At Honest in Parma Heights, an Extensive Tour of India’s Regional Cuisines and a Vegetarian’s Delight (2024)

Like many kids growing up in Gujarat, Dharmesh Patel looked forward to dining at Honest, a well-known restaurant chain in India. Years later, after immigrating to Cleveland, graduating from college and settling down in Parma, he began seeing the Honest name popping up on this side of the globe. After nearly six years of pursuing a franchise, he opened his own local store in early 2023.

“I always wanted to have a restaurant, and especially this one,” the owner explains.

For many Indian-born diners, the name Honest evokes feelings of nostalgia, craving and confidence. The popular street-food concept is a safe place for strict vegetarians, with no meat ever allowed into the building. What’s more, many of the 100-plus items can be prepared for vegans and those adhering even to more restrictive Swaminarayan and Jainism diets.

Patel purchased a former Friendly’s location in Parma Heights, one that he and friends often stopped into for ice cream after outings to Parmatown Mall. The 90-seat dining room is bright, open and appealing, with ice-blue booths and tables surrounded by walls of windows.

Patel says that Honest hit upon a winning formula by combining street foods from various regions onto one menu, which appealed to people traveling throughout India. It’s also a formula that appeals to inflexible diners in this country, the owner adds.

“Normally, whenever we go to a restaurant, somebody has to compromise,” he says. “But at Honest, if I want something light, I can get it. If my wife wants South Indian, she can get it. If my kids want North Indian curries or Indo-Chinese, they can get that. We can get it all in one restaurant.”

The diverse menu combines South Indian dosas, Mumbai-style pav bhaji, Punjabi curries, Indo-Chinese noodle dishes and unique cross-over items like pizzas and sandwiches with origins in India. Despite the fact that Honest is billed as a street-food restaurant, the menu features numerous entrée-style dishes – and most items, street food or otherwise, are robust in size.

An obvious place to start is with pav bhaji ($9.99), the dish that started it all. Often described as a vegetarian Sloppy Joe, the comforting blend is served piping hot alongside four warm, soft, fresh-baked rolls. The savory butter-enriched stew is garnished with cilantro, topped with chopped onions and scooped up with pieces of bread.

Honest offers an intriguing selection of chaat, a diverse group of crispy, crunchy, saucy street-food snacks. In addition to the familiar pani puri, the restaurant prepares dahi puri ($8.99). The thin, brittle, hollow shells are filled with veggies, chutney, yogurt and fried noodles, making for bite-size snacks that pack an outsized punch.

Dosa, the shatteringly crisp crepes served with sambar and chutney, get an Instagram-worthy glow up in the Dabang dosa ($13.99). Named after an Indian action film, this version is topped with vegetables, cheese and sauces, rolled, and sliced into cylinders. The result is a multi-layered treat that shifts diners from crispy to saucy to tangy to blissful.

While Indian pizza seems like an American creation, Patel says that this popular munchy has origins in the dairy-rich region of Northwest India. The Bhakri ($8.99) starts with a crisp, dense crust that’s topped with tomato sauce, onions and peppers. As with any great pizza, the star is the cheese, in this case a creamy mild buffalo-milk cheddar from India’s famed Amul.

More traditional curries like tikka masala, korma and kolhapuri join compelling Indo-Chinese dishes like gobi Manchurian and paneer 65. Tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce, the paneer ($12.99) is crisp and firm from flash frying, giving it a meaty texture. Served in an elegant two-handled vessel, the kolhapuri ($13.99) is loaded with crisp-tender veggies in a very spicy gravy (as requested). The naan ($3.49) here is tender, rich and pliable but not fluffy given that it’s made without eggs.

To drink, there are yogurt-based mango lassis, fruity ice-cream based faloodas, and refreshing masala chaas.

Meals like these make it easy to forget that you’re eating vegetarian. The food is packed with flavor, texture, and spice – and often enriched with butter, cheese and yogurt. Patel estimates the Greater Cleveland South Asian population at around 40,000, with many of those people electing to dine vegetarian often if not always. But these days, of course, more and more diners are in search of meat-free meals that don’t leave them feeling dissatisfied.

“We did not anticipate that we would get a lot of customers who are American and into vegetarian, so we are discovering that,” Patel reports. “A lot of people – not just Indian or Asian – who are looking for vegetarian options are finding us.”

Honest
6400 York Rd., Parma Hts.
440-307-2070
honestcle.com

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