DanR wrote:
We went there last night, having finally conquered our "is this a private party?" fear and were underwhelmed. Perhaps the highlight was dipping onions into the yogurt sauce. The shami kebab appetizer was subtly spiced and went down well, though kind of dry and unaccompanied by chutney (we used the raita).
The aloo palak (spinach & potatoes) was nicely spiced but much too oily. The garlic naan was difficult to tear, let alone chew. Though somehow we found ourselves fighting over the last few bites. . . I would return to try some different dishes, but it won't be a priority, there being so many great places on Devon.
My views wouldnt be dissimilar to much of the above, sadly.
Have eaten *many* times at Sabri Nehari - it used to be my favourite place
on Devon. That, however, was before they moved - they used to be on
the "Pakistani side" of Devon, east of Western by about 2 blocks. They
were very good at the time, and very popular too. So much so that they
bought a larger spot on the "Indian side", west of Western, which is where
they now reside.
Sabri is still good for some things IMHO - their nehari might still be the best
on Devon, possibly (only last weekend, I met a man in Urbana-Champaign,
who said he actually drives down every 3/4 weeks from Urbana to
Devon, almost entirely to get the Nehari at Sabri
Most impressive. But he is
from Pakistan, and I dont suppose there is a place around the corner in
Urbana which can properly satisfy a nehari craving when it hits
Being in Chicago where a good nehari craving *can* be satisfied around the
corner, maybe we can try to be more discriminating (some would say nit-picky).
Still, IMHO Sabri is quite uneven - the last few meals Ive had there have been
very up-and-down. I quite like oil in my food, but not for its own sake - in
the last few meals the dishes have been oily but not tasty, which isnt
much use. The kababs have been very poor, uniformly dry to me, almost
every time (I dont have the shami kabab with chutney anyway, not many
do I dont think, so probably never really missed it). And the gravy dishes,
as mentioned, oily but quite lacking in taste.
Thus, a while ago, I sort of shifted my allegiance from Sabri to Usmaniya.
Usmaniya basically does the same food as Sabri, an almost identical
menu I think - and it is actually located in the spot that Sabri *used* to
occupy (east of Western) before they moved! IMHO Usmaniya is now the
better of the two, in terms of consistency and taste - the last couple of
occasions Ive been to Usmaniya at least, the grilled kababs have actually
been moist and good and not dry as was becoming the norm at Sabri.
Usmaniya has also done some fine gravy dishes the last couple of
times - I dont know if their nehari is quite as good as Sabri's at the top of its
game, but that might be the only item on the menu for which that holds
true (and, of course, one never knows for sure if Sabri *will* be at the top of
its game even for the nehari). Overall IMHO Usmaniya is much the
superior option nowadays - which is why my last handful of trips with
that kind of food in mind has seen me skip Sabri entirely (thus Iam not a good
option to tell you how good Sabri is today, having not been for a little
while - but that will only change if reports such as yours above show up with
a little less regularity
Usmaniya even did a good falooda the last time - quite authentic. But the
dessert was uniformly disappointing, as it always is - much better to just
skip dessert and go across the street to King Sweets or Tahoora for
it, probably - dont think any restaurant on Devon does dessert as well
as those two spots. (The last time, though, I went with kulfi - and there isnt
a single spot on Devon that hasnt been disappointing for kulfi IMHO, most of
the time - including Tahoora and King).
c8w
P.S. I did mention the above to The Man in Urbana - and he said he had tried
Usmaniya once and liked it, and would go again after hearing more about
it from me. But he still said he thought Sabri had the best *neharis*, and if he
was driving all the way down and just picking it up to go, thats where he got
his neharis from.
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