Indian by London in Chicago

Of all the great treats on Da'Bomb, one of the most impressive is the chicken chagra at Sabri Nehari. Quite unconventional, but surely a tribute to its hometown, Chicago. Like many an urban chicken shack, Sabri fries a chicken and then fresh from the fryer, doses it with Louisiana hot sauce. Now, at Harold's you will always find your chicken cut into parts unlike the whole fried chicken at Sabri, and at Harold's there is never a heavy hand of sub-continental spices to add a finishing touch to the chicken. Still, Sabri must have conceived their dish as a homage to their home town. I know and love the Chicago style South-Asian food.

What about London style right here in Chicago? While my thoughts of Ambla have been percolating in my mind for over a week, Lill on Chowhound scooped me. What she sez, especially the part about generous sampling. The halwa that we purchased had about the most ideal texture I seek in food. The way you chewed it yet did not crunch it. Unlike the other chat shops on Da'Bomb, Ambla is strictly take-out. To keep our afternoon thematically consistent, we followed up a visit to Ambla with a visit to Kabbabish of London.

While I am not going to look up or cite past Kabbabish reports, my memory is that it did not get raving reviews. And the store was empty near five, giving us even less incentive to enter. Really, if only because I organize my chowing as fodder for the blog, did we decided to try Kabbabish of London. And it turns out that fodder worked. We liked all this London style South Asian food. Now, while I can easily see how Sabri's Harold's influenced chicken chagra IS Chicago, I can less see how this was London style. Sure, the dishes had names like London Gosht and Birmingham chicken, but in execution, they did not seem that different. The individual dishes are pretty cheap, allowing us to order a fair amount. We liked everything we ordered, especially the seek kebabs that had a nice hacked meat texture instead of being finely ground. We also really liked the wet dishes, although you have to have a strong stomach for ghee, clarified butter. The nan and parantha were much better than the so called specialist loved by some a few blocks away. Like my friends at the Bangladeshi restaurant, the owners of Kabbabish of London eagerly engaged us.

I would offer that, from one afternoon on Da'Bomb, London is well represented in Chicago.

Sabri Nehari
2511 W. Devon Ave
Chicago

Ambla Sweets
2741 W. Devon
Chicago

Kabbabish of London
2437 W Devon
Chicago, IL

Harold's Fried Chicken
Multuple locations[url][/url]

I'm a fan of Kabbabish, have been since it opened. The keema nan is my favorite.

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards/chicago3/messages/18810.html

A couple Saturdays ago my wife and I hit Kabbabish of London. We weren't originally intending to go there, but we were shut out at Bhabi's Kitchen, the undisputed reigning king of Indian and Pakistani cuisine on the Devon strip, because the place was bursting at the seams with customers--it was full inside and there was a long line of people waiting outside. On a previous trip to Kabbabish I had thought the chicken kebab OK, although the meat was a little dry and the flavor wasn't as pleasing as one might find at Noon O Kebab--or even the lesser Kabul House in Skokie. Anyway, this time we ordered the Governor's Platter, which is an assortment of beef and chicken kebabs, and comes with a few pieces of naan. The naan was definitely the highlight of the meal--it had a nice fluffy but somehow substantial composition to it, and enough moistness to make it satisfying. Despite the above average--though certainly not spectacular--naan, I don't plan on making it a priority to return to Kabbabish anytime soon. Once again I found the chicken kebab a tad dryer than I would like and lacking substantial complexity and flavor. The various beef kebabs also didn't do much for me. In fact, I can't even remember what they tasted like, although I recall nothing like the interesting "hacked meat texture" cited above. Rather, "mushy meat miasma" would more accurately describe my encounter with the interior of a couple of the beef kebabs. Overall, this was an OK place that I might give another shot if my first choice falls through again. This is a potentially interesting Devon stop, but the execution is lacking.

I stopped by Ambala (which is named after a city in Punjab) on thursday and was very impressed, not just by the jewelry store decor of the place (they must have the same interor decorator as raj jewelers next to kamdar plaza) but more importantly by almost all of the offered tastes.

I tried the Ingir halwa (date halwa), motichoor ladoo (this was very very good, much better than the run of the mill ladoo on devon, which are often hard and oversweetened), ras malai (maybe the best ras malai I've had in standalone sweet/chaat shop on devon), the mati and samosas were decent but did not standout

once they start offering tea, and put some tables down (supposedly to happen in the near future) it will become a regular spot for the family, especially for the ras malai

I should mention (as I did on chowhound) one slight quiblle with Lill's description of barfi there - though it often contains nuts (as in the pista or badam/almond versions) it is not nut based and so would not be off limits for those who are nut-allergic

Ambala Sweets
2741 W. Devon
773-764-9000
www.ambalafoods.com