Al-Aqsa Restaurant | Halal Food in Bronx — Restaurant in New York

I order UberEats from this restaurant at least 3 times a month as I work and I’m really busy. I usually order the lollipop chicken, the shrimp fried rice, and the butter chicken with rice. The food is great. Sometimes the lollipop chicken is undercooked and you can see the pink/red meat inside. But most of the time I am satisfied with the food.

Today I ordered a lot of food via the app. I ordered 3 fried rice, 3 lollipop chicken, and 2 butter chicken. I requested in the comments for 10 pink sauce/ spicy mayo sauce because this is a family event. I explained that and thanked them for their service. I usually request 2-3 cups of pink sauce in the comments and it’s given, no problem.

The issue is, after placing my order I got a call from someone from Al Aqsa. A man called to ask why he would give me 10 cups of pink sauce if there are only 3 orders of lollipop chicken. I explained this is a family order, but if anything if they could include 4 cups that would be ok too.

The guy said “no sorry I cannot do that, you have to pay extra for the sauce”. So I asked him “how much is the sauce?”. This guy says “50 cents”. I’m delirious at this point. He wanted me to pay 50 cents extra for 1 extra cup of pink sauce! I got upset and said “how am I supposed to pay you extra 50 cents for a this when I have already placed my order??”. He says “you can give me your card information”.

This man wanted my card information over the phone for a 50 cent small cup of pink sauce. I got so upset at his cheapness that I said “you know what, that’s ridiculous. Just give me my 3 cups.”

I’m a loyal customer and i cannot fathom how he confronted me about 50 cent sauces. Fine, don’t include 10. But you had to be so cheap about 1 extra sauce cup?? When I said that, he stumbled on his words and said “sorry that is the new policy…” to which I said “no that’s not a new policy, this is just you calling me to be cheap. I have ordered from here multiple times no problem and this is the first time I got a call about something so cheap”.

Anyway food is great, the staff is cheap and has no sense of hospitality. I’m Bengali myself and have relatives who live in the area who have ordered from there for more than 7 years. so I know he was lying about the “policy”. I will be telling my friends and family about such a cheap establishment.

Edit: once I received my order, I saw it included 5 pink sauce. Perhaps out of guilt. Will change my review to 3 stars but I’m upset I had such an encounter in the...

I always buy the same thing from them. Every week at least once I go there to buy that (between $30-$70 I spent every time). I live far but still come there to buy coz everyone in my family love it. The staff was very rude today. Bought some chicken and tandoori naan. Asked for the sauce. They only gave me 2. Asked them to give me 1 more. But they said they don’t have enough. I requested if they can give me 1 as I really love that sauce. They explained as shortage. Which is understandable (coz they have to sell and with that they have to give sauce). But then they said, if I pay $1 then they can give me 1 extra. I was like “seriously?? Aren’t you gonna get shortage if you give me 1”. So they could not spare 1 to me as of shortage but could sell me 1 for a dollar. Asked them “aren’t you gonna be short if you sell me 1 extra” but they were okey with it to sell. I said I don’t need it and offer them to keep the 2 they gave me. If anyone need extra, they can give those. They put it back in my bag. I throw away those sauce in the garbage in the store in front of them. And I told them, just for a dollar, you now lost a customer for life.

Their behavior made me mad coz I wanted a reasonable answer. They could not spare me 1 but could sell me. That triggered me so bad.

That was very poor service. Not going to buy there anymore. Hope the owner of Al Alqa is reading this! Losing a customer may not effect the business. But I stand my point. I can always buy from other. There are so many food store near there. Khalil Biryani, Khalil Chines, Nirob, Premium sweets all are there.

Not only that, I won’t buy anything from Al Asqa Grocery as well. My family grocery shopping store was Al Asqa. But from now on, I will go to Ittadi to buy my monthly grocery. $1 sauce cost them...

I usually hesitate to walk into restaurants located in crowded neighborhoods. Good thing about Al Aqsa restaurant is that they offer online ordering. As a matter of fact, they might be the ONLY Bengali restaurant who really does that and it is really convenient for busy folks like me when I crave desi meals in my diet!

Sharing my experience here in detail:

I ordered my weekly food online, few different items and sweets (got 1 free chicken biriyani) and received the email receipt instantly after ordering!

I called them to verify if they received (it wasn’t needed, but still!)

I got there within 10 min or so. The entrance door is located right by the grocery store. I will take a photo next time I go there and upload.

Picked up the food I ordered and ended up buying some extra items since it was looking delicious. The front desk gents were well-behaved, better than some other Bengali places.

The food was DELICIOUS. Biriyani was good but the Rasmalai, Cham Cham sweet, chicken roast and the kala vuna was super yummy! ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ

I usually order their Rasmalai and other items through Grubhub. But it’s cheaper if you order from their website instead.

From next time, I think I will order online and pick up. It’s super convenient and fast. I can order as much as I want and guess what, I will have an email receipt too!

Thanks for reading the detailed review. I hope this helped!...