I have to preface this by saying that I love Wegmans. This is my kind of store; I love the people, I love the experience, I love going often. I share a backyard with the Wegmans on Route 57, which means it’s less than 7 minutes to walk (there’s woods and a small swamp that separates us so I walk the long way) and less than a minute to drive there; heavenly.


Having said that, I do have a few problems with Wegmans, 5 I’m going to mention here, even though I’m also going to mention things I like as well. All of them have to do with food, the food you cook. And to get this out of the way, it’s not particular to the Wegmans I go to most of the time. I’ve been to 8 or 9 different Wegmans in this area, Rochester, and one in Pennsylvania. All of them suffer the same fate, these 5 things I’m going to talk about. Just remember Wegmans, I love ya, but…

1. What happened to the shrimp bisque? It used to be thick and creamy, but now it’s runny and there’s almost no shrimp in it. This is a change y’all made at least 18 months ago, and it’s not a change for the better. The flavor is still pretty good, but come on, what’s shrimp bisque without shrimp, and what’s a bisque soup that’s not really creamy?

2. I love many of the foods you have on the Asian buffet. However, I have a major problem with your fried rice. It’s not fully done; there, I said it. I had to stop getting it when I eat in your store because I always came home and had my stomach start hurting. My mother actually noticed this one before me. If I’m bringing the food home I put the rice in a separate container and actually finish cooking it at home, adding more water so it’ll soften up some. If you think I’m being picky on this one go to an actual Chinese restaurant, even the takeout, and notice the difference; night and day.

3. Let’s talk about your desserts. I love the ultimate chocolate fudge cake. I dream about it, and I buy it often, to my wife’s chagrin. But outside of that, your special order cakes with butter creme frosting, and your sourdough glazed donut, all the other bakes goodies aren’t all that good. They look great, but they fail once one takes a bite into them. I don’t even like the ultimate vanilla cake, and I can’t figure out why (well, other than it’s not chocolate). I don’t like your cookies either; I hate that they look and smell as good as they do but don’t taste as good.

4. Let’s talk about all the other baked goods as well. Sorry, but I’m not a major fan of any of your breads or pizza. Many of them have this strange after taste that just drives me nuts. Some of them have no real flavor at all, and that’s a shame. Your Italian bread is bland; it tastes just like your white bread, or it did when I used to eat white bread. Your French bread tastes the same as the Italian; that’s not right. The pizza looks and smells great but it just has this kind of sour taste that I’m not crazy about. And I don’t understand that either because I’ve bought your dough and brought it home to make things, and it tastes great. Oh yeah, I also like the pumpernickel bread along with the dip, so I’ll give you props for that as well. The panini bread and your submarine bread… sorry, but it’s missing the mark for me as well, and I’m not quite sure why.

5. The pre-flavored meats. I have to spread this one around some. You know the rotisserie chickens? I love those, but you have 3 or 4 flavors and all of them taste the exact same. Actually, all the same pretty much means they taste like chicken with no seasoning, which is okay by me since I can season it on my own. However, this is a case where, if you’re really going to season stuff and have someone say they can taste it, learn a lesson from KFC. Whether you like it or not, you can always taste the seasonings in their chicken. The same thing goes for the meats you don’t precook. I’ve purchased quite a few of the meats that are pre-seasoned where one can see the different colors in them, but when I cook them they all taste the same, as in I can’t taste any seasoning whatsoever. If you say it’s barbecue or honey something or even lemon pepper, I’m expecting something that I’m not getting. Once again, it’s a good thing I can season my own food at home, but if you’re saying it’s seasoned, shouldn’t I be able to taste it?

Enough of that. Let me follow this up with some things I love. I love the soups overall, even if I griped about the shrimp bisque losing its thickness. I love the Asian buffet food flavors overall. I don’t eat many of the other meals you have that are with the salad bar, but whenever you have pot roast, one of the ultimate comfort foods, I always get that and love that. As I said, I love that the rotisserie chickens are cooked nice and moist, and I just add my own flavors to it after the fact. And of course let’s get back to the ultimate chocolate fudge cake again; it’s the best thing in the store!

My love affair for Wegmans has never died, and just because I have my problems with these 5 things doesn’t mean I’ll ever turn my back on the store. Truthfully, if you fixed the bisque and the fried rice I wouldn’t even care about the other stuff. I guess it just shows that even the best can’t be perfect; that takes a lot of pressure off me. 🙂