I'm now a regular at this store where I stock up on my favourite spices, dried fruit & nuts and…read moresavoury snacks. This store has all your grains, pasta, flour (every type including banana?!), legumes, teas, coffee, spices, herbs, energy/health "balls" and so much more. The Source stocks a great majority of Australian and Organic produce. It's mainly self-serve - except for the spices in large jars on the top shelf - which you can weigh on the scales provided and put in brown paper bags provided. Staff are super friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. And prices are very, very reasonable. Why would you purchase expensive, mainstream foods, when you can buy Fresh, Organic, Cheap and Bulk? See you next week The Source Bulk Foods for my stock up of Organic Coconut Flakes (soooo goood) and oils.

At first glance Bivano and Sons appears to be a high quality and well stocked fruit and vegetable…read moreshop. But anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting this well known grocer knows better! Yes B & S has the best looking and diverse range of fruit and veg I have seen, but it doesn't stop there. There is a beautiful range of flowers to choose from as well as a deli section I could very well live in. Any shop that has a fridge of Ben and Jerry Ice-Cream has my vote. And yes, they do stock a range of sauces and deliciousness from Gourmet Simon Johnson. This grocer is not only filled with beautiful products but friendly staff and a conjoining butcher for all your carnivourous needs. This place is a pleasure to visit and its produce joyous to consume. Yes, it is that good. All other greengrocers take note please.

Cooking an Asian meal tonight?…read more Pick up everything you need at ARC Asian Grocers. This new Asian grocer next to Preston Market has everything you need for your next Asian inspired meal. The store is new and very clean, making it a pleasure to explore, and trust me you will want to. The staff are happy to help confused non-Asian shoppers wanting to try something different! The fresh food section has all the herbs you need as well as Asian fruit and vegetables, yes even the stinky Durian is here for your culinary pleasure! There are aisles dedicated to Korean and Japanese cuisine (get your sake here too) and every spice, sauce or ingredient you need can most likely be found here. The coolers at the back of the store stock everything from coconut water to extra firm tofu, and there is an aisle dedicated to desert items, yum! The variety here is fantastic but the counters can get crowded on market days and the fresh meat selection is very limited. That doesn't matter though as you less then a minute from the meat and seafood section of Preston Market. Come here if you want to be inspired, want a taste from home or if your Asian grocery needs are not being met at your local chain supermarket.

I love the Fruit Pedallers. It is a little bit like a little rabbit warren with lots of nooks and…read morecrannies to find yummy tidbits of organic produce. It can be hard to find exactly what you need if you are after something specific, as the shop is not laid out in a methodical manner, but for me this makes the shopping experience all the more enjoyable. Sometimes I think the staff at the Fruit Pedallers must think I'm a little fruity myself, when I spend hours browsing the shop only to come up to the counter with a bottle of milk and a cucumber, for example. Up until recently their fresh fruit and veg have been very very expensive. But with a recent change to their buying strategy, they have dropped prices significantly. Yay! Now we can all eat more organic food. Who knows I may even come up to the counter with a cucumber and a head of brocolli. They also have naturopaths on staff - where you can get some free advice (as long as you buy their awful tasting herbal mixtures of course) on your lingering cold etc.

The Fruit Pedallers is a ditty little health food shop on Westgarth's High Street selling all…read moremanner of organic whole foods alongside natural therapies such as naturopathy, homeopathy, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, kinesiology, art therapy, acupuncture and more besides. In foodie slash health conscious Melbourne, where organic food stores are ostensibly a dime a dozen, The Fruit Pedallers is notable for its friendliness and excellent range of herbs and vitamins alongside fresh organic fruit and vegetables and a ruddy good selection of organic and fair trade chocolate. Its staff are helpful and extremely knowledgeable and although The Fruit Pedallers can be a little dearer than its competitors, this little Westgarth health food haunt is a local favourite, and with good reason. The Fruit Pedallers is a particularly good health food store to visit if you're in the market for vitamins or supplements and don't quite know what you're looking for. Excellent all round.

Not much stock - and the stock they do have is always "out of stock" so it is pointless. They don't…read morekeep up with health food trends. No coconut aminos. 2 of 6 flavors for the Nirvana salt range. When I asked if they had anymore out back a grumpy, short-haired, middle-aged woman stared blankly at me before an agro "No". I stood in the same section for 20 minutes. No help offered. Cashier was rude. No interaction at all. Not at all helpful. Very expensive for items you can buy online. Usually I avoid shopping online to support local small business - but not this place - no thanks. Rude, blunt, aggressive employees.

From the owner: All staff can give experienced advice to customers. FREE…read moreconsultations with the iridologist for health and nutritional advice. All customers can sign up for a free loyalty card .

Hidden behind the busy Sydney rd of Brunswick, every now and again you catch them when they're…read moreroasting. There is nothing quite like the smell of honey toasted almonds. Yum! Well priced, with larger quantities available, and more than just nuts - fruit, candy, chips and more.

I had a little trouble finding this place all tucked away in a little side road and then some. But…read moreit was well worth it. The Royal Nut Company is the front of house shop to a factory that imports, processes and distributes a lot of (you guessed it) nuts and other bulk foods for other wholesale and retail companies. As such it is very very cheap and the range is quite diverse. The initial reason I went there was because I wanted some Szechuan pepper which I was having a hard time finding anywhere. Well the Royal Nut Company has a massive range of really really cheap spices. It is totally worth going there on a regular occasion to stock up your pantry with all sorts of tasteful goodies. You may end up spending far more than you initially thought you would. But don't distress - you will be saving money in the long run. Trust me. They stock a range of grains, legumes, dried fruit, herbs, spices, nuts, nut butters and tinned food amonst various other things.

My friend was looking for unique souvenirs to bring back to the US and found exactly what he wanted…read morehere. There are hundreds of spices for all occasions and you can buy as much as you need. The clerk helped him pick out a few Australian native spice mixes and we got several little baggies of them ranging from 20g to 40g. The bags even have a description of the spices and how to use them. I'm sure the recipients of these gifts will appreciate them. This is a cool place to hang out and discover some spices and funky gifts. It is dangerous though; it's very easy to spend a lot of money very quickly.

Never have I wished more for smell-a-vision as I have writing this review. A Melbourne friend…read moreposted on an Instagram photo that while I was in town I couldn't leave without visiting this spice merchant. Perhaps it was my inner-Catholic guilt but I couldn't leave our day on Lygon Street and surrounds without stopping in. Thank goodness because this is any home cook and food lovers heaven. Walking in, it is a olfactory feast. Subtle scents of spice lure you from the door and once you enter it's a veritable feast for your imagination. "Oh I could cook this with that!?". All the bulk spice holds are organised into loose leaf teas, salts, herbs and more. Each spice, herb or tea comes with a short blurb on it's history and what could use it for. You can purchase small bags by the gram or in jars (stored above the bulk holds). I was honestly surprised by the value. Being a specialty store I had primed myself for prices far more than the average $7.95 for most of the spices within the jars. The challenge was limiting myself for what I would take back to Brisbane with me. There is a customer scale to check and trust me (there's a 20g minimum when buying most in the smaller paper packets, which if you're into packaging might be the thing to send you over the edge) you'll be surprised at how much you've scooped in to a bag and how fast that .70-$1.90 per gram adds up. And the decadent experience doesn't stop once you're at the counter. Your purchase is simply and sophisticatedly packaged in a sturdy brown paper bag, adorned with their branded sticker and gently handed to you for safe travels home. Dangerous to discover there's online ordering...

When I want to buy nuts I go to this shop, I don't buy nuts at the supermarket, there is too little…read morevariety and the prices are too high there. This little shop in Coburg's Victoria St. mall is an Aladdin's Cave of nuts, herbs and spices and dried fruit. It describes its stock as "continental groceries" but it is more Middle Eastern and international than strictly European. Not that I care about old classifications I'm here for the food. There are so many bulk grocery goods in this small shop, large containers of various oils, hopper of nuts and dried fruit. I get a quarter of kilo of their unsalted royal nut mix, a quarter of a kilo of slivered almonds for cooking and half a kilo of dates. Do I want Chinese or Iranian dates? The countries of origin for all these products are displayed. On the crowded counter I see some cinnamon almonds that sound too delicious not to buy.

I love that scene in The Simpsons where Otto walks out of a shop called Stoners Pot Palace and says…read moresomething along the lines of, 'that's a flagrant case of false advertising'. Hilarious. Naturally On High conjures images of those shops in NZ where you can get 'party pills' over the counter and they get you high in a sick kind of way for about 20 minutes, then you come down for five days and it's worse than any actual drugs you've ever taken. Reality is, they only sell organic dry goods, grains, nuts and produce here. Boring. But not really. They also do bread and it's pretty good, though you never seem to be able to get the same one twice, which kinda sucks. And they do all these sweets but then you get them home and you realise the chocolate's actually carob so you try and pass 'em off to you stupid nieces but they're wise to it and turn their spoilt brat noses up at them. But this place does do great healthy stuff. And they do know their shit. But you gotta put up with some pretty flaky service and narrow aisles and shit. I'm on the fence about this one...

Bulk goods and organic products are the calling card of Naturally on High, despite the inevitable…read moreassociations its' name conjures up. Not everything is totally organic and there's some gelatine based lollies down the front end, but all the bases seem to be covered from skin care through to dried fruit and nuts. The prices are very reasonable and there are some interesting brands on offer. However, the place is always ridiculously busy, so you end up spending a longer amount of time in a queue than you would at most other places, and the service can be a bit impersonal and spacey at times. It's also a very cramped store that's difficult to navigate if you're carrying a lot of stuff, but it's not too impossible a quest.

Wonderful cheese selection in the cheese cave that is downstairs with a knowledgeable cheese…read moremonger. I went to cheese stores all through Melbourne and around Brisbane and this was where I found the greatest selection of cheese made in Australia. Upstairs has a variety of boutique products from granola to chocolate. Also, there is a gelato counter and espresso bar as you enter the store.

This place looks like nothing more than a gelato shop from the front, so you'd be forgiven for not…read morerealising there's a whole specialty grocery inside -- and they also do delicious made-to-order artisan sandwiches to take away. To get a sandwich, bypass the gelato out front and go inside, then bypass the groceries and head straight to the back. There's a cashier here who will take your order and bring your sandwich out to you after about a 10-15 minute wait. I love this place because of their four vegan sandwich options: a tofu salad open sandwich with sesame and lime dressing; a bagel sandwich with a tofu and corn fritter and curried cashews, cucumber, and coriander; a tempeh burger on focaccia with kimchi and ABC sauce; and an eggplant, pumpkin, spinach, white bean, and basil pesto on focaccia. If these descriptions don't have you drooling right now, I don't know what's wrong with you. All vegan sandwiches are $11.50 and come with potato chips. This is a fair price for a delicious and rather filling lunch. Their non-vegan sandwiches aren't much more expensive either. My favorite is the tempeh burger with ABC sauce -- it's like an Indonesian sweet soy sauce -- oh man. Just the right mix of unusual but awesome flavours. There's no seating here -- it's take-away only, unless you're out front having a gelato. While you wait for your sandwich, you can peruse the specialty grocery items. They have a small but impressive collection of hard-to-find and locally-made items, such as La Tortilleria tortillas, local hand-made chocolates, jars of refrigerated kimchi, and chips made from all manner of non-potato things -- kale chips, bean chips, turnip chips.... Just be prepared for some sticker shock. These specialty groceries don't come cheap. (One of the chocolate bars was $14!!! It better be chocolate CRACK, at that price.) All in all, a great place to come for an awesome take-away sandwich with fresh and often unusual ingredients at lunchtime, and a fun place to peruse if you like your exotic, organic, hand-made/hand-dipped/hand-chopped/hand-crafted/hand-tooled/hand-whatever fancy-pants specialty grocery items. You know who you are. (Note the sandwiches are a Monday-Friday lunchtime thing only. I came once on the weekend and they weren't making sandwiches. The gelato is available all the time, but I admit I haven't sampled it yet.)