Balady Foods

by dov g.

Balady is my favorite Middle Eastern grocery in Bay Ridge, and their recent renovations have made it more spacious and allowed them to stock even more products. Their bulk spices are fresh and flavorful (the sumac makes my mouth water it's so fresh!), and they have a great selection of pickled vegetables, tahinis, dairy products, jams, syrups (at least 6 different pomegranate syrups!), olives, halal meats....you get the picture! My husband especially loves their apricot/nougat/pistachio sweets. The shopkeepers are helpful and friendly.

by natatat g.

I give this place 4-5 stars for all the great food and cheap spices, but 1 star for the guy who purposely sold me expired hookah coals. If you buy coals here make sure you check the date before you leave the store. You're probably better off going next door to Hookah Nuts for anything hookah related.As for the other stuff - their meat has always been fresh and of good quality. My dad likes to get preserved food here like tasty stuffed eggplant. They also have a wide variety of dairy, desserts, and nuts. Check this place out and you will undoubtedly find something new and delicious.

by Danny O.

The butchers at Balady are some OG's.In a matter of minutes, they brought a giant lamb carcass from the freezer, sliced it up with some massive knife, ran it through a bandsaw, and split into perfect steaks and sirloin.They also have beef and chicken - all of which looks ridiculously fresh.Realllly looking forward to this lamb curry I'm making tonight.Prices are fair

by Kaitlyn M.

I would so like to write a lovely Ballad for Balady.  It would have a soft dombeq in the background, with just the right beat.  The piercing rhythms and driving melody would haunt the very soul.  It would harken to smells of sweet dates, and the salty taste of cured olives.  If you closed your eyes you would see soft desert curves, smell the hott wind and feel the sand slowly beat against your skin......Or then again, I could just talk about the actual store and stop trying to be so deep.....So, Balady.  Its actually probably the best Middle Eastern grocery I have ever been into.  While, that is not saying alot, its not saying nothing (in fact, I dont know if I could say that sentence and say nothing.....wow, im a moron :P)  It has a very good selection of Halal meats, but actually what impressed me most about their butcher shop was how clean it was.  Not to over generalize, but alot of the Middle Eastern groceries I have been into I would not actually eat the meat from just cause there is always that mild sent of I might actually die or have a guest growing in my intestine from eating this....and here, not so much.  The actual selling point for me other then the very good selection of all foods Arabic, was the hard goods.  I even was able to buy a dombeq for my sister for Christmas there (I hope she doesnt read this before then....) and I they have some wonderful Backgammon boards and fine wood worked cases, many of which enclose copies of religious books.  The staff is very friendly, and overall I give this place 4 big stars, but if there was a 4.5 I would give it that, awesome, but still not perfect.But now, I must sing my song, praises of other locations, but this, this was my Ballad for Balady.

by faith l.

Meh... That is pretty much my experience and feeling about Balady.  They do have a nice clean well organized store.  They do have a clean meat section with a wide variety of american cuts of halal meat.  They do have some random things like couscous al belboula (barley couscous) imported.  They also have a variety of bulk ingredients like smeeda (semolina flour).  You would think I would love it right?  Wrong.  Their prices, in general here, on meat, spices, and packaged non bulk items are overpriced.  Also, their nuts and spices are generally over priced.  (note--- ramadan 2009 I noticed that they had pistachios for $5.99 a lb almost unheard of)  I can buy the exact same thing down the street or at another store for a cheaper price.  I also find their staff to either be overzealous and in my face or completely alouf and detached, there has been no happy medium in my experiences there. Also, household items like couscousiers are like double the price of everywhere else.  I think if you buy a lot of groceries and do not want to shop around this is the place for you as you can find a lot of things in there.  It also depends upon what you are looking for and what time you go, as they are learning the art of the "sale Item."