Salaam International Specialty Food Market

A friend told us about this place to find freshly made pita bread. We decided to go and try it out and I’m glad we did. The pita is the best we’ve found locally. I’m happy that we can have hummus again. In addition to that, they had a lot of imported items. There were some that we bought just to try for the first time and some that I’ve had in the past that my friends from Turkey would bring me, including Turkish Delight. We will definitely be stocking up on things when we’re in the area.

When Salaam opened up just a quarter of a mile down the street from Ali Baba, it was an awkward «shots fired» kind of moment– would the new kid on the block make AB look bad? Would they expose inflated pricing and cheap ingredients? SA’s adventurous home cooks waited with bated breath.
Nah. Ali B is still righteous, and has a larger and fresher produce selection, but Salaam has it’s own thing going on: lots of frozen food (great for taking some international flava to work), low-​priced spices (think $ 2/​bottle!), and (drum roll please) a dine-​in counter! The menu is limited, but I had always wanted Ali’s to have ready-​made foods and this just kind of steps it up another level.
The meat section here is quite small: one small refrigerated case, sparsely stocked. But the quality is good, with lamb items and ready-​to-​grill kabobs at wallet-​friendly prices. Staff are friendly, and the family running things really go out of their way to show their appreciation for your business.

Interesting place, and the meat smelled delicious. We didn’t purchase anything; we thought it was an international market with different food than just middle eastern, but it was still fun to walk around and look. Points for being clean and well-​stocked though!
My Unilocal rating system:
5 stars= Driving across town just for this!
4 stars= I would recommend visiting.
3 stars= Average, acceptable, positive.
2 stars= You might be able to drag me in.
1 star= I will definitely not be returning.

Its good, but ambience is kindof dull, I almost always head to a different place after leaving here

If you are looking for something different in San Antonio, this is the place. Food from many contries. Fresh meats and pita breads. You have to try this place.

And a small but important update!
I purchased a few interesting/​exotic/​special snacks for my family, one of which was some «Almond Turkish Delight». It was pre-​packaged, and cellophane-​wrapped from Turkey no less, and featured a picture of the almond-​encrusted candy on the box.
I got home — surprise! No almonds. The product tasted great (we ate a few pieces, questing for the almonds… Nothing.) Very good very fresh. But they guy at the almond machine must have been dozing that day…
The nice folks at Salaam Specialty Food Market were apologetic and cheerfully refunded my money. (Which I traded in on some Hazelnut Turkish Delight — which did indeed have lots of hazelnuts!)
JDMc

I enjoyed my trip to this market. Definitely cleaner and more organized than a lot of other ethnic specialty markets I have visited. It’s not HUGE, but it’s not super tiny either. They had a grocery section, a sizable freezer section, some produce, self-​serve white cheeses in bulk, a section where it looked like you could get food made to order and what I think was a meat market. They also carried some British products. The cashiers were helpful and very polite. I would shop here again.

Good to see more options of international food. But I feel it is a little pit pricy, however, it still an organized place which I like.
Hope if they can provide more varieties of middle-​eastern food.

Great international market. I shop there every couple of weeks to find something strange and weird to take to work. (I guess it’s not weird and strange to everyone — maybe just a bit unusual to some)
Any way, the store is nice and clean and well stocked. Just make sure you check the expiration date on jars, cans, and boxed products. Some of the dates are real close.

I like this place and will definitely be back. Items are a bit pricey, but that is to be expected when it comes to specialty ethnic items.
The store itself is very large and clean and feels like any other chain grocery store. The items on the shelves were not overloaded and everything was very simple to find. I found it very easy to navigate and maneuver throughout the entire store. The people working there were generally friendly and willing to make polite conversation, except for a few employees on the sales floor who avoided eye contact with customers like the plague. Not sure what was up with that, but it didn’t make for a poor shopping experience, in my opinion.
I was able to pick up some really neat, different sodas that I had never heard of before, along with a bottle of mango curry sauce. The prices of their gigantic bags of Basmati rice seemed very reasonable when compared with the tiny bags of rice you can get at H-​E-​B.
I would have liked to have seen more choices, like some of the other stores I have been to that also offer Thai selections. Nonetheless, I realize the majority of the items here are intended for Middle-​Eastern needs. Another nice thing about this place is that they do carry everyday items such as cleaning products and toiletries. I’ll definitely be back to check out all the other stuff I wasn’t able to get around to this time!

I’m from England and it’s hard to find imported food/​candy/​chocolate. Salaam pretty much delivers when I’m needing my British candy craving! It is a bit overpriced, obviously, but it’s hard to find this stuff, so I’ll pay for it.
They have a huge selection of international foods and not all of it is too expensive. The cashiers I’ve always encountered are always friendly and welcoming. I come here at least once or twice a month. I’m sure if I came here more I’d be totally broke! ;)

I was so excited to see this place open! Another place to go to in addition to AliBaba. But I refuse to return after I saw their goat being unloaded from a truck that was supposedly «halal». The goat legs/​sides were all thrown together in a large plastic crate with no cover, exposed to the sun. The men unloading the unwrapped pieces wore no gloves as they were transfered to inside the building. Inbetween unloading they operated machinery, their hands were filthy and they even held the meat against their bodies occationally, while stacking the meat. I was really disapointed and discusted at the total lack of concern for cleanliness. Sorry Salaam, Alibaba still beats ya.

A salaam alaikum, Salaam International Specialty Food Market!
This place is pretty awesome. HUGE selections. I gotta say, this is probably the largest international market in San Antonio. Aisle after aisle of foods I had never seen before. My mouth watered with delight! The prices on things aren’t that bad either!
They’ve got a giant freezer section, packed with curry after curry!
The produce selection could use some work. Not much there, and it didn’t look very fresh.
I was amazed by their superior selection of rice! They’ve got a whole aisle of nothing but giant bags of all kinds of foreign rice!
They have a full service butcher, who is Halal of course. I went, and they had a special going on lamb!
I am a big fan of their soda selection! They’ve got some of the weirdest sodas I’ve ever heard of! I picked up a bottle of Kvas, which is a Russian rye bread soda. They also had yogurt soda, which I passed up.
They even have a room to pray in that points towards Mecca! Allahu Akbar!
The staff was present, but seemed busy with other things. I was surprised that the checkout clerk didn’t know Arabic.