Lakeside NYC

This New Nepalese Restaurant Now Serves Water Buffalo | Eater NY

"I visited Lakeside, a Nepalese Himalayan restaurant that opened about a month ago at 77-05 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. The storefront has bright yellow signage, and inside framed photos of a wheat-harvesting scene hang beside stampeding mustangs, Buddha, and the White House; the owner is Pashupati Shrestha, a CPA from Budhanilkantha north of Katmandu. The name refers to Phewa Lake in the Katmandu Valley, where the Annapurna range rises to the north and rowboats reach an island with a famous Hindu temple. The 100-plus-item menu offers Nepalese appetizers and mains, Indian curries, Tibetan noodles, momos, two sections highlighting Newari cooking, and a Lakeside Local section featuring streetside snacks from the resort of Lakeside, Nepal. From the Newari section I tried the buff samay baji, a set meal on a tray featuring water buffalo (from a Pennsylvania supplier) that tastes like a drier, stringier variation of beef — a little goes a long way — along with baji (pounded rice), a fried egg, potato curry, mustard greens, chutney, toasted soybeans, pickled vegetables, and buffalo offal. The lentil-batter pancakes look diner-like until you bite into their rich, loamy flavor; each has an embedded egg and is served with a fiery chutney of chiles and tomatoes. From the Lakeside Local section I had a snack described as the Nepalese equivalent of chicken nuggets: delectable fried poultry morsels coated with a spicy rub and tossed with chopped onions, cilantro, and chiles. A pungent side of fermented greens, deep forest-green and laced with spices and mustard oil, pairs well with anything on the menu. There is a full bar." - Robert Sietsema