Yasar Halim

Id give the bakery 5*. the food is fresh, well priced and plentiful. Amazing breads and cream cakes.

However the supermarket bit id give a 3* it is a bit expensive and the staff could be a bit more helpful.

It’s a shame that despite the food being quite good in the bakery section (fruit and veg is average to say the least) that the staff are so GOD DAMN RUDE. Their manners absolutely stink. I am a born and bred Londoner, went to school in a very racially mixed school in Finsbury Pk and have no problem with anyone at all, but frankly I will never shop in there again after 18 years of patronage. Today was the final straw. The manager is usually polite and the older staff are fairly pleasant, but the 2 girls on today (2.30pm 25th July behind the savoury snacks counter) who are there all too often sadly have prompted me to write this review. Anyway my family, friends and neighbours will no longer be shopping in there as a result. Where’s all the respect and manners gone? The management sadly probably doesn’t care because they are so busy.

BAD BAD SERVICE – MANNERS STINK – RUDENESS RULES

Also have had stale food from there twice recently.

This place is totally awesome and a great local shopping experience for rare and exciting foods. I almost don't want to shout about it too much (although enough others now have!) in case it stops being such a fantastic foodie bargain-lovers paradise, but good things deserve praise.

At the moment, you'll find watermelons so huge that you'll have trouble getting them home without a family estate car. I've not yet tried the legendary cakes, but as a grocers this place is brilliant.

Excellent choice of culinary dishes from Cyprus. Brought my neices birthday cake - delicious!!!!!!!! Everyone wanted to know where it was brought - I gave the secret away. Visit whenever I am in the area and try something new every time.

Yasar Halim is my absolute favourite shop in Harringay. They have an incredible range of cakes, bread and pastry things - sweet and savoury - I have still not tried everything in there even though I reckon I probably visit it at least once a week. There are many different breads along the back wall, which I think are made on the premises (you can kind of see through to the bakery bit at the back). My personal favourites are the Turkish pizza (which at the time of writing were £1.10 - not bad for lunch), a round sticky pastry that has a hazelnut kind of filling, and another kind of round pastry that I think may be called a tahinli as it has a tahini/sesame-seed filling. Beautiful birthday cakes too, which look lovely though I’ve never eaten one.

They used to have a newspaper cutting on their front window from some US newspaper which listed them as one of the top 100 places to buy food in the entire world, and I can believe it. I have also heard it described as the greatest Turkish bakery west of Istanbul, and I know that Turks & Cypriots from all over London come up to Harringay to buy stuff from it.

The fruit & veg/grocery store next door is also good - cheap and mostly decent quality fruit & veg (the tomatos have not been so good lately, but that might be a seasonal thing). I particularly recommend the tasty Turkish snacks that are towards the back of the store near the tinned stuff, in amongst the nuts. They have kernels of corn with some kind of seasoning on them that make them incredibly delicious. I know - corn - sounds weird. Try it, though, it is much better than popcorn.

The crazy thing is that even though Yasar Halim is so good, you can also get similar things quite close by (not in the one place though, and not always as cheap). There is very good Turkish pizza place a little bit south; another baklava bakery not very far away. It’s just a fab bit of North London for amazing Turkish food!

I echo some of the other reviewers and give a strong recommendation for Yasar Halim. I don’t know how long they have been there but it’s at least fifteen years and as far as I know they have always been the busiest and best on Grand Parade.

Having lived locally it is very easy to become blase about this place, the great produce and bakery and down to earth prices. But I do remember my first visit and how fascinating the range of goods was.

Beat the credit crunch, don’t bother to go the Med for your 2009 hoilday, just pop up to Green Lanes for a genuine taste of Cyprus.

This Cypriot shop is an icon of Harringay’s Grand Parade, and a great value supermarket, bakery and butchers. There are rumours that they’ve bought the shop next door to expand their empire even further, which is A Good Thing.

Yasar Halim sells ludicrously cheap vegetables most days of the week (with, apparently, special even-further reduced rates on Thursdays). The shop is invariably crammed full of Harringay’s Cypriot community, but there is always room to weave your way through the throng of elbows and little old ladies clutching baskets to get to the stacks of veg on display. A big shout out must go to the deep red long Turkish peppers - you will never go back to chilly and watery supermarket bell peppers after the flavoursome deep-red juices of one of these mamas has stained your chopping board.

YH is not so hot on dried/canned goods - there’s a small section at the back with various pulses, pastas and canned and jarred essentials (including essentials such as pickled veg, canned stuffed dolmades etc) but that’s not really what the place is about. They have several fridges with cheeses, yoghurts and and dips. There is an olive section with vast tubs of juicy olives in brines. The butcher’s section, whilst in my opinion not as good as Baldwins down the road, IS cheaper and has a wide selection of animal parts, frequently pre-prepped and shrink-wrapped. Seeing lambs testicles sitting covered in cellophane on a plastic tray is what I can only describe as a leg-crossing experience of cultural enrichment, even if there is no way in the world I am having them for my dinner.

Offal aside, their premade Kofte kebabs are absolutely delicious and a delicious one for the barbeque in the summer.

The bakery next door is equally astounding. Piles and piles of different types of Turkish and middle eastern bread, mostly freshly made on the premises. A baklava island in the middle of the shop where you can get a kilo of the sweet stuff for a little over six quid, and give yourself diabetes in record time. Over on the far wall there are savoury and sweet pastries and Turkish pizzas. The near wall has various other treats and some big old gateaus. The counter by the window is normally stuffed full of slices of tens of different creamcakes, sometimes on 2 for £1.

Yasar Halim’s is pretty much as far removed an English supermarket as you can imagine. Visiting is like being thrust into an microcosm of Cypriot culinary life, and is an must for anyone coming on a culinary pilgrimage to this part of North London. Anyone who lives here probably already knows it well.

I actually visited this place thanks to Qype. I’d noticed the positive reviews, so when I took a bus in that direction I decided to go a little further, visit, then walk back to my destination.

I was a little put off when I walked in. The floor was filthy! However there was indeed a massive and impressive range of breads, cakes and sweets in the bakery side. The supermarket side warmed me up even more. Fruit and veg and much more. All nicely visible on clean shelves. There’s other shops like this closer to home for me, but the prices were noticeably better.

And as I walked back to the bakery someone was cleaning up that floor… Wet day, busy period… I guess I can forgive it!

I left with something I haven’t had for a while and rather like. Not sure of the name but it’s wrapped with thin, hard sweet pastry. Bulging out of the middle is bread flavoured with cheese, raisins and (unless I’m much mistaken) mint. Yum!

A busy, lively and enticing shop. Not for those that like their food double wrapped and zapped to sterility.

Yasar Halim is a huge patisserie located on Green Lanes. I'm glad I'm usually on a bus when I go down Green Lanes otherwise I would be in this shop every time I passed it. There are so many cakes, breads and pastries awaiting you inside and the smell is intoxicating. And of course the prices are uber cheap for what you're getting - Green Lanes, you've got to love it sometimes (yes, yes, we all know travelling down it can be a nightmare). If you are someone who manages to walk past this shop, I raise my hat to you - well done.

This shop is great for anyone looking for anything turkish and mediterrean as it holds everything. from olives, to haloumi, to trahana, to greek watermelons in season. The bakery is next door which has bread, koulourakia, cakes, lokoumathes and the turkish newspaper. everything is fresh and of good quality.