Service is atrocious, atmosphere is a little better than average for the area, food is a solid above average. It's great for vegetarians.

Sunday 3 pm. Slow inattentive service. Thali a microwaved joke. Room temperature dosa filling. Never to return.

Food which they prepare on premises is good but I'd avoid any type of falooda on their menu, you'd leave with a lot of disappointment.

Awesome! As good as Indian food gets away from home - in fact even better when it comes to some dishes The Bhelpuri was excellent. Masala Dosa was good. But a great surprise was teh Poori Shrikhand and teh accompanying sabji - delicious! The hygiene standards and service were good too! Will return for more and more! read more

Great restaurant! We had garlic naan, samosas, curry with paneer, and chana masala. Split by 2 people it was a lot of food but we ate most of it! I would definitely come back there were so many choices I can't believe they were all vegetarian! I eat meat but not very often so I was in heaven with that menu! Delicious sauces, lots of different flavors in one meal. and fyi it is byob Ive noticed some comments about cleanliness but I didn't notice anything wrong. I used the bathroom and it was really clean, automatic hand dryer and everything nothing seemed strange. read more

Uru Swati - Chana Masala, really good! came with basmanti rice - Indian Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

See all

I used to go to Uru Swati fairly frequently back in 2008-2009. I hadn't been in a while because I've been obsessed with several other restaurants on Devon. I went back last night just to mix things up a bit and was very disappointed. First, there was a dead fly in the chat we ordered. This grossed me out so that I couldn't finish eating it...but I didn't mind very much because it was pretty flavorless as far as chats available on Devon go. I should have seen that as an omen and cancelled the rest of our order and gone down the block. I had been craving Indian, and I ended up eating a full meal and still craving Indian. The rest of the food was as tasteless and boring as the chat. We ordered a paper masala dosa, which is my favorite food of the moment, and it was ... well ... bland. The potato mixture in the middle looked like it had spices and should have flavor, but it actually just tasted like mashed potatoes with a lot of butter. Very disappointing - and there was some sort of bright red mystery burn on part of the dosa...like a red-hot candy melted all over it...bizarre. We got three curries: palak paneer, malai kofta, tadka dal - they were all super bland. It's not like I'm the biggest fan of "hot" spicy food, but I do like to sweat a little when I'm eating Indian and that was just not going to happen here. I also felt like the food was lacking in general spice: ginger, garlic, tumeric, etc. I've made better at home. And the rice! The rice was so weird. It had a really bread-like texture as you chewed it up. Not at all what I expect and not good. The garlic naan was okay. The malai kofta was super weird...I haven't eaten at McDonald's in 24 years, but I swear it tasted just like something I used to eat there...maybe it was just an "old fried" flavor. I don't know. I had the feeling the foods had all been sitting around and were barely reheated before being served. I was so sad at the end of the meal. And there were tons of leftovers that I'm not excited to eat for my lunch today. What happened to this place?! Back to annapurna for me. read more

YESTERDAY14-3-2014 WHEN WE VIST IN MY FAVOURITE RESTAURANT IN DIWAN before i love to visit this restaurant but i think they lose their taste .i oredered paneerroll malai kofta tadka dal cana batura .food came on time but it was a waste of my money. paneerroll filling was a burnt flavour without taste. malai kofta was awful i was with my family and we feel why are we here for this food mango lassi was good .puri filled with oil cana without taste .soory i will never visit uru swati .and service was bad we have to ask 3 times for water with a dirty glass on the tabel read more

I ordered through grubhub. After an hour, I received half of my order - and it was cold. I called the restaurant and got a weird voicemail telling me to call a different number. Tried that, got someone and explained the situation. They said they'd "check" and call me back - and when they did, I had to argue with them about the fact that I'd only received half my order. Finally they told me they'd send the driver back with the rest of my food in "5-10 minutes." After a half hour, I called them back and they said the same thing. After a full hour had passed, the driver showed up with the rest of my order. I asked him to wait a second while I checked the bag, but he ran down the stairs pretending not to hear. When I reheated everything and finally got to try my food, I discovered that it's no better than the frozen stuff you get at Trader Joe's. Not worth the hassle or expense. read more

Ordered 1 sada paper dosa and 1 paper masala dosa. My daughter loved the dosa. Dosa and sambhar was ok. But Chutney was not so good.

This place was awesome! Everything from food to service was excellent! We ordered the samosas, baigan bhartha,chick pea curry, & regular basmati rice. Dishes are perfectly spicy & seasoned. Everything was delicious. Service is fast & friendly. Definitely coming back. read more

Really good delivery from this spot 3 weeks ago. We had the Chana Masala, Pav Bhaji, Alu Gobi. Had a ton of food and leftovers. Good service. read more

My sister calls me up and informs me there is a Moroccan-Jewish restaurant on Devon, west of Little India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and who knows what else- am I in? How she knew I was in the mood for Moroccan Jewish food, I have no idea. She does have ESP abilities, but with all the beta waves emitted by the fluorescent bulbs in my office, I was doubtful she could read my thoughts at that time... Anyway, we took the journey up to 6200 north, where it feels like you have not only left Chicago, but western civilization. I am not sure where this Moroccan-Jewish restaurant was supposed to be, but, without an address, and famished from our long and arduous journey (Lake Shore Drive, Sheridan Road, etc.) , we drove past Uru-Swati, with a sign stating "Vegetarian Cuisine." My sister being a vegetarian, and me, a non-practicing one, this sounded perfect. Now I am sure it is not hard to find vegetarian dishes on Devon, but, it is nice, especially when you are with a vegetarian, to not have to worry about whether something on the menu has "hidden" meat or not- something that most people would be THRILLED about, but seems to COMPLETELY ANNOY the "others," as I call them. From the outside, it seemed relatively new, and most likely cleaner than any of the establishments we had just passed, while dodging other cars, pedestrians, the occasional cow, elephant. Besides a mango lassi, I had no idea what to order, so I started with that. Mango, yogurt, delicious. But what to eat?.... Honestly, I couldn't tell you the name of one of the things we ate, I don't speak the language you see. This was also at the time Swati only had its Indian menu, without explanations. We ordered by asking "what is good," and getting whatever we were told, figuring, once again, it won't have meat in it, so at least my sister can try it. This worked great for us, but for people not willing to take that risk, Swati has English explanations now at some of the tables (I have come back many times). If you are not given one, just ask... There are about three hundred items on the menu, and I suggest getting something to fit your taste/spiciness preference. Now I believe its generally the case that when a restaurant has too many things on the menu for all of them to possibly be good, they usually aren't. Not the case at Swati. I ended up with the tastiest okra I have ever eaten! I would have never ordered okra if I knew what the heck I was ordering, but in this case, I am so glad I didn't. Crispy, with tomatoes and spices I cannot put into words. Fried lentil balls with chutney (not only a fun word to say, a tasty thing to eat). Eggplant blended perfectly to be sweet and spicy, and don't get me started on the nan. Crispy, airy and light, and with just the right amount and type (slightly roasted) garlic flavor. While I have often found Indian food to be a little too rich and heavy for my taste (ie: Indian Garden), the fare at Swati manages to be light and packed with intense flavors. I've heard some negative comments on Yelp about the service. Sorry, I didn't notice. I was too busy watching Indian music videos and dumping a giant Indian pancake filled with potatoes and cumin in a perfectly spiced vegetable soup. I am sorry, if you are going to Charlie Trotter's, and the service is not impeccable, then complain. But if you want delicious, cheap Indian food, then what are you talking to me about? Easy to give Swati a rating. Five Stars. No question. And I'm out. read more

Forgive my thorough review, but I feel it's my duty, since my family is South Indian, to help out other yelpers the best I can with details about the food here. Uru-Swati markets itself as a South Indian vegetarian restaurant, but the food tastes, unmistakably, like South Indian food that's been prepared by a North Indians. Mostly that everything has been sprinkled with a bit of sugar and dried mango, and it had barely any ginger, which is a staple in South Indian seasonings. Barely any of the foods really carried the flavor profile that i associate with South Indian cuisine. We ordered: Idli Sambar: The best part of the meal, easily. The idli were very light and fresh, and the sambar was well made and full flavored, with chunky vegetables. If I were to come back, this is the only thing I'd order: I'd place one idli in the bowl of sambar, and just have that as my meal, leaving the other two for later. Chai: Really, really good chai. Both Indian places and regular tea places do silly things with chai. They take all the possible things one might put into a cup of chai, and put *all* of the different spices in each cup. To me, this is silly - tea should be simple and fresh, not a confusing muddy mix of spices. Uru-swati actually does their chai correctly - very strong, a little bit of spice, and a clean finish. Dahi Vada: To be fair, this is sort of a silly dish to order at a restaurant, and I should have known better. Dahi vada consists of a deep fried fritter that's been soaked in a spicy yogurt for several hours, and is one of my favorite comfort foods ever. But there's a problem with serving dahi vada at any restaurant: how do you know when people are going to order it? There's a small window between when the vada haven't soaked enough, and when they're oversoaked, which is why even restaurants in India have trouble pulling it off. It's a dish you make at home for special guests who are arriving at an expected time, and hosts usually tell you that dahi vada is being served, so you know to arrive at the expected time to eat. Uru-swati got around this by soaking the vada, maybe, thirty seconds before serving it to us, which wasn't horrible, but isn't the way the dish is supposed to taste. The yogurt was also sweet instead of spicy, and lacking in ginger and salt. I wouldn't order it again. Masala dosa: sort of average and not even hot. Neither of us felt like finishing it. I wouldn't order it again. Pani puri: These are a popular street food that are fun to eat. There are little crispy hollow balls, and you break it open, fill it with flavored water and perhaps some lentils, and pop the whole thing in your mouth. They're a wonderful, salty-sweet, sour treat to have on a hot day. These were good, and came with tamarind chutney, mint-water, and a little mix of potato and beans. Everything was a bit bland and the puri didn't pop they way they should,but it wasn't bad. Rajma Masala: My boyfriend ordered this. It was quite good, but only because it tasted like there was a stick of butter in it. Garlic Naan: Excellent, excellent naan, which only proves further to me that this restaurant really is a North Indian restaurant. Overall, a good solid "meh." Eating here made me itch to go across the street and buy the ingredients to make the food correctly. read more

I've ordered carry-out from here 5-6 times. At its lowest, I was convinced it merited 2 Stars, but with the course of time, while not being my preferred style or destination for Indian food, 3 Stars is the proper rating (~2.85). Value is a large component of the rating, since my typical north Indian non-buffet meal costs $40-50 (included leftovers), and 2 people can become full for $30-35 here easily. Part of the problem is that I've never had anything spicy from here. In 5-6 orders?! Really?! My itemized list will clarify the better dishes vs. those I regret. All in all, it's vegetarian, for the most part vegan, not over-priced, convenient, they will be able to make their case in future orders. Idli Vada Combo: Both components, the pure white-doughed dry fritter, and the dry lentil doughnut, contained no flavor. If I had an unlimited supply of flavorful side dishes and sauces to mop up, maybe the order makes sense. Paper Masala Dosa: The super thin large crepe is interesting, and inoffensive as far as flavor, but the potato-filling was too dry. I want to try it again b/c I may have misused the sambhar & chutney, but it's just another dish that is flavorless in comparison to the Northern region's cuisine. - The Sambhar is not flavorful enough IMO either. A little spice would be appreciated. Bhindi Masala: Go-to vegetable order at Indian places. This version is 2.75/5ish. Nothing memorable at all, at $10+, not a good value on this menu. Navratan Korma: I tried ordering another Northern Vegetable dish here - no flavor. I recommend against. Pretty Good: Puri: Like a wheat version of Bhatura, i.e. not healthy, but good; Methi Paratha: The dal and raita (yogurt sauce) that comes with is a decent compliment. Overall less flavor than many options, but a good value at $9, solid paratha. BEST, MOST FLAVORFUL 1. Dahi Misal; bowl of lentil w/ small textured crunch mixed in. 2. Deluxe Bhel; flavored rice alternative to Biryani. Part of my disappointment is the total contrast between here and Tiffin (or Tava, etc.). It is unfair to expect them to make something I enjoy as much as Tiffin for 60-70% of the price. But, what can I say, Tiffin is just a more intense dining experience. read more

The food was fresh and flavorful...a great place to take friends who have not tried Southern Indian dosas and uttapams. Best eggplant curry i have had in a long time, and that's saying a lot having visited India and living near it's own little India. it loses a star for uneven service, but the quality of the food makes up for It. cute decor, too! read more

Excellent vegetarian food. Wide selection, fresh ingredients wonderfully prepared. We had the food delivered-it is winter in Chicago after all- and it arrived on time and piping hot. read more

The first thing that comes to mind is, "What happened to you Uru Swati"???. I live in Madison and have often driven all the way from there to Chicago just to eat and shop at the stores on Devon Ave. The one star on this review was for the first excellent experience we had at Uru Swati. Excellent food and service wanted us to drive all the way again to this place, but this time the experience was nothing short of terrible. We walked into a really flimsy restaurant. The tables looked like someone wiped them with a wet cloth just because it had to be done. The first time we went, we were offered clean and presentable menus, this time there were a couple of paper menus soaked and stained by the remnants of several previous customers' food. Disgusting!! Really really disgusting. Then we could see a visible discord among the wait staff. After sitting for about 15 minutes, a girl walks up, looking flustered and irritated. Yet she was polite and asked us what we wanted, with the hope of good food, we placed a first round order of dahi puri (I mentioned I wanted it spicy), papdi chaat and samosa chaat. After a good 15 minutes, we got the dahi puri and papdi chaat. The dahi puri was nothing short of a disaster! The poori soggy and stale, the filling sweet and not tangy and the sev that accompanied it was soft and stale too. The papdi chaat was a joke and the samosa chaat a no show. By now we were very very disappointed, but since our first outing here was so good, we stayed on and ate. Our better judgement told us to order our second round right away lest we had to spend our entire evening there, and so we ordered for a paper masala dosa, a mysore masala dosa and a vada pav. The samosa chaat was still missing and on asking about it we got a "It is on its way!". No samosa chaat for 10 minutes after this and by now the paper masala dosa shows up. Oily and accompanied by stale and old chutney and sambar, paper masala dosa was a disgrace too. Still no samosa chaat. The mysore masala dosa makes and entry and on being asked, 5 minutes later, the vada pav shows up. The mysore masala dosa was everything but what it is named after. I have no words to describe it. The vada pav was OK. The vada seemed fresh and well spiced, but the pav was a burger bun, not what I liked. All along the samosa chaat is still a no show. Having had enough, we decided to pay up front and walk out. When my husband told them that he wanted to pay for table 75, and that the samosa chaat was a no show so he wouldnt be paying for that, their response was "Do you want the samosa chaat now?". Clearly the wait staff had no idea what was happening or what they were doing. Really pathetic. I feel really bad writing this review, given that the impact of my first experience was such a positive and strong one. The second really ruined it. Uru Swait please redeem yourself! I would never come back, especially after driving all the way from Madison. I would probably go to Sukhadia's or try some place new. Really really disappointed. read more

Recently went to Uru Swati on Devon Ave in Chicago on weekday for dinner. Only 2 tables were occupied including ours. They messed up our order not once but three times. Then the food wasnt even warmed up. It was stale and cold. The servers were rude and brought the wrong food. When we informwd them of it they said thats what the chef made and the servers didnt know the difference. They rolled their eyes at us because we asked them to warm things up for us. We disnt eat anything and they still charged us for stale and bad food. It is unhelathy and unhygeinic. This is the worst place I have ever been too. Will never go again. They should close their doors and retrain their whole staff. Total score of 0 over 10. read more

I'll be straight forward. I don't leave bad reviews usually. However today I ordered delivery at 2pm and just got it at 530. Cold and met at the door with rude service from a person who shouldn't be meeting the public as a representative of this business. Downside is the food is good but not anything I can't get at another place with better service. Awful experience. read more

This is the ONLY place I'll make the trek up to Devon for. The food is awesome! I mostly eat chaat, which is Indian street food, and uru Swati satisfies my snack cravings very nicely. Recommendations: the garlicky pav bhaji, dahi batata sev puri, and parathas with raita. Time Out has a translated version of their menu, which should be helpful if you're trying to muddle your way through. Service is so-so bordering on poor, and the city skyscraper decor is truly bizarre, but the food's so good I'm willing to overlook it. read more

I'm not one to 5-star reviews. But this place deserves it. Let's start with the basics: The food is great. It's not easy to find good South Indian cuisine in this town--does anyone remember Banana Leaf on Lawrence in days of old?--and this place is a breath of fresh air... scratch that, masala-infused air. My wife and I swear by this place for those rare opportunities when we can grab a lunch during the week. We're all about the "street" eats: samosas, chats, aloo tikki, and (of course) the occasional masala dosa or idli sambhar (1/2 of my family is from Kerala). For the quality of the food, the prices are excellent. (I do find the samosas a bit pricey but at the same time appreciate that these folks appear to change the frying oil daily.) I know it's a bit much to ask :-) but Uru-Swati departs from some of its counterparts on Devon (and elsewhere in this town) by offering an attractive and clean dining room with restrooms to match. This is a great place to hang out, and we try to get there every other week whenever possible. Oh, and don't forget. You *can* get samosas here for your special events at lower prices than on the menu. You'll need to order 10 or more but this is a great way to bring Uru-Swati to your friends. :) I'll conclude by mentioning that neither of us is vegetarian but the food here is so great, that we find ourselves not thinking about meat for at least one meal that day. read more

+1 healing through food? i like this slogan, because it makes me feel that even though i am eating some insanely delicious fried onion treat i am still doing something good for my body. +1 decor is charming without being stuffy; unique in the all-too homogeneous city of chicago. they had some indian mtv playing on tv's (quietly) -- one music video involved an extremely pregnant woman singing with a man. though i don't like to mix food and pregnancy, it was interesting & provided great late-lunch conversation. +1 the chai-esque tea (i added splenda to mine) was delicious and served in a little silver pot -- $1.25 (take that, starbucks). +1 there were SO many entrees to choose from (all vegetarian/vegan), and i think they were all under $10. -1 I HATE BABY CORN read more

The service was terrible. We put in our order, and we received one appetizer (Dahi Vadai - not well done). The tables that were sat after us received their order. After asking twice about our food, I went and talked to the person at the front (maybe manager?), who said their computer had an issue, and the order went through. No apology. When I said that we had got one part of the order - so how could the rest not go through, he got very irritated that I had follow-up questions, and just shrugged. Terrible service, only OKAY food. read more

Avoidddddd...one of the worst South Indian food that I had. Dosa was ice cold and medhu vada had the smell of old oil in which it was fried!!! read more

I would have written this review last night, but the curry induced food coma prevented me from writing, moving, or thinking. We ordered what I thought was a respectable amount of food; a mysore masala dosa and a paneer paratha, and two entrees...and the server took a step back, looked at the order, and stepped back to the table and said," you need more. maybe naan" so okay, yeah, let's get the garlic naan. Out came the dosa, and we went to work. it was amazing, and the "dipping soup" that comes with it was so flavorful and perfect that I nearly chugged it. And then out came the rest of our meal. And I did a little dance and decided that the dosa would probably not keep as well as the rest of the food, so we dutifully finished that, had a little of everything else on the table, and had leftovers for breakfast. Yes, for breakfast. This stuff is good. And for what ended up being enough food for four people - super inexpensive. But it might be a good idea to go with a larger group so you can sample a little of everything without putting yourself into a food coma. I'm going back, soon. Maybe as soon as I can get off the couch. read more

If I could give this place no stars I would. This place is not close to any Indian restaurant and could not be called a Indian restaurant. Food was so bland and tasteless. We had masala dosa and chat. It was horrible and not worth the money at all. And the services was terrible. We asked for coffee and we never got it. Plenty of other places in Devon read more

Extremely poor service... waited for 15 minutes until someone showed up to take the order. Asked what subji was for the thali and the person taking the order didnt know... Ordered salt lassi and bottled water that never came... our group of 5 ordered 5 different dishes and we started getting one after the other 15 minutes after we ordered.. one after the other each one spaced 5 mins after the prev one.. had to ask for the lassi and the waiter asked back if we didnt get it yet.. one of the orders weren't even delivered... had to cancel the order and get out of the place.. 1 star only because of the srikand.. read more

We have been coming here for years, and it seems like this place has really deteriorated over time, which is so unfortunate. When we went today the restaurant was filthy and looked like it hadn't been cleaned for days. The fresh lime soda tasted like soda with sugar in it, and the bhel had a really long hair in it which was extremely disgusting. Needless to say we will not be back here again! read more

Very disappointed. Aloo tikki was just bread and flour, no taste of potatoes or any spices. The chutneys on the side, equally disappointing. Pav that came with pav bhaji had little butter, bhaji had very little flavor. Don't ever order kachori chaat. The chutneys and the toppings are a let down. The server took our order but didn't bother to write it down and then came back after a while to reconfirm our order! Don't waste your money. read more

Service and food is excellent. Riddhi was our waitress and even at 10 pm at night she was happy and smiling. I ordered idli sambar and asked for one additional idli and she did not charge me for it which I thought was very considerate. Everything was good and flavorful. We will be back for sure. read more

Food is alright. Service is SLOW! Uru swati can do better. Lit up the restaurant a bit more please. Have a couple of more servers to improve the service maybe. read more

I can't stop coming here. It's so good!!! I've bought the Groupon multiple times, to the point where they've cut me off :( My favorites are the samosa chaat, bhindi masala, and paneer pharata. The thaali is always good too. It comes with two chef choices of curry, naan, rice and a dessert! You get enough food to feed four with the Groupon. Can't wait to go back! read more

Fantastic vegetarian restaurant. Lovely people. Best indian eggplant dish. Naan is great. Mango lasse is excellent. Dont miss this place

Once again, Uru Swati hit the ball out of the park. I am going to go to this spot at least 2x a month! If you're a vegetarian, you will appreciate the diversity of the menu and the tastiness. read more

I think I crave this once a week but am too lazy to drag myself there. Every single dish I had here was on point. Masala dosa, vegetable curry, samosas, palak paneer, curried potatoes, naan etc... Everything was delicious and I had a good amount of left overs that I ate for a week. I suggest you get the masala dosa and the palak paneer for sure. Naan is always a must too. Reminder: vegetarian only. So don't expect any meat. You really don't need it anyway. read more

Definitely my favorite of all the choices on Devon. Vegetarian or not, this place definitely delivers. Service isn't the best but most places on this street leave a little to be desired in that department. read more

The vegetable utthapam was quite good. But the pani puri looked scary, and my girlfriend, who is Indian, said it was "not fresh".

Awful. I almost died from eating there. Had a very bad food poisoning. Not recommended.

The restaurant is all vegetarian. I tried their garlic naan, matar paneer, as well as the bata puri. It was a flavor explosion in my mouth. Everything was saucy and there were a mix of flavors. The naan was so soft and fluffy. The decor was cute and urban. I would definitely go again. read more

I have been to this restaurant more than a few times but in the recent times the quality of food and the service is deteriorating. I was a great fan of this place and when this place opened a few years ago went there almost twice a month. Now the food is not worth talking abt, so much so I did not even take the left overs home (which rarely happens). Something as basic as the daal did not taste good. the air conditioner was not efficient enough and the place felt like an oven. Not a very pleasant lunch Overall I think i am done with this place and don't plan to visit it even again read more