Hellen Food Deli & Salad Bar

Crazy inflated prices. 10 $ for a pack of bacon? Biznatch please.
Good selection of stuff for a bodega. I skip the clostridium-​looking salad bar. The produce section is relatively decent.
It’s 24 hours so my ravenous 3am ass has been rescued several times.
The people who work here are very friendly, they always have smile. Very important in a bodega. In some of them you feel like you’re intruding on someone’s private hangout spot, but at this place they are very welcoming.
This morning, I bought a pack of jumbo eggs. Not that interesting. I go home, crack three of the eggs, and they are all double-​yolked.
WTF are they feeding chickens these days?! (At least I got more gains for less money?)

GREAT bodega. I have to laugh, however, at the review by Tivne M, which applauds the fact that it’s open 24 hours. Uh, yeah. That’s what a bodega is: a 24-​hour deli/​market in Manhattan at which you overpay for everything and feel grateful for the privilege.
But Hellen is an unusual bodega. All have salad and hot bars and I know some germaphobe paranoids won’t eat bodega food, but I do and I have never gotten sick. This one, however, has calamari (not fried) in some very spicy Asian sauce heavy with chili which is sheer heaven. They have two kinds of noodles: rice and translucent. The latter is transcendent.
Everything is delicious here and unlike most bodega (which tend to be family-​run if not family-​owned), the employees are genuinely nice and friendly. Smiley’s are, sorry, complete jerks. The hispanics who work there are nice but the actual head honchos seem constitutionally incapable of politeness.
I bought beautiful holly for Christmas at a lower price than the bodegas on Lex or 3^rd (this is always true when you go East of 3^rd). It’s very narrow so hard to navigate but the selection of dry goods and drinks is good as well.
I am so happy to have passed this on one of my many walks back to Lex from Bed, Bath, and Beyond on 1^st over the last month.

24 hours!
They have a Yummy food and salad bar but the hot food bar is only open during afternoon and evenings. It is surprisingly delicious and very well priced.
Also​.It is a Great little convenience store that has most of all essentials as well as having fresh produce and flowers, hot tea & coffee at all wee hours of the night and morning.

This is my go-​to late night, «oh man I am so hongray» deli. It’s on the way to the train for me and they have Boar’s head meat so their sandwiches don’t taste like ass. Their chicken salad is good and their bread is good quality. Also, you can get all sorts of crazy stuff here like tofutti and other vegan desserts. I’m definitely a fan of the place. I can’t give it 5 stars because I think the prices are a bit inflated. Maybe they are just subject to rent like everyone else, but it still kind of sucks. However, all in all the food is good, they are open super late, and the dudes who have made me sandwiches were cool.