Cumin

The neighborhood’s best exotic restaurant
You can pick a week night or weekend to enjoy the sumptuous meal at this mom-​and-​popsy place that brings the best of south east Asian cuisines together.
Pick anything on the menu and you will have a tasty, aromatic food. They also serve very good meats.
For veggie lovers, this place is the haven of good food, that doesn’t break the bank.

(Take out order)
Overall: Great option for Indian food to bring home and chow down on.
The good: The food itself was very good. The chicken was very tender and the sauces were fantastic. From the vindaloo and paneer to the naan and samosas, everything tasted great. Decently priced and reasonable portions.
The bad: Our order took forever, about an hour. It was a busy Saturday night, but an hour for Indian pickup? Seems long. Once we got there to pickup, it took awhile for us to finally get our order. The food didn’t have labels so we weren’t positive what was what when we opened it. The rice was the only food that was average.
Atmosphere: N/​A
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀

A friend an I were in the mood for some good Indian food and Cumin was a great choice. We started with their chicken momo dumplings which come with a tasty tomato based dipping sauce. For our main course we split the chicken biryani and garlic naan. The rice and chicken are infused with tons of flavor and spices without being too hot. Service was excellent and this place is a winner.

I’m an Indian food virgin and the girlfriend wanted to pop my cherry. So we came to Cumin. Arrived at 1^st dinner seating, 5pm. Had the restaurant all to ourselves which makes this all so frustrating.
Simple and short, service was a nightmare.
Having absolutely no idea what I was eating, I had questions. Waiter wasn’t rude, he just didnt understand me. Which makes the dining experience uncomfortable. Rather than be difficult and maybe calling someone else over, I simply just trusted all the things my girlfriend ordered.
I saw the waiter twice. Once when he took our order and once when he brought the bill. Horrible.
The food was tasty, I enjoyed it but small portions.
Since there was a language barrier, he never brought the appetizer we ordered. And since he was MIA, I couldn’t bring it to his attention. Normally I would say this dude was having an off night but unfortunately that is not the case.
I wanna be able to have a conversation with my server. Especially when Im venturing into the unknown :)
I want him to educate me on the culture, elevate my dining experience. Show me and recommend all the wonderful Indian dishes that I’ve been missing out on. I guess if I was on Devon Ave it comes with the territory. But cmon… This is a new modern hip restaurant in Wicker Park. Unacceptable.
Unfortunately this place fell short, waaaay short. $ 70 tab before tip (2 people), no leftovers, NO THANK YOU.

No regrets coming here for dinner! You can smell the restaurant from down the street. I ordered chicken tikka masala and chicken biryani. The biryani was good, but the tikki masala was fantastic. Creamy and flavorful — possibly the best I’ve ever had.
The service was good, although as others have mentioned a wide variety of employees serviced our table. I guess each employee specializes? It was pretty unclear who our actual server was, but I didn’t really have a problem with it. Everyone was friendly, prompt, and well-​dressed. Our food came very quickly which was much appreciated.
We came to the restaurant around 8pm on a Tuesday, and it was quite busy. We had about a 20min wait. The wait staff is not fantastic at acknowledging you at the door, but I wasn’t offended.

Checked out this place for their buffet lunch and had an OK time.
The buffet was pretty reasonable at $ 13 for AYCE. There were 6 different hot dishes – chicken tikka masala, paneer tika masala, lamb curry, a cabbage/​veg dish and 2 others I did not try. There was also tandoor chicken and vegetable pakora. There was a small salad bar with fresh veggies as well. Every table that did buffet also got a basket of warm naan. The dessert was this warm carrot/​milk porridge.
From what I understand the buffet choices change but I’m happy with what was available during our visit. You can still order off the regular menu during lunch as well, in case the offerrings of the day do not appeal to you or you have your heart set on something else.
The tandoori chicken was very tender and flavorful. The pakora was good too – not overly greasy. The tikka masalas were good and just mildy spicy. I liked the lamb curry flavor but wished the lamb pieces were bigger; each piece was very small and its mostly bone – a bit disappointing because I love lamb curry.
Service was friendly, hovered way too much. I was still eating the last bits on my plate and they came and asked of they could take my plate – and did the same to my friend. It’s not like they were hurting for tables. I still hadn’t tried the dessert yet…
Cumin is good, the buffet price is right. There are just other Indian buffets I’d rank a little highter.

Great place to get Indian and Nepalese food in Chicago, and one of the few ones that is actually a pleasure to eat. Most of the good indian restaurants are up on Devon and Nepalese food is hard to come by (there’s a Nepalese restaurant in S. Loop and another one in Evanston, but besides that, not sure if there is any other ones outside of Cumin).
Food is delicious, I’ve eaten a fair number of vegetarian dishes here and have been quite impressed at the quality of food. I’d suggest eating the Channa Batura and the Paneer Tikka as they were really good last time I was there. The traditional black eye pea dish from Nepal is something I always get and always enjoy.
There was one time I was put off by the service as they gave me and my parents the cold shoulder, but it seems an isolated instance as the other times, the service has been pretty good.

The lamb masala is delicious, but the other items I tried were just okay. The masala sauce was really on point though! The chicken momo was average— it surprisingly reminded me of Chinese dumplings. I’ve had better palak paneer— it just didn’t taste that fresh and seemed like it came out of a box. Garlic naan was unimpressive as well.
Service was great though. Maybe I should have come for the lunchtime buffet instead.

This has to be one of the best places in Chicago to get Indian food. Everything was perfectly spiced and the portions where a good size. I’ll definitely be hitting up Cumin again.
I recommend trying
*Chicken Madras
*Palak Paneer
*Chicken Momo

Overall, I had a fine dining experience. The food was flavorful and plenty. The service was top notch. Reservations are accepted. I actually had a table for two but my friend was late by about 15 minutes. Others were waiting to be seated and the hostess was kind enough to hold the table for my party. Phew. The place was crowded… lots of take out orders as well. Nice little place for a date or just a casual dinner with a group of friends. No wonder the place is Michelin worthy…

We drove more than 45 minutes to get here because we were craving for some nepalese foods especially momo and chhoila. We checked the menu on Unilocal and they had all the nepali dishes we were planning to eat. But when we get there we found out they only had buffet in afternoon and cant order from menu. I wish they had that information in here. We decided to eat anyway but the irony is restaurant that advertise itself as Himalayan/​nepalese restaurant didnt even had one nepali dish in their buffet menu. Why would I drive almost an hour passing hundreds of other indian restaurant to eat some mediocre indian food. I can get chicken tikka and naan right next to my house. This is false advertising. Also $ 15 for lunch buffet is overpriced considering the quality of their food.

I have been planning to visit Cumin for months and was finally able to make it this Friday. We were a group of 4 that arrived at 7pm and were seated immediately at one of the last empty tables. I think we were lucky as the restaurant got really crowded within a half hour of getting there. I’m sure the wait, if you arrive after 7pm, will be substantial.
The food was mostly good. The chili chicken was spicy, as I had hoped. The chicken Madras was flavorful and the garlic Naan fresh.
The only dish that was off was the biriyani. It was basically chunks of white rice, stirred with mild spices and a few pieces of chicken. The flavor was quite disappointing.
The service was good and the restaurant space is much nicer than your average Indian joint.
Overall, I think that Cumin is one of the better Indian restaurants in the city and I will be back for more!
RATINGS:
Chili chicken: ⁴⁄₅
Chicken Madras: ⁴⁄₅
Garlic Naan: ⁴⁄₅
Chicken biriyani: ²⁄₅
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Ambience: ⁴⁄₅

Cumin is really decent Indian food and best of all — two blocks from my house! I got Lamb Vindaloo (perennial favorite of mine), garlic naan, and chicken momo. The momo were good — I do love me a good dumpling. I was especially happy that the Vindaloo was nice and spicy. I can’t tell you how many indian joints here a white person on the phone and turn down the spice. The garlic naan was garlic naan, which is to say awesome.
I only had carry-​out so I can’t speak to the service. The place was packed when I picked up my food — I’ll have to try dining in.

We went for the lunch buffet during the week. I should preface this by saying I’m a bit of an Indian-​food connoisseur… In my opinion, the buffet was on the small side with only about 2 main vegetarian dishes. A couple of the dishes were empty, and the women working behind the bar assured me more would be coming right out of the kitchen but we were there almost an hour and more never came… The food was good, and the price was decent, but I definitely won’t be running back here. I’m new to Chicago, but ate at almost every indian restaurant in Los Angeles, and compared to my favorites in LA this was mediocre.

I came here with a group of ladies one evening for dinner. You can tell when you are getting closer because you can smell it from down the street — Yum! It is a smaller restaurant, so I can see how it could get crowded when they are busy. However, the night we came, they were not busy.
Overall, we loved the food. We ordered the Mosaic Samosa (vegetable) and Chicken Momo appetizers, an order of Garlic Naan, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Makhani /​Butter Chicken, Shrimp Vindaloo and Navaratan Korma. Everything was delicious. However, the portions were small and pricey for what you get. We also had to order more rice (we each got one scoop for 4 dishes). That was an extra $ 3. Seems silly.
Our main issue was with how slow, unorganized service. We never had a consistent waiter, we had to ask for things more than once and wait around for a long time before receiving it, and it took forever to get the bill paid. That was disappointing.
The food is great, but between the poor service and heightened prices, I’m not convinced that it is a 4 – 5 star place.

Cumin’s cuisine is easily 4 – 5 stars for me and I’d love to return for the food, but their waitstaff structure and high cost make it a place that I wouldn’t go out of my way to do so.
Our main issue was with how slow service was and they weren’t even that busy. It seemed like every time someone came to our table it was a different person; thus, we’d have a waiter drop off beer but they’d scurry off and not take our entrée order. When entrées did arrive, they were delivered by another waiter and other items were missing. We’d ask for something from someone else and wouldn’t receive it, so we had to ask another person and then wait as they ran around to other tables that were also experiencing the same problems as we were.
3 of the 4 of us ordered beer and we also got 2 appetizers, A Mosaic Samosa (vegetable) and Chicken Momo, that were split into half a samosa and 2 momo per person. We then got an order of Garlic Naan that provided us with half a piece each. On top of that, we had 4 main dishes — Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Makhani /​Butter Chicken, Shrimp Vindaloo and Navaratan Korma. It’s à la carte here, so Basmati Rice was an additional $ 3 and the plate wasn’t packed with rice. We had to order 2 to have enough for all of our dishes. It ended up coming out to about $ 25 for the person who had ordered her beer at the bar and $ 36 for the rest of us before tip was added on. I simply don’t feel the amount of food we got was worth that much money since it was small portions of the appetizers and a couple scoops of each entrée.
I would suggest coming for their Lunch Buffet because the food was prepared very well, but it’s costly if you come for dinner. I notice that price gap at a lot of Nepalese and Indian restaurants, so it’s somewhat expected, but it seemed even more so at this one.

This place is cute and gets super busy around the weekends. We were lucky to get a table Friday night. The seating is kind of crammed together, but at least they try to maximize space.
I ordered the Chicken Madras — curry with coconut milk. The chicken was moist and good. We also ordered sides of paneer naan and garlic naan, also very good.
The mango cocktail was very sweet and tasty with fresh mangos.
I wish I had more specific things to say about the flavor profile or something intriguing besides «good,» but I will go again and then let you know if I come up with better positive adjectives.

Cumin is a cute little spot on Milwaukee just tucked far enough south that some of the buzz of Wicker Park becomes less annoying. Things started with a bang. I ate one of the best veggie samosas I’ve had in my life. Seriously, they nailed it. Everything after that was pretty standard. I was a little underwhelmed by the naan. It was the garlic naan, but really sort of lacked that really garlic flavor. The main dishes, a lamb dish and a chicken dish (sorry blanking on the names) were pretty solid. My main complaint was the temperature. The food wasn’t particularly hot. Sort of a luke warm. That for me probably took this down to a 3 instead of a 4. Still having said all that, if you’re in the area and craving Indian food you certainly could do far worse.
Side note, it’s not a BYOB joint, but they have a full and impressively well stocked bar.

Amazing food. Went on a day they were donating 100% of proceeds to the Nepal Earthquake Relief. I’m always happy to support a restaurant that is willing to donate it’s time and resources to a good cause. I also got a mango cocktail, found it to be delicious and well crafted. My favorite menu item was the Chicken Tikka Masala. Paired very nicely with the Naan.
I can’t wait to return.

Very nice, clean, tight table space in a great location in Wicker Park if you’re looking for Indian. I also haven’t visited many Indian Restaurants in Chicago as I love to cook Indian at home so I don’t have much to compare too but I think this is a great place for probably 2 – 4 people. They take reservations by phone and are very friendly and professional.
Don’t come too hungry. The wait is long after you sit unless you order a drink. They do have a cocktail list– but I think Indian food is heavy so I wouldn’t do a fancy cocktail but of course, that’s your preference! Anything on the menu is great! I would recommend trying one dry dish, and one curry dish. For example, butter chicken and goat biryani. Don’t forget the naan! Perfect to share, a large amount, and you will always have enough to take home!