SOS Chefs

The store itself is gorgeous and you won’t want to leave, unless the staff scares you away (which frankly, is likely). I went in with a small list of items I needed (porcini powder, morels, black trumpets) and they of course had what I needed. A pushy albeit pleasant staff member encouraged me to try some of their vinegars and I obliged. I’m usually pretty good at turning down a hard sell but I caved and got the orange vinegar because it was insanely good. The manager (or owner?) seemed like a frazzled mess and was loudly barking orders at the staff. Somehow I ended up with no black trumpets in my order because there was such a hullabaloo. By that time I just wanted to just get out, and since the trumpets weren’t necessary for what I was making, I left. I spent $ 140 on a bag of morels, porcini powder, and a small bottle of orange vinegar.

These spices are wonderful; we make a trip from Long Island to this shop just to restock (particularly the peppercorns!). And the customer service cannot be topped; responsive to any need.

This place is amazing. They have every single spice you could ever need AND amazing vinegars and Halva. The owner is so knowledgeable and wonderful.

I don’t understand some of the negative reviews. This place is amazing and the owner is gracious and helpful. I have bought many spices for myself and family. She always gives me something to try and has also taken time to explain things to me. Love this place. Everything is fresh and wonderful. I love the complimentary ginger shots that she gave my friend and I.

They’re always pleasant and always have that hard to find ingredient that I’m trying to find. SOS Chefs is excellent.

Very interesting spice and specialty store in alphabet city. Place has a large amount of dried mushrooms, home made vinegars as well as spices. If you cook at al you can snag some things that you don’t easily find in other stores. Staff was very kind and helpful.

Owner woman randomly walked up to me to angrily demanded that I should ask her questions and not just look around. she claimed that customers who just look around were terrible people.
I was kinda weirded out by the crazy lady, but I nonetheless asked about the spice I happened to be holding just to pacify her.
«tell me about this spice» I asked.
«It’s for uh, foods, and beverages»
«okay…How about this one?»
«That one is for foods. and you can also use it on… beverages.»
I asked a few times more about other spices until it became clear that she didn’t really have any knowledge other than that the things on her shelves could be used for foods and beverages.
Also, it’s very overpriced for stuff that’s not all that rare or fancy.

Woman who was presumably the proprietor lurked over everyone making me uncomfortable, but a great selection on packed shelves.
PS Beer Belly Jellies per NYT ¹²⁄₁₃

Walking into this little shop could be quite intimidating. You are welcome to browse, but if you are looking for something specific, I encourage you to muster up the courage to ask. Despite the size of the store, I have been able to find everything I have been looking for from exotic fresh produce to frozen purees. The owners of the store, a lovely couple, are eager to help and educate you when it’s not too busy. It’s a store that will slowly grow on you over time.

SOS Chefs is the best spice shop I have ever been to. It may be the /​only/​one I have ever been, but that doesn’t mean it is not awesome. They have wall to wall spices organized by type, then by source origin location. They have great simple packaging and jars to contain them. They have spices available in all different sizes, bulk and even the ability to mix your own blends right there. There is imported honey and other goodies from all around the world.
It is a little pricey, but I think it is worth it to get some of those rare spices you can usually only find on the internet. I think I spent about $ 30 total for a small jar of imported Tunisian honey, and an Arabic spice blend with cumin, paprika coriander and other goodies in it. Not to mention there is a kitty running around too :)
The shop is setup nicely, with some of the floor-​to-​ceiling shelves having a sliding library-​like shelf in front of them to fit more spices. The have spice jars and big salt bricks all around, cooking vessels and other functional culinary adornments to set the mood. It is a good find in Alphabet City for the curious gastronome.

This is a gold mine of powerful, interesting and tasty spices that you won’t find anywhere else in the area. Never again will I buy red pepper flakes at the supermarket. This place had them in a huge container for under $ 25, and the quality can’t be matched. The red pepper flakes we got here are very strong and flavorful, infusing a whole dish with a nice spiciness. We also got an exotic black pepper that was recommended to us by the staff, and now, we don’t wanna use our normal black pepper! Can’t wait to return to buy quality cumin, more types of peppers and other yummy spices. Thanks SOS Chef!

Just discovered this store today, loved the selection of interesting goodies. Very nice
service, I’ll return when I have more time to investigate!

Have to add my frustration to Ken J’s review. I tried to check out the place yesterday around noon but eventhough there was a person working inside the door was locked and my presence was totally ignored. Thinking that it might have been an employee who had been instructed not to open the shop during the possible luch hour I departed. On my second attempt today at 11 A.M. I encounterd the same locked door but now there were 3 people who totally ingored me. Another gentleman tried knocking on the inside glass door to no avail. Frustrated by their inactions I remaind for at least 10 more minutes until finally someone finally arrived at the door. She asked if there was something specific that I wanted. I replied that I am a cook and was curious to check out their store as another source in N.Y. besides the other tried and true distributers along with mail order houses. Now get this. I am at the store and she suggests that I check out the stores website !
It will be a cold day in Hell if my shoes ever cross that stores threshold.

Looks like they had a lot of good stuff through their windows — HOWEVER — when I called to find out what their hrs were, they told me that they close at 5:00PM. *okay* I asked for general directions… which they kindly gave me… I thanked them and said I’d see them later. I even called back 5 minutes later and asked for the nearest train station… they kindly gave me that info also. WHAT THEY FAILED TO TELL ME BEFORE I TOOK PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FROM NJ, THEN TAKING MULTIPLE TRAINS TO THEIR LOCATION BEFORE 5:00PM CLOSE WAS THAT THEY WERE CLOSED ALL DAY LONG DUE TO INVENTORY AND NO CUSTOMERS WERE ALLOWED!!. Why couldn’t the IDI*T who answered the phone include that vital piece of information over the phone when I asked them initially, «WHAT TIME DO YOU CLOSE?» A simpler answer would’ve been, «We’re open until 5:00pm, however, today we’re closed due to Inventory… Sorry»
After being rudely told at the door, that they don’t care… they had the audacity to say that I can go on their web site and order — — - Yeah, right!!! They easily lost a few hundred dollars in business that day from me alone, and it didn’t seem to bother them!

Selection of ultra high end food/​chef ingredients — 5 stars
Availability to buy small and large portions of many items — 4 stars
Sales staff being your shadow from the instant you are there but having some patience with my questions — 2 star
The owner not smiling — 1 star
The owner’s child running around — 4 stars
The prices on the items — 2 stars
Being intimidated to even check your cell to look up certain items at the store — 1 star
The above scoring averages comes out to 2.71 but I round up to 3 stars.

Amazingly, beautiful store!!! It is like being at some incredible art gallery of tastes and scents. The products surely have magical properties, the owner a jewel! Don’t miss this lovely place!

This place has an amazing selection. It’s too bad the guy running it is a jerk. I am working on a movie in the neighborhood and since I am a big foodie and own a good business, I stopped in to take a look. I was amazed at what they had and had already found several things I wanted to purchase. That is until the tall skinny white guy decided to act like a jerk to me simply because I work on film sets. He asked me if I was looking for anything specific, and since I was not, I said no. Then he felt the need to comment on how film people are always jamming up his place and «just looking». He was very rude and dismissive in his tone, then walked away. If he hadn’t been such a twit he would have gotten a great deal of business from me. Between my food business and my fiancées skin care company we purchase several thousand dollars worth of the very products he had in his store every month. Not one penny of that business will ever go to SOS, what a jerk.

During a recent visit to NY, a friend and I stopped here when the fragrant spices caught our attention as we were on our way to a deli. The owner was very welcoming and even allowed us to taste samples of honey. Both my friend and I fell in love with the manuka honey but sadly they were out of stock so we were unable to purchase during our visit. Upon my return to San Diego, I sent an inquiry through their website and was notified a few weeks later when the honey was available. Although there was a minor issue with my order, I can confidently say I will be ordering from here again and have recommended this honey to several people (3 small spoonfuls a week and I have not had any allergy issues this season!). SOS Chefs clearly carries high end hard to find items because trust me, I searched and could not find this honey anywhere else. I am a fan!

The older reviews are not very helpful — this is a shop generally geared for chefs, where you can buy things like green pistachios, apricot oil, cedar honey, distilled cinnamon water, reagents for molecular gastronomy, it’s really spectacular.
The owner and a sales assistant both took the time to give me samples or sniffs of a few items. The prices are high for odd stuff, or things provided in bulk, but they are mostly marked clearly, and they generally repackage into smaller amounts if you just want a small sample.
While I was there several chefs visited, they seem to know and respect the owner.
Worth a visit as a kind of temple of food, you may even be tempted to buy a few items. The owner said that she wants to expand the business beyond professional chefs, so you will probably be welcomed as I was.

It’s back open, was in the shop today.
Was my first visit ever to this business, had been googling where the best spot is to find fresh chanterelles in NYC and this spot popped up.
The place is a cooking foodies paradise, with high quality spices, hard to find fresh gourmet mushrooms, tempting finishing oils, and a wide selection of honey, mustard, dried beans, scented salts, canned delicacies…
In short, I walked out of there with the fresh mushrooms i’d been seeking along with a few other items I hadn’t expected but was more than happy to find.
BTW I found the owner to be charming. She encouraged me to check out her selection, take whiffs of her finds from around the world; she struck a great balance between showing off her tempting wares without any pressure to buy. I am not rich by any means, just appreciate spending my hard earned money on high quality ingredients to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes. This place is not overpriced at all, but definitely caters to fellow foodies.
Will be back soon!