Pakwan Restaurant

You know you’ve found Pakwan without looking at the sign because you can smell the food from the parking lot. Let your sense of smell direct you.
Came here for an early dinner on a random weekday with two friends. It was relatively empty at that time so wasn’t too hard to find a place to eat but I can imagine it gets very crowded later in the day. I got a mango lassi, garlic naan, and paneer makhani. The mango lassi was good and pretty on par with other Indian restaurants. The paneer makhani, however, was too oily for my taste. Indian food can be oily in general but this took it to another level. I also didn’t find it that flavorful. The garlic naan tasted fresh and not too garlicky.
I think Fremont has better Indian restaurants, especially for vegetarians. I think Pakwan is great if you eat meat and can try some of their more popular dishes.

BBQ– Everything is delicious. Always on point. Cant really go wrong here. Grab the BBQ– mix it up– especially try the bihari kabab (if you like beef) — some spicy green chutney– fresh onions– and butter/​garlic naan. Wowzer!!!
Best authentic nihari (spicy– tender meat)– and garlic naan– plain rice– yummy! Its my comfort food.
Biryani is more like pulao– not spicy at all– I like it with BBQ as side dish.
Thats it for now

I used to like them, until two things happened recently. As they became popular, they started this attitude and jacked up the prices. Now, they are the most expensive desi restaurant in the Bay Area, while food quality and quantity has suffered.
The guy at the counter is just an ass. May be this review is a bit too harsh, but so is his attitude to the customers.
I guess most desi are new immigrants and are used to this kind of service back home. I have stopped going there all together mostly because of bad attitude (not as much price)
** Some people did not like the comment that New desi immigrants are used of taking abuse — and I apologize! Did not mean to put down any one. But, I do wonder if Italians or Japanese would take this attitude from their ethnic restaurants. You really have to experience what am I talking about. Go there for dinner and try chit chatting with the guy at the desk. LOL **

You want Indian BBQ: Anything thats Tandoor here is the best… No fancy gimmicks… down home best Kababs and Naan…
Must Try:
Lamb Chops
Goat Karai
Tandoor Legs
Tandoor Fish
Nihari…on weekends

I love this place because I can be loud here and have a great conversation and laugh with my family.
I absolutely love the chicken breast. I get two of those with some green sauce and yogurt and a cup of tea, I’m good.
I come here every month!

Everyone has given this restaurant a very high rating. So let’s start with my analysis:
I went to Pakwan on a short business trip. Food qualities were decent for the price but the flavour was definitely not 5 star rating. I ordered chicken breast tandoori and nihari and naan. Tandoori chicken breast was not well done and was still raw from inside. The upper layer that was cooked bare had any flavour. Nihari meat you could tell was not fresh. The meat was slightly cold from inside versus the gravy that was super hot. The best thing in terms of food would be naan.
The self serving concept is good however the people taking the order have zero customer service. I was not even greeted when I walked up to place the order. The look and feel is more for single guys who are in school. I definitely wouldn’t recommend families.
Lastly, this is not fine dining.
Prices are reasonable.

Assalamu alaikum all,
I am dinning here for the first time ever and I am totally in love with the food and also most importantly the environment and the kindof people that dine here. If you are hijabi then you feel like home here. I see so many ladies in abaya, hijab and after really long time I felt so good going to some place. Else people everywhere stare at you if you are wearing hijab
Coming to food, it’s very much like desi food with good amount of oil and I loved the fish here.
Remember me and my family in your prayers. Allahafiz

Food is good. Environment — below average. Cleanliness — bad. Stuffs — they are not rude, but nor as professional as others in the area. Should look into the cleanliness immediately…

Pros– Awesome Chai, decent food
Cons– you cannot eat in peace. Very noisy place.
Review– good for a take out.

Great food, no frills but efficient service. You order at the counter and they call your number. Fish is to die for but everything is above average. No issues coming back here.

I really like this halal joint. i come here with my family and it’s nice. The food is good. I don’t really have any complaints… but one which is I hate the seating area. There is no space and it’s annoying. I just feel like if you obviously got customers make the space bigger. Like for real, let us be comfortable.
It’s good place though. I aint going to hate on it.

AMAZING FOOD. Whenever I’m in San Jose, I will gladly brave the inevitable traffic jam that comes with taking 880N to get to Fremont just to get some Pakwan. It’s a sit-​down restaurant where you first order at the counter, sit down, then go to the window w/​your number to get your food when it’s called. This place is always packed — lunch, dinner, weekdays, weekends — which is a testament to how good this place is.
My absolute must-​gets every time I go are:
–Tandoori chicken (I’ll switch it up between leg or breast): juicy, flavorful, and always has a great char to it. If I could eat this every day, there is a 100% probability that I would!
–Mutton curry: tender (and not gamey at all) pieces of lamb, and a rich, delicious curry
–Naan: the naan here is amazing — always fresh, soft, and doughy (in a good way); it makes for the perfect vessel to soak up every last bit of delicious curry
By the cashier is a counter where you get your silverware and cups, and you can also get some tea, onions (don’t forget to add lemon juice and spices), and water (in individual carafes in the fridge). It’s a clean establishment with a good amount of seating (there are tables outside, as well). Note: the bathrooms are located outside around the corner.
Definitely one of the first places that come to mind when someone asks me for a good food spot when they’re in Fremont. If you haven’t been to Pakwan you need to go. Now.

I eat here every week same order Nihari and yesterday I used door dash to order Nihari, after eating for a few min I notice something in the curry and it was a bug I don’t know what kind but I’m so disappointed this is all I ever eat and it was so disgusting to see it in my food. Please check the curry you order before eating ruined my weekly cravings.

Pull into the large parking area and the aroma wafting out more than a 100 feet announces that you’ve arrived at the place that serves The best Pakistani/​Indian-​Muslim (Mughlai) cuisine in America. I’m a stickler for definition — this is not just another Indian restaurant :)
The Naan is made in a pot, the traditional way. It’s perfect. No oil is used in cooking, which makes it a healthier option. But it is white flour.
Beef sheekh is juicy and cheap at $ 2.50 a pop. Get some onions at the counter to go with it, generously drizzle it with the chilli powder, salt and lemon juice. At this point, you could wash off the awesomeness with some of the mango lasso/​free milk tea and walk away to a competitive lifting event!
But we wanted to challenge the capacity of our gastrointestinal tract a little further — tried the bhuna ghosht and chicken biryani. These had good succulent halalmeats. Biryani was different from what I’m used to, but then there are literally thousands of types of biryanis depending on where you are in South Asia/​Africa/​Middle-​East.
Dropped a star because it’s self service but it’s not a big problem.

Who loves Naan bread! I do! I do! The naan here is so fresh that they make it in their kitchen like old school. The bread is a good density to dip in the sauces of your dishes. I also had the pleasure to try their garlic naan but did not really taste the garlic! Still… it was very good and oh! I forgot to mention how big they are! Size of a medium pizza! And… they do spell it with one ‘a’ vs two? Can anyone tell me what is the correct spelling?
The butter chicken or what they call Chicken Marsala was good. The goat curry dish was my favorite. I love the sauce it comes with. Tandoori chicken had good flavor but a little dry for me. I tried the Chicken Biryani plate but it was ok for me. I had too many small bones while eating this.
The place gets real packed at lunch and they do offer outside seating with ceiling heaters. Make sure to come here early to beat the crowd. Not for dating as the level of noise in this place gets really difficult to hear the person you came with! Haha The outside looks like a barn but inside they tried to make it modern. The silverware cleanliness can be improved. I actually think someone manually washes the dishes here than use a dishwasher. They do have TV’s to show their food and Unilocal reviews. Pretty good idea. The folks here are all about business and they just serve the food. Not as friendly to conversate with that I could see. Make sure to bring cash! That’s all they accept… ;-) Will be back… for the naan!

Amazing desi food! Loved the taste. Fast service .
It gets little loud during rush hours

We come here for the chicken biryani, which seems to be the best in the area. It’s not oily, nor greasy, and the price is on point.
P. S. Free chai while you wait or pick-​up.

Amazing!!!
This food is amazing. I am always amazed at how delicious their food is.
We bought it last night and I’m eating the left overs now. Ordered Bihari kebab, chicken tandoori (big chunks), and naan.
The chicken was just amazing. You can taste all the flavors in every single bite.
Oh, also ordered a chicken Sikh kebab which were delicious.
The Bihari kebab I was skeptical about it at first because it was not the type that I usually eat but it was amazing. Each bite u can enjoy that smokey flavor.
I will never get sick of their food.
This goes on my list of «it will make you cry it is so good» list.
Check it out whenever your near by. And you will never want to eat anywhere else when in the area!

CLOSED MONDAYS.
Spacious parking, their restaurant is in the shape of a barn with outdoor seating! There’s also an ATM machine inside but they do take card** + their bathroom is located outside.
The condiments, water, plates + utensils, togo boxes/​bags and hot tea are all self serve.
They have menus at the self serve area and you place your order with the cashier. The cashier gives you a number and you seat yourself. There’s an automated number system that calls out your number when your food is ready and it also appears on a tv mounted on the high walls.
We got.
2 garlic naans $ 2.49 each –thinner than I’m used to but chewy and crispy
( — one of our garlic naan was raw on the edge. We brought it back to the cashier, he checked and agreed that it was indeed raw and replaced it for us. — )
Chicken Korma $ 7.99 –a little oily
Chicken Tikka Masala $ 9.99 –tasted like creamy tomato soup
Tandoori Chicken Leg $ 3.99 –nicely charred, very tasty and delicious with a squeeze of lime!
We also got another plain naan ($ 1.25) togo because we still had a good amount of curry leftover. Everything came out to be around $ 30. It’s good, but I doubt I’ll make the trip to come back in the future… maybe when I’m in the area.
*we were attempting pay for our food with a card and then the cashier just gave us a look and said it was declined. The way he said it and the look he gave just came off a little rude. He had to call someone out and check to see what was going on and they asked for another card to swipe but they found out that it was their system problem, not ours. Finally they told us to just have a seat and they’ll try to resolve it. My friend had to go up a few times just to make sure everything was ok, and that he didn’t get charged for more than one transaction. I overheard the workers tell all the customers that came after us that it was cash only until they fix their system.*

I have eaten here multiple times. Their tandoori chicken is pretty good. So are a couple of curries– nihari, achaari, and basic curry.
I ate here last night– one of the few restaurants open on thanksgiving. Got these.
Lamb boti– while the lamb was tender, the masala used for seasoning was uncooked. Left a bad feeling. Also, there are supposed to be 4 pieces– we got 3 + 1 tiny one just to get the count. Didn’t complain as we didn’t like anyways.
Achaari goat– asked for less spicy. Very flavorful. Highly suggest
Garlic and plain naan– good flavors. Soft and delicious.
Tea– is free. I really like theirs. Not too milky and not too bitter either. Perfectly made. Also they keep refilling (try getting that at Shalimar!)

One of my colleagues spoke very highly of Pakwan, so we came here during a weekend to get to-​go food. I recommend calling 30minutes in advance to place your phone order for pick up, especially if you are ordering tandoori dishes.
We ordered garlic naan, butter chicken masala and lamb chops. The food was ready and all well packed when I arrived.
Garlic naan was good. Butter chicken was spicy and sweet. Lamb chops were delicious. Portions are generous and prices are reasonable. I recommend Pakwan when you are in the Fremont area.
Naan N Masala in Milpitas is still my favorite!