Nukkad Dhaba

10707 W. Bellfort

I happened to spot this restaurant while I was waiting on my Chicken Shwarma from the Halal 5 food truck across the street. Driving west on West Bellfort from 59/69 at this point the sign for Nukkad Dhaba is almost completely blocked by a tree and I hadn't noticed it.

Nuddad means corner so I understand and dhaba is a term for a roadside eatery in India, particularly one catering to truckers.  This is a counter-service diner type place with booths along one wall and tables along another.  Parking is limited in front (and most of the building is currently unoccupied) but there is an expanded lot in the back, kept watch over by security cameras.  There's even a mostly enclosed patio on the rear of the building, making this one of the very few places in this part of town with al fresco dining.

Reviewers online rave about the Butter Chicken here while others complain about the oiliness of the curries. I've never cared for Butter Chicken so I passed up yet another opportunity to see what I'm missing and went for Chicken Seekh Kabab, Channa Masala, which is one of my favorite dishes from the subcontinent, and naan. The kababs were fine; nothing outstanding but okay.  They came with a very good coriander/chile chutney.  The Channa was both very oily and very tame.  When I make this dish at home, I'm aiming for a spice level like a bowl of Texas Red and this didn't come close.  There are shakers of a masala mix on the tables at the restaurant so I got mine out at home and shook generously.  The naan survived the almost 15 minute ride home tightly wrapped in very thick foil and was excellent for sopping up the oil.

A specialty of the house is Bombay style Chinese food, offered on a separate menu beginning at 5 pm and available until 1:45 am, seven days a week.  I had picked up a package of Ching's Secret Veg Hakka Noodles at Indian Spices and Snacks in Sugar Land recently but didn't realize I needed the Secret Szechuan sauce mix packet, too, so had never done anything with them and here was a version on a restaurant menu staring me in the face.  Well, minus any reference to Szechuan.  This is a stir fried noodle dish that had onions, bell pepper and I believe green beans in it, as I recall.  Interesting, but again very bland. I added the masala spice and some soy sauce to kick it up some.

I also picked up a couple of Keema Samosas which came with a very potent garlic chutney. Compared to this concoction, they might as well put Sriracha in 2.5 oz bottles and slap a Gerber label on it.  I gobbled it like a side dish and regretted it (just a little) the next couple of days.  I think the hole in my stomach has mainly healed, now, though.

My third visit I went just for the snacks - a couple of the Keema Samosas, an Aloo Vada and Chicken Patise

I have seen these Chicken Patise before but never tried one.  From here on, I'll be trying every one I come across.  This was the best thing yet - nicely spiced shredded chicken meat in puff pastry (and I had some of both the coriander and garlic chutneys left over to dress it up a little).

The place is very clean on the inside, better looking than the outside of the building, and the counter people have been friendly and welcoming, energetic even.  I plan to go back to try more of the Chinese food.

Nukkad Dhaba

Haveli Kabab & Grill House

5901 Hillcroft

I remembered seeing something about a new Pakistani restaurant on Hillcroft and when I saw the Grand Opening banner for Haveli I went in to check it out.   As I approached, I was wistfully remembering Sabri Nihari in the opposite corner of this u-shaped, double decker mall in Little India.  Sabri was my first Pakistani restaurant and I still remember the Beef Nihari and the huge wedges of naan glazed with ghee which blew me away on my first visit.

Haveli is in a space larger than Sabri that used to be a nite club and is a bit more upscale.

The official name (per the website and as printed on the take-out menu) is a little misleading:  Haveli is a buffet 7 days a week.  The food looked better than I remember the buffet at Sabri and I dug in.  Everything on the hot station was labeled and I got around to trying a little of most of the dishes.   In the 11 o’clock position on the plate are small pieces of Tawa Chicken and Grill Fish.  I took some Palak Paneer with toasted paneer, one of the best dishes that day and one of the best versions I’ve had, and some plain white rice, discovering on another visit the Chicken Biryani was a much better option.  I also got an onion pakora, the spiciest thing I had that day.  The Tandoori Chicken thigh was on the dry side; Frontier Chicken, looking like a Pakistani version of chicken fajitas with onions and bell peppers, was a much better option.  (I did not take any pictures of my second visit).

I put some of the Beef Haleem in one of the cups provided for the Chicken Corn Soup, which I skipped.  The Haleem was excellent.

Then I moved on to the salad/chilled station of the buffet, crowded in the corner of the room.  With some mango pickle I picked up what I thought would be an idli, though I guess that would have been out of place on a Pakistani buffet.  It turned out to be a sweet, chilled, and oozing simple syrup.  Among the salads I took a simple diced cucumber, carrot and onion salad and what turned out to be, I suppose, a version of Raita with pieces of eggplant, onion, and either chilli pod (de-seeded and devoid of heat) or a pod from one of the pulses in chilled yogurt. I could have eaten a whole plate of just this.  There was also a chilled chickpea salad with tomatoes, onions and cilantro that was very good and another sweet which was forgettable plus other salads and chutneys on this station.  Unfortunately nothing on the chilled station was labeled, absolutely nothing at all, and I didn’t get the names of any of these  

I have also tried Tawa Gosht which turned out to be excellent, better than the small sample of the Beef Nihari I tried.  It didn’t look very appetizing so I had passed on it until the end and I wish I had had room for more. 

I skipped a korma and a jalfrezi dish plus Butter Chicken, as I recall.  I went for seconds on the Palak Paneer, Haleem, Frontier Chicken, Onion Pakora and Raita but only taking very small portions of (almost) everything.

The naan was brought to the table by a server and though it looked great it was at room temperature and a big disappointment. 

There is a self-serve beverage station with Coke products and several tea options.

If you’re lucky you may score one of the covered spaces in the tunnel right in front of the door.  Having a shaded parking spot in the middle of the day in a Houston summer is almost reason enough to go by itself.

I don’t go for buffets much anymore but they are a convenient way to try out new cuisines or restaurants or just to pig out, which I don't like to do.  I still visit Fadi’s and Vishala and I think Haveli will also be an ongoing  option.  I’ll certainly give it a few more tries to see if my first impressions hold up.

Haveli

More News of the World - UPDATED 9/29

King's Chicken, known for its Pakistani dishes, naan, and fried chicken, has abandoned it's longtime place on Beechut just west of Wilcrest and moved way out on Highway 6, just north of Westheimer.  It's now a sit-down restaurant.

King's Chicken review in the Press.

The new name at the Beechnut location is Scarlotti's Eatery and Catering but except for a sign in the window advertising a 2 piece chicken deal, there's no indication what kind of food is served.

Johnathan's Grill Pampanga's in the International Food Court at the Viet Hoa Center on the West Belt at Beechnut is now La Fernandina's Grill Pampanga's.  There are still just the two Filipino places side-by-side in the food court (the other is Pinoy Fast Food).

Haveli is a new Pakistani restaurant at 5901 Hillcroft.  It's a buffet 7 days a week in a former nightclub space.

Openings and Closings 2013 - 2014 (Edited 10/3/14)

So I don't go out for a year and a half and there are all these changes.  Who knew this was going to happen?

Around the intersection of Hillcroft and Bissonnet, which I once bragged about as one of the most diverse in Houston the kosher pizza place Aroma Pizza Cafe has closed.  It looked for a while like a pizza chain was moving in but the space is now vacant.  Tortilleria La Reyna and Birirria La Reyna, next door to each other, have merged into just the tortilleria.  Their Miercoles con Pollo Wednesday special is a cheap eats bargain - a whole rotisserie chicken, a cup of rice and half cup of a decent ranchero type salsa for just $6.  Fresh, warm, corn tortillas are extra but just $1 per pound.

Sheba Cafe has apparently become Habesha although the Sheba name remains on the building.  Sometimes it's closed when the sign says it's supposed to be open and other times a I see the Open sign lit in the window.  Next door, which long ago was Hoagies and More offering banh mi and pupusas, is now Ostioneria La Reyna.

South on Hillcroft, Istanbul Market has closed and Pollo Loco Charcoal Roasted Chicken has moved into the strip center with Pupusa Buffet.

On South Post Oak where Willow dead ends, Super Chicken offers Peruvian style charcoal roasted chicken with sides.  There's a dining room but I've never seen any one dining in the couple of times I've stopped in.    SUPER CHICKEN HAS CLOSED.
 
On Fondren at South Braeswood a shop offering cake pops, donuts, cupcakes and coffee according to signs in the windows has taken over the space formerly occupied by the Chili Bowl and before that Luke's.  There's still no sign on the building or streetside but a banner on the building now announces the Grand Opening of The Cake Fairy.  Maybe the third time will be the charm for that space.  ETA:  There is now a street-side sign, although it's mostly obscured by trees.

Shortly after I reviewed it, East Africa and Middle East Restaurant changed names to Mandi Halal and was identified online as serving Somali and Yemeni food.  Now Mandi Halal has closed but a new place has opened at 8403 Almeda at Holly Hall named House of Mandi.  Mandi is a Yemeni dish. 

Our second Afghan restaurant, Afghan Village, 6413 Hillcroft, has been open for about a year and I still haven't gotten around to going; now another Afghan place, Afghan Dastarkhwan, a word which I understand means something like smorgasbord, has opened at 6800 Southwest Freeway, back behind Lucy, which I've never been to either.  Edit to add:  a second location of Afghan Dastarkhwan has replaced Durrani's Tandoori Grill at 10581 S. Hwy 6 at West Bellfort, Sugar Land.

On Gessner between 59 and Beechnut, Taqueria Cancun has closed.  A block south of 59 Taqueria Arandas has become Don Rey Mexican Restaurant.  The huge streetside sign is new, as is the hand-painted plywood sign saying they're open.

I watched for months for the opening of Lahori Maza on Bissonnet next door to Afrikiko Ghanaian Restaurant, then I found out it was only open in the evenings or maybe only after dusk.  I still haven't checked it out.  Signs in the windows have advertised supari, bun kabob, keema paratha, samosas, tea, chess, and pool.  The other Desi game rooms I've been to, Salaam Namaste, Alpha Capri and Mehfil Grill, have more than just snacks on the menu.  The strip center parking lot up front is notorious for prostitution activities and raids

And probably the two best for last - AA Supermarket, 9896 Bellaire, is in the process of becoming an H Mart.  I read about it on Yelp and went to check it out.  There's no indication outside or in except that your receipt will show H Mart and you groceries will be in H Mart bags.  It's not a bad supermarket but it has a long way to go to match the H Mart on Blalock.  Still, I'm excited to have an H Mart much closer to home.

And Pho Binh, the acclaimed pho restaurant, has opened it's fifth location, Pho Binh Grill, in the shopping center at the corner of Gessner and the SW Fwy, between Maharaja Bhog and Peking Cuisine, making that strip center a great destination for dining.

Edit to add:  India Grocers, 6606 SW Freeway @ Hillcroft, has become Subhlaxmi Grocers.

Dilpasand Mithai and Snacks - Stafford

867 Dulles Ave, Stafford

This is the third location of this Pakistani sweets and snack shop (I understand they are not all co-owned).  It's located in an L-shaped center back from the street and the street-side sign is easy to miss.  It's a small, neat and brightly lit, colorful shop.

One of the first things I noticed on the menu was the Hunter Beef po-boy.  I don't know if they have this at the other locations because I haven't been to either in a couple of years.

If your corned beef sandwiches have been blah lately, try this spicy Pakistani version with shredded Hunter beef, melting cheese, bell pepper and chutneys, served warm on a toasted po-boy roll.

The Bun Kabob here comes as a vegetarian version with a fried egg, red onion, chutneys and generous sprinklings of chat masala inside and out.  There is also a burger and a chicken burger on the menu plus samosas and typical chat items including pani pudi, dahee pudee and samosa chat.

There's a large menu of smoothies and juices.  I tried the V5 Cocktail - a tasty concoction of orange, apple, carrot, beet and ginger. Try one of those and you'll feel at least a little more virtuous as you head out the door with your box of barfis, ladoos and gulab jamon.

Vegetarian for a Week, Part 2

See the first part of this report here.

By Day 4 I was thinking wistfully of the Gujarati Thali at Sweet n Namkin but since that's no longer possible, I pulled a wild card out of the deck and went to Pupusa Buffet, previously mentioned here.

Salvadoran is not a cuisine that springs readily to mind when thinking of vegetarian options but I remembered the one time I went, to the original location on Bellaire just after it opened, I had liked the pupusa con queso y ayote best and I couldn't think of any other pupuseria that even offers one.

I arrived at the Hillcroft location just as lunch service was beginning. My pupusas were just being brought out of the kitchen as I ordered them - two squash and one loroco. Too hot to handle at first, and too soggy, I couldn't wait and dug into the first one using a fork. By the time I'd finished that one, the others were cool enough and dried out enough to pick up and eat. I discovered that the sogginess I had noted on my first visit is not just due to their being on a steam table - they come out of the kitchen that way.

I also got a big portion of the very vinegary curtido, surprisingly spicy for Salvadoran food with two kinds of chile peppers, both in escabeche, and the salsa picante.

Being vegetarian in Houston has got to include some vegetarian Indian and Pakistani fare and I had planned on going to Shiv Sagar for dabeli on Day 5 but got a late start on the day and didn't want to deal with the crowds in Little India on the weekends, so I headed over to Savoy Tika Kabob Restaurant and Grocery on Wilcrest for a couple of their great samosas - chunks of potato, peas, crushed spices, two kinds of chillis, I think - this is still my favorite of the samosas I've found, slightly larger and much spicier. I was going to get an assortment of pakoras, too, but they didn't have any on the menu. The samosas proved to be enough by themselves. The garlic chutney was very garlicky; I hardly bothered with the date/tamarind chutney.

On Day Six I had a jury summons for the afternoon sessions at the county courthouse. With not enough time to go to a restaurant for lunch I made a wrap at home with some of the markouk from Cedars Bakery using some vegetarian shrimp I had picked up recently at San San Tofu (made from milk whey protein), lettuce, daikon, cucumber, and, for lack of anything better, salsa. It was quite good. In fact, I made another one for dinner. I forgot to take pictures both times as I usually don't take pictures of my home meals, so that's just a picture of the markouk, right out of the bag, all folded up. The sheets unfold to 21" in diameter.

Go to the 3rd part of this report here.

Sweet n Namkin - Revisited

10736 W. Bellfort - CLOSED

I first reported on this place several months ago, shortly after it opened as primarily a sweets and snacks shop. It's undergone some big changes recently and now offers a menu of vegetarian dishes everyday plus some specials and I thought it was worthy of an updated report.

The restaurant is co-owned with Salaam Namaste next door; a door connects the two but they maintain totally separate kitchens, both 100% Halal with Sweet n Namkin also being 100% vegetarian. The two kitchens are to assure that there is no 'hocus-pocus' about vegetarian dishes being prepared in a kitchen that also prepares meat dishes, I was told. It is okay for customers to take food from one side to the other, however, to eat with friends.


There is a menu of about a dozen vegetarian offerings every day now plus specials four days a week. On Wednesday, the special is Biryani, on Saturday, a Gujarati thali, pictured above, and on Sunday Halwa Puri. I think the other special is either Thursday or Friday but I can't remember what it is.

I know of only one other restaurant in Houston offering Gujarati dishes, Bhojan on the SW Freeway; I haven't been there in over a year now but I have had excellent food there. They ply you with a very good buffet and an endless supply of fresh, hot roti. Here, the special is a fixed thali consisting of a yogurt curry, warm and spicy with green onion and cilantro, an eggplant curry (brinjal) on the left, even spicier, and a third curry in the background with squash (zucchini) and split yellow peas that I could identify; this one was not as spicy as the eggplant (these components may vary). Besides the rice and onions, there is a warm, fresh, melt in your mouth pappadum and two fresh warm chapatis in the background (both this place and the one next door just refer to chapatis as tortillas in explaining them but they do make their own on premises). There is a wedge of lime and a piece of Laddu, a sweet. Lurking behind the onions is a pickle that I didn't get the name of and could only identify one ingredient, a 1" long, 1/2" wide piece of ginger root. I understand this is to be added to the other dishes as the diner sees fit but I sampled it but didn't use it.

This was excellent and much spicier than anything I've had at Bhojan. I've been asked regularly whether I wanted something spicy or medium but I can't remember if I was given that option on this dish.

This was more than enough to fill me up but I also had a watermelon lassi. The lassi here are thin, closer in thickness to an aguafresca than a milk shake. I can appreciate both this and the very thick ones like the ones I had at Bhojan which practically require a spoon; this one was tasty and thirst quenching without being so filling.


The vegetable biryani was a beautifully colorful and aromatic dish with long grain rice, peas, green beans, tomato, corn, potato, shredded carrot, and cauliflower plus whole clove and cardamom, pieces of cinnamon and some apricot to add a little sweetness, plus other spices including chile powder. As with the thali, this came with a cup of slivered onions on the side.


Several items are offered here that are also offered at Bansuri, the famous Indian food truck around the corner. I had never had the Dahi Puri at Bansuri or anywhere so this is the first time I tried this dish and I loved it. The thin mini-puri shells are filled with chickpeas, a creamy, whipped yogurt, sweet and spicy chutneys, and topped with a generous heap of sev, the little fried noodles. I got it spicy and my mouth was happy for minutes after finishing it off. These things are as much fun as a loaded ice cream sundae with its contrasting flavors and textures of the ice creams, fruits and nuts and syrups. In this case, it's the creamy yogurt, the slightly firm, slightly chewy, slightly salty chickpeas, the sweet date/tamarind chutney and spicier cilantro/jalapeno (you can see them through the thin puri shells) and the crunchy sev. You're supposed to put a whole one in your mouth but I found them a little large for that and, anyway, I liked the process of biting into one, letting it begin to drip and ooze, and then putting the rest in my mouth. I used the spoon to finish off the Yogurt Chutney Noodle soup that covered the bottom of the plate when I was finished and I did go through a heap of the flimsy napkins.

I had a salt lassi with cumin with this, only a little salty but with about two tablespoons of cumin seeds; again, very refreshing and thirst quenching without being that filling.


This place subscribes to the Little Bigs philosophy of sliders - sliders are mini-sandwiches in theory only. These Dabeli were much heftier than the ones at Bansuri and were very good. The patty, mostly potato with some onion, achieved that color by the incorporation of all the spices including red and green chile powders, cilantro, cumin, and others and perhaps also the chutneys - it wasn't clear that there had been any chutneys applied to the buns. The nuts looked like almonds but didn't taste like almonds to me; I was told they were hazelnuts. There was a generous number of nuts in each sandwich and there were also like-sized pieces of potato and onion in the patties.

These were very tasty (and spicy, per request) but unfortunately they use store-bought large dinner rolls and they were a little dry and very bready; I also would have liked a little more crunchy sev under the hood.

There is a variety of ready to eat pakora every day including potato, spinach, onion, jalapeno strips and whole jalapeno, plus samosas and a puri that I think is a Choley Puri. The whole jalapeno pakora is only partially seeded and deveined and has chat masala added for heat, the jalapeno strips, I believe, are seeded and deveined. I've liked them all but they are not crispy. These come with the tamarind chutney with date and a cilantro/jalapeno chutney.

As detailed before, there are also shakes, lassi, fruit juices and fruit cups, plus kulfi and falooda. (My earlier report on Sweet n Namkin is here).

I think this place is a real neighborhood gem. The young woman who runs the front of the house is always so cheerful and pleasant and helpful and a pleasure to deal with. She keeps insisting I have to try the Halwa Puri, a traditional Pakistani Sunday breakfast, served all day, so I'll have to go in to try that sometime.

They are currently open from 3pm to 11pm, Tuesday thru Friday, until Midnight on Saturday , and 10am to 10pm on Sunday. I'm hoping they will expand the hours to include weekday lunches. Salaam Namaste, next door, is open much longer hours.

In Search of Houston's Best Bun Kabab

Say what?


I first encountered the bun kabab at the snack bar at Dilpasand Mithai on Hillcroft a year and a half ago. On one of my visits there to try the barfees I ordered one, not having any idea what I was going to be getting. After eating one the concept was not much clearer. It was a vegetable patty, seemed to be mostly mashed potato, on a hamburger bun, with onion and shredded lettuce, black pepper, maybe some garlic powder, and lots of ketchup. I had asked for one 'spicy' but the predominant flavor I got was ketchup.

Since then I've learned the bun kabab is a very popular snack in Pakistan and it occurred to me maybe I had just gotten a less than primo example of one. Since then I had ordered one at another Indo-Pak snack bar on Highway 6 but though it was on the menu board, they no longer served it. Then when I discovered the second location of Dilpasand Mithai recently and saw it on the menu, I went for it.

It proved to be a good choice. Delivered piping hot from the kitchen and with lots of heat, it was a perfect light snack for a hot summer afternoon, tasty and filling without being too heavy; there was only a very modest amount of ketchup.

I had been strolling through the Desi Food Warehouse in the same shopping center and didn't have my camera with me so was unable to take a shot but a couple of weeks later, back out on that side of town and craving something light to eat, - okay, I wanted another bun kabab - I stopped in again. Ramadan was underway and the restaurant was not serving any food to eat on premises but fixed one to go (the kitchen staff is Mexican, I believe), so I retreated to my car in the parking lot and took the picture above.

The ones I had previously were on the smaller 4" buns but this one used the larger sized bun and was a lot more filling and not quite as spicy but very good. The resemblance to a Whataburger is obvious; change out that checked wrapping paper for mustard colored and you could probably fool a lot of people - until they bit into it. This is not a mashed potato fritter, just mashed potatoes (maybe some mashed lentils, maybe onions, I think).

This has become something of a minor obsession for me, just what I need to help me get through the (hopefully) last few weeks of sweltering summer when I'm not eating much more than sandwiches and snacks. I happened to remember that Salaam Namaste, a Desi game room and Indo-Pak fast food place on W. Bellfort, just off 59, had bun kabab on the menu and I stopped in to try it, only to discover they have three - a meat bun kabab, a 'special,' which includes egg, and a vegi kabab. What is this I wondered? I was directed through a door to the sister restaurant, Sweet 'n Namkin, for the vegi bun kabob. These two restaurants have totally separate kitchens, both 100% Halal, with Sweet 'n Namkin also 100% vegetarian.


This was another good one; the patty had been sauteed just a little I think and browned up a bit and included small chunks of onion and lentil and perhaps some other vegetables. There were some thick slices of roma tomato and only a dollop of ketchup (more was offered on the side), and a generous amount of raw onion and cilantro. It wasn't quite a spicy as the one at Dilpasand but was very satisfying.

I went back online to do some more research and discovered something I had totally missed before, the meat and egg combination is the most popular variety in Pakistan; I thought this was just supposed to be a veggie snack.

So of course I had to go back to try the 'Special' at Salaam Namaste.' What I got was the least photogenic of any I've had so I didn't take a picture but it turned out to be the best. A thinner patty of veggies, topped with a thin 'omelet' folded over multiple times, with onion, roma tomato and cucumber slices and lots of cilantro, the spiciest one yet, too, and on top of that, a shaker of spice on the table (including at the least cumin and tumeric) that kicked it up even more.

So I've still got to try the beef bun kabab at Salaam Namaste. A Beef Kabab Roll or Chicken Kabab Roll is common as a snack food offering on Pakistani menus here, but not the Bun Kabab. I've checked at Alfa Capri, another Desi game room/snack bar just a few doors down on West Bellfort, and they don't serve a bun kabab and I've checked the menus of several other Pakistani restaurants and haven't found another one to try so the quest goes on but may be over already, too.

In the meantime I had come across this Pakistani blog comparing the bun kabab to McDonald's and coming down squarely in favor of the bun kabab. I don't know how authentic the McDonald's burgers are they're getting from those kiosks pictured in Karachi but I'll have to join the chorus of comments: I'd rather have one of these, too.

My earlier report on Dilpasand Mithai.

Salaam Namaste. I have been going to this restaurant off and on for several years but not much in a couple of years; it's undergone a renovation of sorts and there's more emphasis on the food and less on the game room aspect now.

My earlier report on Sweet n' Namkin which is undergoing a maker-over of it's own, becoming more of a vegetarian restaurant and less of just a chaat and sweets bar.

Oh yeah, and another good thing about these? So far, no one has asked me if I wanted fries with one or wanted to SuperSize it.

Gulshan-e-Iqbal

6121 Hillcroft # T

I first saw this Pakistani grocery store when I checked out Dilpasand Mithai next door and have been meaning to get back over there but I've been avoiding Hillcroft because of all the construction. Traffic in the area is about back to normal but ironically I was stuck in a traffic jam along there recently so I decided it was time to check it out.

It's much smaller than Savoy, the Pakistani grocery on Wilcrest, about the size of a convenience store. The emphasis seems to be on ready-to-eat and convenience foods rather than staples. There is much less of the bulk rice and flour and lots of chaat. The freezer and cooler displays are much smaller and the Halal meat case is smaller, though well stocked.

I was fascinated by the vast array of products and picked up some of the same items I've seen at Savoy for slightly less, although I couldn't guarantee that advantage would hold across the whole product line.


I found the zeera cookies (cumin) that I liked so much, this brand unsalted, moister and flakier, fresher tasting, and even more addictive, tea rusks and mixes. I picked up a Bhel Puri mix that I thought was produced here in Houston but upon closer examination of the label realized it was just imported by a Houston company. The package included the puffed rice and crackers (papdi or papri?) plus peanuts, a packet of masala and a packet of sev, the small crisp noodles, plus instructions on how to add vegetables to produce the final dish.

The breads in the fresh bread rack felt warm to the touch but by the time I got home with a loaf it no longer was. I picked up some baladi from Sahara Bakery on Richmond. It turns out this is an Egyptian peasant flat bread, a little fluffier than pita, and it was quite good, better than the masala naan I picked up from the refrigerated cases at Savoy, and toasts up very nicely in a toaster.

In an alcove in the corner is a small sweets bar offering two kinds of falooda, kulfi, lassi and gola ganda, the Pakistani version of a snow cone, and a few other things.

I had seen Sahara Bakery (9542 Richmond) before and always meant to check it out. After trying the baladi, I looked it up on line. A new website is under construction; the shopping center has undergone renovation and apparently the business has been downsized and the picture on the website is not what the strip center looks like now. I went interested in trying the restaurant but it is no longer in operation. I browsed the aisles only briefly and picked up some pickled vegetables that included wild cucumbers and noted the loaves of bread were definitely still warm from the ovens so I'll be going back to pick up some bread (there are only 3 or 4 varieties I think) when I use up what I've got.

Savoy Restaurant and Grocery

11248 S. Wilcrest

We have a lot of Indian and Pakistani restaurants in Houston including some very excellent ones. I'm a little more familiar with the Pakistani places, of which there are probably fewer, owing in part to Chef Kaiser Lashkari's excellent Himalaya. My experiences there have spurred me to explore that cuisine further to the neglect of Indian places.

Besides the well known Little India area around Hillcroft and the Southwest Freeway, Indian and Pakistani restaurants are scattered all over the city with another concentration in the area around West Bellfort, Wilcrest and the Southwest Freeway, very close to my home.

Along a one block stretch of West Bellfort between 59 and Wilcrest are two Desi game rooms/snack bars, Salaam Namaste and Alfa Capri, plus a new sweets and chaat shop, Sweet n' Namkin. Around the corner on Wilcrest, in a shopping center next to the Bansuri Indian Food truck that I reported on 14 months ago, is Savoy, a Pakistani restaurant and grocery, and just south of 59 on Wilcrest/Murphy Rd. is Aga's, another Pakistani place. Just off 59 and Bissonnet is La Sani, a Pakistani buffet, and further out, just outside the Beltway on Bissonnet is Mehfil Grill, another Desi game room/snack bar.

I have now eaten at all of these at least once and this is the first of several reports.

Savoy is a counter-service restaurant and is larger and a little nicer than the average hole-in-the-wall Houston ethnic restaurant. There are large tables and over-sized booths in addition to four-seaters; food is served on disposable plates with disposable tableware. So far, I have always gotten my food to go. This works well for everything except the naan which doesn't fare well wrapped up in foil for even just the few minutes to get home, so I've only had the naan once here. Rice and naan are extra and they do prompt you to order some.



On my first visit I tried Chicken Chilli, some naan and a samosa. Chicken Chilli is one of my favorite dishes (much better than 'white' chili as served in US restaurants!) and this was very good with both white and dark meat though not as hot as some versions I've had, and quite oily. The naan was not bad, considering being wrapped up in foil but the real winner on this outing was the samosa, larger than most at about 6 oz versus 4 to 4.5 at most places, and stuffed with the most interestingly seasoned filling of potatoes, maybe a few peas and garlic, I think, plus green and red chilli powders and cilantro as best I could determine. This has become one of my go-to orders at Savoy and I get one every time I go in. Though I have yet to get one absolutely freshly made when ordered, they've always been good and warm, unlike some places where they've been sitting out for hours.

I was very enthused about the quality and taste of the food here and went back a few days later for another order, this time I went for the Qorma Goat, another favorite dish (I have several). Once again it was apparent the food here is quite oily and though it wasn't that noticeable in my first order, I realized the condiments - onions, julienned ginger and cilantro - are sometimes less than primo.

On yet another visit I went for the Beef Nihari.


Besides the Nihari in the picture is some Masala Naan (spicy) from the adjoining grocery store and a salted jeera biscuit, i.e., cumin cookie. I had Beef Nihari at Sabri Nihari on Hillcroft in my very first visit to a Pakistani restaurant and it blew me away. It's an awesome dish, something I have to try at every Pakistani restaurant sooner or later, although I haven't ever gotten around to ordering it at Himalaya, and I've never found a better version than Sabri's. It is sometimes described as the Pakistani version of pot roast, consisting mainly of beef shoulder or shank with the marrow bone included, cooked for hours with spices to produce a thick, hearty gravy and melt-in-your-mouth meat. I have suggested on message boards before, however, that it's really more like chili in that it is neither cooked nor served with vegetables but is just meat and spices; this is usually met with scorn but I persist. Savoy's version, in which the meat is cut up in cubes instead of served in large chunks, makes the comparison even more obvious, at least to me.

While okay the Savoy version was a little disappointing, not as good as other versions I've had.


One way to get around the oiliness of the food is to order from the grilled section of the menu and on another visit I ordered the Chicken Boti. I'd had this before on the very good Pakistani buffet at La Sani and liked it but Savoy's version kicks it up a couple of notches, to cop a phrase. Chunks of skinless and boneless chicken breast are seasoned with chillis, yogurt, garlic, ginger and other spices and then grilled or cooked in a tandoor. This was by far the spiciest thing I've had at Savoy and I loved it. My sinuses loosened up, my eyes watered just a bit: I have a new favorite dish. On this visit also I tried another snack, aloo vara, what would be called a batata wada in India. It consists of mashed potatoes, peas and onions, I think, mixed with spices, battered and deep fried. It's similar to a samosa except that the potatoes are mashed instead of being a chunk of boiled potato and the coating is a chickpea flour batter which results in a bread-like dough instead of the pie-dough like crust of a samosa. This was very good, with a good heat level itself, but I prefer the flaky crust and interior texture of the samosas. Either way, Savoy does Pakistani fried snacks very well. I still have not been able to try the egg rolls or patties on the menu.

Besides the restaurant Savoy is a Pakistani grocery store and I always take the time to browse the store while waiting for my order in the restaurant. They have a variety of fresh, refrigerated and frozen breads, the fresh selection as often as not depleted, the most well stocked meat cases of Halal meats I've seen, a long wall of freezer cases with scads of frozen entrees, sides and desserts, including ice cream and kulfi, a Pakistani frozen custard treat. There are large bags of basmati rice and atta, spice mixes for home preparation of complicated dishes, jellies, curries and sauces and syrups, even a small fresh produce section with a couple of vegetables I've not seen elsewhere, though I can't recall their names.

Besides the samosa from the restaurant, one item I regularly buy here are the salted jeera biscuits - cumin cookies. Think of a pecan sandie minus the pecans and with crushed cumin seeds for flavoring. I've also tried several of the frozen deserts, a Pista (pistachio) and Malai (clotted cream with a hint of cardamom) kulfis and Tutti Frutti ice cream. Both the kulfis were good, though not as good as the kulfi I got around the corner recently at Sweet n' Namkin on West Bellfort.

I've also enjoyed the Tea Rusks and Masala Khari, 'Crispy Tea Time Treats,' pastry puffs with a slight hint of cumin, also. I confess, I am a cumin junkie.

Savoy does a booming business. Besides the restaurant and grocery store, there is a banquet room seating as many as 700. On two occasions when I've been the restaurant menu has been limited somewhat by the fact the kitchen was overwhelmed with either a large take-out catering order or a banquet. I've known about the restaurant for a couple of years but put off going; on more than one occasion I've intended to go but the prospect of finding a parking space was daunting. One time recently, on a Sunday, cars were parked two deep on the end of rows, making navigating very difficult and making it impossible for cars parked perpendicular to the rows to get out of their spaces; on the day before there was literally no place to park, not one single space.

There is a large menu board over the counter where you order and copies of the menu you can pick up to peruse but neither have prices. Another copy of the menu, in a stand-up plastic frame, off to the right, is the only one that includes prices. A Halal food certificate is displayed behind the counter.

Dilpasand Mithai and Snacks

6121 Hillcroft, Suite T1

Note: There is a second location of this business in the Mission Centre, 14621 Beechnut, just west of Hwy 6, next to the Desi Food Warehouse.

UPDATE July 2013:  I have been advised the Hillcroft location of Dilpasand is closed for renovation.   The Hillcroft location has re-opened after renovations.
 
UPDATE: A visit to the second location which has only been open a few months. I was in the area hoping to try a new place that wasn't open so decided to hit this place. I flipped a coin to decide between this and the Chandkara Grill inside the Desi World Food Center next door.

The gyro machine was out of order so I couldn't try a gyro. Since my initial somewhat bewildering and disappointing first bun kebab I've learned they're very popular street food snacks and I thought maybe I had just gotten a mediocre one so decided to try one here. It proved to be a good choice. It came out in just a few minutes, piping hot (which the other one wasn't) and a lot more flavorful. It looked an awful lot like a drug store hamburger which is just fine with me, with still chilled onion, lettuce and tomato plus the chutney, and a lot less if any ketchup. It was very good, an excellent snack and at probably less than half the calories of a similarly sized burger. I believe the patty is primarily lentils.

While I was waiting the clerk offered me several sample tastes of the barfi - 7 different flavors, in fact. I couldn't believe it. I wound up buying some, walnut, almond, coconut and one other that looks like it's got raisins.

They have several flavors of ice cream and will be adding kulfi this autumn.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I’d never noticed this place before - it’s in one of those u-shaped strips, back from the street and not facing Hillcroft - but the other day a banner on the front of the building proclaiming ‘Halal Gyros’ caught my eye as I drove by. Halal gyros in an Indian sweet shop? I thought this deserved further investigation.

On entering the store a smile crossed my face at the sight of the glass cases with tray after tray of colorful barfees and other sweets. In the back of the room is a snack bar with a couple of tables along the wall, but it was not open for business on my first visit.

A menu board over the glass cases lists the sweets but the man behind the counter was very congenial and cheerfully answered all my questions. I selected 5 pieces of barfee (their spelling), made a note of as many other offerings as I could, and happily went on my way.


The barfee here is very moist, more fudge-like than cheese cake-like, and very good. From the lower left, clockwise, I got the plain, injeer (fig), coconut, pistachio and carrot. The flavorings are subtle; by the time I got home I forgot what one of them was and had to almost finish the pistachio before I figured it out. These were not as densely textured nor as intensely flavored as the burfi I’ve had at Bhojan but I liked them; my favorites were the fig and carrot.

Barfees are $7.99 a pound. That box was just over half a pound so expect about 9 pieces to a pound. You can mix and match. Ghulab Jamons are $6.99 a pound; there are samoosas for $.75 each, parathas, a small breakfast menu, 6 flavors of ice cream ($1.99 for 2 scoops), 3 lassis ($1.99), fruit drinks and shakes, and many other items.

I couldn’t find out much about the place online but the business card says ‘at your service for 50 years.’ In Houston??? One reviewer on Yelp raves about the barfee, another on another site also likes the barfee but says the gyros are sh.. Being from a long line of DIYers, I had to try something from the snack bar for myself so I went back another day.

The snack bar is apparently called Halal Gyro Hut and it has a very small menu. I should know better than to order from a fast food picture menu and expect to get anything like what is pictured but the Bun Kabob Combo, a hamburgerish like offering, looked good; the friendly older man at the counter asked if I wanted it spicy and smiled when I said ‘Oh yes!’

The sandwich was called a kabob but was nothing like what I think of as a kabob; it was a vegetarian patty on a sesame seed bun, topped with shredded lettuce and onion, a generous sprinkle of garlic powder and black pepper and some other spice (which was probably the source of the slight spiciness) and a red sauce that I hoped was the source of some real heat but tasted like ketchup to me. In fact ketchup was the most prominent taste I got. I was disappointed in the texture of the patty. The fries were beautifully golden, sprinkled generously with garlic and black pepper but needing salt, wonderfully crispy on the outside but mush on the inside. I got more ketchup with them.

Now I’d probably rather have another one of these than be forced to go to, say, Sonic, but I’ll stick to the sweets here in the future. The snack menu also includes wings and nuggets, a grilled fish plate, a gyro and a gyro burger and a few other items.

Puzzled by that ‘50 years’ claim I was looking around online and came upon Dilpasand Sweets in Karachi which the website says has been in business since 1949. It says there are locations in several countries but doesn’t specify any so I’m not sure if this Houston store is related or simply borrowed the name. The menu online is considerably larger than in the store and it’s helpful - click on the thumbnails for larger pictures and names of the various treats.

Next door to Dilpasand on Hillcroft is the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Halal grocery which I’d also never noticed before, named for the Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood of Karachi. I’ll have to go back and check it out.

I’ve always been intimidated by the plethora of sweets displayed at Bombay Sweets on Hillcroft on the other side of 59 and since I found the buffet there mediocre I’ve only been twice. This place is less overwhelming, with fewer choices for the novice like me to have to sort out. I appreciate that and I also have to be grateful there isn’t one just down the block from me - I don’t think it would be good for either my pocketbook or my waistline to have a shop like this to be very convenient to drop into.

Edit: I have since learned more about the bun kabob, a popular snack food, and have seen it on a couple of other menus around town but haven't tried it again.