Dera Restaurant and Sweets
7209 Broadway
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
During a trip in Jackson Heights, Queens. We made a last stop at a restaurant called Dera.
Dera is a Pakistani restaurant that offers home style cooked foods and a caseline of sweet treats. There weren’t many customers at the time; perhaps they were opening for lunch. Inside the restaurant had an oldish atmosphere with wooden tables and chairs and looked very authentic based on the staff that worked there and the customers they served. They were all of Indian decent and watched a soccer game while dining on their meals.
There was a display of different foods and an assortment of treats such as fudge, haleva, gulab jamun, barfi, jalebi and ras malai. I did have an opportunity to sample some of the sweets, which included jalebi, gulab jamun, barfi and ras malai. I didn’t like the jalebi because it was sugarless with an unpleasant taste of oil. The barfi which is a dense milk based fudge had somewhat of a peach like flavor, but not too sweet and the ras malai pretty much tasted like a cake soaked in milk.
Overall, it was a decent experience and I can say I got to try it.
Dera was the last stop on our wonderful journey of Jackson Heights, Queens. Dera is Pakistan Restaurant but it reminded of your old fashion diner. Dera provide homestyle pakistan food along with varities of treats from where they are food. You can tell Dera been around for years because everything was old fashion such as wooden chairs, and tables. When I look around i notice as well that the staff and majority of the customers were pakistan decent everything was very authenic great experience. I had the pleasure of trying some of the treats such as ras mali which was soaked cake base with milk i actually enjoy this one. Jalebi was not good at all no taste at all just taste like oil.
Dera is a spacious Pakistani authentic restaurant in Jackson Heights. I definitely felt a sense of culture when I was there because there were Pakistani and Indian people there, the prices were affordable and the food portions were generous. This restaurant just felt like a go-to comfy spot that will give you great value for your money. I purchased two samosas for $2 and they were HUGE. They were super tasty and came with a yogurt sauce and a cilantro sauce. As a class, we tried a variety of desserts and then only one that I found to be unforgettable is the Jalebi and only because of how much I did not enjoy it. Jalebi is essentially deep fried maida flour soaked in sugar syrup. This dessert had a very strong taste of plain frying oil without any sweetness. Overall, it was pleasant to have visited this restaurant.