Long Island City, Queens: Five Star Punjabi Diner

Clockwise from top left: The all-you-can-eat buffet at Five-Star Punjabi Diner is still a bargain even at the edited, increased price; Five Star looks like it was a classic '60s Queens diner at one point; a plate of buffet food. [Photographs: Adam Kuban]

I have some questions about Five Star Punjabi Diner in Long Island City. First is the name. Is it Five Star Diner, as the sign says? Is it Five Star Punjabi Diner, as my friends call it and as it's listed on Yelp? Is it Five Star Banquet & Restaurant as listed on nymag.com? Probably only questions a nitipicky mind would ask.

The most pressing question I have, though, is whether it's good.

Butter chicken, cooked to order.

My friends who live in the area SWEAR by it and eat there all the time. Cab drivers coming from a nearby taxi base are also frequent customers. When I've gone it's been tasty but a bit inconsistent. I've mostly stuck to the butter chicken and the saag paneer plus the variety of side dishes. When I've had the buffet lunch on weekends ($8.99; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), the chicken has been a little dry (as expected when it's held in a chafing pan) but the cuts have been fine. But I've also gotten the butter chicken to order in the evening, and I've had mostly moist chicken but with a lot of gristle and cartilage left in it. That doesn't bother me so much, as I like chicken nankatsu (cartilage) at Japanese yakitoriya and izakaya.

Clockwise from top: The really, really good samosa; the pakora, which are good but skippable in favor of the samosa if you only want one fried thing as an accompaniment; samosa innards.

All that aside, the samosas there are insane, and I'd almost go back just for a plate full of them. I don't know how much butter goes into them, but it tastes like you're eating a pancake. They are hot, rich, and delicious.

And here's the naan there. It, too, has been inconsistent when I've gone. The one on the left was just beautiful and blistered on an earlier visit, but on a more recent visit, I've gotten a serviceable but not as great naan. I don't know. Maybe that's the pizza-lover in me talking — I like the char.

I guess I'm mostly asking you all out there if you've been and what you think. I'm on the fence about it and wondering if I should go back for anything other than the atmosphere and samosa—and the weird-ass goldfish bowls on the diner counter. (I am not making that up.)

Five Star Punjabi Diner

13-15 43rd Avenue, Long Island City NY 11101 (at 21st Street; map) 718-784-7444

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