Kamal Spice House — Local services in San Jose

Since I was in San Jose area, I decided to drop by to pick up some samosas. I thought it was close by but it turns out that I was going towards a different direction. Anyways since I am going there, I decided to call to make sure they had the samosas. The lady that answered said they do have plenty. When I got there, there were only a few there on the hot tray area and looked like a regular size. She asked for me to wait about 15 minutes and I said ok while they make more. I told her I wanted maybe 10 or 15. After waiting, she came out with 20 samosas. I was shocked that they were so twice as small but raised the price by 10 cents each since I was last there. She convinced me to get 20 because they were small. I was not happy that the new batch they made fresh for me were twice as small but raised their prices compared to a few months ago when I was here. From now on, I would rather buy it elsewhere because it’s not worth buying the samosas that is twice as small but cost more. I ate 2 small ones when I got home. They were okay but the fillings inside were barely anything in it making it taste more like a pastry I was eating. Before I can see and taste the potatoes and some peas or whatever it was inside. This time maybe they just added a little potatoes inside and not even sure if there were other fillings inside because I can’t see anything else but some white thing which I’m guessing...

Kamal Spice House has been my go-to Indian grocery store in San Jose for the past couple of years. It is in a large mall shared by many other businesses so even though there is a large parking lot finding a spot close to the shop is always a challenge but manageable as there are a couple of reserved spots in the front. This is your typical Indian grocery store that carries a lot of Indian spices and ready to eat packaged goods. It also has a decent amount of fresh produce and a hot food station with Indian snacks like samosas, pakoda, wada etc. On the weekends it has a chaat corner where you can get freshly prepared chaat’s.

Their Indian snacks and chaat are great, they are priced also very reasonably so absolutely no complaints (the samosas tend to become a bit stale late in the evening sitting under the lamp but that is understandable). The grocery section is not on the same level as the chaat section. Lately I’ve observed that they are not as well stocked as before and that their prices have inched up. Recently I found India Mart another Indian store closer to where I live which is much better stocked so I’ve started shopping there for my Indian groceries and limit my shopping at Kamal to the chaat section. The chaat section is good but when combined with the average grocery store you end up with an overall above average grade...

Been in the Bay Area for more than 10 years, this is the worst India Grocery store. Here are few reasons based on my visits to this Indian store in past 4-5 months: Old rotten vegetables - Never found fresh produce, always stale vegetables. Had to throw away onions, garlic etc from most of the batches that were purchased. Expired package food - Assuming atleast packaged food (that in general have higher shelf life) would be a safe purchase were found to have items reaching or exceeding expiry and lying on the shelf. MUST CHECK the expiry on all items. Extremely expensive - All items in this store has 1-2 USD more on any item that you would pick from any other Indian store nearby. This is a peculiar feature even though this store is in the Bay Area. Ended up in wasting a lot of money buying rotten food items. Missing Cart stand - After performing all the checks above and you manage to pick some items and put in your car which is parked away from store, you would find that there is no place to park the cart and you have to take the empty cart back to the store.

This is the only Indian store in Berryessa area and considering the fact that more folks are moving in here, there needs to be a more professional Indian store...