Love Penzey's! I have been buying my spices from Penzey's for 35 years or so. Started at Mom and Dad's place, The Spice House, in Wauwatosa. Cannot imagine getting spices from anyone else. The quality and flavor are superb! It is the best place for spices, by far. read more

Been using Penzeys Spices for years but it not through mail order, so excited that I can actually walk to one other spice store awesomeness!! They have a great variety to spices! Check them out you won't be disappointed!! read more

Loved it. Big store, tons of interesting spices, prices decent. Lots of inspiration in little jars here. Bought some celery salt for bloody marys. read more

The folks who work here are knowledgable, helpful and pleasant. Pleasant retail employees? Yep, hard to believe. Nothing here is really any more expensive than the bottled sawdust at any grocery store. And the spices here are really good. Docked one star for the occasional political emails sent out after using their mail-order service (which is otherwise a great service). I agree with Bill Penzey's professed political beliefs (as much as I know about them, anyway), but I don't think my simply being a customer should suggest that I want to be emailed social commentary. Docked another star because (while we're on the subject of social commentary) Penzey's doesn't treat its employees as well as they think they do (glassdoor...). When you talk the talk, you ought to walk the walk. read more

Really like the Vietnamese cinnamon and roasted garlic along with so many others. Glad to see a CEO who is willing to speak out on the current status of our sad political climate. He realizes he may lose a bunch of customers but still feels compelled to speak out. Thank you for a great product. Wouldn't mind fewer pins, stickers and other items that I've received too many times and are a waste of materials though. read more

I love, love, LOVE Penzey's! This is a mandatory stop in the Shorewood Shopping Center. Penzey's has reliably high-quality spices, with a dizzying selection of dried herbs, spices, and spice mixes. Many of their spices are otherwise hard-to-find, or would otherwise require separate stops at specialty grocery stores. Although I always cringe when I bring my haul to the checkout, I am ALWAYS pleasantly surprised by the total. Penzey's' staff is very friendly and helpful, and it is just a pleasure to shop here. I also enjoy poring over the Penzey's catalog and trying out new recipes. This store is a MUST for cook-a-holics. read more

I love walking into the store since everything smells great. Their spices are of amazing quality and I love that all around the store, they have little recipe cards stashed amongst the displays. Would highly suggest the store to any spice fan. read more

I heard great things about Penzey's but after finally getting something from here I am not impressed. The spices I got from here were beyond stale. The chili powder in particular was horrid. It tastes like the cheapest chili powder you can buy. It was labeled as hot but i found it bland and tasteless. Maybe I am just spoiled by having access to garden fresh peppers. read more

They had everything I needed! The staff was friendly, available and helpful. One of my favorite parts of the store is that all the ingredients have around one paragraph of description on them, including items like the origin of the ingredient and possible uses. I'm always afraid that I'm going to buy the wrong type of chili pepper (which is ridiculous because I would never in a million years be able to tell, I eat so few), but Penzey's descriptions helped me pick one that was appropriate for my dish (I picked an Indian pepper for my vindaloo). I'll be returning soon, and likely many times after that. read more

This is one of those places that makes me wish I had more time to cook and more money to spend.

Any conceivable spice you may need is probably at Penzey's. In what could be an overwhelming experience, Penzey's lays out its retail store in simple terms--salads, baking, soups, pepper, etc. Each spice is available in a variety of sizes, allowing you to try new items without committing to a huge jar. Descriptions and samples of each spice let you "smell before you buy" and suggested recipes are posted for taking home. Gift boxes of spices are available--I'd never considered giving spices as gifts before, but Penzey's makes it seem...right. read more

One of my favorite places to shop when I lived in Madison, WI. This store on University is huge and has a great selection of spices and herbs. The staff is always friendly and helpful. I always end up spending more then I need but one can never have too many spices. read more

Their cumin and sweet curry powder are on the America's Test Kitchen's recommendation list so I went and I bought. I do not cook with spices a lot, but I can imagine this store must be heaven for someone who does. read more

My family has shopped at/with Penzeys since the late 1980's, but we've all stopped. The quality has gone down considerably in the last year or so, and the prices have gone up. The in-store employees are nice, but from reviews I've read aren't treated well by management. The last straw was the alienating, divisive political emails. I wasn't happy with how the election turned out either, but hate emails from a spice company doesn't resolve anything. In searching out alternatives, ended up with a company from my state with an equally good, if not better, selection. This company (World Spice Merchant) is my new go-to. Note: Neither I nor anyone I know works for or has been paid by WSM! read more

We recently discovered Penzey's spices for ourselves. I've heard about them for years and finally decided our massive assortment of very cheap low quality spices needed to go. I placed a mail order a couple of weeks ago with Penzey's and was able to throw out most of my old (some "best used by" dates were 5 yrs ago) spices. We quickly became big fans of Penzey's after sampling a few and enjoying the aromas of the rest. A couple of days ago, I found out that Penzey's has this store right in Madison only about a 30 min drive away. We were very excited to go and visit asap. I figured it would be much easier to choose purchases in person since they have samples to smell, instead of relying solely on a written catalog description. I read some of the reviews here at Yelp, and was surprised that several people had pretty strong complaints regarding the lack of customer service at this location. This sounded very strange to me given Penzey's reputation for quality. You'd expect them to be proud of their quality and selection which you'd expect would translate to an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful staff. I didn't particularly care about the customer service since I was excited they had a store so close, and I'd be able experience all they had too offer....in person. Yesterday (Sat. early afternoon) we were finally able to visit. To my surprise, they had about 5 people working there. I was almost disappointed as I kind of expected only one really uninterested employee half-sleeping at the register. We found their selection quite amazing, even a bit overwhelming. It's a very nice store with sample available to smell of almost every spice, herb, and mix that they carry. It was quite an interesting experience. The worst thing about the place is trying to limit your purchases so you don't buy every other item they sell. As we were choosing our selections it was apparent that all the employees were very busy helping the various customers. I spied in on a couple of conversations and it sounded like the employees were very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful to the customers. I didn't really have any questions, so I didn't interact with anyone except at the register. Although no one was there when I approached, a man quickly entered from the other side and asked if I was ready to check out. He was very friendly and quickly sent me on my way with my 10 bottles and $50 lighter wallet. All in all, it was a good experience. I highly recommend Penzey's spices and would suggest you mail order if you must, but visit a store if you can. read more

The quality of spices available at Penzey's is second-to-none. I won't cook or bake with anything else; once you try them, you won't go back. And vanilla sugar for your coffee? Heaven! The service at this store is very friendly and helpful. Often employees will make recommendations to try recipes featured on tear-off sheets in the store. This is NOT a store for fancypants gourmets; it is a store for people to love to cook (bake) for the people they love, which I would hope would be just about everyone! read more

For all foodies, this is the place! The quality of the herbs and spices is unsurpassed. Prices are very good, and the selection is terrific.

Nice selection. Store is very clean. Staff is helpful. Plenty of parking and good store hours. My only complaint is that it's rather pricey. The spices are high quality though, so we continue to go there regularly. read more