The Best Indian Food in Chicago

Pani puris and chats arrive at a fine-dining pace in a River North room where rose-pink booths meet exposed warehouse ceilings. Chef Sujan Sarkar runs tasting menus, vegan through non-vegetarian, that read as modern Indian with a quiet French undertow. The food looks composed and architectural, then tastes warmly familiar. A Michelin star and a James Beard nomination confirm what the room full of very still, very attentive diners already suspected.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Sujan Sarkar
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

Dum biryani folded with lamb barbacoa is a reasonable sign that this Bucktown restaurant is not picking a lane between Mexican and Indian, and has no intention of starting. The kitchen weaves the two cuisines into a menu that earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand and an Eater Chefs of the Year nod. Exposed brick, a long banquette, an open kitchen, and a crowd that arrives loud and leaves louder. Share everything.

1. Midwest Living 2025 · Best of the Midwest
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

Sujan Sarkar's follow-up to Indienne lands on Lincoln Avenue with a focus on regional Indian cooking, the sharing-plate kind that turns dinner into a group negotiation. The room runs warm and the menu swings between vegetarian and non-vegetarian plates, all designed to pile up. Walk-ins can park at the full bar. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2026 suggest the neighborhood noticed.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

Naan as a pizza base, naan as a butter chicken calzone brushed with ghee, naan as the main argument for coming back: this Logan Square Indian restaurant has built a personality around the flatbread, then filled out the menu with Kerala crab curry and chana chaat to prove it isn't a one-trick kitchen. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, with a James Beard semifinalist nod behind it. The exposed brick and long bar make the room feel loose, which matches the cooking.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Eater Chicago’s Best Brunch Restaurants
3. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza

Stainless-steel plates land on the table the way they would at someone's home in Kerala, which is exactly the point. Thattu is a Keralan restaurant in Chicago where fish fries, coconut curries, and yogurt rice anchor the menu, and the appam, lacy rice-and-coconut domes, exist mostly to drag through whatever's left. The Tater Tots dusted in chaat masala read less like a gimmick and more like a clever raid on the pantry.

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Deep blue velvet seats across two floors mark this upscale Indian restaurant at the edge of West Randolph's dining strip. The cocktail list comes with its own flavor matrix, which is either endearing or a lot, depending on your mood. The kitchen runs classic Indian technique through a contemporary lens, turning out dishes that feel familiar and surprising at once, the kind of place where you dress up a little and nobody feels overdressed.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Sarima is a small bakery that shares a room with a burger chain, which is the kind of living arrangement that sounds like a sitcom premise. The pastries mix Filipino and Indian flavors, so the donuts come filled with calamansi and shrikhand cream, and the cookies borrow from kaju katli. There are a few tables, but most people treat it as a grab-and-go morning stop before work.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

A restored coach house on Division Street sets the scene for one of Chicago's more quietly ambitious tasting menus, where the kitchen pulls from South and Southeast Asia through a lens shaped by India, the Middle East, and a detour through finance. Pickling and fermentation run through the menu like a through-line, and desserts tend toward the joyfully unruly. The chef earned a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist nod in 2024.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Zubair Mohajir

1. Eater The Best Restaurants in Chicago’s South Loop