. . "The first time I visited Adonis, I nearly wept from a mixture of grief and joy. Grief that a place like this doesn't exist 500 miles further south, but joy that it does exist somewhere. It's hard not to resent Montreal for having half a dozen of them in one city, but hey, more power to their diverse and quality-driven grocery market, and another reason for us to visit frequently!\n\nThe Cote-Vertu location is the one we frequent most regularly, but I have visited two others in the past, and all seem to me roughly the same. All locations have a huge selection of Middle Eastern foods, both raw ingredients and prepared dishes: you'll find tender thin-skinned Persian cucumbers, crispy-salty spinach pies, creamy labneh and dried rose-petal tea, and whole aisles dedicated to fresh flatbread, bottled olive oil and dried beans. The major difference is that stores in heavily Indian or Asian neighborhoods will stock more ingredients that pertain to that national cuisine.\n\nThe Montrealais have extremely high standards and visit more frequently, so probably I am more forgiving, but for me the impeccable quality and friendly service I have encountered here is at least equal to the dizzyingly wide selection. Their clerks will let you taste any one of their dozens of varieties of nuts or cheeses; they will make recommendations for preparation and storage; and they will always ask, with a smile, \"quelque chose d'autre? / something else?\" Once my husband broke a jar of mustard when he tripped in their parking lot, and they replaced it. In fact, the most unpleasantness I have endured at Adonis has not been with the staff at all, but with other customers. They often block the aisles, make unreasonable demands and don't know how to wait in an orderly line. So maybe these bad reviews should be taken with a grain of salt.\n\nMy only complaint, and the reason I regrettably cannot give five stars, is that they do not accept credit cards. To me, this is ridiculous. I understand there are fees; I see no reason why they cannot pass those fees on to the customers who prefer to pay this way. It's absurd and dangerous to carry hundreds of dollars in cash just so you can shop for a party. Hopefully they will soon correct the only bump in what is otherwise a sublime shopping experience!"^^ . "2016-07-25T00:00:00"^^ . . "2"^^ . "3"^^ . "1"^^ . "4"^^ .