What you see – Locating Q-mart is quite easy, courtesy its orange board. Spread across two floors, it has sufficient circulation space to even allow two individuals to walk side-by-side with trolleys. The aisles are not cluttered and the products are well-arranged – the first floor stocks food and groceries while homecare items, personal care goods and their bread bar are housed on the second floor.
What you get – Let’s start with the processed food section. Be it cereals from Heinz or Kellogg’s or ready-to-eat Lasagna for Rs 185, Q-mart has it all. Then there is even a Thai noodle packet that you could try for Rs. 85. Peanut butter lovers can choose between the creamy and the crunchy variety. Concentrated drinks are there too in various fruit varieties like melon and grape. An interesting pick in this section could be the cranberry cereal.
Move to the cold storage section named Deli and you will find a lot of sea-food variety and cheese. A 100 grams of cleaned tiger prawns will cost you Rs. 44, while white pomfret in the same quantity is priced at Rs. 65. They have the famed smoked salmon here too available at an eye-popping Rs. 1,800 per kg. Pork, mutton and chicken sausages, cleaned whole chicken and drumsticks too can be found here.
When it comes to cheese, this place does have an assortment of sorts. Italian cheese be it mozzarella (soft and rubbery), ricotta (whey cheese; white and creamy) or Baita friuli (firm-textured), they have it all priced at Rs. 100 for 100 grams. They also have the Danish smoked cheese for the same price.
On the way to the second floor, on the right, they have a section for pet care. You can get your regular Whiskas food for cats and Pedigree for your dogs. Do check out the kennel chains for Rs. 340, nail clippers for Rs. 295 and chewy sticks (6) for Rs. 45.
On the second floor the wafting aroma of bread awakens your senses. European breads such as baguette (long, thin and crisp)or dark rye multi grain ones are placed attractively in baskets. Croissants (crescent shaped roll) and stuffed breads are also available. Interesting ones are walnut-cranberry bread and the earthquake cheese (a loaf filled with cheese; apparently has been named by a Taiwan-based baker after the earthquake).
The pastry section too is inviting. They have chocolate and coffee based muffins priced at Rs. 50 apiece. Beside this is the crockery and homecare section. Corelle stuff is also available. A 6-plate set with border design would cost Rs. 1,250 and a set with more abstract designs would be Rs. 250 higher than that. They have a leaning bottle holder priced at Rs. 160, cylindrical cups and whisky-glass shaped cups in geometrical designs too. A surprising find here was the hookah and its filling for either Rs. 2,200 or Rs. 4,600.
It’s the baby care section that follows. While most of the stuff available here can be found elsewhere too, you could check out the Drypers for Rs. 950 with 72 pieces in it. In the beauty care section, it is more of Olay and Shahnaz Husain products here. Revlon and Lotus cosmetics find a place on the shelves too. You also find homecare items such as brooms, dustbins, jars and buckets closeted in a corner here.
Our verdict – Q-mart is pretty popular among NRIs and expats and the reason for that is clear. The variety that it stocks in terms of imported products is huge. Basically if you are planning to make Italian food at home, you know where to drop in. Circulation space is good. Prices are on the higher side. The staff is extremely polite and willing to help. Parking space is available and the place is open on Sundays too.
Drive to – Q-mart,
Road No. 2, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad – 500034.
Call at - 040-66634758/9
Anytime between - 9 AM - 9 PM
Posted on: Jan 25, 2008
