SK, his cousin and I went to this restaurant in Jackson Heights before ending up at Tipsy Mandala (see previous post).
This is a family restaurant with fancy decorations. Even in the slow weekday evening we went, there were five or six groups in there. Everybody was having a good time. I found a cockroach just hanging out on our table, but I won't hold it against them. It happens, specially in the City, in the summer. The staff was quick and courteous, and the tv screens playing hi-def video clips of Nepal did create a 'premium' environment. They had a big event happening in the back, and people seemed to have a great time there.
Ambiance was great, staff was great, let's get on to food. I don't know if it was the menu, or it was us, but we ordered 'unusual items' for Nepali restaurants in the US. Newari items, chauchau sadheko, pork, sekuwa, all of them came with furundana. I got black-gram tarkari with my item. I liked my food -- though not the pricing.
The flavor was all great, nothing to complain about. It's just that...everything they had seemed to be 'low effort food', in that you could almost get about without having a full kitchen. Prepared furundana, reheated balls, and so forth. It felt as if they'd optimized their menu to not spend any money for a good cook. I don't have an issue with that, that's their choice. What I have issue with is their pricing: for the ok food they have in the menu, the prices were about twice of what they should have been, even accounting for the whole situation right now. I understand maybe it's because they're unique in their offerings and don't have a real competitor. Fair enough. I personally would not have wanted to pay for all of that food and I was relieved when my friend picked up the tab (I ordered 1 item, between the two of them, they got eight items plus drinks). He paid 140 bucks. Feels okay for 3 people in a decent restaurant, but in terms of food it was just 'street food easy to present without a kitchen' items place.
7/10 stars. Too pricey. Decent food. I'd go again if somebody else was paying for it.
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