As promised, here is my brief write-up:
We went to Thakali restaurant at Jackson Height in Queens, NY last Friday evening. Parking was not a problem; we easily found a road side spot not too far from the restaurant. There were lot of Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Latino stores, mostly selling groceries in the neighborhood. I thought a good place to eat and shop. I could hear Nepali being spoken here and there quite often, meaning there seemed to be lot of Nepalis walking around, and I turned around everytime and smiled at my supposed fellow country-people, but nobody seemed to care. They were probably thinking I am such a "paakhe", which in a sense I was.
I had found (quite a few years ago) the decor in Thakali Kitchen restaurant in Durbar Marg, Kathmandu, quite striking. This Thakali Kitchen's decor was not. There was a big chesum (altar) for Buddha, which was nice, but other than that, the wall decoration seemed like a haphazard Nepali stuff thrown around to accentuate that this is a Nepali establishment rather lazily. There was a dark bar towards the inside and further down were single-entry restrooms that needed good scrubbing and maintenance.
I thought Friday night would mean the restaurant would be packed. However, our's and one other were the only tables occupied. The waiters, one guy and one girl - both young Nepalis, were prompt to take our order but then had to be summoned every time we needed to refill our smallish glasses of water.
Food was rather bland and so-so in taste. We had Sekuwas (buff, as in Bison) for appetizer and Chicken Chowmein, Chicken Thali and Faaper (buckwheat) ko roti - tarkari for main dish. My taste-buds found timmoor ko achar quite zesty, but not so much others. "You drove here so far and so long for this meal?" they were asking my brain. "At least, the portions are decent" was the reply.
Price was not that bad. $55 including tax and 20% tip.
Would I recommend the restaurant? Well, try other places and keep this as a back-up.
Thanks everyone.
