South Indian food at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Jersey City has some great Indian restaurants and Honest is one of them. What started as a street cart in 1975 in Ahmedabad has now expanded to Thailand, Australia, Canada and the USA, proposing a vegetarian menu. I admit that the main reason I like this place is their dosa, a South Indian dish that I would describe as an Indian crepe, made of fermented black gram that some call black lentils and rice. So, we went for their masala dosa ($11.99) at each of our visits and did not regret it: the crepe was huge, served with some chutney and sambal, a lentil stew, and it was deliciously crispy, spongy inside and slightly greasy, in a good way. The potato and onion filling, that was not spicy, was at the center of the dosa. With or without, I did not care, because the dosa itself was fantastic. I decided to try a different dosa as well and settled for the ghee podi Masala dosa ($14.99), an open faced dosa that is like a pizza with tomato, peppers and onions, with cheese on top, and a big blob of the same potato and onion mixture. Apparently, it is made like a regular dosa, on which you pour a generous amount of ghee (clarified butter) and some podi that is an aromatic chili-lentil spice blend. Crispy, it had a very slight kick and was packed in flavor, a little messier to eat than the regular dosa. If you are not into dosas, you can try their Punjabi thali ($14.99) that consisted of two curries (one with eggplant and one with paneer), a large amount of basmati rice, dal, raita, a gulab jamun for dessert and some bread. This was delicious! The dal was a bit spicy, but the rest was mild, my favorite being the eggplant curry that was very comforting.
Masala dosa at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Ghee podi masala dosa at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Vegetarian Thali at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Breads at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
With our meals, we tried their sweet lime soda ($4.99) that I did not like, having a weird taste, but loved the mango ($5.99) and sweet lassis ($4.99 - it was a bit thick).
Sweet lassi at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Mango lassi at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Sweet lime soda at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
And of course dessert: I mentioned before the gulab jamun ($3.99) that we ordered at some point, and love the rasmalai ($4.99), a North Indian dessert that consists of a spongy cottage cheese patty soaked in a sweet milk syrup flavored with cardamom and saffron. Perfect to cut the sweetness of the gulab jamun.
Rasmalai at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
Gulab jamun at Honest in Jersey City, NJ
So, Honest is definitely a great place if in Jersey City (or check out the NYC location). The food there is really good and comes fairly fast. I highly recommend it!
Enjoy (Idid)!
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Honest - 811 Newark Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306
