Kama Bistro - La Grange

I have had severe allergies over our Christmas and New Years vacation and that left me miserable for a good 3 weeks. I saw my Doctor and was on the mend. I also had my booster shot appointment on Thursday Jan 20th at Orland Park, Illinois. Thursday January 20th just seemed to be an ideal day to get dinner outside and kick of our "Adventures of a Hungry Couple". A day before the booster appointment, I looked for Indian Cuisine near my vaccination clinic and I was surprised to find very few that were within a few miles. Kama Bistro was about 15 miles away and it has been on my list of places to try since quite long. I knew of it, but, had never been before. I reserved it on opentable.com. Visali and I went there after my booster.

We arrived around 7:30 pm and found parking by the BNSF train station parking for La Grange Road, a few steps away from the restaurant which is well located on main street. It has a nice glass facia with warm, comfortable lighting inside. They asked for our vaccination status and had us seated at a nice booth. I was expectant and happy to be there. The menu looked good. The menu was not the longest or deepest, but it looked good. The menu seemed to promise "Hey, what I have is worth it. Go ahead and try.". The server arrived quickly and I ordered a mango lassi while Visali ordered a Love - Rooibos hot tea. My mango lassi was good. It was not overly sugary and it felt refreshing. Visali liked her tea - it was aromatic and soothing to her.

Mango Lassi

Love - Rooibos Hot Tea

We spent a few minutes on the drinks when the server asked about our preferences. The server took time to describe the items and all that conversation whetted my appetite. For appetizers, we ordered the Crispy Chili Potatoes and Paneer Lemon Tadka. Crispy Chili Potatoes were good. The food was super hot as served and felt like it came from a pan on the stove (not reheated). Potatoes were just well crisped on the outside and soft, sweet on the inside. I could not tell that Ketchup was one of the ingredients, Visali could tell and then we confirmed from the menu that indeed, it had "Kama Ketchup" in it. It was tangy, sweet and had a chili kick to it. The cold weather outside, sweet Mango Lassi and then the Crispy Chili Potatoes were all going very well for me. The Paneer Lemon Tadka also turned out to be a fresh item. I don't think I can compare it to anything else before that day. Later we learnt from our server that the chef blends French and Indian Cuisine in some of their items and Lemon Tadka was one of those. Je pense que c'est une bonne idee. The Lemon Tadka had house made paneer. Upon asking, the server reminded us that all menu items were house made from scratch. The Lemon Paneer Tadka had the paneer and creamy soup or gravy like base. After the first few bites, I felt like the cream was a bit too much and I somewhat struggled to imagine a French citizen eating that Lemon Paneer Tadka - admittedly, I have no knowledge of French food except for what they show in "Emily in Paris" (I binged season 1 last year and will binge season 2 later). Both our items were for eating with a spoon, like eating a thick soup served in a dish (not a bowl) with chunks of paneer and potato. 

Crispy Chili Potato

Lemon Paneer Tadka

For the main course, we chatted again with the server and landed on Kama-Kaze Vindaloo (medium spicy) and Paneer Black Pepper Bhujnee. Interestingly, the menu had an "Add-On" section containing a few other of my favorites. I ordered Eggplant Bharta from that add-on menu. For breads, I got Paratha and Pudina Paratha. When the food arrived, it looked and smelled great. The Vindaloo was not too hot and the Black Pepper Bhujnee was - peppery. Parathas were fresh and perfectly cooked. My Eggplant Bharta started out good as well. About half way into the main course is when we started talking earnestly about the food. So far, it was all "ra, ra, go, go", but as the belly started filling up, we started becoming a little more selective and started feeling new tastes and textures. Lets just say that the food was better and the ingredients felt fresher than any other Indian Cuisine restaurant I have been to. Beyond that, there was a nagging feeling that the chef was simply too generous with cream and oils. The Vindaloo, the Bhujnee and the Eggplant each could have been laid on a strainer to drain some of the cooking oil, better yet, the chef could have started with a little less oil. I have never enjoyed vindaloo because it is a one track dish - just red hot chili pepper (in this case Bhut Jholokia). The black pepper in the Black Pepper Bhujnee was too coarse for my taste. The eggplant was not fire roasted enough and hence was too mushy and I did not taste any herbs in it. This is a common problem with Indian Cuisine in United States. It is almost as though all chefs have extrapolated the "chunks" and "mush" construction of the Chicken Tikka Masala on to every other dish even if those dishes were originally meant to have a crispy texture of main individual ingredients. At one point, to demonstrate the oil, I picked up a spoonful of Eggplant Bharta and gently twisted my wrist for the spoon to drain a stream of oil back into the dish that I picked it up from. I sincerely felt sorry for myself because I had come deliciously close to calling this one of the best restaurants I had eaten at.

Eggplant Bharta

Paneer Black Pepper Bhujnee

Kama-Kaze Vindaloo

Paratha

Pudina Paratha

For dessert, I ordered Kama Bistro's take on the Malai Kulfi. Malai Kulfi is my favorite kind of Indian ice cream. The server described a malai kulfi served with Kama Bistro's own take with a few other spices, sweets and tart. I liked the malai kulfi, although, I have to say that this one was probably made from heavy whipping cream from the store and was too low on sugar. In my opinion, Malai Kulfi tastes better when made from condensed cream than just whipping cream. It was served in small chunks with strawberries, a raisin sauce and some nuts. I liked the dish but, I sorely lamented the kulfi itself.

Overall, I don't think I will remember this as my best Indian Cuisine restaurant. It definitely has a fresh take on some of the food, it is high end, servers are knowledgeable, friendly and it has a decent ambience. On the way back, Visali and I tried to compare this experience with other experiences. We ended up saying that this Indian Cuisine restaurant wanted to be like a Sunda (Asian Fusion) or Tanta (Peruvian Fusion) but fell way short.

We continue, on the Adventures of a Hungry Couple. Next up are Chicago Curry House and Shikara.

The Adventures of a Hungry Couple - the quest for good Indian Cuisine in Chicago

I have only rarely eaten good Indian Cuisine in restaurants in the United States. There are only handful of restaurants out of 100s that I recall the taste and the experience of. To say the least, that is shocking. Having said so, I am now not so sure what exactly is shocking. Is it shocking that I don't like the Indian Cuisine that I have eaten or is it shocking that Indian Cuisine restaurants in the United States really suck? There is one way to answer that question. Visali and I are going to try out one new Indian restaurant every week and write a review. We will go in with an open mind and a empty belly. We will sample as many items as we can and I will follow up with a blog here. I want to believe that it is shocking that I don't like the Indian Cuisine that I have eaten. I want to collect evidence for my hunch that there must be some place out there that serves good Indian Cuisine.

Now, let me state a few traits I would look for in this adventure. For one, the food must taste fresh and reasonably balanced. The word "fresh" here means it should feel like the cook heard me order the paneer korma and then chopped up the herbs, grated the paneer, took fresh oil from the container, fired up the kadhai (wok) and made that korma. The words "reasonably balanced" means, each item should have the right amount of flavor, bite and texture while reasonably matching up with the rest of the items we order. That is mainly it. Fresh and Reasonably Balanced. At this moment, I do not care much about other stuff such as ambience, service, price and other non food items. This is definitely about the food.

Note: I will write this blog and the series following this while addressing all experiences as "My" experiences or "I" doing things. However, my wife Visali is going to be an equal partner. When there is reason to relate to our individual experiences separately in the same dinner, I will call that out separately. So, "I" means "Us" unless I say "I" and "Her" specifically in the same context. I know! Complicated.

If you like a restaurant, do let me know.