Here is my second restaurant report from my short trip to New Jersey/New York in mid-May. I ate four meals out with friends. Three of these were at Indian restaurants. I’ve already written up dinner at Bombay Bistro in the West Village. That was an old-school North Indian curry house meal. My two other Indian restaurant meals were eaten in New Jersey. Neither were North Indian and both were quite a bit cheaper than the Bombay Bistro dinner. The first of these was lunch at Pakvaan Desi Spice, a Gujarati restaurant in a strip mall in Edison. I met another old friend for lunch there. Here’s how it went.

For those of you who have not been to central New Jersey, especially Edison, it may be difficult to believe just how saturated it is with South Asian, specifically Indian restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses. I always wonder how different my American experience (going on 31 years now) would have been if I lived in a place like this. Anyway, Pakvaan is located in a large strip mall lined with other desi restaurants and businesses. We arrived at noon and were surprised to find it packed—Indians usually eat later. There was in fact only one table open, which we grabbed. Everyone else there must have been part of some group outing because in less than 20 minutes they were all gone. The restaurant then sat empty for a bit before beginning fill up again at the start of proper Indian lunch time, 1 pm.

The menu is dominated by snacks and chaat. If you want to eat a heartier meal, your real options are one of two thalis: either the Gujarati Thali (currently $16.99) or the Kathiyawadi Thali (currently $18.99). We decided to start with their paani puri and then got a thali each. The paani puri arrived quickly. It looked good but, alas, there was something weird about the paani: it had a weird metallic/medicinal flavour. Every other component was fine but we were only able to finish it by going light on the paani. Not the best start. Thankfully, the thalis were much better.

My friend got the Gujarati thali. It came with four rotis, papad etc., pakoras, dal, three veg sides and kheer. The three veg sides were an alu sabzi, lobia and a green tur-baingan sabzi. All were good but the green tur sabzi (completely new to me) was fantastic. A shout-out as well to the soft rotis. My Kathiyawadi thali came with a little more and the only repeats on it were the papad and the pakoras. Also on the thali were two millet rotlas, khichdi, ghee-gur (which I am embarrassed to say I ate all of), kadhi (sweet in the Kathiyawadi style), a mixed greens sabzi, sev-tamatar and whole moong dal. And moong dal halwa for the sweet. The whole was quite tasty. I was tempted to ask for more of the sev tamatar but we had trouble enough finishing everything that came to start.

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service and cost and to see what’s coming next.

Service was affable enough but you shouldn’t really expect very much attention at places like this. Our server, who may have been one of the proprietors, was very happy to describe the dishes to us (though we were less adept at remembering all the details). Prices are quite reasonable. My friend didn’t let me pay but you can work out how much it would have been from the menu.

So, how did it compare to my New Jersey thali meals from my trip last spring? Well, the two of us had eaten together at Samudhra on that occasion. This was very different food but I would choose it over Samudhra every time (and let’s say no more of that restaurant’s ludicrous dress code obsession). However, I preferred my Kathiyawadi thali at Kathiyawadi Kitchen last year to this one. My friend, who ate at Kathiyawadi Kitchen after I raved about it, disagreed; she preferred her thali here and said this is perhaps the one thali restaurant in Central New Jersey she’d come back to (unlike me, she lives only 20 minutes away). I would be very happy as well if I could come back here every once in a while. If you’re based in the area or know it well, I’d be very happy to receive recs for other Gujarati or indeed any other desi restaurants of note for next trip (probably next year).

Coming next on the food front: another Korea report, maybe two. That’ll be this weekend. Next Tuesday’s Twin Cities report will be on recent dinner at Tenant. Next week’s New York report will be of the one non-Indian meal I ate on this trip: a return to Foxface Natural.