Now, Jersey City is a different place for Indian people. The city is New Jersey's second-most populated with over 290,000 residents. Indian Americans make up about 10% of the population.

These Jersey Shore restaurants serve everything from butter chicken and Indian-inspired tacos to yogurt-based drinks and Bengali sweets.

Deepak Sharma considers himself a restaurant baby. "My father had a restaurant for probably 30 years (Preet Palace in Kingston, N.Y.), and I went to school for pastry arts," he said.