Restaurant Review: Chowpatty, Arlington Heights IL

I came across this place about 8 years ago and always thought I should write a review for it. With the blog, I finally got that opportunity. When you think of Indian restaurants in America, you think of a buffet. If you mention Indian food to non-Indian, he will immediately talk about samosa, tandoori chicken, lamb, and that bread (naan). Chowpatty doesn't offer any of these delicacies but follows its own offbeat menu. They dont even offer non vegetarian items and yet they have dedicated customers who just keep going back. Talking of menu, you better be a book worm because it has got 20 pages. They offer various kinds of dishes including Mexican, Middle Eastern, Thai, etc. But these are to be better had somewhere else. The family that runs this place are Gujaratis from Bombay (and hence the name). And they will mention this outright that they specialize in food from Bombay. There are 2 items that I would especially recommend - Ragda patties & Pav-bhaji. They are absolutely out of the world. One of the nice things about them is that they have several spice levels to choose from ranging from non-spicy to very spicy. Dont even think about very spicy. I have tried fair level of spice, and it just bit my tounge. I would also recommend salted lassi with jira to go along with it. End your meal with masala tea no matter what you eat.

A very important note - make sure you eat something before you go there. Since it's a family run restaurant, the service can be really slow, and the smell of the good food will make you even more hungry. On top of that the size of the dishes are relatively small but expensive nevertheless. If you go there for a full meal, you might easily end up spending a fortune. Last time I went there was just a few months ago with a few friends. They were all hungry, so I tried to stop them, but they didn't listen. They just kept muttering oohs and aahs during the entire lunch and poked fun at me as to why I didn't want to go there. In the end when the bill was delivered, there was a moment of silence followed by beads of sweat on the forehead (which could be from the spice or masala tea whose each sip they had savored). In the end the conclusion was that you could only go to Chowpatty on your wedding anniversary. That's Chowpatty for you - a must-visit restaurant.