NYCReview
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Omar's Fine Cuisine
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At Omar’s Fine Cuisine in Prospect Heights, a single string of Christmas lights outside invites you to enter a fluorescent-lit, tile-floored room that looks like it used to be your everyday pizza shop. It still is, technically.
Inside, you can get Indian food, pizza, and bagels made fresh every day. We can feel your skepticism burning through the screen, so let’s get right to the verdict: The Indian food is incredible, the dense and chewy bagels are worth a morning pitstop, and they have great Indian fusion pizza—a rare find—on the menu.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Omar’s has some of the best straightforward, no-frills Indian food not just in Prospect Heights, but in the whole city. If you don’t know where to start, lead with the breads. Get the gobi paratha that's stuffed with shredded cauliflower and given a shoe-shine with Indian butter, or order the smoky goat chettinad and scoop up the gravy with some properly charred, chicken-stuffed Bombay tikka naan. Someone back there has superb skills with dough, and, once you taste that mastery, the bagels and pizza will make more sense.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Even by New York's impossible standards, Omar's halal pepperoni slices aren't too shabby—but the pizzas worth hopping on a train for are their Indian fusion ones. The chicken tikka pie is as much of a stoner’s delight as it sounds like, but it's not too heavy or full of cream, and the tawa vegetable version adds a much-needed masala kick to your usual vegetarian pizza.
This is a crew that proves themselves to be master multitaskers every time we visit. Even their bagels pass the test (you know the one), and the menu has sandwiches, wraps, and buffalo wings as well. If there were a prize for most useful restaurant in the neighborhood, this one would be a worthy contender. As an added bonus, it’s also pretty damn good.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Mixed Meat Biryani
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Shrimp Poori
Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Pepperoni Pizza
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Bombay Tikka Naan
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Goat Chettinad
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Hariyali Chicken
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Fish Tikki
Gobi Paratha
photo credit: Emily Schindler