Sultan's Palace - NEW Indo-Pak In Bridgeview

Yup. Bridgeview. Right there on Harlem and 84th a door west of Huckleberry's Pancake House. I drove by this a few weeks ago en route to Al Bawadi, and popped in for a menu. This is your standard, nothing fancy at all, 20 table joint. The current menu is very basic, but the owner says a new menu will be in place as soon as (hopefully) next week. The new menu has a MUCH fuller list - most of the Pakistani meatcentric stuff, and plenty of veggie options, desserts, and appetizers. There are white tablecloths on the formica tables, and the chairs all match - standard banquet hall chairs from the 80's is my guess.The tableware was probably also from the same banquet hall - cream colored plates and coffee cups, forks that you can bend with your pinky - you know the deal. They offer a weekend buffet for 9.95 I think. From what I recall, it's on Friday and Saturday. When I stopped in for the menu, it was a buffet night, and there was 5 or 6 hot dishes, and a side table with a salad, a few other sliced cold veggies and fruit.

Don't be expecting anything "posh" here. It's not dirty or bad, it's just not fancy.

Fast forward to last night, the prospect of a new joint like this got to me, and I trekked down there for takeout with tempered high hopes. Only a few months old, they were out of a few things on the menu, but the person on the other end of the phone kept saying, "Hopefully by next week, we will be fully stocked."
I ordered the:
Sultan's Platter
Butter Chicken
Mixed Vegetable Curry
A few naan/paratha.

The Sultan's Platter was a massive pile of meat. 2 tandoori leg quarters, a mound of chicken boti, and a few 9 inch seekh kabaobs.



The boti was super tender, nice and spicy, but too salty. Worth another try. They knew how to cook chicken, and the spices were right. Just too much salt tho:



The Tandoori Chicken had great char flavor, some nicely charred crunchy bits along with tender, juicy inner parts. I liked it:



The Seekh kababs were not to my liking. Again, too salty. There were parts that were NOT salty, and those parts were delicious. Nicely spicy hot, and a good strong Indian flavor, but some bites were just killed by too much salt.


The Butter Chicken was kinda blah, but at least it wasn't salty, and it had a decent heat level. It was almost like they pulled the chicken:




The Mixed Vegetable Curry was decent stuff. Nice and hot, not salty. There was too much ghee tho. I'm no ghee prude, either. Trust me. Lotta ghee going on here:


Paratha and naan were fine. Raita was even nicely spicy hot here:



All in all, there's potential, kinks need working out. I will be back a few times to try more to see what they do well. New menu looks ambitious. There's a few "Special dinners" which include everything: Samosa, a few mains, rice, bread, and desert as well. The Sultan's Platter could be an absolute steal if the kitchen could be consistent with salt usage. The meats were cooked well - someone knows what they are doing with method, but the salt levels need to be adjusted. Not sure if there are any other Indo-Pak restaurants in the area. Plenty of Middle Eastern joints, but it seems that Indian places are few if any.
Hopefully this place can stick around and churn out some good eats.
Sultan's Palace
7209 W 84th St.
Bridgeview, IL.
60455-1704. Phone: (708) 430-4555