Patel Foods Indian and Pakistani Groceries

Patel’s is a nice, friendly market with very fresh veggies. They carry a huge assortment of the Shan pre-​packaged spice mixes — impressive –and a good assortment of chaat dry snacks.
The owner was kind enough to tell me where to get Persian goods since she doesn’t carry any, and even looked one up on her phone for me.
On a whim, I bought some local, homemade pita bread (Olive Café) she vouched for and It. Is. Awesome. I will come back to this store!

I visited this Bangladeshi /​Indian grocery, and was amazed to see their vast collections. I must be impressed as they collected a large number of Bangladeshi products. I was wondering if I would miss these authentic continental spices and condiments here, but the owner Shofi showed me around the place and must say quite impressive that was. I will certainly come back here for the Hilsha fish and halal meats.

I guess you could say this is my go-​to Indian grocery. It’s a clean, nice-​sized store with a good selection of staples for Indian cooking. I like that they have some good-​looking fresh produce, better than what I’ve seen at other stores in the area. They also have a selection of frozen and refrigerated foods.
They’ve done some remodeling lately and opened up some space and rearranged the location of the register, nice changes!
The last time I was in, the employee at the register was happy to give me some helpful advice and tips about the ingredients I had just purchased.
Also, this is the store where I discovered my most favorite, hottest condiment ever: Mr Naga Hot Pepper Pickle — Very Hot! I love it!

I see where Mindy is coming from with the dirtiness — to be honest, I haven’t been to too many small grocers in KC lately that aren’t on the dusty side of things — but perhaps all that reflects is the lack of customers to purchase the goods. I worry for these small family-​run businesses and I do hope for the best for them, that the popularity of Indian and Pakistani food increases in the Midwest.
The daughter and grandmother were tending the store when my mother and I visited today. We were roaming and reading the labels, most of it we hadn’t eaten or didn’t know what it was — but we were interested to learn and the daughter told us to ask her if we had any questions.
I assumed that KC doesn’t have many grocers that offer this cuisine — but I was wrong, there are 12 others in Kansas City and if Patel Foods doesn’t have the selection you might be looking for — you’re not out of luck. All I googled was «Indian grocer Kansas City» and the 12 popped right up — most of which are quizzically located off of Metcalf.
I thought they had a decent selection of pre-​made Indian meals, like the «Hamburger Helper» for Indian cuisine — and I would recommend any newbies to the food to try these because they’re easy and most of them sounded very good to me. I would bet that Patel Foods has more of an authentic selection than Target which might carry more American-​friendly and popular Indian items like chutney.