Sajni 026

When I saw Sajni 026 opening up near-ish to where I live, I was really excited.  There aren’t any small Indian places near me, though there’s Baluchi’s – which is freaking expensive (though I have fond feelings towards them… a different location but that was the first place I ever had Indian food with my friends, lol).  So I was happy to have the diversity expanded a little in our area. 

I was even more excited when, a few weeks after it finally opened, a friend of mine who had just moved into the area near me went and told me that she’d had dinner there and really liked it.  She listed off a bunch of dishes she’d like, saying the naan was really good, too, and even took pictures (I love it!).  Of course that made me want to go even more!  And one day, I found myself home on a weekday, so I walked over and took a seat (yes, by myself) for their daily lunch buffet special, which is $6.99 on weekdays (and $7.99 on weekends, I think). 

*I’ve mentioned before my lack of knowledge and familiarity with Indian food.  I like what I like, which is korma, which is British Indian food, not ‘real’ Indian food – like adoring sweet & sour pork, that’s American Chinese food – and most times, I don’t go to Indian buffets because they don’t have that dish, and they don’t have many dishes I would eat or like to eat.  But this time I decided to give it a go. 

Dessert, bunch of servers

More dishes

A few minutes after I sat down – I imagine they went and made it fresh – a hot basket of naan was brought out and placed on my table.  When my friend E had told me the naan was good, I thought “It’s naan, isn’t it always good?” but no, apparently, I’ve been accepting crappy naan.  This was puffy, light, airy, delicious.  It was everything I ever wanted naan to be but didn’t know it.  DAMN.  And I mean, it’s naan. 

My first plate was a ‘feeler’ plate, of course.  I took an egg from the egg curry (meh), a veggie pakora that was a little too spicy, but filled with loads of veggies, tofu masala was pretty good (surprisingly, because I didn’t think I’d like it); the chicken tandoor was very well flavored, but a little dry; and then the two winners for me were definitely the chicken kadai, which was super tender and delicious, and the daal makhani – I’ve had daal before but never liked it.  This was really good.  I also enjoyed the aloo baingan, which doesn’t appear to be on the menu… though they have aloo-other stuff 🙂 

Oh, and this may sound silly, but the rice was good.  Sometimes bad rice can ruin the whole meal!

My second plate – as you can see, I was quickly flagging… it was my first meal of the day and I was not prepared to stuff my face as much as I wanted!  More aloo baingan (the potatoes), daal, and chicken kadai… yummy.  And some raita topped with crunchy things, tomato & onion, for mixing.  I really liked the combination of the cool raita with everything… and I appreciated that not everything was super spicy. 

Despite being stuffed beyond belief, I really wanted to try this dessert.  It was some sort of chickpea flour (I think?) cooked in a hot syrup so it was very sweet and densely saturated with the syrup.  It was interesting, though I think it would have been better hotter/warmer (I think the flame underneath went out, so when I grabbed one, it was lukewarm).  I wouldn’t go out of my way to order this, but if it were on a buffet table, I’d snag one 🙂

Yvo says: A GREAT addition to the neighborhood… and at $6.99 for weekday lunch buffet, it’s a great starting point for people to go in and try a lot of their wares.  The selections change daily.  The food is very tasty, lots of selection, and quite inexpensive.  I definitely will be back sooner than later (my boyfriend doesn’t really like Indian food, so probably alone).  Yummy!  Welcome to Rego Park, Sajni!!! 
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