Bhabi's Kitchen - new prices

I initially heard about Bhabi's Kitchen from this site about a year or so ago, and have been going to eat at Mr. Syed's establishment ever since. We do enjoy all his breads (the pistachio one, especially) and the hard-to-find Hyderabadi grub. We were at dinner at BK last night with some friends. Now I have been noticing Mr. Syed slowly increasing his prices over the last few months (especially after the Chicago Mag and Hungry hound press), but yesterday we noticed yet another price hike, and this time is was a big one. All the lamb entrees (we had the Mutton Korma) are now $14.00 (yes, you read that right ), and the chicken ones are about $12.00, while all the vegetarian dishes are at $10.00. I don't quite know what prompted this price increase, and I am wondering what the general response to these prices is ??

TB

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t= ... ght=bhabis

I initially heard about Bhabi's Kitchen from this site about a year or so ago, and have been going to eat at Mr. Syed's establishment ever since. We do enjoy all his breads (the pistachio one, especially) and the hard-to-find Hyderabadi grub. We were at dinner at

I dont agree that Hyderabadi grub is hard to find - in fact, it might be one of
the easier ones to find around town. There are other kinds that are *very*
hard to find (good non-vegetarian Indian coastal food is nonexistant
in Chicago, as is Goanese, Mangalorean etc - some of the best Indian
food around. There is no Bengali restaurant *anywhere* anymore - and
even the one that existed a while ago was more Bangladeshi than
Bengali. There is no sit-down Keralan place. Heck, there isnt even a
good sit-down Gujarati place, even though there are tens of thousands
of Gujaratis in Chicago).

You can find Hyderabadi-ish food at Daata Durbar, right down the
street. Also at Hyderabad House. Both these are patronized mostly
by Hyderabadi cabbies. The owner of Chopal Kabab House is
Hyderabadi, and thus serves up some Hyderabadi-style dishes.
Same with the owner of JK Kabab House. Usmaniya's biryani is
quite Hyderabadi, in style. Shahnawaz was Hyderabadi too, but
it is now closed. Hema's is owned by a Hyderabadi/Andhra
person too, and also serves up several Hyderabadi-style dishes.

BK last night with some friends. Now I have been noticing Mr. Syed slowly increasing his prices over the last few months (especially after the Chicago Mag and Hungry hound press), but yesterday we noticed yet another price hike, and this time is was a big one. All the lamb entrees (we had the Mutton Korma) are now $14.00 (yes, you read that right ), and the chicken ones are about $12.00, while all the vegetarian dishes are at $10.00. I don't quite know what prompted this price increase, and I am wondering what the general response to these prices is ??

TB

The one time I went to BK last, a month or two ago now, I was told the
prices might be going up.

Iam not particularly surprised, myself. The restaurant has gotten good
pub and is currently the "hot" Indian restaurant in town. Very few
actual Indians go there anymore, IMHO (if, indeed, they ever really
did, it was never a restaurant that was particularly popular among the
Indian community) - but as long as the market can bear the price increase,
why not? And it seems to be bearing the price-increases just fine to
date, and positively thriving. The owner is pleasant, the environment
is non-threatening, the alcohol is BYO - thats good enough reason
for the restaurant to thrive, even if the food is IMHO ordinary and
ridiculously overpriced. If the owner can get away with it and
still have patrons lining up outside his door, more power to him.


c8w

Here's my response: I've had wonderful Indian all over Devon. I don't really see a need to go somewhere just because it's popular, nor am I scared of dining somewhere when I'm not surrounded by white people. I just can't fathom that the food at BK is so outstandingly good that all the white people need to flock there. I mean, how many other Indian restaurants are there in Chicago?

So, raise the prices to $20 a plate for all I care. May the un-adventurous pay for every bite.

To be fair, I don't think that white people eat there because they want to be surrounded by other white people or that the white people who eat there are not adventurous. I'm not white but I am not Indian or Pakistani either and the first time someone recommended BK to me it was Alpana Singh. But I bet a lot of people, of all colors heard about it on LTH or eGullet or Chowhound. Maybe BK is charging more in part because white people eat there and are willing to pay higher prices, but the owners are trying to run a small business and it is their business decision to make. Of course, it is your decision whether or not to eat there anymore and I completely respect that.

just to be clear - the reason i don't eat there is not because its only white folks eating there, but because i don't think the food is all that good, and its more expensive

yep, its not bad because its only white folks eating there, but its unfortunate that 3 things tend to go together 1) adoption by the larger non-subcontinental community 2) higher prices , and 3) mediocre food.

To be fair, I think some of the blame for this has to rest with the indian community. I am not sure, and pretty much doubt that a higher priced place offering regional specialties would do good business on devon.

To be quite honest, I don't know why they aren't more gujerati places - all the stats I've seen have shown them to be the majority of indians in the chicago area and owners of many of the restaurants on devon and elsewhere. In the last few months, devon has seen the closure of a couple of the places that were trying to offer regional stuff a little bit different than most of the fare (hyderabadi, mughlai, nehari palace type stuff, and udupi/dosa) the bengali/bangladeshi sonargaon and the andhra sizzle india.

I know some time ago the owners of maveli, the keralan gorcery store had mentioned that they might open a sit down keralan place but I haven't seen any signs of it

hikari wrote:To be fair, I don't think that white people eat there because they want to be surrounded by other white people or that the white people who eat there are not adventurous. I'm not white but I am not Indian or Pakistani either and the first time someone recommended BK to me it was Alpana Singh. But I bet a lot of people, of all colors heard about it on LTH or eGullet or Chowhound. Maybe BK is charging more in part because white people eat there and are willing to pay higher prices, but the owners are trying to run a small business and it is their business decision to make. Of course, it is your decision whether or not to eat there anymore and I completely respect that.

I'll second this. We've been going to Bhabi's for many years, back when it too was a little hole in the wall place, and when we ate there then we were usually the only folks of no discernable color in the place (and they did a sizable take-out business in the neighborhood then, at least judging from the number of people who'd come in and leave with food.) In fact, the first time we ate there, we chatted with some young Pakistani men eating there who "congratulated" us on discovering what they told us then was the best place on Devon to eat. I know even back then, when I posted about Bhabi's on Chowhound, that there were a lot of knowledgable foodies who weren't sold on the food there, and since I'm certainly no expert on Indian food, I couldn't argue. I just know that we loved the food, and that the owners were incredibly sweet to us and to our kids especially, often cooking them special things when we went in (my daughter liked the butter chicken cooked slightly differently than they usually do it.) So I've felt sad about all the negative comments Bhabi's has been receiving on this board. Over the years, in large part because Mr. Sayed is an amibitious businessman and because word about the place began to spread, more folks from outside the neighborhood started showing up (including many of our friends who we originally took there) and then came his expansion, and now the price hikes, which don't make us very happy either -- a family meal there now is an awfully expensive proposition. It's certainly okay to decide that there are better, and more economical, places to eat. But I don't know that people who choose to patronize the place should lose all their foodie adventurousness points for doing so.

I've been going to BK for nearly three years. However, since the expansion, I definitely think everything about it is sliding. The service is much, much slower, the prices are higher and I think even the quality of some of the dishes has gone down. The last time I was there, the eggplant wasn't quite right -- I couldn't put my finger on it, but it was definitely missing something, and the lamb had more bones in it than actual pieces of meat.
I still enjoy being able to bring wine to dinner and will probably still go there occasionally, but I'm definitely going to check out some of the other places that were recommended in this thread because right now, the value isn't there for BK.