Restaurateur Jimmy Rizvi has lived in Jersey City for over 20 years while building some of Manhattan’s most recognized Indian restaurants:GupShup, which opened in 2018 in Gramercy, and Bungalow, the wildly popular East Village spot with host and judge
of MasterChef India, Vikas Khanna.
All that time, he watched JC’s massive South Asian community — one of the largest in the country — dine largely at the takeouts and casual spots on Newark Avenue. Now he’s bringing his style of restaurant across the river. Punjab Meet Houseopens Friday, July 3, at 25 Christopher Columbus Drive, at Greene Street, at Exchange Place.
Today, about 12 percent of Jersey City’s residents identify as Asian Indian, according to the latest American Community Survey estimates, with India Square recognized as the heart of the region’s Indian American community. Yet, as Rizvi points out, the dining options haven’t kept pace. “There’s not really the kind of restaurants we build in New York City,” he says. Shaila Rizvi designed the restaurant with Indian imports.
Punjab Meet House is distinct from his Manhattan restaurants in that it highlights food of the state that borders Pakistan with Zahir Khan leading the kitchen. At his other restaurants, GupShup does Bombay-style food while Bungalow explores the breadth of India through chef Khanna’s culinary journey.
Street food and chaat open the menu, including panj dariya gol gappe with black chickpea and tamarind; amritsari macchi, fried fish with mustard oil and tartar sauce; and lahori jhinga double roti, a shrimp mousse on milk bread ($14 to $40 for appetizers). From the tandoor, there’s the chicken chargha, a whole masala-marinated chicken fried to order; and the qissa khawani barra, marinated lamb chops with raw papaya. Curries include kunna meat, goat with mustard oil; and sarson da saag, the slow-cooked greens with butter and jaggery ($18 to $36). For large groups, the haneeth lamb — a whole bone-in leg of lamb with Yemeni spice, overnight slow-roasted and carved tableside — requires 24-to-48 hours’ notice.
The cocktail list, with 10 signatures ($16 to $20), draws its names and ingredients from the history of the region. The Toshakhana is a whiskey sour built on pressed dates and clove. The Sheesh Mahal is clarified chaas shaken with vodka, black salt, and roasted cumin.
Of the Jersey City restaurant, he says, “Once you get into it, you will be like, ‘Okay, this definitely is not like your cookie cutter Indian restaurant.’”
