Bombay Bazaar

I am in love with this store! Best spice selection I have seen in San Diego so far, and a wonderful selection of other Indian foods, and goods. The last time I visited they were making fresh squeezed, cane, ginger, and lemon juice for sample, and sale.
Most impressive was their cleanliness, and organization. Very often an independent ethnic store tends to get a bit run down, cluttered, and dusty if not a right mess. Bombay Bazaar breaks that mould completely.

Guys the store is right next to Himalayan Cuisine restaurant. 7918 El Cajon Blvd. La Mesa, CA 91 941. It’s NOT on Black Mt rd. You won’t miss it. I just got back from there and bought yellow mustard seeds, tamarind paste, dried tamarind paste, distilled vinegar. I needed to buy these ingredients to make vindaloo and the lady who was working there was very friendly, I got my grocery done in no time and I didn’t even had to ask for help. I rather come here to shop for Indian cooking than at 99 Ranch. People at 99 ranch sometimes aren’t very helpful and most workers there hardly speak any English and the line at the register is long. When I was at Bombay Bazaar I was the only one shopping there. Also, check out Himalayan Cuisine next door. They have lunch special deals and the food there is good. It’s unfortunate not many people know about this place. I had an overall good experience and can’t wait to start cooking up some Indian food.

This is an excellent place if you are interested in making a collection of out of date (by three years) frozen food, for a microbiology project. Also, if you are entertained by a sort of dance performed by employees, all on cell phones, including the manager. Hurry, as I can only assume this place will be closing soon, either by court order or perhaps, just lack of interest on the part of the owner. Either way, the entertainment value is probably not worth the stop!

I bought atta at this place and had found bugs in it, as any customer I took it back to get it exchange. First they will not exchange itbor refund the money. To my suprise manager told me that they do not accept returns. Even if you buy now and just walk out of the door in front of him. To me it was the rudest answer I have heard from any manager I came across or business in fact. It was my mistake to go to this place. I go to Miramar cash & carry for my Indian shopping. But due to company lunch at Ashoka I decided to pickup atta at this place. I guess I am not coming back to this place back again.

If you like to cook Indian food, this is a great place to pick up your specialty spices for a reasonable price.
This place is pretty far, distance wise, for me. I only come here if I’m eating at one of the restaurants in the shopping center. It looks pretty dingy on the inside, and on my most recent visit, 5÷29÷13, a lot of the shelves were bare. I asked the cashier what was going on and she said they were renovating. Hopefully the place will look better.
Anyway, during my shopping trip, I picked up some star anise for about $ 2.99, citric acid for $ 1.49, and cinnamon sticks for $ 1.99. These are a fortune at the grocery store, or even at World Market. You can get frozen indian food, bollywood movies, fresh produce (limited), and indian food mixes for things like dosas, utappam, pani puri, falooda, etc.
I need plenty of other spices, but I was so full from eating at Madras Café that I just wanted to go home and sleep.
If you’re not willing to drive all the way out to little india for your spices, I would suggest going to North Park Produce on El Cajon Blvd or Vine Ripe. North Park produce probably has the lowest proces. They have tons of reasonably priced spices. I’m not sure they’ll have as many varities of flour of asetofida (misspelled) as Bombay Bazaar, but they have most things like garam masala, mustard seeds, fennel, etc.

This place is OK… has some good vegetables but the stuff they have is usually not branded. so u never know where the yget them from… most stuff is not priced… the frozen vegetables. I dont know if anyone buys them cos. they have a lot of ice formed on every packet… there are leaks in the freezers from neighboring packets…
I started going to cash and carry instead…

I’m currently learning about Indian food, spices and flavors. I popped in here to take a look and see if I could figure it out. I have to say, the selection was great, and the staff there was helpful — even to someone who clearly didn’t know what she was doing. Thanks!

Clean, well-​stocked and fresh veggies, and the staff are usually very helpful and nice. This place has almost everything, though sometimes they’re missing certain brands that they usually carry (Dulhan mehndi as just one example).
Minus one star for that because their prices are a bit higher than Vine Ripe but that’s what you get for convenience; not many stores like this in Central SD. They sometimes have sales too.

Great store. Unique selection for someone who has never been to India or anywhere near that part of the world. There is so much interesting food in this store. It’s cool seeing lots of the stuff that you know from Indian restaurants, and dishes you might have while you are there, in their raw form.
Most of the items here are pretty cheap, a couple caught me by surprise at the register, but all of them were worth it. Very large freezer selection of foods, with a wide variety of Samosas. Also a plentiful selection of sweets that all look unique. Give it a shot!

There are some older, negative reviews, but this place must have changed. I’ve been there several times and it’s always been very clean. The prices are comparable to Ker Fresh in Kearny Mesa and lower than anywhere else I’ve found in SD.
New to Indian cooking and veganism, I recently purchased a steel mortar/​pestle but neglected to grab the pestle. I came back a couple of weeks later and they were very cool about it. They didn’t charge me for the pestle even though I had no receipt or any other means to prove the original purchase.
On top of everything else, one of the regular cashiers is drop dead gorgeous!

I love this store! I went all over San Diego looking for Shah Jeerah for my Garam Masala and could not find it anywhere. They also have a freezer case of tasty eats like samosas, something I love to eat!
If you want a wide variety of spices this is your place!

I like this place. Only because I really don’t know where else to go to get my Indian basics. I work off of Miramar and had ended up here when my coworker took my to lunch for Indian food. I was excited when I saw this place just because my boyfriend had mentioned to me that he didn’t know where to buy basmati rice.
Well. I found it! and other stuff as well such as premixed masala spices and etc. Awesome! mY 1 – 2 step in attempting to make Indian food. Oh! And the workers here are really nice!

This place is unorganized and staff members are rude. They even threatened the mandir of pulling out of the Diwali Mela.
Prices are high compared to other indian grocery stores.

This is an okay Indian store, and has a good selection of items, but it can get very crowded and chaotic in evenings and on weekends. I would recommend the new Miramar Cash and Carry on Miramar Road over this Indian grocery store (much cleaner and organized). The prices for most things here are high, so I only try to buy what I really need (and can’t find anywhere else) here, but will be shopping less here now that Miramar Cash and Carry has opened up on Miramar road.

Again, what the hell do you expect from an Ethnic market most likely family run. Everything is cheap as hell, good selection of Indian spices. The vegetables here aren’t as good as they should be, there is a good selection, but some are fresh while others clearly aren’t.

Bombay bazaar is the only Indian Grocery store in the black mountain indian area. Store is still a mess, they havent yet figured out the aisles and layout yet. It is constant renovation in progress.
It has a decent collection of items, I generally find everything that I am looking for, except that the prices are 20−30% higher than Ker Fresh (Clairemount Mesa Bl).
Stay away from sweets, they are are stale and left open through out the day, especially jalebi’s.

My last visit, I vividly remember, it was Sunday late afternoon, it was like I just stepped into a Greyhound bus station with millions of people fleeing Katrina. .. chaos ruled the day.
That was my last visit — now I prefer to drive further to the brand new Ker Fresh in Clairmont. (
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This place is messsssss … not meessss a big MESSSSS… Price r so high… the only reason I go thr I didt find any other Indian store in SAn diego … to me this shop shoda been clsd lonf time ago.;… SOOOO SOOO SOOOO STUPID STORE, My gf is mexican I took her thr what I got is embrsmnt due to 3S — staff, stuff, store
Thanks to surati farsan otherwise this place is only for people who knows stores in India otherwise dnt even try take ur guest over thr
SOOO SAAAADDDDDD :(

Gotta-​go-​to place for all my Indian basics.
Hate–
how it always looks so messy and disorganized
how none of the prices are clearly marked
the parking situation on the weekends
Love–
that it seems to have everything I need
the fact that it seems to be run by women
the fact that they are friendly and helpful

I totally love this store. This is where I go to get my Indian fix. and you can get everything. What do you want?
Curry leaves? Check.
Spices? Check.
Dosa batter? Check.
A tava (frying pan)? Check.
Chai? Check.
You get the picture. They have everything. Fresh produce, frozen foods, packaged paneer, tons of spices, bags of dal and rice, chapatis, nan, Indian sweets, teas, cookies, whatever you need, they have it. The prices aren’t like India, but just to be able to get the things I want is awesome.
I don’t bother going to many Indian restaurants anymore, I just head out to Bombay Bazaar, buy all the ingredients and cook it myself. So much better than the tasteless, non-​spicy, crap-​tastic food that many restaurants try to pass off as Indian around San Diego.