Waltham India Market

4 stars purely for the varieties they carry and the price for their produce.
Definitely good.
Caution: Do not try their restaurant in the basement. I got the mango lassi and it tasted like it was prepared 1 week back. Same goes with aloo bonda.

I read the reviews before I started coming here, and I must say, I was not expecting a lot. But I’m so happy to say I was pleasantly surprised! I think this place is frikin awesome. And I’m hypercritical. Like seriously, read the rest of my reviews.
The first thing I noticed about this place is that it’s REALLY clean, especially compared to Edison and Curry Hill (I’m definitely a desi-​food eating desi). Although a few of the limes looked questionable, the pomegranates I got here were way better than the ones I usually get from Whole Foods, AND they have fresh curry leaves for when I feel courageous and want to try South Indian food (I’m North Indian). Yo, the spices are so cheap. I restocked my everything because there’s no way I’m setting foot in Brookline’s Madras Masala ever again. Their frozen paratha section is huge. The frozen food selection in general is huge. Their dried goods/​spices section is even bigger. You can get everything at this store, from halwa to alma to kerela. Shit is bonkers.
As for the honesty of the cashiers, they’re totally on point. I was vacantly watching the cashier ring stuff up, and when he got to an item that rang up for $ 7.99, he checked the price sticker (which said $ 6.99) and corrected the price at the register without me asking. It was immediate. And really honest, because I never would have noticed. That happened twice more (I. um. bought a lot of stuff)!! What awesome people.
As for the food downstairs, OH MY GOD it is the best lamb kofta and sambar and masala dosa I’ve ever had in Mass! Full disclosure– I’ve been here six times over the past six weeks, and once the lamb kofta was too rare for me. I felt bad since I ate like half of it before realizing it, but the wonderful gentleman at the counter immediately apologized profusely and cooked me a fresh one (which was perfection).

Love everything about the place except one fat person who is in the meat shop and treats his employees like shit. I don’t know his name but he humiliates his workers as if he owns them. In my opinion he should be arrested for his bad behavior, very unprofessional. If owners are reading this, fire this person ASAP!
As a customer I haven’t faced any issues.

Fresh cheap produce
Spices and grains galore
Tons of incense scents
Decent frozen selection
Small Prepared food counter with Indian sweets and samosas
And a somewhat sad downstairs food court

The store itself is pretty decent, but it’s on a downhill slide. The food court place down stairs is hopeless, the least to say. First time there I ordered samosas and chicken patties, and the samosa had a rock in it! Not the kind of shiny rock you would be surprised to see, but a darn stone. When I told them, they asked if I wanted another one? Of course! I paid for it. A couple weeks have passed and some friends till insist that this place is not too bad and we should try the behari kebab. Going against my will and being hungry, my wife and I go there just to be disappointed again. What they served was NOT behari kebab, regardless if from India or Pakistan. Then on top of that, the chicken was raw. It was pretty much chicken on a stick. When told them about it they offered to make another one which took a good twenty minutes and by that time I just wanted my money back.
Would definitely not eat there again, for sure! Would buy at the grocery store but we very careful of the expiration dates.

This store is fantastic. Excellent variety of spices for a great deal, lots of exotic tea flavors, and they make amazing chicken curry! You can’t find this stuff at a regular grocery store.

Due to the blizzards and driving bans I had to go back to India Market out of necessity. I have to say that I am impressed by the improved conditions. The store itself was cleaner and the quality of produce was much better. I still won’t shop there regularly but I’ll stop by every once in awhile when I need something.

I love this store. It serves all my needs of supplies. The food courts food is really good. Though I won’t suggest to go for non vegetarian food as everytime I have ordered something I felt that the non veg isn’t fresh. They also have vegetarian food which is really good. I have really become a fan of dosa n uttapam here.

The food court is always our destination. The Chicken Dosa is amazing and their samosas and chai are my husband’s comfort food. Don’t be afraid of the weird atmosphere and get yourself some top notch Indian food. We don’t shop much in the market, some Indian snacks and spices, the produce always looks wonky and the customer service isn’t great.

Terrible customer service. Don’t go here.
I usually go to this place for quick Pakistani ingredients. But I called them today to get the price of a Pakola set. And they were like one second, they came back on the line and were like «yup we have it.» and just hung up on me. With a whispered and distasteful «thank you» as they were hanging up.
I called them back and said «why’d you hang up I was asking another question, what’s the price» and they said «i don’t know the price. You come here, we tell you. Okay?» and hung up again.
Shitty ass customer service. Known this damn store for over 10 years and been shopping their with my family several times, and this is how they treat me? Fuck this place.
Ps. Their customer service never really existed. You checkout with food, ingredients, whatever at then the cashiers barely say anything.
They’re a family oriented business, and are too shallow and old to understand how real businesses work in 2014.

Overcharged us on desserts??? We got some desserts that were $ 7.99/lb.They weight it an 1.06lb on their scale, but when I went home to weigh it, they were only 11.8 ounces! That’s just dishonest and not cool. NEVER buying anything there again!

Review based on just a handful of visits so far, I’ll update in a few months.
1. Vegan Dosa: I’d never had a dosa before, but since I knew it was something I could eat, I decided to go for it. Very tasty. Definitely a «sometimes food» a.k.a. a treat, as it’s not a super balanced meal. Probably a reasonable post– 2+ hour run meal, high in carbs and provides electrolytes from the potatoes (potassium) and salt (sodium chloride).
2. Produce: I haven’t tried a lot yet, but it boils down to this: it’s amazing that I just have to go to the corner to grab a lime, head of garlic, etc, and they have a wide variety, including items I haven’t tried before but surely will. However, some of the produce looks great, and some looks a bit sad; my lime was looking iffy after just a few days, and the cilantro looked a bit limp. I will have to look at the prices again to see if the reason the produce isn’t as ‘pretty’ is because they’re not paying someone to meticulously maintain/​display it.
3. Spices: Have just poked around a bit, but it’s nice they offer spice mixes tailored to different dishes; saves money if you don’t want to spend $ 15 on various spices that you might rarely use.
4. Queue time: even when the line looks pretty long, it moves super fast.
5. Milk alternatives: please correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t seen any Almond milk or coconut milk (the kind you’d put on cereal as opposed to in a curry) (I’m allergic to soy milk *and* lactose intolerant — so fun). I would love to just be able to run to the corner and grab some Almond Milk (such as Almond Breeze, Blue Diamond almond milk, or equivalent).
Last request: vegan coconut-​based ice cream! I am surprised that in a store that offers a lot of coconut-​based products there is no coconut-​based ice cream. So Delicious brand makes coconut-​based ice creams, and chocolate is by far the best. It beats the Tofutti that’s available at Lizzy’s as far as flavor and other characteristics.
As with the vegan dosa, word of vegan offerings spreads quickly in the vegan and lactose-​intolerant/​allergic communities, so it would be worthwhile ordering a trial run of almond milk and so delicious coconut based ice cream (chocolate please!) and seeing how they sell. I would be likely to up my review to four stars if you carried those regularly. Just saying. Thanks!

Check your bill before leaving the store. They’ve overcharged me twice. The first time I thought it was a mistake, but it happened again! The staff is not rude, but is not friendly either. I would avoid this store. The food downstairs is very average. Nothing special.

I was at first happy to find this Indo-​Pakistani grocery in the Boston area just after we moved here, as I am from a city where I lived near a «Little India/​Pakistan» street and eat Indian food a lot. This place has both potential and very serious problems.
Like other reviewers I have found overcharging a problem, especially in the restaurant downstairs, where last Friday I may have had my first meal in over a year without overcharges cropping up. I noticed the fellow at the counter seemed to be new and he only charged me the posted price for the type of samosas I ordered. The day before I had been overcharged about 50% and just paid since I did not at first notice. The way I found out was that I thought I had been undercharged yesterday and was going to go back and tell the fellow, when I noticed prices posted on a board over the counter and added up my bill. I then figured out I’d been heavily overcharged the previous day when I had ordered the same thing. This is typical. I’ve been overcharged for groceries upstairs too, but not as often. Since, in my experience I have never been undercharged in the two years I have been shopping here, I conclude that it is not just a matter of mathematical incompetence, or half the charges would be over and half under. Finally, overcharging may be Moody Street business culture — I notice I’ve been overcharged in the thrift store across the street too, and other reviewers on Google Reviews have reported the same.
Second, though the brands are often good ones (Gits, etc.), quite a lot of the imported, packaged Pakistani and Indian food upstairs that I have bought has turned out to be date expired or nearly so when I got home. One therefore has to check the often-​hard-​to-​read labels minutely on everything, which is annoying, and impossible if you are in a rush. The store does take date expired items back, but it is a big hassle to bring them in, especially frozen items where some of the problem is.
Third, the samosas and other food in the restaurant are stored uncovered and apparently cold, and are reheated by deep frying when one orders. While cooked meat samosas can be stored for a short time unrefrigerated and reheated, maybe for half a day, the ones here often seem to have been lingering for much longer than the safe period, and I often have gotten stomach problems the day after eating especially the ones containing ground beef (for which I have a particular weakness — my wife isn’t Indian and can’t make them, so I buy them wherever I can despite risks). They taste okay, even good some days when they’re fresher and the reheat oil isn’t too old, but either the meat or the sauces are often contaminated, it looks like to me. Doesn’t the Waltham health inspection department here have safety rules about restaurant food storage? I’d say these guys need some training.
As to the quality of the cooking in the food court aside from health issues and overcharging, it is not very good compared to other Indian restaurants in town, especially as regards freshness, and while the posted prices are not high, with the overcharges I have personally encountered, they are actually a lot more expensive than they appear to be before ordering, and therefore de facto higher than in other Pakistani places in Boston. I unenthusiastically keep going back because I am often in the neighborhood for other reasons, and grudgingly shop at the store, eating before or after I shop because my child loves Indian food.
Overall, this place needs more honest and competent management in my personal view; as it is, it seems a florid disgrace to the subcontinental North America desi food trade, and is unfairly giving the whole sector a worse reputation than it deserves.

This place is disgusting, bread with rat holes in the botton, chicken that goes bad after a day and customer service from the owner mohameed is horrible don’t even think about returning something that came out bad because you will have a full on debade with him. So rude and has no respect towards customers just wants money from them. Will be shopping at the Patel brothers from now on. By the way check your receipt always because they make their mistakes always at their favor.

I agree with Jim C. «But there is one thing that disgusted me. They openly tried to cheat by entering incorrect price while billing. «
I bought Long Squash ($ 0.99), they charged me $ 1.99. They have two types of Squash with two different prices. I chose the one with $ 0.99. We hardly check the bills. I happen to check. Pissed off?

Good prices and great groceries. Only down side is that there is a crappy bread selection and poultry seems to be expensive.
I just did all my fruits, veggies and lentils etc here for my groceries. I will have to go somewhere for meat/​bread and eggs.
Overall this place is great!

I agree with most of the positive reviewers here. They have great selection of items. They have good food and reasonable prices. Staff isn’t very friendly but hey it’s an Indian grocery store! That is in accordance with all it’s competitors in the area.
But there is one thing that disgusted me. They openly tried to cheat by entering incorrect price while billing. Here is what happened to me:
They do not use barcodes or item codes. They read the price and type it in. In the final bill no item names show up which is ridiculous. I had some 30 – 35 items in my cart and the cashier entered the amounts very quickly. I was paying attention and noticed something fishy but couldn’t tell due to his speed. At the end I got a whole list of prices! Like $ 5.99, $ 4.49 etc. I would not have caught their ‘art’ but luckily I noticed that in my list there was no $ 0.79. I had bought 1 bunch of cilantro priced at $ 0.79! I checked the whole list and found a total of extra $ 11.5 added to my bill by typing in numbers that are higher! The cashier apologized and gave me the extra money as cash from his pocket. I didn’t make a big fuss as I was in a hurry but vouched to write this review and never go back.

They have a café style restaurant in the basement and had snacks there. It was a bad experience to have food in that place. High sodium and poorly cooked old chicken… when I told them the guys were unresponsive and started talking in another language.
If you like good food better avoid this place.

This place sells groceries and whatever foods you want. But the real gem is downstairs… where they actually sell food!
I got their Beef Shawarma and it was sooo goood!!! It was my first time having arabic food and it left a good impression. I want more! For about $ 8, you can get a Beef or Chicken Shawarma plate. It consists of beef/​chicken, their delicious rice that I cannot describe, and veggies. The sauce on the meat is just so unique and good. My friend got the Beef Shawarma wrap and he killed it in like 2 minutes… must’ve been good.
Next time I will try the Chicken Shawarma and some Kabobs.