Suburban Indian Chinese suggestions (Bombay Chopsticks?)

I am looking for a good Indian Chinese restaurant in the suburbs, either west or NW. Has anyone been to Bombay chopsticks in Schaumburg? Pls advise also any others you know of that might be good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Chinese_cuisine

Is this much of a thing in Greater Chicagoland? I'll be excited to learn. Wikipedia suggests that Hakka-identifying restaurants may have that connection (or at least dishes in that style), in which case two thoughts are Hakka Wok in Schaumburg and Ginger & Garlic in Naperville.

Older threads touching on the subject here and here (focused on urban locations).

I believe that this place is the erstwhile Hot Wok Village, which I went to a couple of times years ago. I liked the food at the former place, which also served Bombay-style Indian food - I found it to be akin to Chinese-American food with Indian seasonings and a plethora of sweet-and-sour-style dishes.

Bombay Chopsticks
721 W Golf Rd
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169
(847) 380-5775
http://www.bombaychopstickschicago.com/

I do not know about Chicago but I had some really good food in the suburbs of Detroit at Rangoli an Indian place in Auburn Hills, MI. I was told it was Indian Chinese and have been looking for a place here that serves similar food.

Toria-
In Westmont, next door to Katys or K's is Desi Chilli, which bills itself as Indo-Chinese. I've never been, but I have given it serious thought. Katy's is just far too strong of a magnet for me. Dicksond posted about Desi Chilli tho, and I believe enjoyed it with a few reservations.

http://www.desichilli.com/

thanks I will check this out I go over there once and a while for Shree. I usually go to the Naperville Katy's but in all truth I think the food is a little better at the Westmont place.

ld111134 wrote:I believe that this place is the erstwhile Hot Wok Village, which I went to a couple of times years ago. I liked the food at the former place, which also served Bombay-style Indian food - I found it to be akin to Chinese-American food with Indian seasonings and a plethora of sweet-and-sour-style dishes.

Bombay Chopsticks
721 W Golf Rd
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169
(847) 380-5775
http://www.bombaychopstickschicago.com/

Actually, I think this place splintered off of Hot Wok initially, and then someone else associated with the original location opened up Bombay Chopsticks. Anyways, this should be right around your neck of the woods.

Chang's Hot Wok
802 West Army Trail Road
Carol Stream, IL 60188
(630) 830-6868
http://www.changshotwok.com/about-us

The thread on Spicy Bites in Vernon Hills prompted me to look at the place's menu, and I noticed this:

We offer Indo-Chinese dishes on Tuesdays.

toria wrote:I am looking for a good Indian Chinese restaurant in the suburbs, either west or NW. Has anyone been to Bombay chopsticks in Schaumburg? Pls advise also any others you know of that might be good.

I really had a great buffet lunch last Saturday at Cuisine of India in Naperville. The set up is pretty good - 4 appetizers, 4 vegetarian entrees, 4 non vegetarian dishes and four desserts. In addition to the buffet, you are served a good homemade soup, tandoori chicken, and naan.

It certainly is not the cheapest buffet you will find but each and every dish was very well prepared.

I think that the buffet is only served at lunch.


Cuisine of India
1163 E Ogden Ave
Naperville, IL 60563
(630) 548-9440
http://mycuisineofindia.com

Hi,

Do a search on this board, because there has been a prior discussion on just this topic.

Regards,

Himalayan has good Indian. It's in the shopping center at Golf and Milwaukee. Their dinners for two are a lot of food.

8265 W Golf in Niles.

ld111134 wrote:I believe that this place is the erstwhile Hot Wok Village, which I went to a couple of times years ago. I liked the food at the former place, which also served Bombay-style Indian food - I found it to be akin to Chinese-American food with Indian seasonings and a plethora of sweet-and-sour-style dishes.
http://www.bombaychopstickschicago.com/

As pointed out, it isnt.. Hot Wok (RIP) was at Golf and Barrington, this (completely different) place is at Golf and Salem...

There probably is no *great* Indian-Chinese food in Chicago - Hot Wok was fair, but not great, back in the day. Ive been to Bombay Chopsticks only once IIRC - but it was very good. (Friends who have gone more often regard it as the best Indian-Chinese food in Chicagoland... so its very worth trying. I do plan on more trips myself soon..)

Himalaya and Cuisine of India (mentioned elsewhere) are not Indian-Chinese restaurants at all, just Indian restaurants (they dont even have any Indian-Chinese dishes on their menu, I dont believe..)

There are a few Indian-Chinese options (and growing) in Chicagoland however. Bombay Chopsticks probably the best.. then there's Hakka Wok (used to be on Golf Road, might have closed and moved - or at least they now have a new branch near Glendale Heights). Inchin Bamboo Garden on Golf Road in Hoffman Estates.. havent been for a while (not sure its still there, even).. Desi Chilli (as pointed out before in this thread also), in Westmont.

In addition, a few Indian restaurants provide several Indian-Chinese dishes on their menu which are actually very good. Prime among these would be Priya Restaurant in Schaumburg - a very good Andhra-style restaurant in Schaumburg (939 W. Wise Road), with a dozen or so Indian-Chinese dishes on their menu. And Dakshin in Schaumburg - also a South-Indian restaurant (dosas, idlis etc), with a reasonable Indian-Chinese section on their menu.

And then, of course, there is Usmaniya Chinese Restaurant on Devon - but really, a place like Bombay Chopsticks is on a different plane for Indian-Chinese food to a spot like Usmaniya.. if youre in the Usmaniya Chinese vicinity, go across the street to the original and do their nehari and biryani instead

c8w

I'm a sucker for countries outside of China's take on their cuisine. When in Negril I'll always make sure to get at least one Jamaican-Chinese meal in and look forward to the day I can try some Trinidadian-Chinese in Toronto. This thread had me mentally marking down another spot I'll try and eat at when in Columbus. I also enjoyed the Southern-American by way of China offerings in Mississippi. I had a series of days I had to be out in no mans land right around when this thread started up. It got me interested in trying some Indian-Chinese so I took some advantage out of being punished with having to work all the way out there for a few days.


Schaumburg: Land of Strip Mall Eats

Hakka Wok has a little bit of their story on how these two cuisines became meshed into one over on their website as well as a little bit of the chefs history who was a second-generation Chinese Indian born in Kolkata or Calcutta India. After moving from there to here he worked at the now defunct Hot Wok Village. I did a little bit of web wandering as to the popular dishes of this particular Chinese fusion and got an idea of what to order the few times I tried it. The Manchow soup was similar in texture to Hot and Sour but not as good. Spicy but just bits of celery and some cabbage to be found.


Manchow Soup

Somewhere I read that many of the dishes of the actual Hakka people of China (mentioned upthread) are different sorts of minced meat or veggie balls. So that part of the peoples cuisine caught on in Indian-Chinese. Pakora are ground balls of fish, shrimp or chicken which are mixed with cilantro and other herbs and seasoned then fried. The homemade dipping sauce is a really tasty blend of garlic, cilantro and other things I'm sure they didn't mention.


Chicken Pakora

One of their signature and most popular dishes is their Bhazzia with Manchurian gravy. Bhazzia being minced vegetable fritters which are covered in gravy. The gravy was thick and spicy with lots of cilantro, green onion and hints of garlic mixed in. I'm a meat eater but enjoyed this veg-head dish. I mixed it all together with the white rice and it was pretty comforting on a chilly day.


Bhazzia with Manchurian Gravy

The other two most popular Indian Chinese dishes I saw were Manchurian and Chili chicken. Hakka Wok has lunch specials M-F until 3p and they include soup, choice of rice and a veggie fried spring roll. I tried both since 2 of my 3 visits were with somebody else. I liked the Manchurian chicken which Wikipedia says is entirely a creation of Chinese restaurants in India.


Manchurian Chicken (Dry)

It also says it comes with veggies but not Hakka's version. Looking at this dish on the WWW it looked like Orange Chicken and in some cases came swimming in gravy. Its offered wet or dry. I got it dry and enjoyed the popular Indian dish of chicken with chopped garlic, ginger, and green chilis with soy sauce replacing the garam masala. The veggie fried rice was just ok but the smell and looks of their burnt garlic fried rice were nice. They also offer the popular non meat eaters favorite gobi (fried cauliflower) Manchurian. Like Manchurian Chicken, chilli chicken recipes and looks differ depending on where you look/go.


Chilli Chicken (Looks alot like Mall Chinese huh? I thought better than that though)

I didn't notice any particular Indian spices in this dish which also like the Manchurian has a little bit of an American-Chinese feel. But I did enjoy it (dry) and thought the chicken quality was above average for cheap Chinese takeout places. They brought the heat with both of the chicken dishes and I enjoyed dumping the green sauce offered with each lunch special on top of the chicken. However I would stay away from the non Indo-Chinese selections based off this order of Schezwan shrimp.


Dexter is on his way to take a sample...

All in all, not worth riding out of the way for like nearby Santouka is, but it might be a stop I'd make again if I was ever in the area. I still like Caribbean Chinese more. Still never tried Canadian Chinese cuisine though. Any other fun ones?

Hakka Wok
1851 West Golf Road
Schaumburg, IL 60194
(847) 882-0910

Da Beef wrote:I still like Caribbean Chinese more. Still never tried Canadian Chinese cuisine though. Any other fun ones?

I did get to try Israeli-Chinese once. The best part was listening to the restaurant staff speak Hebrew with a Chinese accent (Not that I understand either language). The worst part was the fact that they tended to substitute turkey where you would expect pork.

Katie wrote:The thread on Spicy Bites in Vernon Hills prompted me to look at the place's menu, and I noticed this:

We offer Indo-Chinese dishes on Tuesdays.

I just spoke to the cashier at Spicy Bites today. She said that they only offer Indian Chinese food on Saturdays.

shorty wrote:

Katie wrote:The thread on Spicy Bites in Vernon Hills prompted me to look at the place's menu, and I noticed this:

We offer Indo-Chinese dishes on Tuesdays.

I just spoke to the cashier at Spicy Bites today. She said that they only offer Indian Chinese food on Saturdays

Desi Grill & Pizza in Lombard offers their Chinese lunch box only on Thursdays.



If you're disappointed at Desi, you can always go next door to Steve's Gyro for one of their 3-pound burritos.



Desi Grill & Pizza
912 E Roosevelt Rd
Lombard IL
630-916-8608

Steve's Gyro
916 E Roosevelt Rd
Lombard IL
630-629-0745

Rene G wrote:If you're disappointed at Desi, you can always go next door to Steve's Gyro for one of their 3-pound burritos.

Mein Gott.

Or at least hit Tae Fu and Lunar Brewing Compay.

ld111134 wrote:I believe that this place is the erstwhile Hot Wok Village, which I went to a couple of times years ago. I liked the food at the former place, which also served Bombay-style Indian food - I found it to be akin to Chinese-American food with Indian seasonings and a plethora of sweet-and-sour-style dishes.

Bombay Chopsticks
721 W Golf Rd
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169
(847) 380-5775
http://www.bombaychopstickschicago.com/

Bombay Chopsticks in Schaumburg still exists, went for lunch today.

Soup & "salad" come with lunch specials.

Soup was interesting, a ground chicken soup, extremely thick almost congealed, with bits of red pepper & cilantro.
There was also a small serving of french fries that had been mixed with a sweet chili sauce (more chili kick than sweet).
"salad" was very small, consisted of chopped cabbage with a chili oil like dressing, served cold.
Small veggie egg roll was meh.
I enjoyed the french fries and cabbage salad.

For my lunch entree I ordered lamb meatballs w/Szechuan sauce. 4 tiny meatballs in a sea of very pedestrian sauce served with a side of steamed rice that had been left out from the previous night. Terrible.
That said, the french fries & cabbage will get me to try the place again.