Alef Sausage & Deli

Contrary to some of the negative posts here, I had a delightful time at Alef and found the clerks helpful and friendly. So you can pronounce some of the names of the meats in the service counter? TRY? It goes a long way. Just as it would be appreciated if you were traveling abroad.Take some time to read the bio of the founder online, an American dream come true for an immigrant. Amazing accomplishments!The store is bigger than it looks from the outside, and has a very good selection of Russian, Polish, and other Eastern European fresh and boxed groceries, as well as a wide choice of hearty breads. There's a hot food counter as well. I picked up some bresaola, a favorite of mine, it's air dried beef that can be eaten as a snack or as part of a sandwich. I've seen it across Switzerland, but it originated in the Northern Alps on Italy's border. It's salted before air drying for 2-3 months, when it turns almost purple you know it's ready. Usually made from top round, it's lean and tender.I also bought a salami I could not pronounce, so many choices. It is delicious, frim, dry, lean, very smoky. I see they offer droewors, another favorite of mine, a South African style of dried meat stick with interesting spices. Alef Sausage packaged products are widely available in grocery stores throughout Chicagoland and can be purchased online at their website.

I will admit, it can be difficult to get your order across at times, but a little patience and good attitude will pay off. Other than the Piroshki, I can't tell you what I had, but it was all good. Especially anything with mushrooms.

Very unfriendly service. Like going back to a store in Soviet Union. Some of the salamis are visibly too far gone.Tried this store 3 or 4 times, will not go back.

Terrible terrible terrible customer service. The store reminds me of the Soviet Union times when customers were treated like sh....t. Pure rudeness, unwelcome atmosphere. Furthermore, their deli isn't always fresh: many times we brought home rotten sausage and salads, expired sweets. It's unfortunate but they keep loosing their customers.

Been going here for many years. The meat case with servers behind is heaven. You can try anything. The servers are excellent. They are Russian and most of the complaints are because of this. Often a server speaks very little English. The deli prepared food in back is terrific and reasonably priced. If you're lucky they will have fat Pelmini I in the freezer case.

Over the last 10 years my family has been using Alef Sausage on regular basis. We have used them for catering as well as weekly food purchases. There have been multiple occasions when we have received a less than normal treatment from not only the staff but also the owners. To say that the treatment was less than perfect is like saying nothing at all. About 10 years ago, my mom walked into the store and the OWNER disrespectfully said to the staff "give her some sausage, she looks hungry!" My mom walked out of the store right away and didn't go back for at least 3 years. I personally bought spoiled product from them, and when I returned it back to the store I was told by the OWNER "what did you expect?" Um, I expect that you sell food that isn't spoiled, and if it's spoiled I expect you to give me my money back with an apology instead of attitude! My husband purchased spoiled cake from Alef and when he brought it back, he was given attitude as well. A few months back one of the family members went into this store and while purchasing cooked food, she noticed that the lady behind the counter that was helping her, has touched the door knob and scratched her head while wearing the glove that was used to touch the food. My family member, asked politely to change the glove and has gotten the talk back and pissy attitude with questions like "why do I need to change the glove?" Well, lady behind the counter, it's because somebody might have wiped their ass in the bathroom and then touched the door knob. Also, we don't know if you have lice in your head and we prefer you don't touch your head and then touch our food! It's just plain unsanitary! All of these instances were nothing in comparison to what happened on December 31st. The same family member that has been a victim of the dirty glove situation went to Alef Sausage on December 31st to purchase food for the New Year celebration. She was waiting for her turn and when her turn came, the same lady (her name is Tamara) that had a dirty glove a couple months prior, started a fight with my family member. At first she tried to serve people that were further down the line and when my family member spoke up, she told her that they already "know" my family member to be scandalous! The reply from my family member was that she also knows her, she is the one with the dirty glove. The response from Tamara was "my glove is cleaner than your neck!" All of this happening in front of other customers, workers. Another person behind the counter ended up serving my family member. At the time of pay, everything that was purchased was put in a box, Tamara came up to the cashier and took food out of the box, claiming she will use this box for someone else! While all of this was going on, she didn't take ALL of the food out of the box! All the food was already paid for. At this point the owner (Alik) had witnessed the box situation and said NOTHING to this Tamara woman. When my family member came home she realized that she doesn't have at least $40 dollars worth of food but it was too late to call the store. She did call the store a day or two later and talked to the owner's wife (Luba) about the situation, and not to much of our surprise the owner said "if I fire Tamara, then I have to pay her unemployment!" There were no apologies. No offer to make up for ruining the evening and no offer to return the money for the food that wasn't given but had been paid for. Well this goes to show that the owners could give two shits about the customers that come and support their business! Needless to say, this was the last time any of us will ever be going to this store. This post is intended to make people aware that going into this store may not only result in purchasing food that has been spoiled, but also that they could be treated like complete crap. Thank you Alef Sausage for running a crappy business and not caring about your customers that have been your supporters for many years despite your major imperfections. Hope you go out of business soon!

Interesting place, very interesting, I needed to impress my Russian girlfriend and, most importantly, her parents. Mission accomplished. Huge success!

This store habitually sells expired moldy food and never even apologizes. My first terrible experience was with the mushrooms, today they sold me a moldy bun. I hope this store will be closed by Health Dep.

Everything is good, fresh and tasty here. Prices are stable and reasonable. Go there once a month and always satisfied.

Good selection of all sorts of sausages and cheeses. Their customer service is awful, especially the older lady with short, red/ burgandy hair, she has no respect or good manners. Their catering is not always fresh, some food is sitting there for days, same for their fish, on two separate occasions it was stinky when I brought it home.If you decide to buy boxes of chocolate make sure to check the expiration date, I learned my lesson. Because of their horrible customer service I don't shop here much often, just stop by rarely for my son's favorite Alef sausage.