N'ville Indian updates

As I am wont to do from time to time, here is a brief update on the state of Indian cuisine in the fair city of Naperville. As has been the case in the past couple of years, it is a pretty fine thing.

today's update: Lunch

Cuisine of India has been expanding their vegetarian offerings in a very non-northern way, and (appropriately, I think) reduced the price to $6.99. One no longer gets fresh Tandoori chicken at the table. It has been replaced by sad Tandoori on the buffet - avoid this. Buffet begins with salad, Raitta, mint and tamarind sauces and some okay samosas. Then rice (peas pulao, more often than not) and 4 or 5 vegie dishes. aloo cabbage, some spinach (mutter paneer) a spicy veg curry, and chana pindi today. Then some fusion dish, often sino-indian fusion, but Hawaii murg the last two visits, which is grilled chicken wings with onions. Then chicken and lamb curries. desert includes mango ice cream, rice pudding and the little dough balls in syrup whose name escapes me right now. Lot of food, mostly quite good though not very spicy most days.

Swagat seems to have scaled back their lunch thalis. the vegie thali, which is the way to go, IMO, is now mostly soupy dishes whose names escape me. sambar for sure, and 3 or 4 others. Also some spicy pickles, lemon rice, one veg curry, a papadam and another bread. $5. fairly spicy and tasty. The meat thali adds 2 small servings of chicken and lamb curry, and is an absurdly large lunch. one can also get dosai, iddly and sambar for about $5.

Have not checked the other places in town of late. My spies report Rucchi is declining, but no recent visits to Bharatmela or Indian Harvest. Swagat would remain my choice of the moment, with Cuisine of India and Bharatmela close behind for dinner only. While they are okay, I am a little off of lunch buffets because the food often suffers.

cuisine of india: http://www.cuisine-of-india.com/

Swagat is on ogden hidden in a corner across the street from the Nabisco plant.

I'll second the recommendation for swagat. I tried the non-veg thali, and it was good. But for me, the reason to go is the dosa combo at lunch. They have a menu of around 10 different dosas to choose from. A couple of favorites of mine are the mysore masala dosa, and the paper masala dosa. The dosas are very large.

It's a good change of pace from the other Indian buffets. The dosa & iddly are always made fresh.

Tim