Kohli’s Indian Imports

I visited this store on a recent trip to Pittsburgh. The person behind the counter was very pleasant and helped me find something I was looking for. There was food there, but the higiene did not look particularly great and I didn’t try it. I was rather disappointed as I had expected a much larger store with a much larger selection. Basic spices (cumin sedes) were so difficult to find I almost left without them, although I did find them in the end. I was a bit disappointed as I had come to this store specially from a country where Indian grocery stores are almost non-​existen hoping to stock up not only with the basics on my list but lots of other ítems, and there wasn’t really the seelction I had anticipated. There wasn’t a great selection of incense either, which I hadn’t gone specifically to buy but… I came out with none.

The location is very convenient for CMU students… They serve good lunch boxes at a reasonable rate too… It’s very good… Especially for those who keep wanting to refill their Indian grocery

I can’t go below 1, otherwise it’s a 0. They have expired items (my friend almost bought a juice which had expired more than a month ago). Most of the items are pricier than other shops. Not to mention that they annoy customers trying to force them to buy some kind of item like lunch or samosas etc.

This place has gone completely downhill since my last review. They do not provide good quality food items anymore. I purchased basmati rice that had little creatures living in it as soon as I opened the bag! What is worse, they DO NOT sell you items at their advertised website rate. I pointed this out to the owner and basically said that he didn’t care. How awful of a business owner are you? You advertise one rate and then tell the customer that you won’t give that rate!
I am never coming back here again.

Super helpful staff which is knowledgeable about their products and can offer advice on how to use ingredients.
They stock a lot of spices and rices. You can also pick up specialty ingredients such as tamarind and Indian desserts. Kohli also sells some hot foods to go such as samosas.

My lifeline at Pitt. Need I say more? I do all my ‘indian food’ shopping here, and they even have outlet convertors — something i had not expected!

Samosas are crispy, slightly spicy and potato-​filled. Delicious for a whopping price of $ 1. Also a great place to buy spices. Wasn’t sure where to find turmeric powder but I found it here.

Decent indian grocery store close to CMU. I can get all sort of spices and your not so common english vegetables: bitter gourd is how I rock a curry. The have lunch and dinner packages that are ok-​ish especially for someone who hypothetically spends late nights working in the lab.

Best samosas. $ 1

I never would have even thought to stop in Kohli’s if it wasn’t for JB. He works near by and knows I love the scent of Nag Champa incense so he bought me some. While I was waiting for him to get out of work one day, I stopped in to take a peek at what they had to offer. My shopping basket filled up fast — jasmine rice, naan, samosa, mint chutney (try mixing that in some cous cous or quinoa and peas and pignolia), piri piri, ginger paste, cilantro chutney… the list goes on.
The goods you find here cost HALF of what you pay at Giant Eagle and other grocery chains. All I can say is that this place is amazing and I’m so happy it exists.

A great place to shop or grab a snack, I’ve purchased many a samosa while walking by. The great selection of Indian imports is truly impressive, especially given the cramped space in which they operate (which admittedly limits selection and shopping comfort, but not as much as I would have thought).
Oh, and if you’ve never tried masala flavored potato chips, then you haven’t tried potatoes the way Vishnu intended.

I mostly stop here for the Samosas, which are delicious! The pakora is awesome when they have it. The box lunches are pretty good too and really cheap. It’s also a great place to pick up spices.

Kohli’s is an Indian import and convenient shop. They sell a wide variety of things in a quite small space. Being a convenient shop, they have an impressive amount of drinks and candies. The import part includes a wide variety of items, including but not limited to: housewares, cookwares, representations of deities, spices, frozen foods, etc. They also have a limited amount of fresh groceries. I always encounter the same 3 people working there and they are all very friendly.
The impressive part (for me at least) is the take-​away tali-​type meals. They sell scrumptious samosas for $.90 and meals for less than $ 5, along with a few other hot items that seem to rotate in and out. The hot food comes from the Indian restaurant, Namaste, and each lunch portion includes two entrees, rice, and half a naan. There will be one with 2 veg options and one with 1 veg option and a chicken dish. The thing I really love about the food is that it has some spice to it, almost to medium (which is better than no spice – as some places do with any food prepared for the general public). Please note that the lunch portion size is not terribly big, so if you eat a lot, you might want to get that samosa to round things out. Also, the lunches sometimes run out fast, especially during the school year, so get there earlier than later if you are counting on it (the earliest I’ve seen them sell out is by 1230, but usually it is after 1).
This isn’t the most charismatic Indian meal you’ll ever get, but I can tell you after working in this neighborhood for nearly 2 years, it is a tasty and cheap option for lunch.

Really convenient Indian store with all the basics, plus a lot of really random stuff I actually don’t see very often in India itself.
They stock essential survival items (Maggi, Frooti, Frozen Parathas etc) plus all kinds of indian spices and pre-​cooked stuff.