If you want to cater Indian food for a dinner party, a family event, or you simply want a few small plates-worth of Indian food for family dinner - Royal Malabar (originally known as Malabar Foods) is the place to go. They have a large kitchen area in the back, and are heavily staffed by many Malayalees from South Kerala. This isn't like your typical Indian food establishment where they serve you - instead you only order carryout. This way you get to spend more $$ on a HUGE serving size (trust me, you're going to be surprised how big the servings are). Now as far as ordering goes, that's where it gets interesting. This review is going to be helpful to those who have had Indian food before. The fact of the matter is, since all the employees are born/bred in India before coming here over the past decade, they know how to make EVERY and ANY kind of indian dish. I kid you not. All you have to do is call them and ask them what they are currently making in the kitchen, or tell them what you'd like, and how you'd like it prepared, and they will do just that. Your order turnaround time depends on the size and is roughly a half hour if you ordered a family size serving, or a few hours if you need catering for an event. Now here is just a list of some general dishes that people like to order from here (and I've had all of them): -Samosas are a great appetizer, you can get veggie or meat stuffed in them, and they go great for serving a small work group or to eat during coffee or tea time. -Eythaka Appum (fried banana) is also a great appetizer that they make at this establishment, and one of my childhood favorites. It is literally a banana that is fried and prepared in such a way that it has a soft outer shell that's delicious to munch into. -Biryani is a common order for people catering to a family dinner party or such; basically Indian fried rice with pieces of chicken and moderate vegetables mixed in. -Butter Chicken (chicken makhni) is a common favorite, and I almost always mention it in every Indian restaurant I review, and goes great with pieces of bread like naan, porottha, chapathi, all of which are also great to serve at a family dinner party. Now if you have no idea what you want, I would highly suggest that you just walk into the store with a $10-$20 bill and an appetite. They have different serving sizes' of appetizers and entrees that were made fresh a few hours ago, and are put in the freezer for Indian families to come, grab, and go. They almost always have a free sampler for guests to walk in and try as well! read more

I've finally had the chance to stop here after driving past the place many times. The mini grocery store had organized and well stocked shelves and the place is clean. There was also a section for fresh meat and some produce. I went straight to the hot food section and checked what dishes were available. There were many containers of various dishes and appetizer trays as well. New containers of hot dishes were constantly being put on the shelves and they all looked delicious. Since it was my first time here and I was not really familiar with any of the dishes yet, I picked the ones in the small containers only. The Chili Chicken was from the refrigerated food section and the items here were from the day before so the prices were marked down. I also got a small container Beef Fry and Vegetable Fried Rice. Both the chicken and beef dishes were just ok, there was not much spice or flavor on both, a tad oily, and I expected more heat on the chicken dish. The same goes for the fried rice, it was quite bland. I would like to other dishes next time, I'll probably do a research first so I'll be more familiar with what goes in each dish and what to expect, flavor wise. Overall, the service from the guy in the counter was nice although he was very pre-occupied so I couldn't really ask for any questions and suggestions. I will come back to try the other items and hopefully I can get something better. Hopefully. read more

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Our standard take out for Kerala cuisine. Fairly priced and wide selection. We are fans of the briyani in general (especially ambur briyani, thalaserri briyani and goat briyani), fish moillee, avial and samosas. The chicken curry, mutton stew and chicken ulariyathu were hits too. The kids enjoy as well and parents get a break from cooking. The onion pakoda is also quite nice and the puffs. They should change the spices used for the puffs and cutlets because it all seems to be the same used in stuffing read more

Finding a great Indian store is hard to find. My husband and I were researching and visiting different Indian stores in the Schaumberg-area and this was one highly recommended from the family. They had Asian-specific items like rice, vegetables, etc. On the other hand, they had hot ready made items like chilli chicken, parotta and cutlate. You can essentially walk out of there with a whole meal prepared for the week. That day, we had tried the ready-made chapathi, chilli chicken, beef cutlate and meat puffs. Needless to say, everything was finished at the end of the week. The staff working there were friendly as well and the store was clean with it's own designated parking spaces in a lot. I will be back very soon! read more

Malabar Foods - Line up of the goods. - Indian Near Me - Glenview, Illinois

Horrible customer service. The owner is super rude as well! Didn't feel welcomed. Please do not come here.

Being a Malayali I can tell you that the food here is sub-par or even terrible. To be fair, I'm comparing their current food to what it used to be. I've been here a few times over the past ten years or so. I have to say that the food here USED to be really good (tasted fresh and home made) but when we ordered food for a party in September, 2018 it was awful, it was such a let down! I was honestly embarrassed to serve that to our guests but I didn't have a choice (I didn't expect the food to be so far off from what it used to be). None of our guests were Malayalis so they were okay with the food. Biriyani - awful, had no taste at all. The rice had no flavor. Paratha - was ok Butter chicken - too much cream (not something we would typically order but since it was a small gathering we just picked up items from their refrigerator) Payasam - was too sweet. I stopped with half a teaspoon. Beef fry - it was better than average Mezhukkuperrati - don't remember which one but was pretty bland Will never go back again. Sorry for the harsh review. read more

The kerala food is good and the prices are reasonable. The pickles and pothi sooru are the best.

I was impressed by their take-our section. I liked that every meal had a barcode indicating when the food was produced, down to the minute. Fresh, inexpensive and good. Couldn't have been a quicker lunch! read more

The food is amazing. Authentic and delicious. Had the pleasure to order with Jinu. He went above and beyond. Well worth it.

This place is beyond amazing and is our go to Indian takeout. The weekends are the best variety. We always go in with an open mind and pick out what's available and cooked fresh that day. The lady that runs the counter ln was us know and always has recommendations to try. She's very sweet and the service was phenomenal. Just keep in mind it's cash only. I really love the butter chicken, curry chicken which is very spicy, and the bread (paratha?) is delicious! read more

Reminds me of the great discoveries in the hinterlands of the New Jersey South Asian scene. Unpromising strip mall with amazing food. A whole parallel world where Kerala cuisine is supplied to locals who seem to know the secret menu (no menu visible, cash only). Try anything, it was all great. Take out only. Tiny parking lot. Cater food for a party from here for sure. Nothing like this on Devon or elsewhere in Chicago(land) read more

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This place is under new ownership and they have done a great job. The food is delicious and they are very easy to work with. I've ordered take out and had them cater some of my party's. Jinu, one of the owners is great to work with and will go out of his way to make sure his customers are happy. We will definitely be using them in the future. They recently opened a grocery store next to the catering business and it has every we need for our grocery shopping. read more

Under new management! Just ordered some food for a small party at the house. Everyone said the food was delicious. Highly recommend them for catered South Indian food. read more

Keralite (from the state of Kerala) food is a rather elusive gem, and you won't find it anywhere on Devon or anywhere that I know of in the city limits. This place isn't really a restaurant, it's a catering business that sells the extra food they make each day. As a result, if you want to ensure that they'll actually have items to buy, you should get there earlier . While I know quite a bit about most south asian cuisines, I'm least familiar with food from Kerala, which is a shame because it's a truly unique cuisine that is informed by a confluence of several cultural traditions (Arabs, Portuguese, local, Tamil, etc). From what I understand, their English skills are there, but limited. Luckily, I went with someone who could speak to them via Tamil (it's similar to enough to Malayalam). That being said, they are very friendly and answered all our questions patiently. For instance, they gave us for free a few vada type snacky things about which we were asking. We got almost everything they had to offer, and I was impressed. Since I don't know the exact names of the items, I don't want to spend the time dissecting each. However, suffice it to say that this food reminds of home-cooked food prepared by someone who is an amazing cook. For example, the food isn't "light" - they certainly use oil, and coconut oil is the traditional cooking fat in Kerala. However, despite the richenes of the food, the dishes are completely balanced, and they don't seem oily at all. This is in stark contrast to a lot of other desi places on Devon, where you can see the oil floating on the top of the dish. All in all, I was really impressed. The food is amazing and would go more often if I was closer. FYI - cash only. read more

We LOVED this place! It's our first experience with Keralan food, so I don't know if it warrants 5 stars (sorry if it messes up the streak, but this is a good HONEST review), but we are definitely coming back again! We couldn't believe this kind of place exists in Glenview--right around where my husband grew up, and you know my MIL never set foot in here! We're adventurous eaters and are travelling to Kerala this winter and had a lot of questions for the lovely woman in the front, who graciously took care of us while juggling a stream of customers who were coming in for their fix--all of them speaking what I assume was Malayalam. The food was delicious--very spicy and rich and different from most of the other Indian food we've eaten, even traditional south Indian food. We'll be making this a regular stop in the future. Thank you so much for sharing your food and culture with us! read more

Decent food. Expensive chapatis and they overcharge you. My aunt went there and they added a second fish curry when she only bought 1. She confronted them before she paid and they said nothing is wrong. She kept saying that they added a second. (Which is $10-15 each) When she asked to see the bill, they were like 'oh you are right!' Be careful when shopping there. She almost lost a good $10 or $15. I'm only giving the extra star for the good selection on Indian food/products that they don't make. read more

Awesome Kerala style Indian food!!!! I am from Kerala. I normally cook good food. But one of my friend ordered and brought it for me. Delicious read more

Royal Malabar catered our daughter's wedding. Our daughter and her fiancé (now husband) are vegetarian and love Indian food. Because neither we nor her fiance's family are Indian or Asian, and because we have lots of friends who we thought might not be very open to Indian food, we also asked them to provide Italian food, which they were able to do. They also provided us with Northern Indian dishes, which are more familiar to our family than Southern Indian or Keralite dishes. We are very happy with the food they brought for the wedding. Our family just loved the Indian food - it's really the best we've had. We received nothing but good comments on it from our guests. The Italian food was also very well-received. We really appreciated their flexibility with the menu. And the price was terrific! Highly recommended. read more

Great food but the service sucks. I love the quality of food they make. Only thing is their service, it suck. They have no respect for other people's time. They tell you the food will be ready at 12 but in reality it will be 1 by the time you get the food. read more

Malabar catering is great for any size party!!! William is the man to deal with! He will take care of all his customers! Anything from small get togethers, all the way to big engagement parties! Great working with malabar! read more

Take out and Catering. No sit down. Authentic and tasty Kerala/Malayalee dishes. Tried palappam, Fish curry, and beef. All were yum.