R.I.P. Sizzle India

. .. as of 1/1/06. Windows papered. Sign said there are branches in Naperville and Schaumburg

[I thought I posted this last night...]

It's a shame Sizzle is closing, they had a unique product on Da'Bomb. Still, I visited Sizzle last Fall, and the seemed to be phoning it in. The room was dingier than usual (and it's a dingy place), and the buffet was very spent. I was quite unhappy with the $10 paid. When Sizzle was good, it was very good, and it's another in a season of losses.

Sizzle is the second, of like five places I highlighed in the Slow Food book to close (the other being the Bangledeshi place, Sonargaon). It seems that Devon is loosing some of its better places for sure.

Rob

Yeah I liked sizzle quite a bit too, in fact I always thought it probably the best combination of meat eating and vegetarian eating on devon. It should be mentioned that if you live out in the burbs, there is still a sizzle branch way out there, and In naperville is another place that does andhra food. I can't remember the ame right now, but its the weird split identity place, with one side doing rather boring chinese buffet food and the other side doing south indian buffet

Zim,
I believe that you are referring to Bharatmela in Naperville. Unfortunately, it closed in July. For a while, I had been having lunch there frequently and things had been going downhill for a while (bufffet drastically reduced, fewer interesting offerings, freshness, etc.). I knew the restaurant would be closing when we had dinner there one night and the owner said that they did not renew their liquor license. I've yet to find a replacement for their delicious chutneys and homemade pickles.
Veloute

I used to hit Sizzle a lot but I definitely observed the downhill slide and the fact that standoffishness had gone somewhere south of surliness. There's just so much more vitality in a place like Khan BBQ than in a tired old buffet place, there's no comparison in terms of either the food or the overall experience. Frankly, not that I wish anyone's business ill, but Devon's lineup could use a shakeup and some new blood. Maybe the fancy new Usmania or something, along with a few other upgrades like Tahoora's, will foster some improvement, and drive a few of the most tired and uninspiring places to pack it up or step it up.

While Naperville does not have Bharatmela any more (both a good and bad thing, since the place started out great, and then declined precipitously and was not very good at all towards the end), there is the Sizzle India near Diehl and Route 59. Sadly, I have not yet made it there, but I will soon.

And I have heard very good things about the outpost in Schaumburg, too.

zim wrote:Yeah I liked sizzle quite a bit too, in fact I always thought it probably the best combination of meat eating and vegetarian eating on devon. It should be mentioned that if you live out in the burbs, there is still a sizzle branch way out there, and In naperville is another place that does andhra food. I can't remember the ame right now, but its the weird split identity place, with one side doing rather boring chinese buffet food and the other side doing south indian buffet

As pointed out elsewhere, Bharatmela is now closed (Iam not a
Naperville guy, but was going to be there a couple of weeks ago
and needed a meal,so checked the old posts - a phonecall told
me then that they were closed, and had been for a while.
Ended up going to Carm's, which was very good - not quite
Johnni'es, but good).

There is however an outpost of Sizzle in Naperville now, opened
sometime last year. Friend went for a lunch buffet less than a
month after they had opened, and said it was excellent. But, of
course, that was in their early days

Sizzle first opened in Schaumburg anyway, and was very good.
From what I heard their cook moved to the Devon location for a
very short while, then moved back to the other 2 locations. The
Devon location supposedly wasnt very good for a while, from
people Ive talked to. (This is probably similar to what happened
to Manchow, the Devon-branch of Hot Wok, which also closed
fairly quickly. Hot Work in Schaumburg is doing great as usual
however, and Sizzle India in its other two outposts will probably
continue to do so as well. It also doesnt hurt that they probably
have a whole lot more regular customers in their suburban
outposts than they ever did at Devon).

c8w

Mike G wrote:I used to hit Sizzle a lot but I definitely observed the downhill slide and the fact that standoffishness had gone somewhere south of surliness. There's just so much more vitality in a place like Khan BBQ than in a tired old buffet place, there's no comparison in terms of either the food or the overall experience. Frankly, not that I wish anyone's business ill, but Devon's lineup could use a shakeup and some new blood. Maybe the fancy new Usmania or something, along with a few other upgrades like Tahoora's, will foster some improvement, and drive a few of the most tired and uninspiring places to pack it up or step it up.

Neither the new Usmaniya nor Tahoora are upgrades per se, however -
they are just expansions of the old place. These are two of the
places that do the best, business-wise, on Devon, and so theyre
expanding as much as they can. Tahoora has long had IMHO the
best samosas etc on Devon, and Usmaniya is IMHO the best
restaurant on Devon in general - both have deservedly done well
for a long time, but neither would be new additions to the Devon
chowmap.

Iam not sure we'll see anything new in the old Usmaniya spot, when
they move across the street - at least one bit of rumour I heard was
that they would keep their old spot too. So far we havent seen
anything new in the old Tahoora spot either, its just sitting vacant.
The old Sonargaon spot was taken up by the old Daata Durbar
(and Daata Durbar's old spot is now the "Classic Daata Durbar",
under new management but refusing to give up the old name
Thus there are now 2 Daata Durbar's within 50 yards of each
other on Devon (and both are solid 24-hour cabbie joints).

BTW, for any who might be interested... Haleem is an item usually
only served on Friday, and during Ramzan, but for the length of
the India-Pakistan cricket series (when Daata does excellent
business), they are preparing and serving Haleem every day of
the week

c8w

Neither the new Usmaniya nor Tahoora are upgrades per se, however - they are just expansions of the old place.

Well, I'm guessing that a fancy new building may mean a more elaborate menu, too, or at least a few items in that direction. Then again, it may not. We shall see...

Mike G wrote:

Neither the new Usmaniya nor Tahoora are upgrades per se, however - they are just expansions of the old place.

Well, I'm guessing that a fancy new building may mean a more elaborate menu, too, or at least a few items in that direction. Then again, it may not. We shall see...

Ah ok. I presumed it wouldnt - that it would just mean easier parking, more
than anything else Tahoora, FWIW, didnt expand their menu when
they moved into their massive digs across the street I dont think - just
raised the price of their terrifc weekend Halwa-puri breakfast from
3 dollars to 3 dollars and fifty cents

(BTW, not sure if many here have made it to Devon at 9:30 am on a
weekend - Tahoora is completely *packed* at those times, with people
lined up for the halwa-puri breakfast. I think thats one of the major
reasons Tahoora is still so much more popular than Ambala, to note
only one example).

c8w

c8w wrote:

Mike G wrote:

Neither the new Usmaniya nor Tahoora are upgrades per se, however - they are just expansions of the old place.

Well, I'm guessing that a fancy new building may mean a more elaborate menu, too, or at least a few items in that direction. Then again, it may not. We shall see...

Ah ok. I presumed it wouldnt - that it would just mean easier parking, more
than anything else Tahoora, FWIW, didnt expand their menu when
they moved into their massive digs across the street I dont think - just
raised the price of their terrifc weekend Halwa-puri breakfast from
3 dollars to 3 dollars and fifty cents

(BTW, not sure if many here have made it to Devon at 9:30 am on a
weekend - Tahoora is completely *packed* at those times, with people
lined up for the halwa-puri breakfast. I think thats one of the major
reasons Tahoora is still so much more popular than Ambala, to note
only one example).

c8w

I think the only time the new place (with the seeming common upgradedecoration choice of looking like one of the jewelry stores around devon) gets at all crowded is for the halwa puri.

I do think that another reason tahoora does more business than ambala is the fact that they just have more choices - you can your savory as well as your sweet, and they do both things pretty well. some sweets better than anyone IMO - for example the kalakand.

Mike G wrote:I anyone's business ill, but Devon's lineup could use a shakeup and some new blood. Maybe the fancy new Usmania or something, along with a few other upgrades like Tahoora's, will foster some improvement, and drive a few of the most tired and uninspiring places to pack it up or step it up.

BTW, the Sizzle India place is going to be taken over by.... Sabri Nehari

Basically Sabri is expanding next door. Asked the guy, he told me they
had a wait of up to 1.5 hours at times during the summer, and needed to
expand. After they take over Sizzle's spot, they will have a capacity of
about 250.

He said the menu may be a little expanded - are currently working on
it. It will have a few more vegetarian options, probably. Maybe a few
"Chinese" options tacked on as well. And maybe even things like
"ribs"! These will, of course, be Halal Ribs, presumably beef - with
some subcontinental touches to it (and presumably not bbqued, ie
not over an actual fire).

The "new" Sabri is scheduled to open sometime mid-May I think it
was. In the meantime,t he "old" Sabri is still open for business (picked
up a nehari a couple days ago).

Meanwhile, the new Usmaniya opens in a couple of days IIRC -
I think its probably next week? Not sure what the changes will
be there.

c8w