Looking for great Punjabi food in NYC? Look no further than Richmond Hill in Queens.

Farideh Sadeghin is a Brooklyn-based writer and recipe developer. In this series, she explores New York City neighborhoods through their food and histories.

The Indian state of Punjab — which translates to “land of five rivers” — produces a variety of crops for the country.

The cuisine is reflective of that agricultural lifestyle as well as the ancient caravan routes that brought Persian and Central Asian people through the area: vegetable curries, lentil stews, and desserts made with chickpea flour and reduced milk.

There is a small Punjabi community in Richmond Hill, Queens, located predominantly between 111th and 123rd streets and centered around a gurdwara, or Sikh temple.

I met Param Bombra and Payal Sharma, respectively the chef and owner of Gulaabo, for a day of eating around New York’s Little Punjab. I was particularly keen to explore Punjabi food and learn more about what differentiates it from other cuisines of the huge and diverse Indian subcontinent.

With his mother’s encouragement, Bombra studied food and restaurant management in India in order to become a chef. He moved to the United States in 2017 to work at one of Sharma’s restaurants, Baar Baar. In working together, Bombra and Sharma saw a demand for classic Indian food, and in August 2023 they decided to open a restaurant focusing solely on Punjabi cuisine. Bombra’s mother had given him a book of his grandmother’s recipes, and you’ll find many of those dishes on Gulaabo’s menu.

I ate at Gulaabo earlier this year and loved it. The menu is full of chaats, kababs, kulchas (homemade pita bread) and curries, all perfectly spiced but not spicy. The restaurant’s interior is beautifully decorated and designed, but eating there feels like you’re in a friend’s home. You leave Gulaabo satisfied and happy.

I was excited to check out some other Punjabi spots with Bombra and Sharma and see what they thought of Little Punjab.

Hungry, we walked down 118th Street towards 101st Avenue to our first stop, Punjabi Dhaba, located between 120th Street and Lefferts Boulevard. In India, a dhaba is a roadside spot often found near gas stations, where truckers often stop for food.

Punjabi Dhaba has booths and tables towards the front and in the back there are display cases full of sweets such as besan ladoo (sweet round balls made of chickpea flour, cardamom and ghee), khoya barfi (sweetened reduced milk cut into squares), and jalebi (a fermented batter that is fried in circles, then soaked in a sugar syrup).

Bombra ordered us samosas and bread pakoras to start, as well as a mango lassi for me and salted lassis for him and Sharma. I love samosas and probably order them anytime I get Indian food. The triangular fried pastries have crisp, flaky crusts often made from wheat flour, and they’re filled with a soft, savory mix of spiced mashed potatoes and peas. They’re served with both a tamarind sauce and a mint yogurt sauce.

I’ve never had bread pakoras before, but I learned that they’re a popular breakfast and street food. Mashed potatoes, herbs, and spices are sandwiched between two pieces of bread, then dipped in a spiced chickpea batter and fried. Then, they’re cut into triangles and sprinkled with chaat masala — a combination of spices that varies depending on who makes it, but almost always contains dried mango powder and black salt. The resulting funky, salty blend is something I want to sprinkle on everything I eat now.

The owner, Navdeep Singh, took us into the kitchen, and walking back there was like entering an entirely different world. There are speed racks filled with freshly made ladoo (round little sweets made of chickpea flour, ghee and jaggery). There was a huge pot of potatoes boiling (no doubt to be mashed for more samosas and bread pakoras). One cook was filling samosas and perfectly forming them into cones that were ready to be fried, while another rolled out roti and carefully cooked it over a gas flame.

We went back to our table just as our next dish arrived: chole bhature, a combination of chana masala (spiced chickpeas in a tomato-onion sauce) with bhatura (a fluffy, fried bread made from maida, a refined wheat flour).

The deeply savory and tangy dish came with yogurt, sliced onions, and mango pickle. The bhatura was fluffy and flaky and the perfect vehicle for scooping up the chana masala. The mango lassi was sweet and creamy, while the salted lassi had more of a savory tang. Bombra told me that it’s often drunk to help with digestion; probably not a bad idea to have considering we’re on a food tour.

From Punjabi Dhaba, we went across the street to the market Singh Farm located between 117th and 118th streets. The store’s shelves are lined with numerous varieties of rice and flour, and its produce includes fresh green chilies and fresh turmeric. Long squash, snake gourd plants, and an assortment of sweets and nuts were also for sale.

We wandered the frozen food aisle, checking out the variety of prepared and frozen chapati, naan, and parathas, as well as samosas and ready-made meals. Bricks of paneer (cheese) peeked out from the refrigerators, and the aisles were filled with spices, snacks, pulses, and chutneys.

I bought Bombra’s favorite mix, Khatta Meetha (a mix of cereals, lentils, dried peas, and peanuts) and we immediately tore into it after I paid. It’s light and sweet and I couldn’t wait to snack on it on the way home later.

Next door is another grocery store, Apna Bazaar, whose offerings are similar to Singh Farm’s, but we carried on to Desi Bites Cafe a few doors down. They’re known for their Punjabi burger: aloo tikki (a potato and pea patty) with noodles on a bun. We decided to stick to their more classic Punjabi dishes: Bombra ordered us the gobi paratha (flatbread stuffed with cauliflower), gol gappe (also known as pani puri), and aloo tikki chaat (a crisp potato patty topped with chutneys and yogurt).

The paratha is flaky and filled with tender, lightly spiced cauliflower. If you’ve never had gol gappe before, they’re little, hollow, crispy fried balls filled with potatoes, chickpeas, onions, spices and chutney. You can pour either tamarind or mint water into it before you pop the entire thing into your mouth in one bite. Ours came with mint water, which added a tang to the crisp chaat’s incredible burst of flavor.

We left and spotted a man making sugarcane juice outside of Desi King Snacks and Sweets. He cleaned the sugarcane and pressed the juice out through a machine, then added mint, lime, ginger and black salt for a refreshing drink that we sipped on as we walked to our final stop: Tandoori Hut.

Tandoori Hut is on 94th Avenue between Lefferts Boulevard and 120th Street. We ordered chicken seekh kebabs (spiced ground chicken formed onto skewers and grilled), amritsari kulcha (crisp, soft, bread stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes), dal makhani (buttery and slow-cooked black lentils), butter chicken (chunks of tandoori chicken in a rich and creamy tomato sauce), palak paneer (homemade cheese in a spinach sauce), and garlic naan.

The kebabs were still searing in a cast-iron plate when they arrived at our table. Bombra squeezed fresh lemon juice over them and topped them with mint and coriander sauce, then we each grabbed a piece. You could taste the incredible variety of spices in every juicy bite.

The creamy, rich dal makhani was the highlight of the day for me. I scooped it up with the light and slightly crisp garlic naan, unwilling to slow down and wanting to savor every bite.

Although I almost never take home leftovers after these days — I’d rather encourage everyone else to do so — I eagerly took home the dal makhani and ate it on my couch the next day.