Review: At As-Salam Diner & Kabab House, a new flavor of neighborhood diner

Cheery service, down-home values, and wide-ranging offerings fill Bailey tables

As the diners of my youth have faded away, I missed the guaranteed pancakes, nonstop coffee, and patty melts at 3 a.m. But what I was most hungry for was the sense of community they gave me.

At diners, people you know by sight, if not name, are there to take care of you, day after day. They commiserate and celebrate with you, like a neighborhood friend who just happens to feed you for money.

That’s how As-Salam Diner & Kabab House made me feel the first time I walked in: a stranger made to feel at home.

Built in 1940, the building held the Mars Coffee Shop for decades. A long counter lined with stools still separates the dining room from the kitchen. Most guests choose the booths or tables, where families can relax over their pakoras and tandoori chicken.

As-Salam’s starters can whittle down guests’ hunger while the main event cooks.

Vegetable pakora ($4.99) might be the easiest choice on the menu. Who doesn’t like crunchy deep-fried nuggets? These happen to have actual vitamin content, due to their innards of shredded carrot, cabbage, onion, potato, in seasoned chickpea batter. Served with an herbed creamy dip with a lick of chile, there are never any leftovers.

Chaat samosa ($7.99) takes a deep-fried pastry filled with seasoned potato, smashes it into the bottom of a bowl, then adds chickpeas, onions, sweet-sour brown tamarind sauce, yogurt, and a sprinkle of cilantro. By turns crunchy, warm, savory, sweet, and cool, it’s an engaging vegetarian ensemble, enough for a light lunch.

Chaat chicken ($7.99) presents chopped chicken breast sauteed in a gentle chile sauce, served alongside a bit of cucumber-tomato-lettuce salad. Shrimp puri ($8.99) shows up as a little pillow, a fry bread. Pop the top and it’s been filled with shrimp sautéed with tomatoey sauce, onions, and bell peppers.

Fresh bread, made just for you, is one treat that few diners can match these days. As-Salam offers nine types, but the plain naan ($2.99) is all you need to make a meal better. Other versions are fortified with garlic or chopped onions (both $3.99), while “bullet naan” ($4.50) is loaded with minced jalapeno.

When’s the last time you enjoyed a nice dessert naan? Meet Peshwari naan ($4.50), buttery fresh bread bedazzled with coconut and almonds.

Tandoor ovens run to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, so they bake bread in minutes, and lend a char to the marinated meats roasted in its depths. Arriving on more sizzle platters, meats include bone-in chicken tandoori ($12.99), boneless chicken tikka ($15.99), lamb tikka ($17.99), and seasoned ground chicken shish kebab ($16.99).

Seafood choices include shrimp ($17.99), and salmon ($18.99).

Chicken shashlik ($15.50) and lamb shashlik ($17.99) are bites of meat, skewered with bell peppers and onions before facing the fierce heat of the tandoor clay oven. Served sizzling on iron platters, where there’s smoke, the flavor is fire.

As-Salam’s saag paneer ($13.99), takes the spinach-and-cheese standard all the way to comfort food territory, velvety aromatic gravy that two of my co-diners pronounced the best they’ve had.

Aloo gobi ($12.99), cauliflower and tomato in spiced tomato sauce, was a hearty version of the classic vegan Indian stew. More traditionally vegan dishes at As-Salam include mushroom bhaji, plus chana masala and saag chana, chickpeas with tomato and spinach, respectively.

Aloo gobi, cauliflower and potato stew, at As-Salam.

A far-ranging palette of As-Salam curries runs from mild to wildfire. Soothing coconut-and-almond korma gently coddles its protein partner. On the other end of the spectrum is naga, a weaponized capsaicin munition with payloads of chicken, beef, lamb, and shrimp. The choice of experienced chileheads whose years of self-dosing have given them the required intestinal fortitude, it’s not my cup of chai.

Especially when there’s so many savory, painless discoveries to be had. Ceylon curries offer coconut, black pepper, lemon, and a touch of sweetness. Achari, another favorite, is based on desi vegetable and fruit pickles, intense pickled garlic, green mango and citrus preserves. Dhansak is a red-lentil-based gravy tangy with lemon and garlic.

Bengali items include beef halim ($7.99), a grain and legume-thickened beef stew, and beef rezala ($13.99), a yogurt-based curry. Desserts are dairy-based, desi sweets like Bengali ras malai, silver-dollar sized cookies of sweetened reduced milk that eats like crumbly vanilla ice cream.

Mashed potatoes and gravy have been succeeded by rice and curry, but the restaurant at 1389 Baile Ave. still serves its neighbors their daily bread.

Cheery service and attention to customer needs, plus well-seasoned dishes from mild to wild, makes As-Salam a new generation of Buffalo diner.