best indian food in chicago. Must try dishes are grand non- veg thali and thalapakattu goat biryani read more

Chennai Central Restaurant - Indian Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

We had mixed feelings about our dinner experience here. My idlis were really good and I enjoyed the sambhar flavors as well as consistency. The idiappam with korma was a smaller-than-expected portion size for the price of a full entree. Shrinkflation? It was an appetizer at best. The flavors were nice but they put whole spices in it, well, whole so you had to pause to remove this every second bite. read more

The taste and ambiance is good and clean. I loved the paratha, chicken chukka & salna combo (must try) Thalapakattu mutton biriyani - good taste with well cooked tender mutton pieces. The service is excellent. read more

I'll definitely give them another chance. My experience wasn't wholy positive. I think but they have potential. We ordered a lot of items. My favorite was chicken 65. All of the rest was Below par. That's 4.8 stars on Yelp so I m assuming they should definitely get another chance. read more

Chennai Central Restaurant - Indian Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

This is a nice new south Indian cuisine restaurant that serves tasty vegetarian and non-vegetarian. It replaced the previously established, Madurai Kitchen. The restaurant was clean, well-lit, and had a nice ambiance. I went here for lunch with my family. It was busy when we got here which was a good sign. We were seated promptly. The menu was to be accessed through a QR code. My party ordered different varieties as individual orders (not shared). The variety included different types of dosa, idly, vada sambar and a south Indian vegetarian thali aka platter. The food and service were good. Everyone liked what they ordered. The food was fresh and flavorful. I liked this restaurant and its offerings. I'll be back for more. Check them out. read more

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Ordered chicken Salna ( one small piece of chicken in the sauce) , chicken chukka soru ( spicy) and garlic bread. Lots of flavor but not worth $60 in my opinion. Best thing was naah bread read more

Chennai Central Restaurant - Ordered chicken Salna ( one small piece of chicken in the sauce) , chicken chukka soru ( spicy) and garlic bread. - Indian Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

10/10 for customer service, food , hygiene , vibe visiting again. Sorry about the after math picture. Couldn't resist the food to take a proper picture. read more

Chennai Central Restaurant - Non-veg thali, maysorri masala dosa, Crispy fried Chilli Chicken, Masala Chai, malabar paratha - Indian Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Goat was god-awful. It was so dry it had to have been left out for 2 or 3 days. Rock-hard, tasteless. Chicken? It was really hard to find enough of this meat to get a full meal. Lot's of sauce, stingy portions. First and last time I'm eating here. can't imagine this place will be open for long. Staff disappeared for like 20 minutes at a time. So couldn't get more water, anything. Service bad. Food bad. What's left? Oh, the seating! You were pinned in by other tables and had to push people out of the way, in their seats on either side. Surprised the fire department hasn't cleared this place out. Miserable evening. TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED. WASTE OF MONEY. FEEL CHEATED BY THE PORTIONS AND THE EATING EXPERIENCE. read more

Chennai Central is an excellent spot with delicious, flavorful South Indian food! The service is always very friendly -- sometimes a bit slow, but they genuinely make you feel welcome. The Egg Kothu Parata and Egg Bhurji are outstanding and full of flavor. The Thali is a great value with a nice variety, and the Ghee Podi Dosa is fantastic. Overall, a wonderful place to enjoy authentic dishes and a comforting meal. Highly recommend! read more

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My husband and I dined in here last weekend for the first time, and we were blown away by the quality of food and value. The ambience is humble and casual - there will be a Bollywood movie playing - but everything was clean and serviceable. Our server was a friendly woman who was happy to give recommendations when asked. We started with a potato masala dosa, which had the perfect crisp exterior and tender interior texture. The filling was perfectly spiced. We moved onto creamy palak paneer, a complex, spicy, and nutty yellow dal, and a hot, stewed goat dish, along with garlic naan and rice on the side. Everything was delicious, and our order was enough for two of us to eat dinner once and lunch twice! This will be our new go to spot for Indian food. read more

Food was mediocre. We order uttapam, 2 types of dosa and bisi bele rice. The rice was good, everything else was ok. The service was ok and I don't think you can say anything about the ambiance. I am not sure if I'd go visit here again unless they stay morning 8 AM breakfast that might be worth trying. read more

Chicken appetizer Gramathu Varuval was definitely different than any other restaurant in the neighborhood

OK, the wife and I have been dining on Northern Indian cuisine for decades, starting with the shops on Devon Ave. in Chicago, and branching out into the suburbs after we moved to Arlington Heights. While this isn't our first Southern Indian dining experience, we're not versed in the nuances. I'd give the food we had 5 stars. I'd give the service 3.5. They've only been a couple of weeks, so there are kinks to work out. The wife's butter chicken & naan came out promptly. But then: after 20 minutes more, she was just about done, and neither my order, nor the Mango Lassis we ordered had arrived. Waitress was informed and enthusiastic about their offerings, no problem. But on the way out, the host(?) standing at the entrance turned his face away from us instead of saying thank you or smiling. I doubt this is cultural, since it's what I consider rude, and I've never encountered it at any Indian restaurant. We may come back, since we live less than a mile away. But our go-to will remain Tava (Niles) for now. They have their food AND their service act together. read more

Fun place for tasty chicken tika masala, samosas, naan, and home made lime juice. Not expensive. Very friendly staff. I thought the spiced foods were really delicious. We will be back. read more

best food, very clean place,service is great, very rich taste! I best dosa !eddy samber ! God bless this place

We were craving for South Indian food and went to Chennai Central for dinner on a Sunday. This used to be the location of the old Madurai Kitchen restaurant and Chowpatti before that. The decor has been refreshed with new pictures and flat screen tv introduced (which was playing Tamil movie songs when we walked in). The menu was unusually large with North and South Indian dishes. Some dishes were out of stock (Biriyani). This place would do well to focus on only South Indian and specifically Tamil Nadu-Kerala dishes. Leave the Biriyani to Hyderabad House and the Paneer to India House! We ordered the filter coffee, Idli & Vada, Mysore Masala Dosa, Bisi Bele Bhat, Alu & Puri. All the South Indian items were full of flavor, spicy and delicious along with the chutneys (which seemed to be freshly made). The Alu Puri lacked the punch. The service was quick and efficient. Overall a fun experience and we will be back again to try the Thaali which is only available for lunch. read more

Okay, what the hell do I know? I'm just a white boy who got into desi food at an early age. I started off eating the typical North Indian food that everyone and their dog knows, but I recently dove into South Indian food--particularly Tamil cuisine. I know the desi community, especially Dravidian South Indians, can be very opinionated. I'm sure this page has plenty of bad reviews from snobbish people who are impossible to please. Well, let me tell you: all their bad reviews are WRONG!!!! Chennai Central is an amazing restaurant. It's a place I'd happily drive an hour for because I can't find these dishes anywhere else. When I ordered the veggie thali, the main dish--the kuzhambu--was a literal life-changing experience. The tanginess of that tamarind curry put me in a level of ecstasy I've seldom felt even with a member of the opposite sex. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING OR JOKING. My biggest fear now is moving to a different metropolitan area that doesn't have access to these dishes. I recently tried the Poondu Kara Kuzhambu. Keep in mind, I'm Italian--the idea of garlic being the star of a dish feels almost sacrilegious--yet it somehow worked so perfectly. I even went native: ate the rice with my hands and devoured the mango pickle! To any Tamilians reading this: yes, select odd white people like me absolutely love your cuisine. And if you ever see a non-desi name ordering your food, DO NOT ALTER IT ONE BIT to make it less spicy. I never realized--eating all that northern, anglicized Punjabi food--that Indian cuisine is so much more than just "spicy." It's an explosion of flavor. Another great thing about Chennai Central: they have a weekly dosa buffet. I went there after a long day of work teaching brats at my local elementary school, and that buffet took me from being upset with my life to wanting to live again. One big tragedy: I had to go home to help my parents in the southwest suburbs and missed the Diwali banana leaf meal, which is a total bucket-list dish to try. Long story short: Chennai Central is easily my favorite South Indian restaurant in the Chicago area--maybe even in the United States. As for service and ambiance, I don't go to restaurants to nitpick those things. I go for the food, and here, it is outstanding! read more

Perfectly authentic Tamil taste. We had the kalyana virundu. The food was great and so was the service. A couple of items had cooled off but that was very minor. Over all, love the authentic taste. I hope they keep it like that and not try to cater to American palates. read more