Amazing Selection. Some of the rudest customer service ever. I almost just turned around and walked out (and I have really high tolerance for this). Don't ask any particular questions of the staff, only ask for an herb and amount. That's all they'll give you, unless you want a whole lot o' attitude with that herb/spice/etc. Now, you might say, well how much does customer service matter if what they carry is unparalleled and you're supporting a local business. All good reasons, but after two poor interactions, i this case, I'm seriously thinking of not going back, so it matters a lot. And it made me sign up for yelp to review. Is it the owner? I've found in general they set the tone of an establishment. If so, folks, time to get someone kind and generous to run your front end and let them be (no micromanaging! That is, if you want your business to continue to thrive. read more

Being a witchy sort of person, sometimes I just need some mandrake roots. What? Everybody feels like brewing some classic medieval potions and stuffing poppets at some point, right? I'm also a health nut that needs to keep stocked up on things like fenugreek capsules and chlorella tablets. Have you ever tried to find something as esoteric as mandrake roots or chlorella?? In a major city?? Let alone at an affordable price?? Lhasa Karnak's got the mandrake, blue marine algae, sacred tobacco, smudge tools, copal, grimoires, aromatherapy, homeopathic remedies, vitamins, supplements, tinctures, teas, and so much more. It's a tiny shop but with a lovely ambiance that only walls lined with apothecary jars of botanicals can supply. If it were a bit bigger and had more tools for utilizing the herbs (pestles, cauldrons, crystals, medicine pouches, wider selection of books, etc.) and whole rather than crushed mandrakes it would get 5 stars but overall this place is worth checking out. Even if you just want a jar of multivitamins and come hibiscus tea, I encourage you to shop there and NOT at Walgreens or some other giant chain.Plus the people who work there are knowledgeable and helpful. :-) Bulk herbs are fairly inexpensive, other items can be a bit more. I got mandrake root at $1 per ounce, 1 oz bag of Native Scents Kinnick-kinnick for $6, 1 oz of pinon resin $4. read more

Bought great Rooibos tea for a good price. 2 ounces for $4. A lot of choices in this store. Will come back again!

This place epitomizes all the good things you'd expect in a herb/tea store. Great product and very helpful staff sans any attitude...nada. I love their gunpowder green tea - You pay for 6 or 7 and get 1 extra once free. Shalom. read more

It's always a pleasure visiting this herb company! They open on Sundays which is a real treat! The staff is always helpful & very knowledgable. They also have the best Earl Grey in the Bay area! read more

They have such a wonderful selection of just about any natural remedy/herb, etc. you could want. Better than that, the staff is SO knowledgeable and helpful. It is so nice to have a place like this to make me healthier and to cut my dependence on regular drugstore types of things (which half the time don't work anyway). read more

Their knowledge and friendly help is outstanding. I am very satisfied to find a local family business with excellent customer service and superb quality products. read more

OH MY GOD! I love this store!!!! I get so excited when I run out of something because then I get to go visit and stock up on yummy things. They are so friendly and helpful--even to myself which is pretty amazing. I love to buy my teas here! They are inexpensive and really fabulous. I used to only buy specific brands at Andronico's or Berkeley bowl (how that store makes me crazy!), but these rival those teas and they are a FRACTION of the cost. Now I avoid the drama of Berkeley Bowl AND save money. They have fabulous herbs and spices for cooking. I am now boycotting all spices unless they come from here. Their cinnamons are so amazingly delicious. p.s. get the chai tea. read more

Always a satisfying experience and visit. Very knowledgable, friendly, clean and helpful. this place!

I love Lhasa Karnak, they have great oils at great prices and a knowledgeable staff unlike any other!

I visited Lhasa Karnak Herb Company looking for essential oils to add fragrance to a hair/skin/nail oil I am formulating. I didn't catch the name of the person helping me, but she was genuine and patient in helping me find exactly what I was looking for. I'll absolutely be back. read more

This is my only go-to when I am in the market for essential oils, healing teas, and herbal supplements. The staff is wonderful; both helpful, personal and extremely knowledgeable. Simply being in the store overwhelmed me with a sense of peace and contentment. read more

I was able to find asafoetida, a spice used only in special Indian dishes. I can't find it anywhere else but here! The shop owner was very knowledgeable about how to use it and how to store it properly. They also have a great selection of tea and essential oils. Very reasonable price. If you have time to stop here, don't get prepackaged spaces in your supermarket, you will be amazed! read more

Lhasa Karnak is a store with excellent products that has the rudest, worst service I have encountered in recent memory. It really is too bad, because I've been frequenting them for years and tolerating the dismissive, impatient, rude, apathetic attitudes of the staff, but today's experience really took the cake. We've been ordering wholesale amounts of spices from them for our company (ironically, because we wanted to support an independent local store rather than the foodservice juggernauts). When I called the owner today to put in (a substantial order), he *very rudely* informed me that he would be delighted if I took my business elsewhere because he was a retailer and my wholesale orders were inconvenient. While this is a perfectly reasonable position, the rudeness with which he delivered the message was shocking and disappointing, especially since he had no problem with me spending over $5000 at this store (a premium that I was happy to pay for the reason stated above). It was a really disheartening reminder of how Berkeley can sometimes just be a really non-communitarian, cranky place. This was not altogether surprising, though. I guess I'll be moving on to the large commercial spice traders, with a very bad and sad taste in my mouth, and can no longer, in good faith, even support this retailer as a customer of their very good products. read more

All I can say is that I love this store. The herbs and spices are of incredible quality, the staff is very helpful, and it always smells great! Why buy the stale little jars of herbs and spices from the grocery store, when you can get really fresh products, weighed to order, for a fraction of the cost here? Plus, the staff is really good about suggesting various blends of fresh herbs or pre-made products for whatever may ail you. Check it out if you've never been before. You won't regret it! read more

This is my favorite place to get alternayummies. This location is way better than the Shattuck Ave. shop and the staff is friendlier, maybe it's the extra space that gives good feng shui to the staff. Or the staff rotates and I just caught some girl fresh out of her Moon Cycle tea. Anyway the staff here are quite friendly and let you sniff all their rose oils or tell you the best arnica cream from experience. Fun just to browse, too, since the wood interior and stocked bookshelves and jars feel more like a cozy hippie general store. read more

this is an amazing herb shop. the selection is about as broad as you will find in any serious herb shop. they carry common herbs like peppermint, green tea, chamomile, but they also have harder to find ones such as roman chamomile, culvers root, lady's slipper, etc. that is so impressive. in addition everything is super fresh. you can tell by smelling how potent everything is. a lot of places where you buy herbs they look nice and green and colorful but there is no odor or flavor when you taste it. thats about as worthless as brewing up some cut up loose leaf paper. the stock of prepared products is also really good. they carry a number of good herb book and aromatherapy supplies. the staff is nice and they know their stuff. if you need any herb for your minor ailments look no further. read more

Been coming here for a few years! They pretty much have all the herbs on hand ( no Kratom ...yet ). Always helpful and everything else ypu need from a great herb/oil/homeopathic supplies. read more

Still not my favorite herb shop, totally grosses me out that they routinely put the labels in the bag touching your herbs (bad food handling yo) but service on my past 5-10 visits has ranged from fine to great.so yay read more

I've been helped by the owners, Jim and Aaron, as well as a few of their employees, during my various visits. I really like their vast selection of teas, their low prices, and they're friendly personalities. I highly recommend their Hearthstone Tea. read more

As a med student studying western medicine, a visit to this shop gave me a brilliant new, and friendly, perspective into the world of herbal remedies / eastern medicine. One of my greatest pleasures in life is to meet and converse with individuals so completely immersed in their element, and this is certainly what the women of this shop are - gurus of sorts! I left the shop with a few ground herbs, and a great interest in learning more! Thank you for the wonderful introduction, and I plan on seeing you soon for some more turmeric :) read more

Cool place. They have any possible herb you could need here and the prices are decent. The guys that work there are also really helpful and really know their stuff. If you ever need an odd herb or spice for whatever reason, this place will probably have it. read more

So...I'm now officially into the essential oils..and this shop has overwhelmed me with endless possibilities.. Great customer service, knowledgeable and a good location....so MUCH of everything! Great neighborhood shop! read more

Until just a few years ago, I bought my herbs and spices at the grocery store. Never again. I even more recently discovered Lhasa Karnak, and it's now on my list of places I can get fresh spices in bulk. Even thought it's worth the trek to Berkeley just for those, they offer a lot more. read more

I've been going here for a long time. They are very helpful and always have good suggestions. Their essential oils are the absolute best quality and therefore have no problem with their prices that some people seem to want to complain about. I also noticed a couple of one star reviews that start with the exact same sentence about "you would think the owner of the store like this would be enlightened..." Which I find very interesting. I love the teas they sell and their incense as well. In fact, I'm going to get up off the couch and drive over there and replenish my supplies. I just came on yelp to to check their hours and saw some of the weird reviews. Thought I would put in my own two cents. read more

Great place for herbs, oils and natural remedies.. Great staff with willingness to help.

Stale lavender. Musty rose petals. A demented salesperson. I would recommend searching elsewhere for herbs and helpful service.

I've lived right around the corner for 4 years but only went here for the first time today . . . I guess I was scared away by the slghtly new-agey/hippy look of the place. Turns out they are super nice and have all kinds of spices, herbs, and teas in addition to lots of medicinal stuff. I got hibiscus (for tea i.e. jamaica) for $1/ounce, not super cheap but not bad. read more

This is the place for tea. Leave behind Safeway bleached tea bags and join the world of full flavor! The quality of tea that you can get for $5 here would cost you$20 in other tea shops. The humongo glass jars are full of single teas and mixes, and they are great at coaching you to mix your own. They sell cosmetics and some random things, but this place is about the tea. If they don't have it (unlikely), they can find it. Don't bother with tea from anywhere else, this is your place. read more

I wanted to get organic ground pepper in bulk, but my god it was expensive! So I did not buy a lot. The place was a bit disorganized and forget parking. But it's a fun store to kill time in and feel all zen in. read more

This place is great. It has a great selection on teas and herbs. However, the prices seem way too high for some of their products. I bought a straw for tea which cost me $26, only to find out that it retails for about $15 anywhere else. Customer service is horrible! They are very stuck up and not friendly at all. I went in there twice and call once and here i am writing a review. Good potential, poor management of employees! read more

when i saw the floor-to-ceiling wall of herbs, spices, extracts & oils, i wanted lhasa to be in my kitchen. that way i could have the tastiest meals and quit my job and open an apothecary and have lots of healthy babies and wear an apron everyday. life would be beautiful and smell good. oh, and i'd have to build a spare room onto our studio to accomodate the people who work at LK so i would know what do do with everything. but just ask me about jojoba oil! read more

Every time I go in there they are so rude and so stuck up. However, it's the only place nearby where I can get certain things I need. I'm ready to give them up now though. read more

I really like this store, but the customer service is kind of hit or miss. Most of the employees are really helpful, but I've had a few grumpy encounters. I don't know that much about herbal remedies, but I went in asking for a hangover cure and both people working were extremely helpful. I already feel a lot better, and didn't have to spend much at all. If you're interested in natural skincare, their brand of argan oil is the cheapest I have been able to find (even on Amazon) and totally pure. read more

So I was in the store at a 6:45 - who knew they closed at 7. I shopped and waited while the 2 customers at the counter were taken care of. I stepped up to the young woman when she was available and started with my selections -half pound of this, a quarter pound of that and she stops me dead. "We close at seven can you wrap this up" in a tone and manner that really made it a statement instead of a question. If I had my wits about me I would have apologized for taking up her time and left. I don't care how learned or varied the wares are , I'll never step foot in that store again, woke up resentful about it, have talked spoken to the store manager about the incident and have now posted this review. Whew. read more

Excellent selection of herbs, spices and teas. Their Darjeeling, Green Dragonwell and oolong teas are some of the best I've ever found here in the States. Also, their curry powder is damn near perfect - I've used it in marinades, salad dressings and curries and it never fails to elicit a "this is incredible" reaction from guests. I also highly recommend their chipotle pepper, Mexican oregano and smoked paprika. The staff has always been very helpful when I visit, though sometimes the store can get crowded so I try to visit in off hours if I have a long shopping list or have a lot of questions. Parking is a pain, but coming home with a haul of fresh spices and insanely tasty teas makes it all worth it. read more

i do love this store (a lot) but the customer service can be uneven depending whose behind the counter. some of the clerks are rude and dismissive. (not talking about the owner and his son who are generally ok). the prices here are at least 20% higher here for many of the health and beauty items, but i like to shop local when i can. the quality, freshness, and selection of the herbs and spices is very good. their essential oil selection is extensive. parking can be a pain (remember to feed the meter). read more

I've been shopping at Lhasa Karnak for around 7 years now. I found them when I lived a block away, and even after moving to three different cities I've continued to order herbs and spices online from them. The orders always arrived super fast, and the prices on spices are way better than any grocery store. The herb list is extensive and they usually have anything I'm looking for. I've looked around for other herb shops in various cities, but none has compared to Lhasa Karnak yet. read more

Amazing selection of spices and great thoughtful service. Boycott McCormick and buy spices cheaply here!

Love this shop! I go here mainly for clay to do my own facials, bath salts and just today, found that they carry an ointment called Traumeel (I've been suffering from muscle aches and pains for a few months now and this stuff came highly recommended for use while I'm recovering). They also sell sage smudge sticks and incense. I've lived, studied and worked in the area for nearly 20 years--so glad this place is still around! read more