BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY SCOTT PILLING staff Above: Raj Gandhi, a co-owner of Parivaar restaurant in Lions Plaza on Route 130 in North Brunswick, offers selections of North Indian, South Indian and Indian Chinese food to his customers. Below: Parivaar restaurant offers a dinner buffet every Wednesday night featuring samples of regional Indian food. NORTH BRUNSWICK – For those who have an Asian appetite, Parivaar on Route 130 offers North Indian, South Indian and Indo-Chinese selections.
Co-owners Rajesh Gandhi and Randhir Thakur opened their restaurant in December to offer authentic cuisine in an area dominated by a Southeast Asian population but lacking in cultural food choices. With Parivaar meaning “family” in the Indian language, the owners hope customers enjoy their quality of food, trueness of recipes and relaxing yet stylish ambiance.
“There are restaurants who serve only North Indian food, some who only serve South Indian food and some Indo-Chinese; we serve all three here,” Gandhi said. “Maybe I want North Indian, my wife wants South Indian and my kids want Chinese – so we get all our choices at one place.”
The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a lunch buffet every day. Dinner is served 5-11 p.m., with a dinner buffet available on Wednesday nights. On Saturdays and Sundays, restaurant service is available from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
The buffets feature an assortment of 10 regional dishes, with items normally featured on the menu as well as two or three items that are specialties for the day. There is also a different appetizer, rice dish and biryani each time. The cost is $8.95 during the week and $9.95 on Saturdays and Sundays, and $10.95 for the dinner buffet on Wednesdays.
The sit-down menu includes dishes listed by category and region. Some of Parivaar’s northern specialties are chicken 65, a dry chicken dish with a red sauce, of which very few people have the recipe; Punjabi chili chicken; Madras chicken, which has a spicy, thin gravy; and chicken goan curry, which has a creamy coconut gravy. The southern appeal is represented by masala dosa, which is a pancake made of rice.
“Northern cooking is different in a sense because they have a gravy base that is totally different than the southern part; the southern part doesn’t normally have gravy,” Gandhi said.
The Chinese-inspired dishes include vegetarian gobi manchurian and chilli panneer, basil ginger chicken and black pepper chicken.
There are also various dishes made with lamb, goat, seafood, lentils and noodles and an assortment of rice dishes, breads made in a clay oven and biryanis, which are “actually made per the taste actually made in Andhra,” according to Gandhi.
“There are a few items you very rarely find at a restaurant, which we try to do every day, one or two new items every day,” he said.
For beverages, masala tea, Madras coffee and mango shakes are available. Liquor is allowed on a bring-your-own basis. Gandhi suggested red wine with dinner, although beer and hard liquor can suffice for appetizers. For dessert, Gaajar ka Halwa is made with carrots, sugar and butter, and Gulaab Jamun is made with flour.
Gandhi said the quality of the food is a result of the ingredients, which are mostly imported from India. He also said the recipes are the same he would use at home, which fosters the authenticity of each dish.
“Our chefs, both of them – one has 20 years of experience and one has 25 years of experience – were chefs in India before coming here and [have] also [been] in this country for seven or eight years. They have their own recipes with us and try to match it, no compromising there,” Gandhi said. “We want to make food families make at home. They should not feel they are out at a restaurant.”
In addition, the restaurant offers outside services as well, such as a takeout menu, free delivery within five to seven miles, and catering options. There is a capacity for about 70 people in the dining room for small parties or business gatherings, or the owners will travel to the business location. Gandhi is hoping to open another restaurant and a banquet hall soon to accommodate large parties.
“A lot of people come here and say they want to have a party here for 100, 150 people and obviously we cannot do that here. If we have our own place it will make a difference,” he said.
Parivaar is located at 1626 Route 130 north in Lions Plaza. Call (732) 422-7000 or e-mail [email protected] for more information.