Jimmy Rizvi has lived in Jersey City for over 20 years, commuting to Manhattan to run GupShup in Gramercy and Bungalow, the Vikas Khanna restaurant in the East Village that turned into one of the harder reservations to land. For most of that time, Jersey City’s
own South Asian community — one of the largest in the country — has been eating at the takeout counters and family-run restaurants on and around Newark Avenue. Punjab Meet House, which opened in early July, is Rizvi’s attempt to bring the tailored Manhattan Indian dining to Jersey City. The restaurant is outfitted with a cavernous dining room that makes a statement, a swishy bar, and a menu that sprawls across chaat, tandoor, curries, dal, and breads.
Chef Zahir Khan spent roughly fifteen years traveling through the Indian state of Punjab, he told me, visiting cities like Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Bathinda, before opening this restaurant. “I was not only interested in famous restaurants,” he says. He wanted to find food eaten in villages, small shops, roadside eateries, family homes, and palace kitchens. “I was searching for recipes, but also for the stories behind them … and what made each dish meaningful.” As a third-generation chef, he follows the work of his grandfather, who served as a khansama, a master cook to a British governor in New Delhi.
What to order
- The Amritsari machhi ($18) is fish battered in gram flour and fried in mustard oil. It’s a technique Khan says was pulled from old fish shops in Amritsar. The oil leaves a sharp, slightly bitter edge you don’t get from neutral oils. It is a revelation.
- The sabketa ($18), spinach and split black lentil with garlic tadka and white butter, is plainer than most of the menu and better for it. No pyrotechnics, just a well-balanced saag that suggests the kitchen can do quiet as well as it does splashy.
- The chicken changezi ($28) is a crowd-pleaser: chargrilled tikka in a buttery tomato sauce, served with paratha, naan, and roti for mopping. It’s the dish to order if the table wants something familiar alongside the more regional plates.
- Don’t miss the pickles ($6) and breads: roti, paratha, and naan are $6 to $9.
What to drink
The cocktail list leans into the region’s history for its naming, with mixed results — some drinks feel like an afterthought next to the food. The Javitri, an Old Fashioned built around mace, is a solid, low-risk order. The Aam Tarang, makrut lime-infused rum shaken with mango, citrus, and jaggery, is sweeter and more of a crowd-pleasing drink, useful as a counterweight to the heavier curries.
Know before you go
GPS routes you to Christopher Columbus Drive, but Punjab Meet Place’s entrance is actually around the corner on Montgomery and Warren streets.
