If you can only get one dish at Pariwaar Delights, it has to be the biryani. For Mohammed Al Ghulam {“Mag”}, native to the South Indian city of Hyderabad and now the owner of Pariwaar Delights located at 827 Newark Avenue in Jersey City, the dish takes special significance. “Oh, we love it so much. You give us biryani at any time, and we are going to eat it,” Mag said fondly of the most beloved dish of his home city. For Mag and his wife Hina Afreen, also his business partner, serving good biryani is not only a hail to the glorious and much-missed food tradition of their hometown but also a dream in the making. Read on to learn more about this Jersey City gem — Pariwaar Delight.
{Photo credit: @pariwaardelightsnj}
The Journey to Pariwaar
The couple came to the United States six years ago. Mag, who has a degree in project management, worked in IT. Hina, now head chef at Pariwaar Delights, worked at a local restaurant. Confident of her own cooking, which she learned from her mother growing up in India, she dreamed of running her own kitchen. Then in 2019, the couple took the leap of faith.
Having scouted the local food scene, Mag and Hina decided to position their brand as a casual restaurant “with fine dining ambiance and very affordable prices” {thus the name Pariwaar Delights, pariwaar meaning family}. They spent six {very stressful} months renovating a spacious storefront on the busy thoroughfare of Newark Avenue near Journal Square. Hina designed the menu and trained a small kitchen team, who executed the more than a hundred dishes the restaurant offers {not counting different levels of spiciness that can be requested for most dishes}.
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The Food
Mag takes great pride in his biryani {“The best in Jersey City,” he says!}, for good reason. The dish, made of rice layered with meat and/or vegetables, uses eighteen different spices, some shipped by the family directly from India. A cook is dedicated full time to the biryani station, attending to three huge biryani pots, each big enough to cook for tens if not a hundred people. It is cooked in the traditional Hyderabadi dum style. The ingredients are layered in a clay pot and steamed together with the lid sealed, so the fragrance of the spices and the flavors of the meat get fully infused into the rice.
When served, the biryani is festively heaped on a big plate, cheerfully garnished with herbs and a hard-boiled egg, as the tradition dictates. Each spoonful is an astounding saturation of flavors, the fragrance and subtle heat of the spices, the umami of the meat, and the sweet, buttery aroma of the rice.
Crowd-pleasing dishes familiar to American eaters, such as samosa and chicken tikka masala, are readily available here. And they are popular. {Mag gleefully told of a customer who, after enjoying her own order of chicken tikka masala, packed two more servings to be taken back home}.
But the expansive menu offers far more than that. In fact, it reads like a glossary of Indian cuisine, featuring everything from street snacks {such as pakora, a spiced fritter}, home-style curries {a lot of spicy, coconut-y South Indian options}, to Indian fusion {Have you tried Indo-Chinese cuisine, a tradition that originated from Calcutta}, covering regional specialties all the way from Punjab to Tamil Nadu.
First-Time Recs
For first-timers who want to sample some of the most unique regional specialties, Mag suggests starting from Gobi 65, a tempura-style cauliflower coated in a heady spice mix. Sometimes described as Chennai’s take on buffalo wings, it is crispy on the outside, mellow and moist inside {chicken and paneer cheese options also available}.
A favorite northern dish is angara {choice of chicken or lamb}, rubbed in a fragrant marinade of almond paste and yogurt, and slowly roasted in a special clay oven until the charcoal’s smokiness gets well integrated with the potently flavored meat.
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For a southern delicacy, there’s chicken chettinad, a vibrant curry dish, rich but not at all heavy, heated by not overwhelmingly spicy. Comfort food like dosa {thin crepe dipped in chutney}, uttapam {like a flatbread, but made of rice/lentil batter and topped with a generous load of spices and herbs, and idli {puffy steamed rice cakes dipped in chutney or gravy} are available at all time, be it late breakfast, a quick bite, or late-night snack.
The COVID-19 Impact
“We were almost always full,” Mag said of the first year of Pariwaar Delights. The restaurant is extremely popular among the local South Asian diaspora, who would also bring along friends and family visiting the New York City area. Then the pandemic hit. Like many other local restaurateurs, Mag and Hina made every effort to keep their business afloat.
They streamlined the operations and stayed extremely vigilant to local policies. It was an exhausting experience. “But we didn’t give up,” Mag said. The opening of on-site dining has given Pariwaar Delights breathing space and new hopes, and the couple has given all they could to keep it alive. After all, it is their dream.
Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day 2025: Bar Crawl Schedule
Now that Valentine's Day is over, it's time to start thinking about all things St. Patrick's Day. The Hoboken St. Patrick's Day parade dates back to the 1980s, but after being permanently halted in 2012, some St. Paddy's events in Hoboken have become somewhat controversial. What was once a day that celebrated a 26-year tradition and hosted NJ’s biggest parade, turned into a day filled with arrests, public drunkenness, and chaos for law enforcement. Either way, these bar crawl events happen annually — this year, there are six that have been announced so far. Most are organized by PubCrawls.com, while other events are put together by local businesses in an attempt to calm the chaos. We've rounded up all of the crawls happening locally for easy browsing. Read on for a list of the St. Patrick's Day bar crawl events happening in Hoboken, New Jersey for 2025.
Behind the Bar Crawl
The LepreCon Crawl is a privately-organized event, coordinated by Pubcrawls.com, that quickly took the place of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Per its name, it’s a Hoboken bar crawl held on the first Saturday in March. The event became known as a cause of public drunkenness and bar fights, leading to arrests, hospital visits, local complaints, and other issues. Per TapInto, the presence of law enforcement was increased in an effort to curb rowdiness, especially after the crawl’s one-year hiatus during the pandemic. Increasing police presence and publicizing fines have reportedly helped decrease issues to an extent, though the event is still frowned upon by many local residents and businesses.
Read More: Irish Bars in Hoboken + Jersey City
The City of Hoboken has been trying to crack down on this event. Mayor Bhalla has urged both residents and businesses not to participate — though many local businesses say that participation is crucial to keep business afloat during a slow season.
2025 St. Patrick's Day Bar Crawls in Hoboken
Official Hoboken LepreCon Bar Crawl 2025
Saturday, March 1st | 11AM
Participating Bars: The Ainsworth, Baja Mexican Cuisine, Black Bear, The Ferryman on 1st, Grove Station, Hoboken Biergarten, House of 'Que, The Lola, Madd Hatter, The Pig + Parrot, Psycho Mike's Therapy Bar + Grill, The Shannon, The Shepherd + The Knucklehead, Tally Ho, Union Hall, Wicked Wolf, and Willie McBride's.
Learn more about this event and how to get tickets here.
Official Hoboken St. Patrick's Day Bar Crawl
Saturday March 8th | 2PM
Participating Bars: The Ainsworth, Birch, Fat Taco Tequila Bar, Green Rock, Mike's Wild Moose Saloon, River Street Garage, and Texas Arizona.
Learn more about these events and how to get tickets here.
Hoboken Luck of the Irish Bar Crawl
Friday, March 14th | 5PM
Participating Bars: Madd Hatter and more.
Learn more about this event and how to get tickets here.
Hoboken Shamrock Stroll Bar Crawl
Saturday, March 15th | 12PM
Participating Bars: The Ainsworth, Baja Mexican Cuisine, Black Bear, The Ferryman on 1st, Grove Station, Hoboken Biergarten, House of 'Que, The Lola, Madd Hatter, The Shannon, The Shepherd + The Knucklehead, Tally Ho, Union Hall, and Wicked Wolf.
Learn more about this event and how to get tickets here.
Hoboken St. Paddy's Day Bar Event 2025
Saturday, March 15th | 12PM
Participating Bars: Birch, Brass Rail, Fat Taco Tequila Bar, Green Rock, The Lola, McSwiggan's, Mike’s Wild Moose Saloon, River Street Garage, Texas Arizona, Union Hall, and Wicked Wolf.
Learn more about this event and how to get tickets here.
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Hoboken Official St. Patricks Day Bar Crawl
Monday, March 17th at 5PM
Participating Bars: The Ainsworth, Black Bear, Grove Station, Hoboken Biergarten, House of 'Que, The Lola, Madd Hatter, The Shannon, The Shepherd + The Knucklehead, Tally Ho, Union Hall, and Wicked Wolf.
Learn more about this event and how to get tickets here.
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