A Taste of Ukraine

Today the owners of a Taste of Ukraine in Burnaby made me feel very disappointed. I came to the store to complain about the quality of smoke-dried whitefish that I purchased a day before. Usually, this type of fish is soft and juicy. But this one was extremely hard and overdried and stale. I tried to cut the fish but it was so hard that after long attempts I could barely cut off the fish head even I had a good knife. Seeing that I could not cut the fish, I brought it back to the store in the hope they offer me either a refund or exchange. I am not saying that the whitefish was unsafe to eat. It was impossible to eat. But the owners stated the fish was of excellent quality. You feel completely powerless when the store does not recognize the obvious fact stating that the concept of “hard” is subjective, and what is hard for me can be soft for another. I am very disappointed that the store did not demonstrate any respect for the customer and did not want to resolve the situation. During our conversation, the owner talked rudely to me and used the “prison jargon” despite the fact that I asked him to speak respectfully. It was even hard to believe that an official person could talk to the customer like that. Very disappointing.Сегодня владельцы магазина Taste of Ukraine в Burnaby дали мне почувствовать себя очень разочарованным. Я пришел в магазин пожаловаться на качество копченой рыбы whitefish, которую купил накануне. Обычно такая рыба мягкая и жирная. Но эта была очень твердая и пересушенная, явно давно хранилась в магазине. Я попробовал разделать рыбу, но она была настолько твердой, что мне с большим трудом удалось отрезать голову, даже с хорошим ножом. Увидев, что у меня не получится порезать рыбу, я принес ее назад в магазин, надеясь, что они мне предложат или возврат денег, или обмен. Я не говорю, что рыба была опасна для еды. Её просто было невозможно есть. Но хозяева магазина заявили, что рыба была отличного качества. Чувствуешь полное бессилие, когда магазин не признает очевидного факта, говоря, что понятие «твердое» - субъективно, и то, что для меня является твердым, для другого может быть мягким. Я очень разочарован, что магазин не проявил никакого уважения к клиенту и не пожелал разрешить ситуацию. Во время нашего разговора хозяин магазина был груб и использовал «тюремный жаргон», обращаясь ко мне на ты и все время говоря «чувак, ты знаешь». Мне даже было трудно поверить, что “официальный” человек мог так разговаривать c клиентом. Очень неприятно.

Cakes are not the best you can buy. Also the marinated vegetables have strange smell and taste. Oh and the employees talking with customer like u came to rob them not make a shopping there.

Received horrible customer service. Very rude and unprofessional cashiers. Left a request for the manager's call back to get the resolution to an issue and never received a call back ever. Moreover, the store sells bread with mold on it. Brought it to the attention to cashier, the next day the same bread was on the shelf again. Another day asked to do the price check on cod liver and cashier responded to look it myself on the box. The price was not there. Cashier never helped or ever bother to assist. Lost customer and business.

I called ahead to see if the store has bamba puffs , the lady was kind to keep it aside for me as I said I would be there in 30 mins since it was the last bag. I made it there with my infant to find that not only it has a few days left before the Feb 22,2022 expiry date (visited the store on Feb 15), at the bottom of the bag near the date there was a pea sized hole exposing its contents ! Note, I had not touched the item this entire time as the staff was handling it and left it at the cashier counter. At that point when I noticed the upcoming expiry date, I had paid already with my cc so I asked for a full refund since I do not want to purchase opened goods! I wished the store staff had checked the packaging, it was the last bag and they didn’t have any stock at the back. I wasted time to travel to the store and going home empty handed.

I went to this place hopes of getting some poppyseed bread as they were pretty good last time I had it. When I asked the clerk, she said she didn't have any but one a frozen one in the back and that it's slightly broken. I told her it's fine because I don't care too much about the looks as long as it tastes good. Everything went well till I saw the price. I can't believe one of these things cost $12.27! I don't know why she weighed them and didn't give me the label price. I assumed it's because she brought it from the back and technically not in stock (?). 3/5 for the high cost for just poppyseed bread (but still tastes good).

We used to buy their pelmeni all the time. My last purchase was very disappointing, paid $20 for plain dough with no filling in it. The quality of the product went down drastically.

Looked forward to trying the perogies and they did not disappoint! Sales staff friendly and helpful. Large bag of nice tasting potato and onion perogie at an affordable price. I very much appreciate the Vegan and Vegetarian options as well, those are what I get. Will come back for more in the future.

I had just gotten out of doctor’s office and still pretty sedated. I stupidly decided to go in by myself as I’ve always wanted to try their perogies. I only wanted to get a small container of perogies and one of cabbage rolls. After charging me over $90 (and that’s with the 5% discount). I did get the small container of perogies but they also gave me 4 large containers of cabbage rolls. Sure the 2 women there were all smiles and quite friendly while I was there and I’m sure they must have had a good chuckle at my expense after I left. We finally tried them. The perogies were nothing special. The cabbage rolls were terrible. They said it was beef & rice but there is barely any beef at all. The sauce was minimal and it tasted like pure tomato paste. My family won’t eat them and I’m stuck with 3 more containers.

Nice stuff, selection of products is pleasant. Hopefully there will be more Ukrainian items soon.