This fruit stall is the best thing about Kingsway. The fruit is good quality and so much cheaper…read morethan the not-as-fresh produce at the nearby Sainsburys. An amazing stall to have on my way home from work!

One of my favourite places to procure fresh fruits and veggies. Not only do they have a…read moremarvelously varied selection - everything from your most exotic veg to your more mundane staples - it is also *cheap.* I dare you to find a chain grocery store that comes close to underselling these folks. Yet, unlike some inexpensive fruit and veg stands.. where you feel like you'd have to scrub the skin off your produce before you'd be convinced it was sanitary enough to eat... Ali's, wonderfully, doesn't feel cheap... there's nothing dingy or unclean about the place... everything is kept tidy and orgnanised and beautifully stacked. The other thing that keeps me coming back here is the shop's proprietor. He is always smiling and courteous - and well, one of those kindly sort of people that you just *want* to buy from... again, try finding someone like that at Tesco's HQ!

Hat tip to Lizzie G for first introducing me to this place!…read more Newington Green Fruit and Veg by the numbers: 1 - hunk of ginger root 1 - garlic bulb 3 - grapefruits 4 - onions 5 - carrots 10 - stalks of celery (in a bag) 3.83 - Total cost in £s for all the above. No partridge. No pear tree. I'm a cheap yellow bastard that likes quality products, so it's no wonder I'm a regular here even though it's a 20+ minute trip on the 341 for me.

"I've got a lovely pair of coconuts..." "Come Mister Tally…read moreMan, tally me banana..." "Strawberry fields forever..." It once was one shop, it's now two. One is just storage and the other is a beautiful array of fruit, herbs, spices and veg for locals to come down to browse and buy. For a few quid you can walk out with a bag of produce bigger than my leg. It's fantastic quality and loads of it is British grown. I don't bother going anywhere else now, it's my one stop fresh fruit stop!

I don't know what they do with their flowers, but whenever I buy a bouquet from here it seems to…read morelast for 14 days minimum. They usually have a nice selection of plants/flowers, although I am ashamed to admit I haven't bought fruit and veg from there yet! This place is also great for an impulse purchase when you're popping out for a weekend stroll - my boyfriend picked up a bonsai tree from there for just £20!

The best grocer in the area, we go here for all our fruit and veg. Really friendly, if you have any…read morespecific requests they get it in for you (we wanted Kale once, and a few days later it was there for sale). My top tip is the huge bunches of fresh parsley for sale. Perfect for making a big parsley salad.

What a great gem in Walthamstow loving the refill options and saved 30% on all refills made whilst…read morekeep the planet plastic free Souls a great guy dude won't charge for anything not good for sale just gave me a load of veg gone soft there good for me that's dinner veg sorted

Organic health food store with a zero waste concept both saving on price and plastic packaging…read moregoing further using nutraflex biodegradable packing on home brands Also a wide range of vegan,gluten free,and fair trade products all @ zero waste

You'd either prance into Stoke Newington Farmers' Market as the mecca of your fresh, organic,…read morelocally grown pilgrimage, or you'd stumble on it by mistake. It was the latter for me, and I couldn't feel luckier to have found such a gem. Since that day I've learned that all that fruit and veg and cheese and meat and yummmmmm that I was drooling over all comes from within 100 miles and is sold (and transported) by the growers themselves. How legit is that? Oh, and it's the first farmers' market in the UK to offer only organic and biodynamic produce? I love you. (Oh Portland, you crunchy little city, you -- you're just borrowing ideas from everyone now aren't you?)

This is a Farmers Market in every sense of the word. There are about twenty stalls give and take,…read moreand every one is organic or healthy in some way. The punters were very savvy as to what they wanted too, so talking to them about the villainy of supermarkets was great. With more organic fruit & veg than you can shake a stick at, vegan ice-cream, Indian food, organic fresh breads, not to mention a fantastic butcher, Stoke Newington Farmers Market is a great find.

What a pleasant, perplexing mix of vendors where you can buy everything from broccoli to turkish…read morecarpet. It's half market/half jumble sale. But it's also interesting and full of entertaining characters. You need not buy a thing... just come for the show.

"Any bowl for a pound!" This is the cry you can expect to hear when you meander past Brick Lane's…read morefruit market on a Sunday. The markets location is actually Sclater Street, but it links onto the truly bizarre Sunday Brick Lane market scene. The bowls are crammed with fruit. Whether it is apples, lemons or plums, you can get a carrier bag full with fruit for less than a fiver. It is the perfect stop if you are serious about achieving your five a day. They had huge grapefruits last week, three for £1 and I didn't get them. GUTTED! The whole scene on a Sunday around Brick Lane is a melee of urban randomness. It encapsulates the heart of East London by ensnaring so many cultures and styles within a few packed London streets. This is a must see area for tourists and locals alike.

I have replaced eating chocolate (and bread and cheese and all of those nice things) with sushi…read more I'm not fussy about my sushi, any old supermarket that sticks rice and fish together does me well. So, anyway, I figured that I would make my own. And this is where Whole Foods came into things. Sushi went surprisingly well. But my bank is missing £16. And that's not including any fish or vegetables. This place is pricey. But its good for you. The food is fresh, there is a big variety of things, they have a great deli section for you to take out hand made, fresh cakes, salads, etc. So I guess that you are paying for the quality ingredients....and good for you stuff. Just don't come the day before you get paid, coz this place is no bargain basement. It is worth coming on a Saturday, as there are loads of free samples dotted around the place, and if you eat enough then you will stop being hungry and buy less, so you will be able to afford your rent. Which is always a good thing!

Soooo overpriced. But if you're trying to find fancy, random, exotic ingredients for your newest…read moreGordon Ramsay creation then this is a good place to find them. And they have a large face and body care product department, patchouli hipster twat heaven. Just do like I did back home. Come for the fancy rare things that you need for your recipe, get the other stuff everywhere else.

If you're into cooking Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani dishes at home, this store has a full selection…read moreof ingredients for you. When I first moved to this area, I bought a great Indian cookbook and I stocked my spice cabinet with purchases from here. I keep coming back. The staff there provide "no nonsense" service. A nice benefit is that while you're shopping, they're playing slamming music sometimes. One time I liked the tune so much I dared ask for the name of the CD. The checkout clerk unsmilingly wrote it down for me, told me where to buy it (further down the street on Brick Lane); he definitely hooked me up! (another time I ended up buying a car here too, but that's a story for another time and place!)

If you are looking for Indian / Pakistani / Bangladeshi Groceries in Central London, Taj Stores is…read morea great place to pick them up. They sell spices in bags ranging in size from 100gms to 5 kilos and the price is way lower than even Tesco. For those who know what these are: Taj stocks Maggi hot & sour masala chilli sauce, Roohafza & fresh curry leaves (almost impossible to find anywhere in central London) Its a sprawling store with huge variety & great prices. They have fresh fruits & vegetables too. Plenty of namkin, spice pastes, pickles, variety of dhal & rice. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.