Al-Naimat Review (Mayha Ghouri)
Al-Naimat Food Review
By Mayha Ghouri
Al-Naimat is something of a find in Jackson Heights, NY. The area is known as little India and caters to a generally Indian palate. This corner eatery was once in the middle of the hub of the Indo-Pak neighborhood. Now it is experiencing an outflow of the Pakistani-Indian population there and an influx of Bengalis, Nepalese, and Tibetans. The restaurant is located in the middle of Roosevelt Avenue and everything about its appearance screams, “pass me.” But pass it, and you’ll miss out on what may be one of the best chaat experiences the United States has to offer.
The restaurant is clearly a low-budget one, with flimsy tables and plastic chairs. The food is served in paper plates and everything from the tabletops to the carpet could use a serious scrub down. The front half of the store has a buffet which serves meals and desserts, while the customers stand on an old wooden ramp that seems to have replaced the original carpet.
When you pass the 10-foot buffet, you enter the tiny dining area and take a seat. If your back is at the door you are most likely facing a large, plasma screen TV blaring Bollywood music videos. The videos range from 1950’s slightly screechy vocals to current Music videos with large, out of this world, musical numbers. The songs are all sung in Hindi, but because of the popularity of Bollywood movies, they are still understood by the new Nepalese, Bengali and Tibetan people.
Up to this point any customer would have serious doubts about this place and likely consider leaving. Luckily, the service is good and a waiter arrives at your table almost immediately. The menu ranges from $.50-$9.00, a startlingly cheap price which explains why the restaurant looks the way it does.
I order the chaat ($5.00), and within only a couple of minutes a large full plate of chaat is in a Styrofoam plate in front of me.
Close your eyes and take your first bite and you would think your sitting in a tiny, richly authentic restaurant in the middle of Mumbai. The dumplings are plump and the chickpeas are delightfully flavored. Soft cold potatoes cool the chaat masala tingling on your tongue and the whole of the chaat is covered in plain yogurt. A tamarind chutney is used to add a burst a sweet flavor. To top it all, papari, crunchy dough chips, are sprinkled on the top to add a different dimension to the textures of the food. It’s sweet from the chutney, a little sour from the yogurt, spicy from the masala, soft from the dumplings, chickpeas and potatoes, and crunchy from the papari.
Because the portions are so large, the plate can be split between two people. It takes about 5 minutes eat half of the plate if you’re really hungry or a quick eater ( like myself). When you step out, you can’t help thinking about how much more these restaurant owners could potentially charge, but maybe it’s all a part of a grand plan. It seemed remarkable to me that this restaurant still had quite a few customers based on appearance but because it’s in the middle of the shopping district, it would make for a nice food stop for the bust shopper.
