifted away from Carlton and I could get to First Choice only rarely. Since then I've bought almost all of my fruit and veg from La Manna. I still think First Choice has a slight edge in terms of quality (although not in range), but La Manna is very good, and has the advantage of convenience: not only is it open in January, it's also open on Sundays.

Quality fruit at great prices. They also have a nice range of flowers/roses that are sold in the store which I purchased and lasted for approx 2 weeks.

Approximate cost: $15

The fruit and veg are about the same quality as you'd get in a supermarket, but a bit more expensive. Fine for what it is though. They have quite a good range of nuts, honey and other health food store type products too. Just make sure you count your change - I have been short-changed here on more than one occasion.

I haven't tried their organic outlet next door yet.

La Manna is a Brunswick icon. It has a consistently high standard of flavoursome and fresh fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices. The ladies at the cash registers all have children of their own so they are very understanding of hassled mothers with small children and great at entertaining the children while they wait at the check out. They also have to option of taking your own bag or using one of their boxes and will heop you carry the boxes/ bags to your car. The boxes make excellent toys for small children!

Approximate cost: $reasonably priced