Iranian Grocers

Iranian grocers and Persian supermarkets in Germany. A trip to one of these shops is rarely browsing. It is an errand: you have a list of things the supermarket on your corner does not stock, and you want to make one journey and come back with all of it. The awkward part is that the list is rarely complete in any single shop, and you usually discover that after you have arrived. The businesses on this page carry no sub-categories, so nothing on a profile tells you which one has a meat counter, which one gets bread in fresh, and which one sells packaged goods only. The only way to find out is to ask, and it is worth asking before you set off rather than at the door.

What the Verified badge does and does not say

Verified says one thing only: a real person stands behind this profile and manages it themselves. YabInfy does not check anyone's certificates, licences, experience or competence, and the badge is not for sale.

What these shops usually stock

Since this page has no sub-categories to narrow by, this short list is standing in for them. Depending on the shop, some of it is there and some of it is not:

• Fresh herbs, whole and chopped. Unlike the rest of the shelves, these are not there every day. They depend on the delivery.
• Bread: barbari, sangak, lavash and taftoon, sometimes baked on the premises, sometimes brought in from a bakery a few times a week.
• Rice, pulses, spices and condiments, from split peas and chickpeas to sumac, turmeric, tomato paste and verjuice.
• Dairy, pickles and preserves: kashk, doogh, cheese, cream, and the full run of torshi.
• Nuts, dried fruit and pastries sold by weight, weighed out and boxed at the counter.
• The freezer: fish, frozen chopped herbs, pastry, and sometimes part-prepared dishes.
• Saffron, tea, rosewater and herbal distillates.
• Cookware and kitchen things: a samovar, tea glasses, large pots.

Some of these places are really more than one business under one roof: a butcher's counter, a bakery, or a small kitchen selling cooked food. Others are a single small unit with full shelves and no counter at all. That difference is the largest one between two names on this list, and no label on this page shows it.

What is worth phoning ahead for, rather than turning up for

Most of the shelves are always there. A few things are fresh or limited, and those are the ones that turn a trip into a wasted journey:

• Fresh herbs. Ask which day the delivery arrives, and what time. Sabzi khordan and the herbs for ghormeh are good that day and the next, and then they are not.
• Bread baked on the day. Ask what time it is baked, or what time it arrives. Coming in the late afternoon for warm bread usually means an empty rack or yesterday's loaves.
• Frozen fish and frozen herbs in the weeks before Nowruz. This is the busiest stretch of the year and those two things go first. If the haft-sin table and the fish for the new year meal are on your list, order weeks ahead, not days.
• A large meat order. Minced meat, a shoulder, ribs, or a whole lamb for a party normally has to be ordered in advance, and the shop, not you, sets the collection day.
• Pastries by weight for a gathering. Several kilos of baklava or cream puffs cannot be lifted out of the display case at the last minute.

Judging saffron for yourself

This is a shopper's rule of thumb, and it says nothing about any business on this list. Three things you can check with your own eyes. First, buy whole threads rather than powder: powder cannot be inspected, which is exactly what makes it the natural place for adulteration. Second, look at the evenness of the colour: the threads should be more or less the same shade, and a lot of yellow or white among them means part of the weight you are paying for is the flavourless base of the stigma. Third, work out the price per gram rather than the price per box, because small packets and decorative tins make comparison hard, and a per-gram price far below everything else is a question, not a bargain. Once home, keep it sealed and out of the light.

The halal counter: ask the shop

YabInfy does not check whether meat is halal, and no label on this page claims that it is. If it matters to you, ask the shop directly, and ask specifically: where the meat comes from, whether the counter is kept separate, whether there is a certificate you can see, and what they themselves mean by the word, because buyer and seller do not always mean the same thing by it. An answer that is vague on the phone tends to stay vague in person.

The German practicalities newcomers get wrong

• Sundays and public holidays. Shop opening hours in Germany are set at Bundesland level and differ from one state to the next, and some public holidays are observed in some states and not others. So no general rule written on this page will be true for your town. The authority is the opening-hours sign on that shop's own door, and after that a phone call. For a Sunday or a holiday, assume closed until told otherwise.
• Pfand on bottles. On many bottles and cans you pay a deposit at the till and get it back when you return the empties. Not every shop takes back every container, so if you are turning up with a bag of bottles, ask first.
• Cash. Small shops taking cash only, or setting a minimum for card payment, is still common enough to be worth checking. Ask before a big shop or a meat order, because the till is a late place to find out.

What to ask when you get in touch

• How many days in advance an order has to be placed, and who decides the collection day.
• Whether they deliver, to which neighbourhoods or towns, and what it costs.
• What the minimum order value is, both for delivery and for paying by card.
• Which days the herbs and the bread arrive.
• Whether they will hold something aside for you until you can come in.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing from this list

Unlike most pages on this site, here the nearer shop really is the better one. Herbs and bread do not travel, and a shop on your way home is worth more over a year than a better one you can reach once a month. Start from the city list at the bottom of this page and work outwards.

In the reviews, look for the things that can actually be judged: how fresh the herbs and bread were, whether an order was ready when it was promised, and whether the person on the phone gave a straight answer. A review that only complains about prices tells you less than one saying the new year order turned up a week late.

What you do here stays with you: YabInfy never discloses who opened a profile or who called which shop. The one thing that is public is the review you write, published under whatever name you choose for it. Each shop's number sits behind the "Show contact details" button and goes straight to the shop.

There is more about how this site works in the FAQ, and if you run a shop like this yourself, add your business.