Dera

Food is excellent. Authentic punjabi food. Though it is dripping in oil. But the service made me knock off a star. Their waitresses are polite and friendly, but the servers wouldnt lose anything if they put on a smile. Also the place isnt the cleanest, and certainly needs to put effort in that area

As immigrants you should be ashamed of the character and work ethic you display. Overcharging and under serving will never take you far. Is it not true that your owner himself comes from a persecuted minority in Pakistan? Believe me it will make him cringe when he finds out what you clowns are doing bringing a bad name to your people. There are plenty of hard working and honest Pakistanis. You just do not happen to be one of them. A word of caution, do not overcharge, do not take advantage. Let the waitresses bring change and not force higher tips for being ripped off and served poorly. Remember America was built by hard work and honesty. You can not screw the client and do well. The next regular Joe American maybe an undercover reporter or worse. Owner wake up.

Everything about Dera is below average when compared to Pakistani restaurants in Chicago. When compared to Pakistani restaurants in New York, I would say the standard is above average. Here's why:

The food quality sucks. Better than neighboring restaurants like Jackson Diner and Gourmet, but it's still bad. It's a typical over the counter style restaurant, serving dishes that were cooked by people who have no idea how to cook. I've tried numerous dishes:

Naan: Good standard quality naan.

Sweets: Old, Dry and semi sweet.

BREAKFAST
- Poori: They are soft and really good.
- Halwa: Sucks. Texture is good, but it tastes terrible.
- Channey and Allo ka salan: Terrible. The chaney are dry and over masala'ed. The aalo ka salan doesn't taste anything like the flavor I remember from Pakistan.

LUNCH/DINNER
Everything on the menu is below average. Nehari tastes like a mixture of masals and is more like gosht ka salan (meat stew) than nehari. Haleem is the only thing that tastes good, but nothing close to authentic.

The seating is good, better than what's available in other restaurants. The staff is clueless most of the time. However, there are some good waitresses that tell you which dish is fresh and which isn't. The guy behind the counter serving out all the dishes is weird and mostly always annoyed.

Rest assured, nothing here would evoke a nostalgia of magnificent meals that you’ve had before in Pakistan.

Our month supper club lead us to Dera to enjoy some Pakistani cuisine. This is your typical diner eatery variety with florescent lighting group tables third world style eating. You come here for the food not the ambiance, décor, setting or service. If you want hoity toity in Jackson heights you in the wrong neighborhood. Go back to the Hipsterville East Village or billyburg if you want that. Which is why it makes me laugh reading some of the review below.

The place was packed on Saturday night but luckily we found a long table for the 8 of us. Our friend went about to ordering. Everything ranged from wow to hmmm...the garlic naan was serious when they say garlic. Everything has a bit of a kick so if you don't like spicy this won't be for you either. We enjoyed our meal here. As with everything some dishes we liked better than others but certainly it is fun place to just hang, enjoy authentic food in semi chaotic atmosphere but that's what is wonderful about it. It feels like you are somewhere in Karachi.

Decent offerings for the Indo-Pak region of cuisines. Great Channa plate they do there. Their stewed goat/cow hooves stew is delicious. Butter chicken is nice too. Their Naans are heavenly. Only quip is the kebabs are pre-made and not made to order. Sometimes they're spoiled and if you take them home tough to make a return trip for $4 worth of kebabs...
Best is to go Friday-Sunday when the food is freshly made everyday, Monday-Thursday is Russian Roulette with your stomach, some of the food is carried over...