Ambal Trading — Attraction in Toronto

BEWARE RE WRONGFUL CHARGES AND HOSTILITY WHEN YOU BRING IT UP

Their behaviour can range from cold to hostile, it seems. Cold/indifferent I can still live with. But today I saw hostility! I had been charged wrongly for something I didn’t buy in July. After I went home and realized it, I called them and they noted it down. They said to mention it when I came next. I wasn’t able to go for a while and only went today. The moment I brought it up, one of the older owners just became so loud and hostile about how it has been a month and how it’s impossible to find it! He asked if I had called. I said I DID CALL but he still continued with the rude rant. My money does not grow on trees and I don’t go to this grocery store to pay for other people’s products! Another, more cooperative, younger staff said he’d help and he'd look it up. The older staff rounded on him, practically forbidding him to look it up. HE KEPT ASKING HIM TO LEAVE IT!!! The younger staff still went to look and found it and another staff discounted that charge from my current charges! I cannot believe the hostility that came from the older man and how loudly he kept negating me for even bringing it up AND EVEN BEFORE LETTING ANYONE LOOK FOR IT! I don’t get it! Nobody is going to lie for a few dollars but at the same time they have a right to be heard and have A WRONGFUL CHARGE compensated, if possible!

Learn some customer service before selling to customers and taking...

Toronto is one of the world's most diverse cities. And most people who are happy about this (like me) will tell you that one of the essential benefits of this diversity is the chance to dining-chair travel to exotic locations. I was once a vegetarian, even, for five years, a vegan. Now I am blissfully free of eating disorders, but when practising both of these I became aware that the cuisine of India is as varied as Europe's, with many regional specialities, and their tradition of vegetarianism goes back centuries.

Ambal Trading is a fascinating glimpse into that country. The next time you're searching for a mysterious ingredient for your home-cooked Indian meal, check them out - they'll probably have it. Dried mango powder? No problem. Asafoetida? They have it and I've used it. If only I could pronounce it; . Hot lime pickle? Salty, sour, bitter and HOT all at once? Yes he gasped, more please!

Spices, vegetables you've never seen before, fish, pappadums, authentic basmati rice, tableware, cooking utensils... I end up spending a long time there and buying much more than I intended. The prices are very reasonable.

The Indian gentleman at the cash does look a bit amused at this white guy buying all these exotic ingredients, because white people always want a sanitized version of "abroad" and he knows that's what I'm doing. And you know what? It's good to be an outsider, briefly, occasionally. It...

I'm compelled to write this negative review because they have earned it. I was a loyal customer for years but I will never spend my money at this store again. Their pricing is not consistent and they seem to change it on the fly. If you ask them a question, they respond in an unpleasant tone as if they're being inconvenienced. The tall guy who is usually at the back is the rudest of them all. The time I went to purchase mutton, tall guy was manning the meat section in the back. I noticed the meat freezer only had large, transparent plastic bags containing what looked like jumbo pieces of goat meat. I asked the tall guy behind the counter if they had smallers portions available and he said no. Then I requested him to cut the pieces into smaller size (they were huge) and he did a poor job of that while looking rather inconvenienced by my request. When I got home and cooked the mutton, it tasted horrible (as if the meat was from a very old animal). I had to throw it out because it was so chewy I could not swallow it. So during my next visit to Ambal I iinformed the tall guy about the poor quality of the mutton he sold me and he did not seem to care because he did not even respond to me after that. Whatever little success the store has brought them seems to have gone...