Gourmet of Olde City

This is by far the best place for loose leaf tea in the city. The owners are welcoming and willing to spend time helping you choose your favorite one. Their selection of smoked and Japanese teas is extensive, and you can easily spend hours browsing their teapots, tetsubins, and tea sets. They also have gourmet jams, hot sauces, chips, and chocolate. I highly recommend checking this place out when you’re in Old City.
Don’t forget they are closed Sunday.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!
I moved to the City a year ago with my boyfriend and on a sunny afternoon we wandered down 3^rd St. This store immediately caught my eye and I think we spent an hour in here just browsing.
We got engaged a few months later and immediately thought of this place to register for our place settings. Irene is one of the store owners and she is quite possibly one of the sweetest women on the planet. She went through all of the items in the black alloy set with me and my (now) husband. We picked the items and quantity we wanted of everything and then she managed everything from there. People called her directly and picked items off our registry. She meticulously tracked everything for us and then had it all nicely packed up and waiting for our pick up when we returned from our honeymoon. We received unsolicited positive comments from our guests about how wonderful she was to work with and everyone loved the idea that we were registered with a local business.
Their selection is amazing, their service is wonderful, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to town. The only critical thing I would say (in order to provide a balanced review) is that their website often has discrepancies with what you see in the store. The store seems to be the most up to date and I would recommend calling Irene directly if you were planning to order anything online.

Damn you, Olde City, you hit my weakness! Kitchenware. Dishware. Adorable. Classy. Unique. Random kitchen utensils you never knew you needed, like chopstick holders shaped like frogs, glassware sets made for specifically drinking Limoncello, single cupcake holders, or wine and cheese picnic sets. Need I go on? I spent what felt like an eternity window-​shopping here. There’s also an ample selection of tea, coffee, various condiments, and hard-​to-​find candy and chocolates.
The ladies who run the shop are friendly, too. One of them encouraged us to try the free samples of fruit vinegar, which is woefully pricey, but delicious. There were also samples of salsa and chips and candy.
Like me and others before me have said, it’s a bit pricey (I’ve seen some of the same items for sale in kitchenware stores in Chinatown), but I suppose it’s pretty geared towards tourists and has to keep up with similarly priced shops in the area. There is a sales rack in front with some fun stuff, though!
If money and space were no object (s?), I’d buy all of the matching dish sets here!

Clearly this vendor has problems. Their site enables mail ordering items however there is no assurance of security in handling orders (which is standard practice) and links on the site either went nowhere or brought up pages which were unrelated to the original link. When this was brought to their attention, their response was to demonize the customer who brought this to their attention. A response of «thank you for alerting us to this» and moving on would have been the appropriate response and one which is in keeping with standards of business practice. The fact that this business could not bring itself to address such information in a mature manner let alone their refusal to obtain a trust certification for conducting financial transactions via the web is unacceptable. Beware.

Fantastic selection of loose tea and an extremely knowledgeable staff. Some of the tea here really smells heavenly. They also carry a selection of coffee, gourmet food items, hot sauces, pottery, and kitchenware. A lot of the Japanese pottery though, I’ve seen in Chinatown for much cheaper so I probably wouldn’t get any of that here, but they have other great gift items and gadgets as well.

I’m a huge fan of this place. Friendly service, relaxing atmosphere, tons of great items and gourmet foods — what’s not to love? The sweets section alone is enough to make your head spin. I’ve gotten mugs, coffee, kitchenware, and of course chocolate… delicious chocolate. It’s a wonderful place to shop for gifts and, of course, treats for yourself.

Terrible service. Was looking for a relatively obscure item which was listed on the store’s web site. I called to ask if an item was in stock and was assured that it was after the person answering the phone told me that she just looked for it. Less than an hour later, I stop in and was told that that item hadnt been stocked in months. I called the phone number listed, which is apparently a cell phone, and was told that I must have asked about the wrong item. Right, I must have been confused about what I wanted. Not worth the trip, just get what you need at any number of other local or online shops.

I had to work hard to keep my inner foodie/​party planner from getting too excited about this shop. I spent a good 20 minutes just walking around staring at things. This is one of those shops that is filled with the most random items that you never knew you wanted/​needed. Their gourmet product selection is quite impressive: teas, coffees, preserves, etc line the shelves. They also have pretty nifty gadgets, glassware, and the like. The staff was very friendly and left me alone for the most part to putter around their store. I will be sure to stop in here again for some of their gourmet items the next time I plan on having people over.

A really fun place to browse — with a very helpful and friendly staff. I only found this gem a month ago — and now it is a regular stop. Huge selection of teas, gourmet oils and vinegars, pastas, seasonings and hot sauces. It IS pricey, but it’s also not a discount store — it’s an elegantly laid out, well thought-​out shop. If you love to cook (or eat) give it a try — it’s a fun place to shop!

Great place to find gifts for the foodie in your life. Fun food items, expensive chocolate, and interesting tea/​coffee products. Definitely a fun place to browse and splurge.
They also have a large selection of Japanese tableware. I buy the same stuff at low prices in LA. Here, however, they sell to tourists and Olde City patrons who don’t know that they can find better prices elsewhere. Then again, maybe they can’t. I’ll keep looking…