I'll just say this up front... the food was f***ing amazing. Out of this world. Mind blowing.
I've eaten at maybe 100 Pakistani restaurants all over the world. None of them are better than this one.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the first time I ate at a Pakistani restaurant.
I was working for AIG in Bangkok many years ago, and my aunt showed up at my desk one day before lunch and said "Yod, we go lunch now. You must come with us!"
So my aunt and I gathered up the rest of her friends in the office, skipped the executive dining room and headed down to street level, into the smog and chaos of Bangkok.
When we arrived, my aunt and her three friends told me what they wanted to eat. I shrugged and walked through the cinder blocked building and to the rickety card table that served as the main counter. I started to order in Thai. The Pakistani guy behind the counter had no idea what I was saying. He tried to respond. His Thai was worse than mine.
"Uhh... um... English?" I asked.
He flashed me a grin.
"Cheerio mate, and hello to you, my valued customer!"
WTF?
Now, I've always had a hard time describing this guy's accent every time I tell this story. But I figure if you kidnapped a child from Pakistan, then trained the child to speak English using a combination of East Enders reruns and language lessons from the members of Oasis, the result might sound like this guy.
The meal I had there was phenomenal. Most of the 99 other Pakistani restaurants I've eaten at since then were great too.
But not this great. Not by a long shot. Not by a country mile.
This is their very unassuming storefront next to a sushi buffet.
Note their hours. A lot of restaurants close in the afternoon, but none of them explain it honestly like these guys!
Now several Yelp reviews of this place mention that everything is cooked from scratch. That the spices are blended in-house. That the owner owns part of a chain of halal meat shops and that's where he sources his ingredients. That this is an offshoot of some phenomenal chain of Pakistani restaurants in the Bay Area.
I believe it. You don't get food to taste this good doing stuff the lazy way.
We started with the sheekh kabob. This is your standard ground beef kabob cooked in a tandoori oven. Except not really. Way more flavor than all the versions I've ever had and topped with fresh herbs and onions.
Next came our order of naan. Each piece was about the size of an extra large frisbee, hot, warm, crispy and delicious. There's two pieces in this order but you can't see the second one under the one on top. This was the best $1.00 I've spent in quite a while.
This is order of nihari. It's a traditional Pakistani beef stew that is one of their national dishes. The beef is perfectly braised and the flavor of the entire dish is entirely indescribable other than to say it's incredible. Right now would be a good time to mention that these guys are not shy with the spice level--they make it for you just like they would make it for themselves.
I thought the nihari was mind blowing... that is, until I had the next dish: their boneless lamb stew. Once again, I'm at a total loss of words for how to describe this to you, other than to say it was amazing and that you should go get some right now.
Witness the impact of two of the most delicious things I've ever put into my mouth: Tandoori Night's naan and their boneless lamb curry (unfortunately this was Jody's bite that I tried and failed to steal).
Sorry for the complete lack of description in this post, but the food here is seriously, indescribably good. I definitely have to make this statement here:
WHAT IS THIS PLACE DOING IN A ROSEVILLE STRIP MALL???
If you're a fan of tandoori cooked meats or curries, you need to go to Tandoori Night. RIGHT NOW. Don't wait. Just make sure they're open.
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