Tabaq

This is a cry for help.

The post-Violet Hour repast at Tabaq, as suggested by Vital Information, was a great way to top off the evening. I was brandishing a camera, but wasn’t taking notes. So I’ll do my best to describe what the group had, but if others can help describe the dishes (Rob? anyone?), I’ll go back and edit this post, so it might be more accurate for posterity.

Tabaq is an Indo-Pak cabbie joint that’s surprisingly located at the southern end of the hip Clybourn corridor. It has a rather spare interior, including self-serve water. But the food was surprisingly good, and cheap (about $9 per person).

And here are those persons:

From top, clockwise: Giovanna, CCCB, Vital Information, empty chair, figjustin, mhl (back to camera), figmolly, (marginally visible) Santander, (barely visible) Hammond, and (almost invisible) Happy Stomach

The steam counter in back back promised lots of good eats.


Here’s what we had, if my failing (flailing?) memory serves me at all.

We started off with a basic, very fresh salad. (Note the square dished from Crate and Barrel, only a block or so away. Our order was taken on a Crate and Barrel notepad.)


Next came a zucchini dish, along with the naan.


There were two kinds of goat.


This one with potatoes.


And three of chicken. Roasted (chicken tika).


with jalapeño (Frontier Chicken)


and biryani


There was roasted fish (tilapia, i believe)


and some nicely spicy seek kebabs


It was a great way to end the evening with friends.

Tabaq
1245 N. Clybourn
Chicago
(312) 944-1245

Great recap, Tom, and thanks for breaking virtual ground here for Tabaq. Special props to VI for opening this find up for some bitters-woozy LTHers. Here is his original excellent blogpost:

http://vitalinformation.blogspot.com/20 ... chive.html

I thought the food was universally better than average, ranging from just pleasantly good to I'd-eat-it-again-in-a-heartbeat. I was rewardingly surprised by the very fresh and crispy naan, succulent goat, boldly spiced biryani, chicken with chilis and onions, and kebab. The tilapia preparation was spot-on (rich dusty coating, little oil, fresh fish) if, as noted, very small and humble in nature for its pricetag. I also had a perfect lassi, hand-mixed with mango pulp, syrup, and salt. We thought it was very funny that the nice owner stopped us from ordering too much food. We ended up with just the right amount and a rather silly $7.50 pricetag each. Beats Baba Palace, my other cabbie favorite, hands-down, and I bet this place stacks up favorably with some other Pakistani board favorites even cold sober.

I am convinced that the best way to eat at Tabaq or any of the other buffet-based, mostly-cabbie-populated buffets on the northside is with groups. It was very satisfying to have small tastes of multiple items, but I'm not sure I could be as happy with having one (or two) of these dishes for dinner. To have this kind of range for under ten bucks was quite pleasant. My favorites were the zucchini, the roasted chicken and the more orange-y of the goat dishes.

Naan was a little dry, but I suppose there could be a some variation depending on time of day (unlike with the stews, which are probably consistently pretty decent).

Surely Tabaq is a place to go after Violet Hour; the night would have worked out a lot different if we switched the order.

I can add only a bit to the names of the dishes shown, after all the dishes on the buffet were described to us as "goat" and "goat". The roasted chicken is chicken tika. The one with the jalepenos is frontier chicken. The dark kebab is seek kabab. We ordered the dal from the buffet but that never came! My favorites, probably, were the biryani, which was one of the spicier (est) versions of this dish I have had and the seek kebab. Still, it all hit the spot.

We had a great time at the Violet Hour and were pleased to continue the evening at Tabaq (our original plan had been to stop by La Pasadita on the way home as I've never been). We thought Tabaq would be a good alternative as there would be more vegetarian options (which I'm trying to embrace) and we'd get to hang with the LTH crowd a little longer. Unfortunately, with the exception of the salad and zucchini, there weren't any veggie dishes. Fortunately most of what we tried was indeed very tasty.

I am not a huge fan of goat, but I loved the spice in the potato goat dish and ate that with the potatoes and dal that "swam" around the meat. I really liked the Chicken Tikka and thought the kebob was yummy, if rather horrible looking. I also could have dipped everything in the green yogurt sauce.

Just to follow-up on a key point from dinner the other night.

I met a sale's professional tonight from Cobra Electronics. Yes, Good Buddy, CBs are still very much in existence.

My thoughts on Tabaq are a little late, a few weeks after the post-Violet Hour dinner, but I've been thinking about this place a lot lately. The food was satisfying enough. I enoyed most the frontier chicken--admittedly, a simple dish--but very clean and succint in its spiciness. I also much enjoyed one of the goat dishes, I think the one David Hammond did not prefer. I'm not in that neighborhood often these days, but I would return to Tabaq if given the opportunity.

I've been hung-up on Tabaq mainly because of its location and the sense of place I got on the night of our LTH visit. Having lived in Chicago for most of my life, I stil have not adapted to the notion of the "Clybourn Corridor." That area to me is and probably will always be Cabrini, from the lessons on Chicago history in elementary and high school and later the work I did on the housing grounds during college. I remember like it was yesterday the day I made a visit to Cabrini and learned that the nearby development would be a Dominick's and Starbucks. Now, after a visit to the Violet Hour, I am heading to Cabrini for a late night dinner at Tabaq--a cabby joint but one decorated with modish furniture and Praire Style light fixtures (a charming and maybe even clever juxtaposition, I thought) that looks out onto a green Helmut Jahn building (granted, a complex of low-income housing) that in turn fully obscures the ruins of Cabrini.

I know my thoughts stray far afield from Tabaq's food, but I keep thinking about the view from Tabaq's front window, which--having been very fortunate to have eaten in many picturesque locations, locations with stunning views in the last few years--has made me reflect more on notions of place and displacement, neighborhood, food, transport and development than I have in a very long time. It is for this opporuntity that I'm most grateful I got to try Tabaq. Historically and spatially, I think it's perspectivally facscinating. Thanks, Rob, for making the post-happy hour suggestion.

nr706 wrote:Tabaq is an Indo-Pak cabbie joint that’s surprisingly located at the southern end of the hip Clybourn corridor. It has a rather spare interior, including self-serve water. But the food was surprisingly good, and cheap (about $9 per person).

Four of us managed to bump up the per person cost to just over $10 including tax, good and cheap sums it up well, though I'd add spotless and surprisingly comfortable to the mix.

Tabaq's goat and chicken curry, chicken palao, naan, and paratha were solid. Spicy oily punchy rich Beef Keema and toothsome Lentils with scattered hot peppers hit a flavor packed home-run.

Beef Keema



Lentils



Goat Curry



Chicken Curry w/ Naan



Chicken Palao



Tabaq, along with Al-Amira (post to come) add two interesting 24/7 arrows to the late night quiver.



Enjoy,
Gary

I enjoyed a quarter chicken (looked more like a quarter turkey) at Tabaq this week hot from the tandoor. It was was a beautifully lacquered-and-singed specimen with layers of flavor, cooked all the way through but still moist. The naan was excellent as usual. Everything else was an afterthought (peas-and-potatoes and pakora were from a much earlier batch, which tend to get indifferent treatment after delivery to the serving counter), though the plate of freshly sliced onions and carrots and lime does really help to cut the protein. Their lassis are something special as well. Khan BBQ may be more consistent, but as a solo diner, the variety of what you get in-house for a pittance, with the potential for occasional grand slams, makes Tabaq a no-brainer when the hankering strikes further south in the city.

I've been driving by Tabaq with a plan to stop by one day for years but only recently did I finally make it happen. Way over due! The mutton biryani was the best biryani I've had in Chicago. Each long grain was perfectly perfumed with an array of warming spices and plenty of ghee to round it out. Also terrific was the haleem with a freshly baked whole wheat chapati. Tabaq is definitely at the top of my list when looking for a quick bite near Old Town or Bucktown.