Last week I learned that located next to Pizza Fiesta on Smithfield Street is a place called Chaykhana where they sell good halal food. None of the cooks or customers were speaking English when I entered, which quickly signified that the food was going to be good, if not excellent.
To order I pointed to several pictures on the menu where the cashier either told me yes or no. This was his way of letting me know that for the day, they didn’t have everything available. After changing a few of my decisions due to the availability, I ordered a $6 chicken kebab, a $13 chicken meal and $15 meat and potatoes. The two meals came with tomatoes, a cucumber slice and a lemon on the side.
Sitting down, I saw a sign on the wall that asked customers to be patient, explaining that a warm meal takes time to cook. As such, everything came out in 15-20 minutes in to-go containers.
Earlier, when the cashier confidently asked if the food was “To go?” I nervously told him yes because I didn’t want them to know that all three meals were for me. So even though I saw teapots among the other table’s dishes, this review will unfortunately not share that part of the experience.
Because it was to-go, the kebab was disappointingly not on a stick inside of my plastic box. Regardless, the meat was incredibly tender and had excellent flavor. It was juicy and the flavor permeated the meat within.
Because I ordered two different types of chicken, I wished that the chicken kebab had more contrast to the chicken meal with more of a grilled smoky flavor like they’re typically made.
Each dish looked so vastly different from the photos on the menu.
Contradictory to the photo, I was excited to see that the chicken meal came with a small amount of white rice and a side of fries. This chicken came melting off of the bone and will possibly be the most tender juicy delicious chicken you will have in your life. Picking up each leg the chicken wanted to fall into its container. The rice, having absorbed the chicken’s juices, was moist and tasty. I can’t describe the flavor because I didn’t know what it was cooked with. The fries were average.
Like the picture, the meat and potatoes disappointingly did not come with potato, but still had a side of fries. To make up for its missing element there was a lot of meat served in that dish. I don’t know what part of the cow it was, but it was served with a bone. Like the chicken, it too was very tender and had a nice meat flavor but was on more of a dryer side.
The lack of menu availability and lack of potatoes gave me the impression that by 3 p.m. they run out of a lot of food. If not for the lack of communication between the menu and the kitchen Chaykhana would have five Globes out of five for the flavor. The meat here is probably some of the best Downtown and is excellent for a hearty supper.
