Desi Outlet — Local services in Vacaville

UPDATE: MAY 28, 2024

I no longer recommend Desi Outlet, unless absolutely necessary and last resort. Refer to May 28th dated receipt—still charging $0.59 NO CASH FEE.

I personally recommend Delhi Bazar in Fairfield and Bazar in Vallejo. Absolutely no cash fee and no minimum purchase requirements!!!

It pains me to leave a 3-star review on a South Asian (Desi) owned small business and fellow neighbors Deol-ji and Daljit-ji.

I included my sales receipt from August 20, 2022 as proof of purchase, authenticity and genuine/honest review for Desi Outlet.

They started charging 0.30 cents for horrible quality plastic bags. That's a demerit. During the 2020 lockdowns, they started charging no-cash fees on all transactions without any minimum spending.

Although the solution has been fixed via full refund, I have experienced several purchased products from Desi Outlet passing Sell By or Best Before dates! It's unacceptable and illegal.

On August 20, 2022, I purchased Nanak-brand khoya (mawa) which is frozen milk solids. I was planning on using in my Awadhi cooking soon. I didn't bother checking the "Best Before Date."

The Best Before Date was April 2022, which is 4 months overdue. I called Deol-ji on today the August 21 to see, if I could exchange for another with a non-expired item of the name Nanak-brand.

I stopped by store and I spoke with Daljit-ji, Deol-ji's wife and she told me no problem to check. I did and all the Nanak Khoya are all expired with dates of either March 2022 or April 2022!!! I let Daljit-ji know and asked for refund of $7.59, which was given—no questions asked.

This is the 3rd time I have ran into buying product(s) from Desi Outlet with expired dates beyond reason.

First: Expired Dabur-brand Kewra Water. You literally could see a "cloudy/milky substance" at the bottom start to swirl when the bottle is agitated/shaken. Solution: I told Deol-ji and Daljit-ji to keep my money and work on improving their stocking and quality checks.

Second: Patak Curry Paste. Expired for 2 weeks past sell by date. Not detrimental, since it was a fully sealed bottle and I was going to use it that day.

Third: This khoya incident. Expired for 4 months. This is simply inexcusable.

As they say, three strikes and you're out! I think this will be the last time I will use Desi Outlet for general Indian grocery needs, unless there is last minute or "emergency" Indian grocery item I need, e.g. kari patte (curry leaves). They stock and sell good quality kari patte.

Daljit-ji and Deol-ji are wonderful people. I just wish they would take their store more seriously with quality stocking of products and not selling...

I was looking for a place to buy a variety of spices and figured that the Desi Outlet might be a good place to find what I was looking for. Upon entry I was greeted in a friendly way by a man who I'm assuming is the owner. After greeting me, he said to let him know if I have any questions. As it turns out, checking this place out for spices was a good move. while picking up spice after spice after spice, the man noticed that my hands were getting full and he brought me a basket. Being that this is my only experience here, I can't comment on other owners/employees that other reviewers have, by my experience was great....

Had an awesome experience here today! My wife loves Indian food so I decided to try and cook her an Indian dish for dinner (chicken Korma) and I knew that some spices and ingredients wouldn’t be easy to find so I looked to see if there was a local Indian store. This place popped up in my google search so I headed there. The gentleman behind the counter whose name I did not catch was extremely helpful. He pointed me to everything I asked for and was very polite. I will be returning for all my south...