A Tamed Essence of India, and Matsu Shita

Funny how two alien worlds can exist almost side by side in a big city. A short while back I wrote about Showtime Cafe, a Indian spot in the strip along Western where Opart Thai and other such places are, just south of Lawrence. The epitome of the do-not-enter foreign restaurant, utterly uninviting to the average yuppie gringo by virtue of its immigrant-improvised look, its unfamiliar foods advertised in the window, its attachment to a dingy video store next door. Even though for the few who venture inside the welcome could not have been more eager to please and the food was, for reheated leftovers, pretty tasty. Perhaps not surprisingly, the last time I went by it, it looked decidedly deceased as a business.

Now, to provide almost the perfect contrast, an Indian restaurant has opened in the former Tartufo's space at 4601 N. Lincoln, close enough to Showtime that were it not for the Davis Theater you could practically lob a samosa from one to the other, yet existing in another world entirely as far as drawing the gringo traffic is concerned. Essence of India has a sunny, pleasant room, pretty copper pots to serve a buffet from, and a general air of storefront class, tastefully done and escaping the institutional feel that so many Indian restaurants fall into (or the shabby-gentility that overtakes them as time passes). Most of all, it serves up Indian food in a way that almost every Chicagoan who doesn't simply subsist on Taco Bell can feel comfortable with, the standard lunch buffet of very familiar items-- dal, chicken and lamb curries, samosas, gosht. To judge by the decent crowd even on a Monday for lunch in Lincoln Square, it's working.

Unfortunately, however, the people for whom it's working did not really include me. Although the freshness of things was admirable, and some things were nicely prepared (the samosas even seemed homemade, something I suspect is not always true), I found the Indian-ness often dialed down too much-- not just spice, I wasn't expecting Sizzle India, but even the basic flavors of Indian food, coriander and so on, were kind of light, watered down. Nor did it live up to Zim's theory that buffets are usually good when places first open, because that's when they're willing to serve new and unusual stuff, and only later settle into routine and compromise; there was nothing new or unusual here. (Dinner is off the menu only, but I didn't see much sign that anything unusual was happening there, either.)

The opening of even a halfway decent Indian restaurant in a neighborhood besides Devon (or the vicinity of Chicago and State) is by definition good news, and I wouldn't be averse to going back again if I were right there and hungry, but I keep hoping for Indian food to do what Thai and Mexican have done and break out of the standard-dish repertoire and go upscale, more authentic, more regional, more varied. (Maybe Monsoon is my next stop.) Even a place like Hema's, which I think is no better than okay, has expanded horizons a little just by getting gringos to eat food that hasn't been coagulating on a buffet line first. Essence of India on that level seems a pleasant enough restaurant but a missed opportunity to establish a better position among a million similar restaurants by offering gringos new things, not tamed-down things.

* * *

Last night I resolved to try something else among the numerous restaurants I'd spotted along north Lincoln while biking the sidewalk. Unfortunately, most were still closed for the holiday, so I wound up trying a sushi place, fairly recently opened, called Matsu Shita. I tried chatting up the sushi chef (which pissed off the hostess) but wasn't able to get anything too out of the ordinary out of him as a suggestion-- maybe some black tobiko was as out there as it got. Sushi was fine in itself, a bit oversized as seems the rule along that stretch. And I enjoyed watching the US Open with the chefs, though we were not really able to exchange much color commentary. If there's anything to distinguish this place from many others, it has not yet revealed itself.

Essence of India
4601 N. Lincoln Ave.
773-506-0002

Matsu Shita
5854 N. Lincoln Ave.
773-728-7274

Mike G wrote:so I wound up trying a sushi place, fairly recently opened, called Matsu Shita.
<snip>
If there's anything to distinguish this place from many others, it has not yet revealed itself.

Mike,

Ellen and I were at Matsu Shita a couple of weeks after they opened, even have the t-shirt, literally, they gave us t-shirts when we left, to prove it.

While I liked the physical space, and the people were friendly, as evidenced by the free t-shirts, the food, while well within acceptable range, has not yet motivated me to go back.

I'm sure I'll give Matsu Shita another try one of these days, but with Katsu, Renga-Tei, Tampopo, Do Won and even Midori in the same general neighborhood, it may be a while.

Enjoy,
Gary

Katsu
2651 W Peterson Ave
Chicago, IL. 60659
773-784-3383
Dinner only, closed Tuesday

Renga-Tei
3956 W Touhy Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847-675-5177

Tampopo
5665 N Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL
773-561-2277

Do Won
5695 N Lincoln
Chicago, IL 60659
773-878-5888

Midori
3310 W Bryn Mar
Chicago, Il
773-267-9733

Mike G wrote:but I keep hoping for Indian food to do what Thai and Mexican have done and break out of the standard-dish repertoire and go upscale, more authentic, more regional, more varied. (Maybe Monsoon is my next stop.) Even a place like Hema's, which I think is no better than okay, has expanded horizons a little just by getting gringos to eat food that hasn't been coagulating on a buffet line first. Essence of India on that level seems a pleasant enough restaurant but a missed opportunity to establish a better position among a million similar restaurants by offering gringos new things, not tamed-down things.

A few members of my family have tried monsoon, and judging by their reports and also just by the menu its pretty obvious that it is not more authentic or regional though maybe more varied and definitely more upscale, actually according to my dad, vermillion (which again is not authentic) is much much better. I also think that Indian has brnached out in in chicago, not by way of the bayless model, but more in the model of catering to specific tastes of a growing local populace. If you've read a lot of my posts, or VI's or c8w, you'll see that there is a lot of regional variation among indian places, both on devon and in the burbs (though sadly the majority that cater to western crowds do not show any real variation in menus)

I actually think that the celebration of hema's has done a disservice to perceptions of Indian food. Because the place seems to live up to some folks ideal ethnic food experience - i.e. smallish older very kindly woman working in a small place and cooking up homestyle food the conclusion is the food must be the best indian you can get - whereas I've found the food to be very uneven and nothing really all that great, and probably below average for devon (IMHO)