Archive for 'Khodiar Indian/Taj Delhi Chat'

Bombay Fast Food Now Has Twice the Options

Thanks to Lunch’er Hengde for sending over this quick little report about everybody’s favorite Indian place (formerly in the back of a newsstand.) 

There’s a new, 2nd, Indian food vendor in the back of Bombay Fast Food on 6th btw. 37th and 38th. I tried ordering one veg[etable dish] from each side, that’s when they told me that they were two different vendors. The original vegetarian Gujarati vendor on the left is still there, but I didn’t see chaat ingredients on display anymore – hopefully they’ve just moved them back to the kitchen. The new vendor had meat, chicken and lamb curries on the day I stopped in. Their special is 2 vegetables or vegetable + a meat, rice (only one kind – it’s seasoned but not as much as the original’s yellow rice) daal, and naan.  The first vendor’s special is 2 vegs, white or yellow rice, 3 rotis, daal, onions, spicy pickle, and sweet. The 2 Vegetable deal is about a dollar more than the original vendor, but their daal is much thicker than the first vendor’s, which is always more like soup. So that was a nice change, which worked well over the rice. I also tried their aloo matar (potatoes and peas) and saag paneer (spinach w/ cheese) and both were very good. The sauce with the aloo matar was nice and thick. I think the portions of vegs they gave were bigger than the first vendor’s too, those guys been skimping on me a bit lately. But anyway it’s nice to go in there and have twice the options now. Cheers, Hengde.

Bombay Fast Food, 1013 6th Ave (btw 37+38th). 212-840-3767

$1 Slice-O-Rama, Legacy Edition: Pizza King Gets DoH’d and Back in a Day

As the breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War peeled back the veneer of Socialist Paradise, an underbelly of barely functioning economics and crumbling infrastructure laid bare after years of neglect, we now see the aftermath of the Pizza Wars take its toll. When jenfjen and I reviewed Pizza King, (on 6th btw. 37+38th) we were a bit unhappy as to the results and questions of where the corners were cut to drive the slice price to 75 cents came from. The Department of Health recently shut down the erstwhile $1 slice competitor and as we would see a Kazakh nuclear facility in 1993, we now see the pizza-crusted underbelly.

Read more »

What Not To Do At Bombay Fast Food

For vegetarians or anyone who observes meatless days, Monday or no, I’ve continued my quest for variety via sans-meat dishes. I ventured to Bombay Fast Food, a vegetarian restaurant in the 6th avenue “food court”. Formerly Khodiar Indian, Taj Deli, and the Newstand… Bombay Fast Food shares a restaurant with a Pizza King (a joint in the genre of establishments that MJP has been so scrupulously critiquing in his cheap pizza slice investigation).

Zach crafted an *incredibly* helpful guide by translating their menu back in 2008. Why? The menu is almost completely void of the English language. I was looking forward to my adventure, and I had pre-planned what I would order before I went. I was interested in the dahi puri, (pani puri described blow with yogurt) and the methi pakoda, fried veg made with fenugreek. At $4.99 and $5.99 respectively, these “snacks” were going to run me slightly over $10, but I wanted to try both.

Read more »

Pizza Wars Push Slice Price to 75 Cents on 6th Ave

As much as we love a deal here at Midtown Lunch, the trend of cheap pizza has been a little bizarre to watch. Last fall, 2 Bros. popped up just doors away from Indian Newsstand (and pizza joint) Bombay and a price war ensued. Early this week, luncher ‘jonhack’ posted in the forums that Pizza King, Bombay’s pizza joint, was selling slices for 79 cents and that 2 Bros had responded by knocking their price down to 75 cents. As you can see from the photo above, it looks like Pizza King has matched their price. How far will this pizza brinksmanship go?!? Are we looking at 50 cent slices soon? Only time will tell.

Indian “Newstand” Is Now Bombay Fast Food

Last week in the forums, there was talk of Khodiar aka Taj Delhi aka the Newstand chaat place having moved. I didn’t remember hearing anything about this and immediately became concerned, naturally. I head over to 6th ave btw. 37+38th to confirm that, indeed, the establishment is still there… with yet another new name. Midtown Lunch’ers, meet Bombay Fast Food.
Read more »

6th Ave. Indian Food Court Reopens

The 6th Ave. (former) Newsstand (on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th) that sells Indian food, chaat, Latin food, and pizza reopened on Monday after being closed by the Department of Health last week.  The DOH website doesn’t say exactly why it was closed, but they got a 58 (anything higher than 28 is a fail) on 9/11.  To reopen they would have had to address the issues that got them a failing score, so whatever… I’ll still eat there.

Related:
A Guide to the Best Indian Street Food in Midtown: Translating the Menu at Taj Delhi Chat
The Best Indian Food in Midtown Might Be Sold Out of the Back of a Newsstand

6th Ave. Indian/Pizza/Spanish Food Shuttered by DOH?

doh

Lunch’er Carolyn sent in this terrible news yesterday: “As I was on my way to pick up my beloved samosa chat, I found that Indian Newsstand on 6th between 37+38th was shuttered! I didn’t see any notices, but I just thought I would spread the word. Also, just so the people know, they changed their awning in order to display their entire array of foods.” The Department of Health would be the natural culprit, and a quick search of their site uncovered this: last month they received a failing score of 38 from the DOH because “Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.” That doesn’t sound too bad (i.e. no mention of rats or roaches)… hopefully they’ll get this sorted out soon so Carolyn can get her chaat!

Related:
The Best Indian Food in Midtown Might Be Sold Out of the Back of a Newsstand
A Guide to the Best Indian Street Food in Midtown: Translating the Menu at Taj Delhi Chat
Khodiar Lunch Services Loses the “Taj Delhi Chat” (And Some Quality Along With It?)

Airing of Grievances: Flavors Salad (Again), AQ Kafe Takeout, and Spitting at the Indian Newsstand

I try my best not to be too negative on this site, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to vent. Every once in awhile I’ll share some of the more angry useful emails I get in a post called “Airing of Grievances”. (If the Eater Complaints Dept. would like royalties, I’ll be happy to pay up…)

griveances_may

First up is Flavors, the generic deli in the passageway at the bottom of the Fox News Building (on 47th btw. 6+7th).  It looks like they’ve responded to the first grievance that was aired against them by shrinking the size of the plastic containers their salads come in.  Clearly, though, not everybody is happy about it.

“We all just trekked over to Flavors over on 47th as we normally do and found they reduced the salad bowl sizes to half the size of what we’re used to. They’re normally pretty awesome salads. Kind of like a bait and switch that radio stations do when they launch. They play all good music and then voila, one day it’s all commercials once they have their loyal listener base. All good, but prices didn’t reduce. So we decided to trek elsewhere, no biggy, but on the way out I asked the manager why they have decided to go with salad bowls half the size of the original ones. Their answer – Corporate says it’s to reduce our carbon footprint, but it still holds the same amount. We all failed to see how a bowl visually half the size could hold the same amount. Wish your team could have been there – priceless”

First people complain that you don’t fill your salad containers all the way up.  Then you shrink the container to fit the salad, and people complain about that.  Even I have a bit of sympathy for you on this one.  Clearly you can’t win Flavors. Maybe you should just give up on the whole generic deli thing and become a… I don’t know… Chinese buffet? (Just a thought…)

Read more »

Khodiar Lunch Services Loses the “Taj Delhi Chat” (And Some Quality Along With It?)

DSC01420

I noticed something interesting while walking down 9th Avenue this weekend… the original signs for Taj Delhi Chat (which used to hang in the window of the former newsstand on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th) are now hanging in the window of an Indian steam table place on 29th and 9th.  Apparently the lady who started “Taj Delhi Chat” was kicked out of the Khodiar (aka Newsstand) space, and is planning on reopening at this new location in Chelsea.  She’s not up and running yet, but plans to be selling chaat from that location at some point in the next two weeks.

So, what does this mean for the chaat being served out of the newsstand on 6th Ave.?

Read more »

Indian Food Newsstand Adds Pizza to the Lineup

DSC01356

More news from Khodiar Lunch Services (aka Newsstand Indian) on 6th Ave. btw. 37+38th.  They’ve introduced pizza to the “food court” which already includes vegetarian Gujarati food, regular Indian food with meat, a chaat counter, and the latin food that used to be in the Blimpie next door.  The chaat counter moved to the back awhile ago, along with everything else, and now the pizza is in the front right hand corner where the chaat used to be. They’re having a “Grand Opening” special, with slices for $1.50- so I felt compelled to see what pizza from an Indian newsstand would taste like (it doesn’t appear as if they have outsourced the pizza to an Italian family.)

Read more »