November 16, 2009
I’ve beer shopped at both the Westgate and North Lamar locations. They’re a great place to shop for groceries, to start with. The beer coolers are pretty sizable, and generally they have most of the beers you’ll find at a Spec’s or other beer store in Austin. It’s rare for them to have the particularly limited-release beers, although every once in a while they’ll get in a new beer a week or so before the other beer stores - for example, Brooklyn Local 2. Prices are moderate - some good sale prices, but generally they’re a little higher than a store like Spec’s. Not a bad place to go beer shopping, though not the best in town.

July 16, 2009
Way better than the average gorcery, but not up to par with a top notch bottle shop. Service is very hit and miss, but mostly miss. They also put up signs that say things like "exclusive in Austin" for new beers in town which are not always true (I had already seen the same beer at a bottle shop).

June 2, 2008 [ Updated September 15, 2008 ]
Pretty solid selection, a bit disorganized but comprehensive. I’ve never been helped by anyone but I assume that they have solid customer service. Nice glassware selection and great prices.

February 15, 2008
A nice store, with lots of over price hippy stuff. BUT, when it comes to the Beer selection, is very good. Lots of belgians and a nice selection of texan brews (nice to see that!) ... The prices can be high but seeing some of the beers they bring in and it being Austin, not that unreasonable... Have also have a great wine selection and some expensive good food ... went with Hans + Ans.... Overall feeling on my visit: Like others have said, Is like most other Central Market stores and being based in Austin this store gets a good selection of brews that should not disappoint any true beer lover!

October 30, 2007
This is a very nice grocery store (like a Sendik’s here in WI or a Wegman’s in DC) with quite a nice beer selection. There was a good representation of TX craft beers, some other gems (like Stone, which we don’t have here in WI), and quite a few imports. The selection was pretty big, but I wasn’t all that interested in most of the selection...there just wasn’t much that was unusual or out of the ordinary here. I didn’t try to pull singles out of six-packs at this store. I didn’t see any other shoppers doing this, there weren’t any empty six-pack carriers hanging around, and all the six-packs present were whole (they all had six beers in them). There weren’t a lot of singles here a few 22oz bottles and half-liters which were mostly imports and this left me a bit disappointed. The store is immaculate, had a lot of hot food ready to go in a cafe setting (I visited during lunchtime and this was very popular). Quite a nice store, but wouldn’t necessarily be my first stop for craft beer shopping.

June 14, 2007
Hmmmm....this place is just like every other Central Market I’ve been too....that’s a good thing.

January 9, 2007
Giant supermarket with a great selection of just about everything, including some good beer. Since this is the only beer store I saw in the state, I can’t really vouch for their relative selection, but it appeared to be pretty solid. Prices are typical; no grocery store savings. Decent.

February 8, 2006
Very good selection with two locations in town. Good choice of singles which I like to purchase. Little known fact is that they will (or used to anyway) let you grab a single bottle from a six pack for $2 bucks even if it’s not normally sold as a single.

December 9, 2005
The usual disclaimer: a perfect 5.0 on selection not because it’s the best you’re going to find anywhere, but if it’s available in Texas there’s a 97-98% chance you can get it at Central Market. Both Austin locations have a similar selection, so there is little reason other than proximity to choose one over the other. Both have cafes with outdoor seating and bands on the weekend. Central Market itself is owned by HEB and centrally located in Austin, although in the last few years it’s branched out to the San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas areas. Those who have Whole Foods in their neighborhood (none too coincidentally also headquartered in Austin) will pretty much know what to expect. The main difference is probably in the beer selection. Prior to the Austin Whole Foods relocating to it’s new, much larger, World HQ building in March the selection they had was maybe one-fourth of CM’s at best. Even at the new World HQ the selection is not quite as large as CM’s, although there are a few meads stocked by WF that are not available at CM. Central Market is constantly battling it out with the Whip In and Grapevine Market for beer supremacy in Austin, so it never hurts to hit all three. If I could afford the gourmet food prices I’d do all my grocery shopping there as well.

July 19, 2005
North Lamar location: Typical Central Market selection...lots of bottles, but nothing I did not expect...they did have very fresh Orval however...I couldn’t find anyone there to help me with beer or sake questions though...great cheese selection though...