New Indian place in the loop: VILLAGE

I saw the recent thread about Baba Palace guys opening a place in the loop. It is now open. I was there Monday with my Brother to have dinner before going to attend the last conducting performance of maestro Bruno Bartoletti's at the Lyric. So I did my Libiamo at the Village prior to hearing it!

I am a Vegetarian and I have to say this place is a step above Baba Palace for me. There I have to order the selection of the day, whereas here they have a variety. They were out of Paneer on Monday so we had saag aloo and the special of the day (Vegetable Makhani). The Saag Aloo was very tasty and the potatoes were actually bite size rather than the big chunks I usually get at these kind of places. The problem I have with all Saag dishes is that I have recently found that Indian Spinach is closer biologically to Swiss Chard and so when I make this dish at home now, it tastes more authentic than anything I can get at restaurants. But as restaurant Sagg dishes go, this was pretty good. The Vegetable Makhani was a delight. The usual Mixed vegetable Curry at these Cabbie Joints is a concoction made out of frozen carrot/peas/beans mix and it tastes horrendous. This was actually made with freshly cut veggies and the sauce actually tasted like a makhani sauce. The parathas were authentic tandoor cooked. There was enough left on the plate after eating with the parathas that i had to order an extra plate of rice. And the rice was well cooked Basmati. The one thing I hate is lumpily cooked Basmati. This was not.

I can say without any reservations that I will be back here again and again as the place does the vegetarians solid.

I would probably get myself what I do usually at these places. A dish with Rice and a side order of daal to increase my protein content.

Oh, before I forget the Lassi tasted delicious. But that could be that I was hungry!

Sounds good. Where exactly is it?

I just forgot about the address as I was responding to the earlier thread.

It is 300(?) S Canal. Just across from the Union Station.

it's on the ground floor of that parking garage southwest (kitty corner) from Union Station and Gym place. Fresh Nan. don't forget to ask for bottle of sauce!! especially the yogurt--yum.

Great news. I work nearby. And I love makhani. Is "Village" the complete name? (No reason why it shouldn't be, it just looks a little truncated somehow.)

is it vegetarian only ?

tem wrote:is it vegetarian only ?

No, plenty of meat to choose from.

Kristen

My coworker and I just got back from eating there. She had the chana masala and I had the chili chicken.

I have to say I was impressed with the high heat level of the chili chicken. There were large pieces of chilis(jalapenos I assume) and other hot spices in the dish. I ordered the platter which comes with rice/steamed veggies/and a lettuce type salad was 7.13 with tax. I would definitely go back and try some of their other dishes.

While I have yet to try this restaurant, I have walked by many times on my way to/from my gym. It looks to get pretty busy at lunch.

I have a friend that has made several visits and gives it good ratings - but she said that on one of her visits, it took 45 minutes to get her food. (Her other 2 visits were fine in terms of waiting.) I think they're still working out a few kinks with responding to the Loop lunch rush. She suggests you call ahead any take-out orders.

Village Restaurant
310A S Canal St
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 880-0010

I just got back from lunch at Village Restaurant. Mellonhubby and I had an order of the Chicken Tika and an order of Saag Paneer (kind of our un-official litmus tests for Indian food.)

The chicken came with rice, salad and "grilled" veggies. The salad and veggies were pretty grim (i.e. tastless, overcooked vegetables and iceburg salad "mix" with dressing), but the chicken was really good. Saag Paneer was nice and spicy however the cheese was a little weird - it was the texture of VERY firm tofu, not the soft spongy stuff I'm used to. The saag was served with a choice of rice, or naan so we opted for the naan as people were raving about it here...the naan wasn't great, and seemed like it had been sitting for a while - Perhaps we'd have had better luck with the other naan (garlic, etc).

Overall it was uneven but good enough to go back now that we have an idea of what to order with our food (i.e. order a special naan, not the plain naan that comes with the entree, avoid veggies, etc.) It's nice to finally have an Indian place in the loop that's edible so I think I'm willing to give it some leeway.

Indianbadger wrote: I was there Monday with my Brother to have dinner before going to attend the last conducting performance of maestro Bruno Bartoletti's at the Lyric.

Off topic, but I was at the opera last Monday night too! (Note to self, must wear LTH Forum bowling shirt to opera next time.)

Is he conducting all of this fall season, or was that Monday truly his last night? In either case, it was my last opportunity to see him in person, so it was quite a thrill. To take part in the warm ovations of the audience, and see the joy that it gave him, was truly heartwarming.

Just had some "frontier chicken" (whatever that means) from the Village.

The boneless dark meat chicken seemed to be cooked OK as it wasn't totally dessicated. the menu said it was supposed to come with tomatoes and onions but mine had neither (I had take out so I couldn't check). The standard yogurt-based sauce was somewhat spicy but a bit flavorless and more than a bit greasy. The plain naan was as bit tough as well. The rice was OK, I guess, and had at least 6 or 7 peas to go with it.

Food: I'd give it about a 5/10
Value: a bit better - 7/10. You get decent amt of food and get a side of rice or naan w/ the entrees. With a side order of naan it was $8.

They seemed to be doing brisk business.

tem wrote:Food: I'd give it about a 5/10
Value: a bit better - 7/10.... They seemed to be doing brisk business.

Yup. On all counts. mrbarolo and I met for lunch on Friday. Busy place. Food was disappointing, frankly. I think a 5/10 would be about right, if one were inclined to be generous. We split a frontier (?) chicken (my memory already begins to fade) and a karahi gosht (mutton). The mutton was nicely spicy and had a nice flavor. The chicken was not worth repeating. Can't remember a more lackluster dish, frankly (or would that be "a less lackluster dish?). The rice was...well, rice. With some lonely peas. The naan was hot and...uh...okay. We also split an order of saag paneer--again, lackluster. The chicken, mutton, and saag, accompanied by two naans, a rice, and a lassi, came to about $23. Not outrageous considering the reasonably healthy portions. But disappointingly high considering the overall quantity. In the immortal words of Cathy2: the company was excellent. Can't speak for mrbarolo, but I ain't rushin' back.

Check, check, and check.
Would it were not so.
The place is clean and friendly. A bit crowded, but in a busy downtown lunchplace sort of way. A way that promises something more than gets delivered.
Service was quick and competent. Portions generous, as reported. And the food just inexplicably dull, given that it seemed quite fresh, and also had a noticable heat (so it wasn't being 'dumbed down'), it was just completely monochromatic. Which is hard to do to Indian.
It's the sort of place that I always want desperately to be a little island of independent, entrepreneurial, damn-the-torpedoes spunkiness and personality amidst the plain-jane-chains. But it just ain't.
Nothing offended, and I can see going back one more time just to get a statistically fairer survey of the menu. But my hopes wouldn't be high. They seem to be doing whatever it is they're doing by design rather than accident.

I found it really odd that the naan I received was doused with ghee. I would only be mildly exaggerating if I said that it may have been dipped in a bucket of ghee. The naan was also very crispy instead of chewy (which was not to my liking) and ended up tasting like a biscuit. I'll give it another try some other time, I guess.

kanin wrote:I found it really odd that the naan I received was doused with ghee. I would only be mildly exaggerating if I said that it may have been dipped in a bucket of ghee. The naan was also very crispy instead of chewy (which was not to my liking) and ended up tasting like a biscuit. I'll give it another try some other time, I guess.

Almost sounds more like paratha than naan.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Almost sounds more like paratha than naan.
=R=

That's what I thought they gave me, but it was definitely puffy and not layered. I suspect they may have over cooked the nan a bit, hence the crispiness, and used the ghee to cover it up. Literally.

methinks that the naan sat around for a while. That explains why it got crisp. They then put ghee on the surface to cover that up.

I found that when I get naan from the cabbie joints to eat later, that if I reheat the naan in the oven and do not consume it straightaway, it gets stiff as a cardboard.

I am sorry that so many of you have had bad to worse experience at this place. When I went; what I ate was all what I expect from a cabbie joint like this. Looks like they are making the naans at the Chicago/Orleans place and taxiing it over.

I didn't realize the place had a cabbie/Chicago & Orleans provenance. Must have missed it in the thread. I'm going to go back at least once. It wasn't really a negative, just that one wanted/hoped for more.

Does anyone know if The Village is open for breakfast? My husband is not a egg and bacon guy and would love to have Indian food for breakfast before work. I tried calling their number at 10am and no answer.

Elfin wrote:Does anyone know if The Village is open for breakfast? My husband is not a egg and bacon guy and would love to have Indian food for breakfast before work. I tried calling their number at 10am and no answer.

No, not open for breakfast. They open at 10:30 or 11.

Kristen

I've been to The Village a couple of times and have tried the samosa, nan, a the chicken tikka platter, daal fry, and chicken makhani (I had help!).
Overall, I am thrilled to have this place so close to my office for lunch runs. Am I going to head here instead of Devon when I'm in the mood for this type of food and I'm not already in the loop? No way. But I will visit The Village once every week or two, I anticipate.
As for the food, our nan might have sat out for a while, but it wasn't doused in ghee I am relieved to report. The samosa, too, suffered a bit from sitting around, but I still thought it was delicious and spicy. Chicken tikka was moist, spicy and flavorful. The rice passable. The rest of the platter was a throw-away (the steamed veggies and salad). The daal fry was ok, but I likely won't order it again. Tasted like, well, fry. The chicken makhani was really good and my husband and I ate every drop of it.

Sounds very promising. I love makhani and didn't try that yet. Ditto the samosas. Will definitely try again.

I had the chicken curry which I ordered spicy and probably wouldn't next time as the sauce they used for spice was the same one on the table. It was passable, dark meat boneless chicken. The yogurt sauce isn't raitia, so that is disappointing. The spicy lamb dish was good, the lentil daal was abysmal. Truly awful. It tasted like it was made from stale beans, just a very bad flavor. The nan we had was fresh and hot, and quite good. The samosa had potential at .89 cents, but were served cold from a tray in the front. If they made these to order they would be fantastic as the flavor was good, just well, cold. I guess I'll return because there isn't any other indian place around. This place has so much potential.
A small place like this is what I dream of for my neighborhood, a nice curry house, with nothing too fancy, but really this place needs to execute it better. Daal from a package from Trader joe's blew theirs away. How hard and costly is it to make cucumber yogurt sauce?

nicinchic, not all raita has cucumber in it. The stuff at Village is raita, its just not cucumber raita. Its even not usual to serve it in this style of food. As a point of comparison Bhabi's Kitchen on Devon doesn't even have raita on the menu & never has.

And just to be clear, this place isn't Indian - its Pakistani zabiha food (all the meat they serve is halal), & run by the same folks who own Baba Palace on Orleans.

In any case it's a yogurt sauce in a squeeze bottle sitting on the counter. I'm not sure how cold they can keep it like that. Cold samosas and warm yogurt sauce.

I ordered in Indian from Village for my end-of-semester group lunch (Griffin kindly did the pick up, village does not have delivery although I think Metromix might say they do).

To make our own mini-buffet, we got the spicy lamb/gosht, the chicken mahkni, saag/palak, chickpeas and the vegetables (I had vegetarians and needed to make sure there was enough on the table for them) plus 8 samosas.

The super highlights were the mahkni and samosas -- both had a nice bit of spice (not usually found in dumbed down americanized versions). The samosas were clearly fresh with deeply spiced filling and seeds in the dough (two things griffin loves). The Chicken makhni (which we frequently find has a campbell's soup/chef boyardee quality at most places) had some extra tandori spice and citrus flavor in the mix. The saag/palak was quite passable too and as I get saag cravings, this will help between trips to Devon! The goat/lamb was tender and also spicy enough to need the yogurt sauce.

The chickpeas and mixed vegetables were just okay -- but nothing was horrendous. We are very happy to have this option close by! Recommended for loop indian cravings! I called at 10:30 with a 11:45 pick up time and that seemed to work well.