India House in Oak Brook was actually recommended by Bobcat's co-worker, but honestly, we never got a chance to stop by until I purchased a Restaurant.com coupon.
This place was indeed difficult to find. You have to drive into a business park, and wind around the huge lot before finally locating it. The place seemed pretty big, had outdoor dining area, but seemed pretty slow. At 7:30pm on a Saturday night, we were one of 4 tables.
According to online sources, mango lassi is a delicious non-alcoholic beverage made of yogurt. Since I don't usually eat mango, I chose their strawberry option, which was decent. Nice cool drink against the spicy Indian food.
strawberry lassi - yogurt blended drink- $4.25
The waiter recommended their Flying Horse beer - $8.00
It wasn't bad, but it didn't stand out either. Huge bottle.
Sauces & Cracker - typical
Dal Ka Shorba - lentil soup- $3.00
We enjoyed this soup. It was soothing, calm, nice bean flavor.
Papdi Chai (Street Food of Bombay) $5.99 - Homemade pastry crisps mixed with potatoes, garbanzo beans, chopped onions, tomatoes, and cilantro smothered with sweet chutney and chilled light yogurt
I love street food. So I had to give this a try. Bobcat thought it was alright. I liked the cold yogurt/onions/cilantro against the crisp, crunchy pastry crisps. I don't think I'd order this again, but it wasn't bad.
For the entree, I wanted something vegetarian and mild, so I chose this:
Baigan Bharia- roasted eggplant, skinned and mashed, cooked in a rich blend of mughlai spices over low heat to observe the richness of spices $13.99
It was decent, slightly too sweet. I didn't really taste the eggplant flavor, even though it was chunky with eggplants.
naan - bred made from fine leavened flour- $3.50
tandoori roti- whole wheat bread- $3.00
The breads were typical, not exceptional.
Curries - Kadhai - stir fried with bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and spices (chicken) - $16.99
I think the curry dish turned out to be the best. It was recommended by our waiter. The chicken was very moist & tender, and curry had a good flavor.
Overall, the food was decent, and I would've said "yes" to a re-visit, but we were quite unhappy with the services. After ordering all of these dishes, our waiter asked, "is that it?", as if we needed more. (we obviously didn't -- brought so much food home) He asked if we wanted naan, because these dishes only came with rice. I said yes, and again, he asked, "is that it?" So I thought we needed to place 2 orders of bread. But it turned out, we only needed 1. I just don't like it when waiters do not help customers figure out perfect portions. He was obviously trying to get us to order as much as possible. Also, rice wasn't even brought out with the curries. We ended up having to ask from the guy that brought out our dishes. He seemed confused, as if naan replaces the rice, and he asked, "just white rice?" I had no idea what options I had, and whether or not we'd be charged for the options. Lastly, our waiter claimed that we have to pay in cash when we use restaurant.com coupons. WHAT?! This rule was not on the web site, not on the coupon, nor has this ever happened to us. When I questioned him, he said, "You didn't know this???" Thankfully, we had cash. We paid, and booked the heck out of there.
Bobcat reminded me that the last time we went to an indian restaurant (Shakira), we were treated similarly. I really hope it's a coincidence. I would not be able to put up with poor services again.
Lastly, the food was decent, but it's not exceptional. Since the prices are higher than other Indian restaurants (and we weren't even treated well), we'd rather try elsewhere.
India House Restaurant
2809 Butterfield Road
Oak Brook, IL 60523
(630) 472-1500
Oak Brook, IL 60523
(630) 472-1500
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