Exotic Comfort Food at Chicago Curry House

In Chicago’s dynamic food universe, it’s easy to overlook the tried and true. Places that seem to always be there cooking solid meals with consistency and distinction day after day with or without tremendous acclaim or fanfare. Places like Chicago Curry House, a quiet little spot tucked away in the 800 block of Plymouth Ct that specializes in Nepalese and Indian staples.

There’s only one pre-requisite for visiting the restaurant. You must have a deep appreciation for well prepared, delicious food. Then it doesn’t really matter if you know a lot about either cuisine. Both rely on a broad knowledge of spices that run the gamut from mild to piquant to hot. Like good chefs all over the world, the cooks preparing the food at Chicago Curry House seem to have an innate sense of flavor balance. Expertly composed, the curries always taste delicately complex and are full of the most wonderful flavor touches.

The restaurant’s nine-page menu lets you choose from a two-culture spectrum of meals that will accommodate tiny as well as robust appetites. You’d expect plenty of vegetarian options and the menu dutifully delivers.

Bordered by China and India, Nepal is vastly more influenced by the latter and the similarities extend deeply into the food. There may be a few spices used that are unique to the Himalayas but many of the most common are prevalent in Indian cuisine as well. The difference is in application and if Chicago Curry House is typical, Nepalese cuisine has a tendency to take a subtler approach to the use of spices that shape flavor.

There’s also an interesting and wide use of goat, lamb and fish choices that are virtually unheard of in standard Indian fare. Chicken of course is ubiquitous and can be found here in abundance.

Opportunities do a little sampling can be found and the vegetarian or non-vegetarian dinner are good starts. The equivalent of a generous combination platter; each is substantial. The non-veg of the two arrives on a wooden serving board carrying butter chicken, tikka masala, tandoori chicken and lamb sausages. They’re all surrounded by fresh cut onions, carrots, cucumbers and sliced lemon. Pillow soft naan floats down. Beside it is a bowl of vegetable curry with corn, lima beans, green beans and carrots. Here the curry is thin and light enough to be a beautifully flavored soup with a pleasing second note of heat following every spoon full.

Rice is something we all too often take for granted because it’s usually just used as a platform. A stage for some other star. The Curry House’s long basmati rice is gold. Impossibly light, each grain is its own delicious morsel; the polar opposite of sticky rice.

If you can judge a restaurant by who it attracts, this calm eatery has ingratiated itself on a wide variety of palettes. Strategically located just outside the Loop and easily accessible from all directions, the clientele is as varied as a Red Line car during rush hour at the Roosevelt stop. And it’s no wonder. Who doesn’t like reasonably priced genuinely good food. During dinner, there’s even an air of refinement that surrounds the experience.

What’s baffling is why the buffet isn’t more popular. It could be that the set format of buffets lends themselves to staid predictability. And the commitment to making every dish sparkle simply isn’t as rigorous as it is at dinner. Still, at $11.95 (weekdays), CCH’s buffet is a bargain writ large. The variety of choices is as interesting as it is impressive. The Sambar soup, accented with cloves and cooked down to the point of near disintegration, was silken and wonderful. Sure, the Khasi Ko Maasu, an appetizing goat dish, could have been a couple of tads more tender; but it was still great amusement on the tongue. Add to that samosas, a Nepali style spicy potato salad, eggplant curry and both Tandoori and butter chicken. The list goes on. With that kind of fuel in the furnace, you’re set for any battle you possibly face.