In my opinion, the Mercado Central in Las Palmas is the best place in town to buy fresh groceries. The Mercado is divided into two sections and in this article I’ll only cover the part with all the fresh groceries.
This last section is divided as follows:
- Meat & dairy
- Fish
- Fruits and vegetables
Similar shops are located next to eachother, so it’s easy to compare prices, which I definitely recommend. Don’t buy all your vegetables at the same shop, because they might have cheap potatoes, but expensive broccoli and the shop next to it might have the broccoli on sale and asks a higher price for the potatoes. Bananas for example, can go from anywhere between €0,65 a kilo to €1,98 a kilo!
Cucumbers are around €0,50 a piece, leek is €1 for a bunch (6 sticks), mangos around €3,50 (price can be higher depending on the season).
There’s a wide variety of cheeses available and you can ask to try a piece before buying. You will also find eggs, bread, pastry, spices, vegetarian/vegan meat replacements and plants in the Mercado.
Any piece of meat or fish can be cut and prepared the way you want it. I recommend to go early in the morning, but try to avoid Saturday morning, which is usually the busiest day.
The Mercado is open from Monday till Saturday from 8AM to 2PM. It’s located on Calle Galicia 24 and is hard to miss, since it’s a big red building*. The shops in the Mercado usually prepare for closing time a bit earlier, so don’t wait till the last half hour to do your shopping.
* The Mercado Central got a makeover and is now white! And on the first floor, there’s a brandnew Mercadona.
