Many people enjoy eating and trying out food from different cultures, so if you’re that kind of person, I would recommend you to visit the Pakistani-Indian restaurants located along Devon. Among these resturants is Anmol. Although it isn’t the best, it can still give you some insight into the foods of South Asia.
Anmol is a Pakistani-Indian restaurant located on 2858 W. Devon Avenue in Chicago. Anmol was previously only a catering service, but a few years back it turned into a restaurant.
“Anmol” in the Urdu-Hindi language means unique, but personally I believe the service, food, and environment aren’t unique at all. The food isn’t different from any Pakistani or Indian restaurant you can find on Devon Avenue.
The service at Anmol Restaurant is nice: the waiters are mostly cordial and friendly and the environment is pretty boring with a few tables scattered around the room and dim lights. It could be improved with nicely painted walls and better lighting systems.
The food, although not unique, does have a good taste. When I went to the restaurant, I was first served with chicken pakoras, which are a traditional Pakistani food. They were crispy and lightly sprinkled with a spicy powder called chat masala. They were $4.95, and they were delicious!
Afterwards, we received frontier rice ($9.95). This rice befuddled me. It looked exactly like biryani–another famous Pakistani-Indian dish. The taste was different than biryani but not that great. It had an awkwardly sweet taste. We were also served with paratha rolls ($5.95), which is Pakistani bread wrapped with chicken and gyros. The chicken ones had no “wow factor,” because all they conisted of was chicken plopped inside of bread. The gyros roll was delicious with light sauces.
The curries mostly had funny tastes. The Chicken 65 ($10.95), which is chicken seasoned with spices, had no taste of spice at all. The chicken handi ($10.95), which is a curry made in a specific bowl, called the handi, wasn’t even served in a handi. That was bizarre because I was looking forward to see that handi!
To conclude the dinner, I ordered a Kashmiri chai ($2.50), which is the tea made in Kashmir. It has pink color and it is topped with crushed almonds. The Kashmiri chai was extremely good!
I have visited the restaurant many times and the tastes of the foods has never been consistent. Some days it’ll be great, while some days it can be horrible. Overall, the restaurant has good food, but there is certainly room for improvement.
