I have been watching this place being built out since the beginning, went in once after they were finally open for business to check out the menu, it had promise but I left because I wanted some dericious Caribbean cheekan and fish goodness down the street.
I continued to monitor the action of this joint for awhile and finally made the move to try it because I was craving some naan and biryani... Who doesn't like a properly executed biryani with aromatic spices and seasonings. This place is FOBBY fresh like most Indian joints around this area of Mumbai, GA. But this joint is special, it's like the Mickey D's of Indo Pak fast casual grub. They got this creepy mannequin behind a make shift host stand in what almost seemed like a vintage McDonalds uniform with a sign that says ring if you had good service... Very a la Arby's chic. It's a clean, simple, sterile place. You order at the counter and they give you a pager... Where are we, LongHorn? So weird, it's like they have a copy of every resto's operator's manual and taking bits of each resto and making up their own concept. If you dine in and order a bunch of stuff, some will come out on real plates and bowls, others in styrofoam and plastic take out containers. It's just an adorable fobby trait... They're so oblivious and I love it. They have a Square POS system which surprisingly works very well here as it does everywhere else. Ok, enough with the boring ass chit chat... Let's get to the finger licking gruel.
Chicken Frankie, paratha roll. It's pretty funny that these rolls come with fries and a can of soda. It's a tasty little lunch if you don't have much money or time... For $5, it's a lot better than a Happy Meal. I liked the chicken 65 inside the crunchy and falling apart paratha. It's not gonna blow your mind but it's worth a try once.
Ragda Patties. I wished they had vada pav which are fried tater patty sliders, so damn good... But since they don't, the ragda patties are usually a good substitute for a nice little chaat, a street snack to tie you over until the main dishes come out... But this came out, instead, a giant bowl of it. This was no snack, it was basically an entree. It's soft tater patties on top of a mixture of chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, taters, garlic and a bunch of sweet and tangy spices... The flavors were there but it was too watery, they didn't cook it down enough, it should be thicker. But it was still pretty good after you mix it all up real good to thicken it.
Veggie Biryani. This dish came out in a nice white porcelain bowl unlike the plastic take out container for the ragda. This was hefty portion of biryani and the color was bright and smelled wonderfully with spices. It's a nice dish and tasted good, totally worth the $7 and change paid. I would try the goat biryani next time with a side of goat brains.
Palak Paneer. Creamy and a tiny bit spicy which hits you on the finish. The color is vibrant and it tasted pretty good. Spoon some of this over the biryani and it's a nice pair in your mouth. I would get this again... But the okra sounded good too. Choices choices..
Chicken Thali, butter chicken, curry chicken, dal tadka, rice, naan, raita, pickle, papad, dessert- tiny piece of chocolate cake. For the price, this was a deal... It may not look like a lot of food here but looks are deceiving. I was kinda full after plowing halfway through this. The curry with the bone in chicken was not very spicy but had decent flavor, the butter chicken was creamy. It's not a bad thali but when it's served in this cheap presentation vs. the traditional on a metal tray and bowls, it loses that luster and the essential ethnic playfulness to it.
Garlic Naan. Naan comes with the thali but I asked them if they could do a garlic naan, instead... They did and it was only a small upcharge, I think like 50 cents. This was a nice specimen, nice color on the bottom and a few char bubbles on top but only on one side, though. Of course, everyone loves the charred parts. Overall, it was a pretty tasty naan with a decent amount of garlic and it had a really nice pull to it.
The samples I had were totally acceptable, nothing was offensive... A little dumb down on the spices but nothing shitty enough to pwned them. I like the place and the set up here, even though they are a bit unorganized but you have to expect that with ethnic family run places like this... They know how to cook but they don't know how to run a fucking efficient cost effective business. They don't need to, they're not looking for the mass pedestrian demographics found at Ponce City Market, they're counting on their community around here.
2883 N Decatur Rd
Decatur, GA 30033
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