★☆☆☆☆ This is not a new restaurant, it's been here for a while and is among the worst restaurants in Jackson Heights. Everything about Dera is below average..
The food quality sucks. Better than neighboring restaurants like Jackson Diner, but it's still bad. It's a typical over the counter style restaurant, serving dishes that were cooked by people who have no idea how to cook. I've tried numerous dishes:
- Naan: Good standard quality naan.
- Sweets: Weeks old and dry. Stay away from them.
- Poori: They are just okay. Not authentic
- Halwa: Sucks. Texture is good, but it tastes terrible.
- Channey and Allo ka salan: Terrible. The chaney are dry and over masala'ed. The aalo ka salan doesn't taste anything like the flavor I remember from Pakistan.
LUNCH/DINNER
Everything on the menu is below average. Nehari tastes like a mixture of masalas and is more like gosht ka salan (meat stew) than nehari. Haleem is the only thing that tastes good, but nothing close to authentic.
The seating area is spacious, better than what's available in other restaurants. The staff is clueless most of the time. However, there are some good waitresses that tell you which dish is fresh and which isn't. The guy behind the counter serving out all the dishes is weird and mostly always annoyed. Overall the staff doesn't care, will be late to take your order and will be late to get your bill.
Rest assured, nothing here would evoke a nostalgia of magnificent meals that you’ve had before in Pakistan. Avoid this restaurant Posted on September 18, 2016 |