Long Island City, NY

Fat Kid Rating: Obese

I literally started this blog to rave about this place. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been thinking about sharing my fat kid diaries for a while now. This place pushed me OVER THE EDGE. The world needs to hear about Adda.

I’m blessed to be from a Punjabi family: if you know, you know. We make the best Indian food. Don’t @ me. That being said, I don’t usually flock towards Indian food while eating out. I get great food at home; why waste money on it? After reading Robert Sietsema’s review on Eater, I decided I needed to try this place. My illustrious and amazing friend Sameer’s birthday was approaching. We were already planning on getting lunch and I decided to make a reservation here.

Getting Into the Meat of it

The place itself is pretty small. The walls are lined with Indian newspapers and posters. It was nice seeing Amitabh Bachchan stare down at me as I chomped away. Overall the ambience is nice and the music playing in the restaurant slaps.

We started with the Aloo Chana Chat. Fingerling potatoes and chickpeas in a gravy topped with crunchy bits and savory and tangy chutneys. Perfect mix of crunchy and almost soggy textures (I’ll get better at using adjectives, I promise). Perfect way to get started.

For the entrees, we ordered the Lucknow Dum Biryani, the Lotus Root Kofta, and 3 different types of naan.

I’ll start with the Lotus Root Kofta: what a luxurious dish. The rich mouth feel of the gravy, the crispy exterior and fluffy interior of the Kofta, the herbaceous-ness of it. I fucking loved it. This dish is definitely worth ordering; even if you’re a hardcore meat eater. Everyone at the table mentioned how pleasantly surprised they were by this dish.

Yes, I’m dedicating a couple of sentences just for the naan. ORDER THE AMUL CHILLI & CHEESE NAAN. It’s perfectly salty, the cheese is perfectly stretchy, the naan is supple and it makes for an elite accompaniment to dip in gravy.

Saving the most impressive for last: the Lucknow Dum Biryani. You can tell this is their most popular dish: almost every table around us had Biryani on it. The Biryani itself is extremely spice-ous; to the point where we were sweating eating it. The goat was tender and fell off the bone. Every grain of rice was tender and separate (good luck trying to find mushy and over-cooked rice in this establishment). Even though the flavor is elite, the best part about this dish is the presentation. It comes out in a pot with crispy dough lining the dish. The waiter then proceeds to crack into the top of the dough with his spoon: releasing the built up steam. It’s almost theatrical.

Overall, this place is legitimately delicious. Would definitely recommend checking this place out and pigging out.

Oh, I should probably explain the fat kid rating at the top of this post. Going forward, I’m going to be rating the food experiences on this page using my self-patented fat kid scale. The scale goes as following: emaciated, skinny, shmedium, chubby, fat, obese, morbidly obese. This place is obese, hands down.