If you love to cook or bake at home, you absolutely need to take advantage of a restaurant supply store. No matter if you’re looking for something specific or just want to check out what they have, you will be surprised at some of the price points for equipment you will find there. One main advantage of buying from a restaurant supply store is that most of the equipment from there is designed to withstand a beating and keep working.

From stainless steel bowls to big ticket items like fryers and food processors, you will be amazed at what you will find. Here are some things you can buy at a kitchen supply store to both upgrade your kitchen and save money.

1. Food Mill

A food mill can be extremely convenient for some things like separating skins and seeds from tomatoes when making homemade tomato sauce, or for quickly mashing huge batches of potatoes. Most food mills you will find at a mall store are flimsy or too weak to handle what you’ll put through it. The ones sold at a restaurant supply store are bigger and much more powerful.

2. Cake Pans

If you bake a lot, you will know how expensive good cake pans can be, and they aren’t exactly the toughest piece of equipment around; they dent if you look at them the wrong way, and if they sit in water, they rust fairly quickly. Most restaurant supply stores will have a decent selection of sizes and types of cake pans, with different finishes.

3. Muffin Tins

From super tiny to extra large, you will most likely find a giant selection of muffin tins on your trip to the kitchen supply store. Like with the cake pans, you’ll find them in different sizes and finishes.

4. Canning Supplies

Larger kitchen supply stores will carry canning supplies. You will find jars, metal and plastic lids, strainers, ladles, jar lifters, and even giant pots you can use for water baths.

5. Pots and Pans

A lot of the pots and pans you see at mall stores are expensive and might not even be of very good quality. The ones at a restaurant supply store tend to be heavy-bottomed and fairly inexpensive, and will last you a lot longer than a similarly priced set from a discount store. If you like how cast iron pans work, try a carbon steel pan. They have a few of the heat retention properties of cast iron but are thinner, more stackable, and slightly lighter.

If you use non-stick pans, you will know that they rarely last for more than a year or two before the coating is compromised. At a restaurant supply store, you will be able to buy some cheaper non-stick pans that won’t make you want to cry when it’s time to throw them away.

6. Ladles

If you’re looking for ladles of specific sizes, a kitchen supply store is the place to go. You will find ladles in all shapes and sizes, which makes it easy to ladle out sauces and soups in specific amounts.

7. Roasting Pans

Roasting pans are one of the most expensive of cookware, and unless you use one all the time, it’s not worth it to drop a huge amount of money on one. Instead of a classic roasting pan, ask about a hotel pan. They are the same depth and size as a roasting pan and will work just as well, for a fraction of the cost.