Food Street opens in Hicksville

In just a few months' time, the new Soni Centre strip mall in Hicksville has become a suburban community hub. The parking lot was packed during a recent evening and much of the commotion was centered around the first Long Island location of a beloved Pakistani street food chain. 

Food Street originated in Secaucus, New Jersey, in 2024 and now has four locations and a rapid franchising expansion plan. Their Instagram page promises stores coming soon to Suffolk County, Manhattan, Dallas and elsewhere. The restaurant is a spinoff of owner Ishrat Ilyas's other Secaucus concept, Lahore Restaurant, which also serves dishes from the Pakistani city. 

During a recent evening, managers were working the large mural-filled room and offering menu suggestions for the people in line, while at least a dozen workers buzzed around in the open kitchen. Many of them were stuffing meats into their flakey house-made paratha breads and rolling them up into wraps like the chicken tikka paratha roll ($14), which was stuffed with juicy spiced chicken thighs.   

Nearly every table seemed to have a bulbous color explosion called the gappa chaat ($14), a giant puffed wheat cracker as big as an orange, filled with all manner of spicy and yogurty sauces and starches. The idea is to crack open the delicate mound with your fork, and let the potatoes and chickpeas spill out. The halal menu is short and concise, with not many more than a dozen food items, most of them burgers, paratha rolls and snacky chaat street foods. 

Food Street also served what may be the best spicy chicken sandwich ($14) I've had on Long Island. Yes, it is made with chicken breast rather than thigh, which often becomes dry if cooked too long. But this was just perfect and juicy, and the breast was indeed thick with a craggy fry on it that caught the delicious Pakistani spice rub. I can't remember enjoying a fried white meat chicken sandwich more. 

In addition to Food Street, the Soni Centre also recently welcomed a South Asian fusion restaurant called Copper Wok. And there were also signs for upcoming restaurants, a halal grill called InFlame, a new location of Yoyo Chicken and an Asian sweets shop called Panda Pancakes. 

Food Street, 350 S. Broadway, Unit 11-12, Hicksville, 516-513-1519, food-street.us. Open 1 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.