Da Bomb - "To Go, Please"

Ok, me and the s/o have been pretty darn busy lately, and now are settling back down. Want to surprise with a fancy take out Indian dinner.
Wanted to do this last week, but we both got too busy again. I'm not a novice, but I'm not as familiar as a lot of you (oh how I wanted to make the Devon a thon.)

Dinner for two to go. On Devon. Don't mind making a few stops to pick it up. Have yet to try the famous Chicken Bothi from Khan's. That will be one of the stops. Anything else? I'm thinking:

Chicken Bothi from Khan's
Langan Chicken (chicken 65?) from Hyderbad House.
Something from Sabri Nehari?
Something from somewhere else?

Restrictions:
Only one red meat dish - S/O will not eat it. Organ meats not preferred.
No spice restrictions. A veggie dish would be good as well.

Your recs for dinner for two if you were stopping at three or four places on "Da Bomb? Yes, three or four places - leftovers are FINE in this household, and generally don't last very long since we quit smoking. Looking for dishes by name / restaurant so I can call ahead, and then just grab-n go on the street. Thanks in advance if you have anything.

Apps.? Pakoras or samosas? Or the "lentil donut" whose actual name I can never remember. (Of course there's always an issue with travel time degrading the deep fried things.) Can't say who has the very best, but I've enjoyed them at both Myeseore and Udupi.

What about some veg. dishes from Myesore Woodlands or Udupi Palace as well? I'm afraid I can't cite chapter/verse, but I like what both of these places do with most of the stewed spicy vegetables: cauliflower, eggplant, etc.
Would dosai travel?

There were also incredibly tantalizing pics of breads in the recent uru-SWATI thread.

Some after dinner sweets from Sukhadia?

I can't speak to the sweets all that well, but as a pre-dinner nosh, maybe the spiced cashews or spiced banana chips.

Sorry this isn't laser-focused; just free-associating.
Do let us know what you end up with.

Lentil donut = vada (or vadai)

seebee wrote:Dinner for two to go. On Devon. Don't mind making a few stops to pick it up. Have yet to try the famous Chicken Bothi from Khan's. That will be one of the stops. Anything else? I'm thinking:

Chicken Bothi from Khan's
Langan Chicken (chicken 65?) from Hyderbad House.
Something from Sabri Nehari?
Something from somewhere else?

Restrictions:
Only one red meat dish - S/O will not eat it. Organ meats not preferred.
No spice restrictions. A veggie dish would be good as well.

Your recs for dinner for two if you were stopping at three or four places on "Da Bomb? Yes, three or four places - leftovers are FINE in this household, and generally don't last very long since we quit smoking. Looking for dishes by name / restaurant so I can call ahead, and then just grab-n go on the street. Thanks in advance if you have anything.

I cant really help you much with the veggie stuff, and Id find it hard to have a
restriction on red meat But even so, I'll just tell you some of the stuff I
personally (with my own weird tastes) would pick up...

First, Chicken Boti, Khan's - great choice (even if it would be better eaten
in the restaurant). Second - Langan Chicken or Chicken 65 from HH... they
are both specials IIRC, you may not get them. I personally might just go with
Chilli Chicken from Chopal, IMHO one of the better chicken dishes on the
strip.

Id go with Goat Biryani from Usmaniya too, as my first red-meat choice (and
a rice dish as the third course to go with the kabab starters, followed by the
roti-and-gravy-secondi). But thats just me, I love biryani and think rice is
integral to an Indian meal... if you want Sabri, they do a decent goat biryani
too, but probably a better Nehari (gravy dish, red meat, also eaten with
roti/naan). Usmaniya does a decent nehari too, but maybe a better
kadai-ghost (also red meat, however). Ive heard raves recently about
Khan's daal-ghost (also red meat, unfortunately ...

Argh. Ok... Chicken Boti (Khans), Chilli Chicken (Chopal) - thats *two* chicken
dishes, surely thats enough? Pick one of the red-meat dishes above...
the S/O can eat the rice from the biryani and like it, or the gravy from the
Nehari or kadai-ghost and also like it

You could easily start the meal with kababs... but if you want snacky
starters, then (as suggested) spiced cashews (from Tahoora for
convenience) might work. Or else samosas from Tahoora, or Sukhadias.
(If youre going to the "Indian" section to Sukhadia's... you might as well
get more snacks too, maybe bhel-puri or samosa-chaat or something).

For dessert... some falooda from King Sweets would be great, but its hard
to take it to go (its icecreamish, could melt - same reasoning for kulfi,
which is also very good at King Sweets). Maybe just Tahoora for something
... my personal fave is often kaju-katli, but you could go with gulab jamuns
or zim's fave kalakand.

For convenience, what I might personally do... go to the Pakistani side of
the strip, find a spot and park. Then walk to Khan's, Tahoora's, Usmaniya,
Chopal... all within a quarter mile, and then head home If youre doing
Sukhadia's and Sabri, theyre on the Indian section of the strip - and then
Id park in the parking lot there, and skip the Pakistani side of the strip entirely
(might just get the desserts from Sukhadia's too, in that case).

Good luck, and report back

c8w

If I was going to Sukahadia for dessert I wouldn't miss the Patisa. It's really great.

c8w wrote:For convenience, what I might personally do... go to the Pakistani side of
the strip, find a spot and park. Then walk to Khan's, Tahoora's, Usmaniya,
Chopal... all within a quarter mile, and then head home
c8w

c8w-
Beautiful!! Thank you.
I think I'll take your rec for:
Khan's: Chicken boti
Chopal: Chili Chicken
Usmaniya: Kadai Gosht, and I think I'll do a Chicken Biryani instead of Goat, some kind of veggie stew-ish dish along with some naan, roti, and possibly paratha if avail.
Tahoora: asst samosas.
If anyone has a rec for a vegi dish on the Pakistani side, (or any dish for that matter,) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!!

seebee wrote:If anyone has a rec for a vegi dish on the Pakistani side, (or any dish for that matter,) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!!

What about something from Uru-Swati? Perhaps veg uttapam with the potato curry.

stevez wrote:

seebee wrote:If anyone has a rec for a vegi dish on the Pakistani side, (or any dish for that matter,) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!!

What about something from Uru-Swati? Perhaps veg uttapam with the potato curry.

Stevez - would have been all over this rec, but they are closed Tuesday per the Uru-Swati thread. Planning this mission for tonight.
Thank you though. Mental note has been made to check Uru out.

seebee wrote:Stevez - would have been all over this rec, but they are closed Tuesday per the Uru-Swati thread. Planning this mission for tonight.
Thank you though. Mental note has been made to check Uru out.

I'm about as far from a vegetarian as you can possibly get, but I thought Uru-Swati rocked. Definitely check it out when you get a chance.

Well, did it!
News: Khan's closed for remodeling. That's what the voice on the other side of the line said. They answered with "Khans Restaurant," so I'm pretty sure I dialed the correct number.

Anyway, so I went with:
Usmaniya: Dal Palaak, and Chicken Biryani.
Both just seemed uninspired last night. Nothing great, nothing bad. Rice w/ biryani was excellent.

Chopal: Chili Chicken.
Sorry, maybe it was last night's version, but this was not good food to us. Salty, salty, chicken chunks (did I mention it was salty?) whose main flavor to me and the s/o was salt, and lee kum kee chili garlic sauce. Glad we tried it tho. Might try it again hoping we just got an off version. The rice served with this, however, was fantastic.

Hyderbaad House: Chicken boti / paratha
Since Khans was closed, I opted for HH. Went with a paratha stuffed with chicken boti. Ok version, really wanted to try Khan's tho.

Tahoora: Beef and vegetable samosa.
Not shabby. Sauces were not very good. Sauces had a "mass produced" twinge to them. Beef samosa may have been a frozen store brand fried in house. Not bad tho.

Thanks for the recs. So much to try on "Da Bomb." Got my fix for now.
Although, since we got nothing that great, it might not tide us over for very long at all. Thanks again!

seebee wrote:Chopal: Chili Chicken.
Sorry, maybe it was last night's version, but this was not good food to us. Salty, salty, chicken chunks (did I mention it was salty?) whose main flavor to me and the s/o was salt, and lee kum kee chili garlic sauce. Glad we tried it tho. Might try it again hoping we just got an off version. The rice served with this, however, was fantastic.

Hyderbaad House: Chicken boti / paratha
Since Khans was closed, I opted for HH. Went with a paratha stuffed with chicken boti. Ok version, really wanted to try Khan's tho.

Next time, try HH's chili chicken (or Chicken 65, if it's a weekend and they have it).; I like it a bit more than Chopal's. I also like HH's goat biryani quite a lot. That's about all I eat there. (Actually, they seem to have started making kheema and I tried that -- I know, who orders kheema in a restaurant? Well, someone I was with did, and I tried it, and it was pretty good. Salty, though.)

Usmaniya's haleem will travel/reheat very well, as will Sabri's nehari.

Kahn's is clo_Osed? dangit! i was planning on going there yesterday but couldn't lol

I didn't ask for a re-open date. Here is the number I used: (Taken from the Khan BBQ re-opened thread)

773-338-2800

seebee wrote:c8w-
Beautiful!! Thank you.
I think I'll take your rec for:
Khan's: Chicken boti
Chopal: Chili Chicken
Usmaniya: Kadai Gosht, and I think I'll do a Chicken Biryani instead of Goat, some kind of veggie stew-ish dish along with some naan, roti, and possibly paratha if avail.
Tahoora: asst samosas.
If anyone has a rec for a vegi dish on the Pakistani side, (or any dish for that matter,) it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!!

Sorry for the bad food you endedup with Wish I had seen this yesterday,
might have been able to warn you off a couple of things..

The first would have been a Tuesday-warning, probably Tuesday is sort
of Devon's "offday"... they dont close weekends or any weekday, so whoever
does take a day off takes it on Tuesday. A fair few places on the street
actually close Tuesdays, as do video stores, shops etc. The grocery stores
stay open, as do a handful of restaurants. But the traffic is slowest on this
day, and IMHO youre likeliest to get less-fresh food on this day than on
any other, probably (which you may have experienced).

Secondly, I think I might have warned you off the Chicken-biryani Ive seen
it tried at Usmaniya only once by a friend, and he wasnt too impressed with
it either... I just know their goat-biryani is good, and I never will try the
chicken-biryani there so can offer no opinion on it I dont know anything
about Usmaniya's veggie stuff either - a couple others on here have
offered some opinions on it (not sure how they rated the daal-palak tho).

Iam surprised at the Chilli Chicken from Chopal... I do usually ask for it extra
hot, but its always been a very good version of the dish to me. Hopefully
yesterday was only an off-day.

Same with Tahoora's samosas - they are usually pretty good, but samosas
rely heavily on freshness IMHO... maybe, with yesterday being Tuesday and
with slower traffic, they just werent that fresh, Iam not sure. Pity about that -
fresh samosas from anywhere are usually pretty good (had samosas last
weekend from Milan Chaat House in Hoffman Estates for example... and
they were quite excellent. Iam not sure thats neccesarily a recommendation,
however, as the guy behind the counter told me they had just come out of
the fryer - they were still warm, not microwaved or anything, and I was
probably just really lucky on the day). With Tahoora's usual traffic, especially
in the summer and on weekends, one usually has a pretty good shot at
fresh samosas there.

c8w

cilantro wrote:

seebee wrote:Chopal: Chili Chicken.
Sorry, maybe it was last night's version, but this was not good food to us. Salty, salty, chicken chunks (did I mention it was salty?) whose main flavor to me and the s/o was salt, and lee kum kee chili garlic sauce. Glad we tried it tho. Might try it again hoping we just got an off version. The rice served with this, however, was fantastic.

Hyderbaad House: Chicken boti / paratha
Since Khans was closed, I opted for HH. Went with a paratha stuffed with chicken boti. Ok version, really wanted to try Khan's tho.

Next time, try HH's chili chicken (or Chicken 65, if it's a weekend and they have it).; I like it a bit more than Chopal's. I also like HH's goat biryani quite a lot. That's about all I eat there. (Actually, they seem to have started making kheema and I tried that -- I know, who orders kheema in a restaurant? Well, someone I was with did, and I tried it, and it was pretty good. Salty, though.)

Usmaniya's haleem will travel/reheat very well, as will Sabri's nehari.

Second on the Usmaniya's Haleem and Sabri's Nehari - have taken both to
go before, and they were both good at home too.

Havent eaten HH's biryani in a little while - used to be my fave 2-3 years ago,
but they seemed to have slumped a while ago. I probably need to give them
another shot, they may have changed cooks again Ive tried their Chicken 65
and agree its good... but it *is* a weekend special I believe, I think Saturdays
actually. Was surprised at the Chopal review above too... I do order it
extra-hot always, and maybe my tastes are different, but Ive never actually
found that dish salty.

And there's nothing wrong with ordering kheema in a restaurant In one of
the best "dive" food places in Bombay, you order nalli-nehari and kheema
for breakfast, and it still is one of the best meals Ive ever had anywhere!

BTW, anyone tried Tikka Inn or Chaarminar on Devon yet? Those are the 2
new places I still havent gotten around to..

c8w

I think this is becoming a valuable Devon thread but that it would be hard for lurkers and searchers to find or want to add something to from the title. While appreciating the affectionate nickname, can the thread be renamed to explicitly include the word Devon (even if in brackets after "Da Bomb"?)

seebee wrote:News: Khan's closed for remodeling. That's what the voice on the other side of the line said. They answered with "Khans Restaurant," so I'm pretty sure I dialed the correct number.

We went to Khan's on Saturday night. They are expanding into the space next door as evidenced by the two large holes in the wall that were covered by plastic.