Index Restaurant Supply

Really great place, with seemingly awesome prices. My father was a designer of commercial kitchens and cafeterias, so growing up in Chicago I was a regular at restaurant supply stores. I love them. You won’t find fancy stuff, but you’ll find quality product at a fair price. Index is exactly like this, and this was my first time at a restaurant supply store here in KC.
The place isn’t huge, but they do have storage upstairs where they go to get a lot of the stuff. I needed a stockpot, at least 20 qt/​5 gal, to (1) brew beer, and (2) can vegetables. The gentleman knew exactly what I needed when I mentioned home brew — stainless steel (though they did have aluminum too).
Now, I expected to spend upwards of $ 100 on a 20 qt stainless steel stockpot with lid. Not here, my friends. It was right around $ 60 with tax. «Steel» of the century! (giggle giggle)
So come on down to Index for all of your cooking and restaurant needs! The people are super friendly and helpful too.

This place has saved my ass so. many. times.
Tucked away into a corner of the River Market, this store is open to the general public, but as evidenced by the name is probably most useful to those of us that are doing some sort of commercial food prep. You’re not going to find pretty kitchen things you’ll want to display in your home, but they’ll have what you need to get most any job done.
In my previous life of a restaurant manager, I had come here for everything from silverware to chafing dishes to cleaning chemical. They’ve got most anything you could need for the kitchen. Now as the CM for Unilocal,I come here to stock up on basic but reliable bar equipment such as shakers, bottle openers, cutting boards and more. They’ve rarely if ever not had what I was looking for, and generally t reasonable prices.
The store can be a bit of a cluster, but the folks that work here are helpful and somehow seem to know where everything is. This is a really useful place that I think more folks should patronize.

Love this place! It helps satisfy my childhood dream to be a restaurateur. They have all kinds of kitchen stuff, and at industry prices. Did you ever want your own kitschy yellow mustard and red ketchup bottle without paying out the nose for it from Pottery Barn? What about those colored baskets that you get diner sandwiches in? Parchment paper cookie bags? Well they’ve got that, that, and that, and so much more. The staff is super friendly, and I love getting kitchen supplies there. They’re only open Monday through Friday until 5pm so plan accordingly.

3.5 stars
Long story short: This ain’t no Surfas, but they still have a decent selection of items and reasonable prices.
Long story long:
In moving to Kansas City last year, I was not able to bring out all of my cooking equipment, tools, and whatnot, mainly because I did not have a lot of room in my car. If I were to bring everything single piece of equipment, every bowl, knife, and tool, I probably would have needed something like a Surburban. Not going to happen.
I googled for restaurant supply stores and this one came up, seemingly to be the only one in the area. I made note of it and on the day I decided to go, I made the drive up to downtown.
First of all, because I hadn’t been to this particular part of town before, I got a little lost. There were a couple of one way streets that I had to deal with and this being the Rivermarket area, not every street had an outlet either. After about maybe 10 minutes of navigating, I finally spotted the store and made out a strategy to reach it.
Once parked across the street, I walk in and am greeted by an elderly gentleman. I could tell this place is not nearly as large as a place like Surfas in Culver City, CA, but this seemed to have a good selection of restaurant tools that I would probably be likely to find what I needed.
Unlike Surfas, which has a large section of specialty food items, Index does not have any specialty food and has just equipment, tools, plateware, flatware, and other items you would need to supply your home or commercial kitchen.
I was in search of a couple of round cake pans. I finally found them, they were a decent price than what I could probably get them at Surfas for, but their shape was not quite to my liking. I went ahead and grabbed a couple of other items such as latex gloves and a rolling pin, while I pondered the cake pans. I eventually decided to get the cake pans. I made my way to the register and that whole process was pretty straight forward. I was pretty happy with my purchase and the prices I paid.
About a week later, I decided to return the cake pans and exchanged them for ½ size sheet trays. The exchange was smooth and the elderly gentleman that helped me last time helped me this time.
Again, they don’t have quite the vast selection as Surfas, but they should be decent in supplying my basic cooking needs.

Great selection of cookware and really almost any restaurant quality item that you would want for home. Not everything is out on the floor so if you are looking for something in particular go and ask one of the very helpful associates for what you are looking for or a catalog (which is massive).
Any kitchen could easily be stocked here and it is definitely worth the trip down to the Rivermarket to get some professional quality items. The only thing to remember is that they are only open M-​F so either leave work early one day to get in or try calling them ahead of time.

Index is so apt a name for this place — it has everything a restaurant would need and then some. The thing is, I found it useful for any cook who has his or her own kitchen. The prices are not low but they do have sales and the staff is so incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, it’s like part of the cost is their expertise.
I visited on a Monday morning, a seemingly dead hour in the River Market — but surprisingly not. Index was packed with every kind of everything, from supplies to people. I know there has got to be an Asian restaurant opening up sometime soon because the crowds were predominately Asian and their hands were full of items to be purchased.
The first thing I noticed was their red tagged sale items placed indiscreetly in the front window — which I thought was a nice touch for visitors to allow them to know exactly where the lower-​priced items are at the start of their shopping trip instead of having to stumble upon it somewhere in the back if it catches their eye.
I was immediately greeted by a storefront manager who wrapped me into a conversation about the high school I attended (because of the sweatshirt I was wearing) and now, looking back, I can see it was a very shrewd move on his part. We talked for some time about it and finally he slipped out to get me their new catalogue. Index ships all over the United States, but it only delivers in a 100-​miles radius from the store.
I’m not surprised it sells Nationwide however, because everything was topnotch, everything was accounted for — things I would have never even thought of were provided in the best forms possible: stainless steel appliances being the key component here. EVERYTHING was stainless steel, a very professional and sleek look on everything! And while I know restaurant owners come here to stock up on what they need for their kitchen — I don’t know for sure if individual people come here who simply like to cook, because they should!
Index should market themselves alongside other kitchen supply stores for people who want quality individual items. Sears stocks too much crap with the good — it’s inconsistent and the staff is not expertly trained on the matter (they’re usually gradmother-​types coming out of retirement). Williams Sonoma shoppers would love this store — because it provides for every culinary experience there is in existence.
Seriously, here are some of the crazy amazing appliances and supplies I found:
1. Cut-​Resistant Gloves
2. Frozen-​dessert mixers
3. Iron french fry conical baskets
4. drawer warmers for bread and chips
5. pizza dispensing cabinets
6. infrared food warmers,
7. kettles
8. fast food trays
9. little bow ties
And these were the random items right alongside hundreds of pots and pans of every size and food need and aprons of every color, whisks of every design — I suggest at least looking through their catalogue they’ll ship to you for free: (
).
I might not own a restaurant, but I cook and if I ever had my dream kitchen — I would go straight to the source to supply it right — forgo the Sears kitchen retailer’s of this world — what do they know?! Index knows, it is their WORLD — they had rows of desks for their staff, all empty because they were busy helping out clients like me, curious or serious about owning a well-​stocked kitchen.