Arz Fine Foods
Arz Fine Foods is sort of like the Pusateri's of Lawrence Avenue East. The ambiance and selection here is slightly more refined than NASR. There's baklava fifty ways, a nice selection of cheese, olives from around the Middle East, fruits, veggies and more.
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This place is amazing...
Reminds me of marche adonis in Montreal
I've shopped at Pusateri's. ARZ is not the same. Less attitude and lower prices, for starters.
That being said, it's also more than "slightly more refined than NASR". It's SUBSTANTIALLY better than NASR IMO.
The deserts, for example. Huge selection of everything from sweet cookies to turkish delight type jelly pieces to various kinds of baklawa style treats and honey-filled and/or basted doughy deliciousness. My favourites include a shredded dough baklawa with custard in the middle and doused with honey, another shredded baklawa with halavah in the middle in the style of a sweet sushi maki roll.
The pita breads. The thin wrap-style ARZ-brand bread is solid with a sweet aftertaste. The pocket-style pita is soft and fresh (I store mine in the freezer and take it out a bag at a time to have fresh bread throughout the week). There is another round one that I take and add cheese and zaatar (a middle eastern spice mix) to for a quick, after-work pizza dinner for my son. They're all delish.
Then there are the olives. Sure, NASR has olives too. But ARZ has them out of reach of the general public and every kind I've tried have been fabulous. So you get taste AND some sense of sanitary protection.
The roasted nuts and seeds. Semi-salted pumpkin seeds are my partner's favourite, but my in-laws go nuts for the plain roasted and unsalted hazelnuts. The Syrian peanuts are addictive. Me, I tend to get either pistachios or almonds or cashews. No matter what we've picked up, we haven't been disappointed.
Did I mention the puddings? Mahalabe (a milky custard with rose water and sprinkled with crushed pistachios) and rice pudding are available to go in single cup size portions complete with folding fork/spoon.
You'd think that would be enough, but it's not. They have fabulous home-made labaneh, a wide range of canned and jarred goodies from around the world, and a generally friendly staff. Fresh produce. A very solid contribution to hummous in the city.
If you appreciate middle eastern food and are willing to make the trek out to Warden and Lawrence, this is somewhere to go.