Eric S.
Yelp
INDO-PAKIN' IT IN
A ridiculously good lunch special all but negates the fact that I felt like the invisible diner.
Following a conversation with several coworkers who mentioned that there's very few quality Indian restaurants in the western Chicago suburbs, I was advised to seek out Shahi Nihari per the glowing recommendation of Shreyas C.
I made the trip down North Ave on a Monday for their touted lunch special. It was pretty quiet at noon on 7/30/18, so I got to enjoy my meal in peace & quiet, which was nice. The only option at the time was the $7.99 deal, and that's exactly what I came for.
Choices for lunch special include 2 meats: kabab, chicken '65', philly steak, and a few other variations of chicken like 'boti' and 'frontier'. I went with the 'malai' chicken (the Indian equivalent of Jamaican jerk chicken) and beef chapli, which were sorta like seasoned burger patties.
All lunch specials come with plenty of naan bread, 'dal' (lentils), rice, and a TON of condiments. Besides the awesome 'raita' (cucumber yogurt), there was also a pair of chutneys and some vinegar based sauces. No shortage of flavors and dips, I'm a big fan of that.
Bread = 4.5
Circuses = 2
Maybe it's because it was a Monday, maybe it's because it was a sleepy lunch hour, maybe it's due to a race thing (really hope not), but I barely got any interaction from my server. I even said "dhanyavaad" (Hindi for 'thank you') to two employees and basically got a blank stare. Maybe it was the wrong dialect? :\
* TL;DR *
An amazing midday lunch deal (valid from 11:30am-3pm) can be found here at Shahi Nihari, just don't go expecting incredible service to go with the incredible value. I'd like to return during dinner at some point, but I definitely will come back for lunch.