Pakistani restaurant stands out in Chicago's 'Little India' neighborhood
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Devon Avenue in the city's West Rogers Park neighborhood is commonly referred to as "Little India" with the dozens of food shops, clothing stores and restaurants catering to that ex-pat population.
But mixed among those stores is a Pakistani kabab house where they love to cook with chiles and spices -- Delhi Darbar Kabab House.
At Delhi Darbar, the tandoor oven gets a real workout. That's because not only are the long skewers the stars of the menu, they are also marinated for at least 24 hours, and aggressively seasoned in the Pakistani tradition.
"Our food is a little bit more spicy on the spicier level. We have a little more herbs and spices in our food in our kebabs are made freshly out of the clay oven," said owner Irfan Moten.
Chicken, beef and lamb are all good options. Sometimes cut into cubes, other times formed around the metal skewers and then cooked vertically. Lamb might also show up in their biryani - a traditional basmati rice dish.
"Our biryani is made to a high spice level. Authentic Pakistani biryani is spicy," said Moten.
There's also whole fried fish - topped with fresh ginger and some green chiles - and Moten says if spice and chiles aren't your thing, you can easily request the kebabs or biryani with a little less heat.
"We can always alter it a little bit to make it a little more less spicy than normal but our food is catered to a spicy clientele," said Moten.
The spice levels are going to be a little more aggressive than what you're probably accustomed to on Devon Avenue, but here are a couple of remedies: you could have some raw, fresh vegetables - cucumbers are great; you could have a little bit of bread, you could have some white rice, maybe have a little lassi (a mango drink with yogurt) or my remedy is usually some raita - this is just made from yogurt - and it really cools things off in a hurry.
DELHI DARBAR KABAB HOUSE
3010 W. Devon Ave., Chicago
(773) 338-1818
