About us
We started with
one table.
In 1998, Ramesh Sivanandan sold curry leaves and drumsticks from one table on Surrey Street market in Croydon. He started because no shop nearby sold them.
The table became a small unit. The unit became a proper shop. The same family still runs it today.
Our job is simple: find the things people cannot get anywhere else, and always have them in stock. Most of what we sell — rice, flour, oil, tins — you could buy in any supermarket. What you cannot get there is someone who knows which one you need. Idly rice and ponni rice are not the same thing, and we will tell you which to buy.
We began delivering in 2019, when a regular customer broke her wrist and asked us to drop a sack of rice at her door. We have delivered ever since. Today we pack every order by hand in Croydon and send it anywhere in the UK.
1998
One table on the market
Curry leaves, drumsticks and coriander. Saturdays only.
2003
Our own shop
A real shop with a cold room. Rice starts arriving by the pallet.
2011
We add a freezer
Parottas, tapioca and grated coconut. Our Sri Lankan and Kerala range doubles.
2019
We start delivering
Three postcodes. About forty orders a week.
2026
We deliver across the UK
Same shop, same family. Every order still packed by hand.
1998
Trading in Croydon since
900+
Products in stock
90
Brands we stock
7
Days a week we open
2×
Fresh deliveries a week
How we buy
Three rules we have
never changed.
Rule one
Buy small and often
We get fresh food twice a week, not once. There is less to choose from on a Thursday, but the leaves are better on a Tuesday.
Rule two
Stock what people ask for
If three people ask for something in a month, we put it on the shelf. That is how our Sri Lankan range started.
Rule three
Tell you when it is not good
If the okra arrives poor, we say so before you order it — not after you have opened the box.