Continental Spices & Video & Halal Meat

Great selection, especially for spices. Though not everything has a listed price you can ask the cashier to check for you and he’s very helpful. Definitely the place to go for bulk spices and tea, or to add a new flavor to your pantry options.

Once a great little grocery. Now, the earlier review re: vacant register, dirty and spooky is typical. I’d add, parking area has seriously foul odor.

I was new to the area and wanted to shop at a decent store that sells Indian groceries and spices. I went here and the place and the owner seemed okay and helpful. I bought some things however, I realised too late after I came home that almost ALL of them were past expiration date. They were obviously not good to eat and had expired for at least a year. Needless to say, it was a waste of money. I would not go back here.

Great place great service if you love goat meat and lamb! Amazing selection if Indian food! I love it!

Store does not look very clean. When I first walked in, no one was in the store, and it was a little spooky!
The price of the item I wanted to purchase was not on the package and the guy seemed to simply make up a (too high) price at check-​out.
No one in there could speak English very well — that along with the poor labelling meant I wasn’t even sure I was getting what I wanted to purchase… I do not recommend shopping at Continental Spices & Video & Halal Meat.

Since there are not many store that sell Halal meat in Seattle as compare to Northern California, I have to give this store 3 stars. Limited selection of meat on display but they have lamb/​goats. The meat here is a little pricey. The rest of the package items look old like other had reviews. Private parking is at the back of the store.

This place is a health hazard. My b/​f and I loaded our basket up with spices, then we saw a package that had an expired date. We looked at the contents of our basket and found multiple ones with bad dates. We went in Jan 2012. One package read good through «⁸⁄₂₀₀₄.» Are you serious? They are selling 8 year old spices. I also noticed dates were missing on a lot of their food. One package had a partial (nonlegible date) and some adhesive stuck to it. They are unethical and are using tape to remove the dates.
Caviar Emptor!
Saving a few bucks on spices is not worth putting your health in jeopardy. What shallow measures some will take to make a buck.

Crowded little maze of a store, but they have labneh (lebna)!!! It’s nice to be able to walk down the street and grab my favorite snack. Just gotta watch the expiration dates. Lots of canned goods and spices. Also sells halal meat, though I haven’t tried it yet.
UPDATE:
last week i went to get some labneh and the guy working asked me to explain what it was. I drove north to Pacific Market instead, they DO have labneh and nice owners.

You need some spices? You can get it in bulk and for hella cheap here! You name it, need ‘a’ cinnamon stick for your dish? Buy the 1lb bag of ‘em for $ 4.99; trust me, I passed up this bag and then went to a store where they are sold in a tiny jar of 5 for $ 6.99. You can get a HUGE bag of curry or masala or rice or a tiny bag… all depending on what you need! I found the price on canned goods equivalent to the store. And the gentleman was very helpful… he and I struggled for a bit due to our language differences but we got it all done, oh and I’m sure me being hungover didn’t help either! :)

A couple years ago the place seemed OK, with a small but decent selection of fresh meats & a fair selection of Indi/​Paki/​Asian spices and items. But it apparently has changed hands, and the new management has let quality slip a lot. Meat case doesn’t look (or smell) fresh, overall the store is dingy and appears in poor repair, and prices are not particularly competitive. Last time I was there (and I do mean the LAST time) somebody’s very loud rant or firey sermon of some kind was being played on their overhead sound system. Maybe it was a sort of Pakistani Rush Limbaugh, or someone political or whatever, but since it was in Urdu it could have well been extremist as far as I knew. I couldn’t understand it & subsequently felt it to be very inconsiderate toward me as the only customer there at the time. The guy at the counter — who seemed to be the owner — offered me no help at all and gave me the impression that I was not welcome when I checked out.

Poor quality, and a swindler to boot. The expiry date on most packed goods was some time in 2009 or early 2010. That’s one thing that I rarely did in the US, but in this store, I had to check the exp. date on each and every item (And invariably, more often than not, the item was past expiry).
Most items were overpriced, and when I expressed my displeasure I was told that if I had a problem with the prices all I had to do was ask, and it would be reduced!
This is the worst part: He asked me if I wanted rice. I said I want a 10 pound bag of Sona Mussourie. Only 20 pound ones were available and they were deeply discounted — under $ 20. So I bought it. One look at the cooked rice and I was convinced that this not even close to Sona mussourie… On closer examination the «Sona Mussorie» written on the bag turned out to be a sticker on top of «Aromatic rice»…
Another recent experience: I picked up a 500 G jar of tea power — marked price was $ 4.99. While billing, the shop keeper entered $ 6.99. When I told him that it was marked $ 4.99, he said «no sir, I probably forgot to update the price tag.» I was in a hurry to catch a bus, so did not stop to argue, but paid what he asked for it. The next time I checked the price of this item in a different Indian grocery store (In Bellevue), it turned out to be $ 4.99!

Decent selection of spices. (found everything I needed) Cheap-​ish. Stay away from the desserts in the fridge, though. The gulab jamun tasted very unfresh (ugh, like it had soaked up the essence of everything else in that fridge) and I ended up throwing them away. What a waste of $ 6. .. also hella overpriced.
Meh. Anyways, if you just need to get some garam masala or something quick and this place is near you, it’ll serve your purposes.

This place isn’t bad at all, and if you live anywhere near Green Lake or its surrounding neighborhoods, it’s a great place to buy halal meat, fresh or frozen. Just ask for what you want. The great thing here is convenience. You can count on them having what you want, and can go pretty much any time. A lot easier than going to either a farmers market during the few hours it is open and hoping to find what you’re looking for, or (given where I live) driving down to south to Rainier or MLK.
And if you’re looking for labneh, this is one place to find it.
The best thing is that it’s next to Barriga Llena, so you can find the meat/​groceries you’re looking for AND have an awesome torta for dinner (and then go to Über Tavern or Duck Island).

Place is ok… good selection of meats… they also have other groceries (Indian spices, daal, etc). But, the place is small and dirty and I felt very uncomfortable shopping here.