The Spice Room

"It’s convenient if a BYOB restaurant has a place to buy booze right next door, but it also means you need to settle for whatever they have available. This isn’t a problem at The Spice Room, a fantastic Indian restaurant in Logan Square, because it’s across the street from a neighborhood grocery store that happens to have a great selection of beer and wine. So you won’t have to figure out which flavor of MD 20/20 goes best with curry, unless you really want to." - josh barnett, adrian kane, john ringor

"TV Pairing:The Killing (Netflix) “This show got a lot of sh*t - mainly because of the red herrings, cliffhangers, and relentless rain. Now we live in a world of streaming, where red herrings and cliffhangers are meaningless. Meaning these days we can enjoy The Killing for what it’s really about: the relationship between broken cops Sara Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (a fantastically trashy Joel Kinnaman). And nothing goes with the chill of this absurdly moody show better than the rich curries from The Spice Room. No, it won’t change who killed Rosie Lawsen, but honestly, that’s never been the point.” -AK" - max bonem, adrian kane, carlo mantuano

"The food at this casual BYOB spot in Logan Square is hit-or-miss, but since the Spice Room’s long menu doesn’t change, you don’t need to worry about them getting rid of the hits. Some things, like the chicken chettinad or gobi manchurian are appropriately spicy with the right balance of chili and vinegar. Others, like the butter chicken and bhindi masala, are flavorless or too oily. But most dishes end up snatching defeat from the jaws of culinary victory. The samosas come with a crispy dough that’s wonderfully light and flaky, but the potato and pea filling is bland. Similarly, the chicken tikka and malai tikka taste good but are too dry, the tandoori chicken is tender but lacks the expected smoky flavor, and the dal makhani is hearty but way too salty. All that being said, you won’t have a truly bad meal here, and the flaws are tempered by the friendly service and warm atmosphere." - Adrian Kane, Veda Kilaru

"If you’re looking to eat your feelings, The Spice Room can help. In fact, you can rate the difficulty of your day based on how many containers of Spice Room are sitting in front of you. Whatever else is currently on your mind, you’ll appreciate that they pack everything carefully, and always make sure you have enough rice to go with all the curries you’ve ordered. Get the malai kofta, tikka masala, and both the garlic and kashmiri naan - which they’ll thoughtfully put in separate wrappers, so you don’t have garlic leaking into everything." - adrian kane

"Before we were all under house arrest, we could generally judge the difficulty of a day based on how many containers of Spice Room were in front of us. We still like ordering from here to comfort us, and thankfully, their Indian food is reasonably priced. Get the malai kofta, tikka masala, and both the garlic and kashmiri naan - which they’ll thoughtfully put in separate wrappers, so you don’t have garlic leaking into everything." - adrian kane