Le Silpo — Local services in Kyiv

This grocery store is the worst, and they claim to be Gourmet. The worst parts of the store are the fish/ seafood section by far. The majority of the fish are all extremely old and bad. I can tell you from personally growing up in the seafood business. Next time you’re there take a look at the tuna for example, it’s not even close to red, they all old and usually grayish indicating they have been laying around and not properly stored. Most of the time the live fish in the tank have dead ones on the bottom and the live ones look like they are holding on for their dear lives, worse than third world countries. All the rest of the fish have lost their natural color weeks ago and I’m surprised they are even edible, but since people have no other choices they make do with what they have. The eggs are not kept in a refrigerator, google if eggs should be refrigerated and you will quickly learn that the answer is yes. At the regular silpo down the street their eggs are all refrigerated, obviously that’s your better option. Also whoever stocks their groceries are so lazy and don’t know how to refill their products. They have nearly no healthy good options. Finally they ordered beyond sausages and of course everyone bought them bc they are tasty abs healthy option for sausage and for over one month now they have no restocked them because they don’t know how to run a grocery store. The best thing at this store is canned food and even that I would be skeptical. Lastly the produce section is very bad as well, the lettuce is always slammed with thousands of little bugs and I always end up getting home and throwing them in the garbage. I thought after a while they would start getting better products and cleaner produce and seafood but I was wrong. Please do your research and speak to their managers so they change and keep this place in better shape. It’s a shame that customers have such limited choices of quality groceries in Kiev. Maybe someday Whole Foods will arrive ans change everyone’s lives for the better once and for all. In the meantime be careful what you eat and where you shop.

They should not sell food in bad condition. I bought a portion of octopus that they told me was fresh that day, I could only take a bite and spit it out immediately. It was rotten and its smell was not good at all. I have read many comments about food poisoning in supermarkets in Ukraine, with all types of meats, not only seafood. In other countries, supermarkets, if fresh food is not sold during the day, usually will put half-price or more on sale in the last hours before closing, instead of throwing away the food (which most supermarkets in Ukraine do sadly or trying to sell food/meats that are not fresh for days at full price). If they put discounts according to their expiration date, they could move the stock and have food suitable for consumption in all cases. The same with chicken I wanted to buy, was in the refrigerator, but it has been packaged for more than 7 days and its appearance was not fresh. After the second or third day, they should put discount stickers on the meats or those items that will be gone soon. After this experience, I will not buy any prepared meat at the supermarket again until I see changes in the way they move stock according to its expiration date, at most salads if they look fresh.

After several poor directions from the locals, I finally found this fabulous supermarket. My biggest surprise was finding a supply of the Italian liqueur Sambuca by Luxardo. The other fact that baffled me was the price. As of this writing, a 750 ml. bottle is a mere 279 UAH, which is 2/3 of the Toronto price. The selection of cheeses is also outstanding, to complement a fine Red Wine.

Update: As of today, a 750 ml. bottle of Luxardo Sambuca costs $20.35 CAD in Toronto, ON, Canada (10/10/2018)