Al-Aqsa Grocery

I’m not the average customer at Al-​Aqsa. Up until a couple months ago I had no reason to drive all the way to Temple Terrace for anything. Well, the hunt for halal meat led me here, and now I’m here weekly.
The owner speaks minimal English, and if you call and ask a question, it’s like trying to play charades without the visible gestures. If you (or whoever you’re going with) knows Arabic, you can have just about anything answered for you. The manthing was able to ask how to make mansaf, and was given a full recipe/​tutorial including pulling specific ingredients, but forgot how once we left. Ah well.
The other key employee here is the butcher. He’s there 6 days a week (11am to 7pm I believe) and will do just about anything for you, providing he understands what you want exactly. I tried for top sirloin and got a shrug from him. We’ve had all kinds of weird things cut up or packaged for us (albeit slowly because this guy takes his time) — lamb legs cut into thin pieces, liver thinly sliced, a couple trips into the cooler to find better-​looking chickens… We found if the meat was packaged by the butcher but without a sticker (it gets weighed at the checkout) that the price ended up cheaper than if we pulled it pre-​marked from the cooler. Not sure how that one works out. It seems like they have the best meat selection on Thursdays and it dwindles down in the days after. They carry some assortment of lamb, beef, chicken, and goat. Chicken comes in whole, pieces, and breasts. Beef and lamb comes in either some weird boned variety, ground, and sometimes steaks and stewing meat. Goat, well, I don’t pay much attention to, but a lot of things are marked as goat/​lamb. Around Easter we were able to pick up a halal frozen turkey too.
Besides the meat (it’s obvious why we come here, right?), they have a wall of spices, both prepackaged and «serve yourself» that we’ve had good luck with. They have staples like pita, dried lentils and beans, teas, drinks, honey, and a variety of sweets and snacks. There’s also a section of coolers with dairy products like labneh and cheeses, an aisle of soaps and hookah/​shisha stuff, and a corner with pots and tea sets. If you have no idea what most of the stuff is, it’s worth dragging someone who does. I will say that some of the stuff there is more expensive than Cedar Market (which is also closer to home), so we’ve made a point to stop there for some things instead.
The strange looks from conservative women shopping there never get old, but really guys, it’s Florida and it’s a million degrees outside!

Great little market in an unimpressive strip plaza in tampa. They have tons of mediterranean and middle eastern goodies. There are many unique items that would be hard to find at a normal grocery store. The service was «okay» but mostly this good review is for the wide variety of products.
Definitely check it out if you need the ingredients for a tasty middle eastern dish.

This Middle Eastern grocery store has most of the basic Middle Eastern food, from canned food (hummus, grapes leaves, baba ganoush, pickles, etc) to varieties of grains in bulk (lentils, beans, chickpeas, burgul, spices) in addition they have butcher in the back with fresh chicken, lamb and goat meat. They are going through major remodeling for the building from outside, but it really the inside that need remodeling.

Wow! I was bowled over by this market! From the outside, it looks kind of small, but inside it’s about twice the size than it appears to be, and chock full of Mediterranean treats. The flavors here are heavily middle eastern, but you can find stuff for Greek, Turkish and even some Indian cuisine. I loved walking down all the aisles checking out all the items!
Things are well priced too. I got a jug… a 1.1lb JUG… of za-​tar spice for 5 bucks. Seriously. There are many good deals to be had here! The bulk beans are also well priced, and a great option in times like these.
The selections of teas put me over the edge. I needed to be escorted out of the aisle otherwise I’d have shot my whole budget there alone! I can’t wait to go back…