Every few years, a siren song composed of beef grease and gooey cheese compels me to eat all the burgers. This happened several times at the Tribune, and with a budget backing me, I indulged in month-long eating marathons that would test the limits of my body and sanity.

This urge hit again last month, when I realized I hadn’t covered many burgers in the Loop. But within fifteen minutes of researching the options, I realized this ultimate truth: The Loop lacks a quintessential burger joint, the kind of beloved burger spot that fills up tourist itineraries and influencer hit lists.

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Few spaces feel less like the Loop than inside Hanabusa. Cute and curated, with pink walls and gram-worthy signs, the shop feels like a quintessential neighborhood spot.

That definitely applies to the food. Hanabusa specializes in Japanese soufflé pancakes, an airy creation that confusingly might have originated in Hawaii. Eggy and voluptuous, they tower over American flapjacks and wiggle delightfully when poked.

They are also fussy and time-consuming to make, making them seem like an odd fit for the neighborhood stuffed with busy office workers and hurried tourists.

Yet, this little cafe is constantly packed. Walk by on a weekend, and a line often sneaks out the door. While that’s impressive, it doesn’t take much to start a line here. Walk up to the register, and you’ll find a note reading “Hanabusa soufflé pancakes are made to order, and each requires about 20 minutes…If there is a queue, the waiting times could be longer.”

This is no exaggeration. Thirty minutes is not uncommon. And if there’s a long line, don’t be surprised if the wait stretches for an hour or more.

This does mean the food is cooked to order, so you never have to worry about being served an old and tired pancake. They come out piping hot, and that’s how they deserve to be eaten. This is no time to linger. For every second you wait, they become a bit less magical.

If you’re a boring middle-aged dad, go with the original pancake ($15), which keeps the focus solely on the light and fluffy pancake. All it gets is a few slices of fruit, a drizzle of caramel, and a dollop of whipped cream. That way, you can appreciate the custardy interior without burying it in sugary sauces.

But who am I kidding? Take a page from my teenage daughter and order the Nutella pancake ($17), which adds a hearty amount of everyone’s favorite sugary hazelnut spread along with chopped peanuts.

Or go with the custard pancake ($17), which gets a generous ladle of a creamy custard sauce that is torched on top like crème brûlée.

Sweet is the name of the game here. Don’t bother looking for any meaty American breakfast partners, like bacon or sausage. But Hanabusa does offer a few savory Japanese noodle dishes during the week.

The beef udon bowl is certainly comforting, with bouncy noodles and thinly sliced marinated beef. But you can tell that the real effort goes into the pancakes. Ordering udon feels like missing the point.

Hanabusa might feel out of step with its immediate neighbors, but that’s ultimately a great thing. Part of my goal has been uncovering the weirder side of the Loop, the one that goes against bland conformity. In that case, Hanabusa fits right in.

Hanabusa
29 E Madison St, STE 180, Chicago, IL 60602
https://www.hanabusacafechicago.com

The Kimpton Gray Hotel doesn’t exude the flashy Gilded Age opulence of the Palmer House or the ornate Gothic ambiance of the Chicago Athletic Association. Instead, it’s stately and understated, with a neoclassical design — think lots of marble — that befits the former regional office of the New York Life Insurance Company.

It’s also quietly one of the best places to grab a drink and a snack in the Loop, if for the variety alone. The hotel has three very different concepts within its walls, each on a separate level and with its own ambiance. You can go from slurping margaritas in the sunshine to sipping Manhattans in a low-lit lounge in seconds.

What better way to get to know them than by grabbing a drink and a snack at each?

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I’ve taken a few potshots at slop bowls here, and I’ve felt good about each one.

Dumping a bunch of stuff in a bowl and drenching it in sauce isn’t exactly terrible in theory, but it rarely seems like the most delicious way to experience most of these foods. And when slop bowls go wrong, they go very wrong. Along with looking like a horror show, they taste greasy, gloopy, and tired.

But even the most ardent slop-bowl hater must contend with the fact that they can be done right. The best practitioner of the genre, one that even makes me feel bad about using the slop bowl term, is the local chain, Fare.

Fare stands apart by the quality of its ingredients, the creativity of its combinations, and the conciseness of its menu.

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The Chicago Board of Trade’s glory days are long gone. To be clear, the building is still an art deco masterpiece and one of the finest skyscrapers ever built in Chicago. But as online trading has replaced the need for trading floors packed with men yelling for some reason or another, there is an eerie calm inside.

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Rarely have I stared at a menu as magnificently strange as Mariela’s. I thought years of menu decipherment studies would prepare me for anything thrown my way. But Mariela shocked me.

The restaurant’s website wasn’t much help, either. Mariela claims it has “a deep reverence for the sea and everything it carries with it.” But don’t expect a rebirth of the Cape Cod Room. Instead, the menu dances around the Mediterranean, Mexico, and Southeast Asia, picking ingredients and dishes seemingly at random, then combining them in ways that seem to tear up tradition whenever possible. Thailand crashes into Mexico with the tom yum aguachile, while India bumps into Italy with saag burrata.

It’d be really easy to call this all fusion nonsense. But to flip the first sentence around a bit: Rarely have I stared at a menu and wanted to try everything. Some of this is perverse wonder — what the hell is Oaxacan ponzu dip? But there was also pure desire.

As soon as I read the words “papad tostada,” I wanted to devour it. Sure, swapping the fried corn tortilla for crackly papad, an Indian flatbread, isn’t the most radical move, but even the sauces can’t stand still. An almond salsa macha is spiked with vanilla of all things, while the aioli is mixed with achar, spicy South Asian pickles. Yet, when combined with sweet and plump grilled scallops, instead of clashing together at full speed, these disparate components coalesce seamlessly.

Mariela is the work of Rishi Kumar and Zubair Mohajir, two Chicago chefs best known for the acclaimed Mirra in Bucktown. Located at the corner of Washington and State Street, Mariela is technically the hotel restaurant for Staypineapple, the oddly named hotel in the Reliance Building. (I swear this won’t turn into an architectural Substack, but this skyscraper is glorious.)

Which is another way of saying they could have played it safe. Not only do hotel restaurants usually try to appeal to as many guests as possible, but this is also State Street. No one expects great food here. The street’s scant offerings include national chains like Jimmy John’s and Chick-fil-A. A recent editorial in the Chicago Tribune isn’t exaggerating the current state of the street.

Instead, the two decided to leap off the deep end.

Essentially every dish here is spicy. While the heat never becomes overwhelming — at least to someone on the upper end of the spectrum — it’s always lurking in the background.

Even the best dishes throw curveballs. A starter of smoked white fish is delightfully smoky and salty, but instead of coming with bread, you get a dish of tlayudas, a toasted tortilla speciality of Oaxaca, and more papad.

With a light, yet crackly coating that gives way to a meaty mushroom interior, the tempura oyster mushrooms are an obvious highlight. A lovely pumpkin seed pesto on the side adds a fresh creaminess. But the dish also comes with the aforementioned Oaxacan ponzu dip that’s genuinely fascinating, if slightly confusing.

Another highlight is the seafood kebab taco, where tender grilled octopus joins seafood chorizo on a crispy roti perfumed with fenugreek. On top is more of that almond vanilla macha, lending a smoky, nutty, and spicy kick. While undoubtedly a bit expensive for two tacos, the quality on display is so evident it’s impossible to deny.

Even when things don’t perfectly connect, they fascinate. The Singaporean chili crab agnolotti features little pockets of dough stuffed with some ludicrously sweet and clean crab meat. They rest in a creamy and complex chile sauce that certainly tickles the tongue, but there’s also wildly more sauce than agnolotti and nothing to mop it up.

Mariela’s dinner menu is also astonishing for what it lacks. On the main dinner menu, there’s no burger, pork, or even chicken. (Technically, there is a cornish hen, but you get the idea.) You will find chicken tenders on the kid’s menu, but picky eaters might as well stay home.

If you do want chicken, drop by the bar for happy hour Monday through Friday, between 4 and 6 p.m. Then you can score the South Indian specialty, fried chicken 65. Boneless hunks of chicken are marinated in a slew of spices and chiles, coated in a rice flour batter, and fried until crackly. Served with a cooling cilantro crema, each bite is absurdly juicy, genuinely spicy, and utterly irresistible.

Happy hour is where you can also score $1 oysters, an astonishing deal for the Loop.

Equally delicious is the Mariela ceviche, which features plump chunks of albacore marinated in a spicy ponzu liquid.

Things are slightly more approachable during lunch, where you can order the “best fish sandwich.” While not confident enough to crown it the best in the city — only someone like Titus could make that call — the batter is astonishingly crisp, and the fish mild, clean, and tender. This being Mariela, there’s also some heat, along with nods to Thailand (green papaya salad) and Mexico (a crema mixed with chintextle, a smoky and spicy red chile paste).

I can go on. Mariela’s desserts are just as imaginative, especially the pandan. But I think we’re all getting a bit of ingredient-listing fatigue.

Mariela certainly isn’t for everyone. But if you don’t mind stepping up to the edge of the diving board and taking a chance, it’s a thrill. That it popped up in a hotel restaurant in the middle of the Loop is nothing less than miraculous.

Mariela
1 W Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602
https://www.marielachicago.com

Covering corporate restaurant chains is usually a total snooze. I’d much rather rhapsodize about a mom-and-pop spot dishing out killer vada pav in a kitchen the size of a minivan than cover the 7th location of a well-funded concept.

But sometimes even dreadfully dull things, like systematic consistency reports and online ordering optimization, do genuinely pay off.

To see what I mean, take a walk through The Catalog at the base of Willis Tower. Here you’ll find a clutch of quick-service spots, including some national chains like Shake Shack, Sweetgreen, and Cava, along with homegrown offerings like Brown Bag Seafood, Do-Rite Donuts and Chicken, Sushi San, and Tortazo.

Though they differ in cuisine, they can all best be described as annoyingly consistent.

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If, like me, you don’t speak Hindi, it’s important to know that rasoi means kitchen. It’s fitting, because Shaily’s Rasoi in the southwest Loop truly feels like you’ve stumbled into someone’s kitchen.

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I follow the movement of hot dogs in Chicago’s Loop like some people track stars in the sky. While some may question how I spend my time, it’s undoubtedly practical and obviously delicious. (Because I admire astronomers and deeply despise astrologers, I’d prefer a title like wurstonomer or frankonomer.)

Sadly, finding a great Chicago-style hot dog in the Loop recently got a bit harder. Washington Hall closed its doors on June 27th. I’d been worried about the food hall for a while — turnover had been intense over the past year. But I’m mostly bummed about Chicago’s Dog House, my pick for the best hot dog spot in the Loop.

Now with Chicago’s Dog House gone, the Loop is left with only Jimmy’s Gyros & Grill serving Chicago-style hot dogs with natural casings. This is a shame.

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My definition of the Loop is on the small side. For this project, I’m limiting myself only to what I can find between the Chicago River on the north and west, Michigan Ave. to the east, and Ida B. Wells Drive (formerly Congress Parkway) to the south. (Sure, some definitions of the Loop include Lakeshore East and part of the South Loop, but I have to draw the lines somewhere.)

Fortunately, this means I’m able to, just barely, visit Cafecito’s original location on the north side of Ida B. Wells Drive.

In what seems like a stroke of good luck, Cafecito is connected to a youth hostel, making it an ideal spot to fill up on freshly made food for relatively affordable prices, especially for the Loop.

But a good location doesn’t totally explain how Cafecito, a small Cuban sandwich joint that opened in 2008, has managed to not only survive in the tough Loop market, but expand. It now has two Loop locations, along with ones in the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park, and, surprisingly, a couple in California.

That’s not bad for two Lebanese-American brothers, Philip and Michael Ghantous, who had never run a restaurant before.

Though it has six locations now, Cafecito definitely doesn’t feel like a corporate restaurant chain. Each one feels like a real neighborhood spot, which also means that food takes time. Not a long time — but a reasonable amount of time for someone to construct a sandwich, place it in a press, and wait until it’s properly toasted.

That helps to explain why Cafecito’s Cubano is nearly perfect.

A Cubano sounds simple. It’s a pressed sandwich with only six components — bread, ham, Swiss cheese, roast pork, pickle, and mustard. But the devil is in the details.

A proper Cubano requires a deft hand. Get skimpy with the fillings, and each bite becomes overly bready and dry. Go the opposite route, and cram in too much meat, and the sandwich doesn’t compress correctly, inevitably falling apart into a hot mess. What you want is for all the components to gel into a perfect new whole.

At Cafecito, the bread is thin yet still able to withstand toasting without drying out completely. The ham is salty, the Swiss cheese creamy, the pickle tart and crunchy, and the mustard is pungent and acidic. But the real star is the mojo-marinated roast pork. It’s deeply savory, yet also aromatic, with citrus hovering around every bite.

If you’re not feeling like a sandwich, try the platillo of ropa vieja. Tender shredded beef comes with a huge scoop of white rice and creamy black beans. This is hearty, filling stuff, exactly what you’d need if you were, say, staying in a hostel and needed a huge meal to fuel you to traverse the city on the cheap. Or, you know, if you’re just a normal Loop worker bee who needs some sustenance before sitting through yet another meeting.

Cafecito’s menu sprawls from there. You can find a solid bowl of caldo gallego soup, along with salads, empanadas, and sides like jalapeño hummus. That’s not even counting the breakfast menu of sandwiches and omelets.

I definitely haven’t been able to try everything, but everything I have tasted clearly explains why this Cuban-inspired joint has managed to stick around for almost two decades.

Cafecito
26 E. Ida B. Wells Drive (Congress Pkwy), Chicago, IL 60605
https://iheartcafecito.com

What’s the most common food in the Loop? Ask outsiders, and they’ll probably start spouting off stereotypical Chicago foods like hot dogs and deep dish pizza. But my educated guess is hummus. Quick-service Mediterranean chains dominate the downtown lunch scene, offering a variety of grilled meats and fried falafel, all with hefty scoops of the creamy chickpea spread.

The results vary wildly in quality. At the lesser chains, hummus is gritty, chalky, and bland. The majority get to the middle — somewhat creamy, if not exactly exciting. But who cares if you drench your bowl in a half dozen sauces and stir it all together?

Then there’s LaShuk Street Food, which treats making hummus like an art. It’s always ludicrously smooth and miraculously light, with aromatic swirls of garlic and lemon haunting each bite. It’s an absolute marvel.

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As soon as I walked in, someone at the bar launched into a grand theory about how to improve Chicago. “Just send all the assholes to the West Coast,” she said. “Maybe California. That’s going to fall into the ocean eventually, right?”

Welcome to the Sky Ride Tap, perhaps the only true-blue dive bar left in the Loop. Sure, humble joints abound in the neighborhood, ones with sticky floors and questionable lighting. But none come anywhere close to checking off so many dive bar essentials.

Let me count the ways.

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Few things excite my Loop-loving heart more than seeing a corporate sandwich chain replaced with a local gem. That’s especially true when the restaurant in question, The Jibarito Stop, offers something truly hard to find downtown.

In particular, and as the name makes abundantly clear, jibaritos.

Many claim the jibarito as a true Chicago original, lumping it in with iconic city classics like Chicago hot dogs and deep dish. I’m one of them. But like those dishes, the jibarito also wasn’t created in a vacuum.

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The Riverwalk is a civic treasure. Rarely has a public works project ingrained itself into a city’s fabric as immediately as the 1.25-mile pedestrian promenade on the south bank of the Chicago River.

On warm evenings, the views border on too photogenic, with Chicago’s towers gleaming against the turquoise-tinted water. Masses of workers congregate at the bars strung along the path, as runners weave in and out, valiantly attempting to keep up their pace.

This is especially astonishing considering the history of the Chicago River. Over the 19th century, the river became the beating industrial heart of the growing metropolis, but it was treated with all the care of a garbage can. I’d love to tell someone from 100 years ago that people would clamor to sit as close as possible to its banks.

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Let’s head out on another happy hour hunt, shall we?

The Loop has no shortage of timely deals to entice workers with a bit of afterwork relief. But all of these picks have been battle-tested to ensure you’ll also have a good time while saving a bit of cash.

Last time I frequented some bars in the center of the Loop. Since then, Bandol has been converted into Mexican Radio, so you’ll have to go elsewhere for your French 75s. (Don’t worry, I’ll be checking the new place out soon enough.)

For this round, let’s walk a little further south to Jackson. Down here, you’ll find fewer tourists. Instead, it’s busy folks looking to shake off the day’s stress. Sometimes that means letting their hair down for a bit of karaoke or for a properly mixed drink. And then there’s Ceres Cafe…

Ceres Cafe

Time: 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Friday
The Deal: $6 23-ounce drafts of Krombacher Pils or Yuengling Lager

The Loop’s most hilarious happy hour, by any objective measure, occurs at Ceres Cafe inside the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Don’t believe me? Unlike every happy hour ever, this one runs for exactly two hours during the middle of the afternoon. Seriously, 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. No other place does this. Nor do they offer 23-ounce pours of Krombacher Pils or Yuengling Lager for only $6. (For the record, Yuengling makes a fine American lager, but I’ll go with the old-school German pilsner every time.)

Few places offer such an adulterated experience of freewheeling, debauched drinking. Don’t expect karaoke or board games. The alcohol does all the work here. If it’s your first time, know you’ll laugh at the gargantuan pours, which are seriously “filled four fingers high.” The audaciousness is as mesmerizing as it is disturbing.

(For the record, the Manhattan picture above isn’t a happy hour special. I just had to test for myself if the rumors were true. They were. I could only finish half this thing.)

Not everyone makes it out of Ceres Cafe unscathed. Just ask former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. When word got around that he had visited Ceres Cafe before passing out in his own car, no one was surprised by the result. Ceres Cafe does not mess around. Be safe and plan accordingly.

141 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604
https://www.cerescafechicago.com

90th Meridian

Time: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday
The Deal: $10 classic cocktails, $5 Maplewood Brewing drafts, $10 sliders

For a more refined meetup, consider 90th Meridian. It hides on the ground floor of the Central Standard Building, a neoclassical masterwork that houses one of Chicago’s most striking rooms — the towering banking hall on the second floor. Seriously, next time you’re in the area, stop by for a gawk. Or, you know, time your visit to also swing by 90th Meridian for happy hour.

90th Meridian is very clear that it doesn’t serve dinner. This is a lunch and happy hour spot, which fortunately turns out to be a good thing. All of their classic cocktails are $10, but unlike some spots that rush through the preparation, especially during happy hour, the old fashioned here is carefully stirred and neatly balanced. The bartender even asked if I preferred it sweeter or dryer, and then absolutely nailed it. (Drier, of course.)

For a more appropriately seasonal drink, try An American in Paris, which alters the traditional French 75 with Koval Cranberry Gin. Pink, tart, and bubbly. There’s spring for you. If you’d rather just have a pint, you can score $5 drafts from Maplewood Brewing.

Food options are severely limited during happy hour, but you can score three sliders topped with salty Merkts Cheddar for $10.

I’ll have to swing by again to test out the lunch menu, but if you’re after cocktails made with actual care, this is your spot.

231 S. La Salle, Chicago, IL 60604
https://www.90thmeridian.com

Brando’s Speakeasy

Time: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday
The Deal: $5 collection of wine, cocktails, and beers

Speaking of karaoke. If that’s what you really want, I’ve found no better place in the Loop to do so than Brando’s Speakeasy. On any given Tuesday, this place is slammed with the afterwork crowd tearing into some 90s classics with voices that vary wildly in pitch and volume. But even when the tone is hilariously off-key, the vibe remains communal and high-spirited.

$5 happy hour drinks probably help with that. Unlike 90th Meridian, you won’t want to linger on these. The Old Fashioned is sweet and watery, but it’s also $5, so there’s no need to explain, right?

If you do want to hear what your partner is saying, try sneaking past the bar into the relatively quieter back lounge. Here you can grab a bar seat, along with some $5 house wine and maybe even a $5 hot honey pepperoni flatbread. Once again, don’t expect wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, and you’ll happily devour the whole thing and maybe order a $5 Lagunitas IPA and ponder which 90s hit you could belt your way through.

343 S Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60604
https://brandoschicago.com/loop/

The view from Cindy’s Rooftop is unparalleled. Perched on the thirteenth floor of the Chicago Athletic Association, the restaurant’s massive glass windows and terrace offer a picture-perfect vista of Millennium Park, Lake Michigan, and the forest of skyscrapers that crowd around it.

Everyone already knows this. Since opening in 2015, Cindy’s has been one of the Loop’s most popular restaurants, and the view certainly plays a crucial part. Reservations, even for a random Tuesday, still disappear a week or two ahead of time.

Which explains why I haven’t been in ages. Plus, I’m the weirdo who always preferred the vibe at a different restaurant in the same complex, the windowless Cherry Circle Room. You know, moody vibes with lots of wood and leather, and lights so dim that everything looks bathed in golden light. (Sadly, it closed last year, though it will hopefully be replaced by something soon.)

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Two choices await you in the entryway of the 99-year-old Italian Village complex on West Monroe. Climb the stairs to the right, and you’ll enter The Village, an Italian-American wonderland of red sauce, meatballs, and landscape murals that tiptoe between delightfully charming and aggressively gaudy. Or you can descend the stairs in front of you to Sotto and its sister Bar Sotto, two moody and dimly lit concepts that attempt to inject some modern spirit into this Loop institution.

(A few years ago, there was a third option, Vivere, a fine-dining spot, but that’s transformed into a private event space.)

I promise to get to The Village eventually, though I already know it has a great happy hour. Today we are heading downstairs.

Unlike The Village’s multiple-page tome two floors up, Sotto’s menu fits comfortably on a half sheet of paper. The contents are different, too. Sure, there’s pasta, but now it can come with gouchang and lemongrass.

This menu is the work of chef de cuisine, David Rodriguez, Jr. I first met him at this family’s restaurant, Xocome Antojeria, a splendid Mexican restaurant on the Southwest Side. His dishes maintain the coziness of Italian and Italian-American cuisine, while adding punchy, unexpected flavors.

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Da Local Boy landing on the New York Times’ recent list of The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago wasn’t exactly shocking, if only because it made the cut last year. But what has changed since the first list, especially for me, is that owners Nate and Diana Domingo now have a second location in the Loop.

As has been told elsewhere, the Hawaiian couple moved to the area during the pandemic. After Nate impressed coworkers at his day job with home-cooked versions of traditional Hawaiian dishes, the couple launched a successful food truck and then a brick-and-mortar shop in suburban Highwood.

Admittedly, my knowledge of Hawaiian cuisine is limited. Having never been there, my only real reference point is the poke craze that swept through the Loop about ten years ago, with places like Aloha Poke, Mammoth Poke, and High Tide Poke.

But there’s far more to Hawaiian food than just fish on rice. This tiny shop, which replaced Saucy Porka, offers a plethora of platters that are abundant and craveable in a way that should concern nearby workers.

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Look at this! A brand new restaurant in the Loop with a real-deal chef (Charlie McKenna) and the backing of an established restaurant group (The Fifty/50 Club).

McKenna is a barbecue maestro with several Memphis in May trophies on his shelf. To experience his way with pulled pork and tri-tip, visit Lillie’s Q, his excellent barbecue concept inside District Brew Yards in West Town. You’ve probably also seen his barbecue sauces on the shelves at grocery stores all over the city. (I particularly love the mustard-based Gold Barbeque Sauce.)

So what’s he doing without his rubs and smoker at a sandwich spot in the Loop?

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Color bombards your senses the moment you walk into Maharaj. The inside is a bit of a wonderland, full of dramatic decorations and funky seats, not to mention a variety of life-size statues that hover on the edge of being downright impressive and utterly bizarre. This is the opposite of the gray-scale corporate blandness that pervades quick-service spots in the Loop.

If Maharaj feels like a neighborhood restaurant, that’s because it technically is. In addition to this outlet downtown, it has three locations spread over the suburbs. Maharaj also has the advantage of being connected to DePaul’s downtown campus, so it makes sense that the crowd is mostly a mix of students and professors. But I’m still surprised at the constant crowds, especially around lunch.

On my first visit, I was a bit paralyzed by choice. Maharaj’s menu stretches over multiple pages, with probably a hundred dishes or so. There are so many options that cover so many different regions of India that it’s hard to figure out where to begin.

But I quickly realized that the lunch rush is dominated by people ordering from the pared-back lunch menu, which narrows your options down to six options. (Of course, each item requires you to make more choices, but it’s still a help.)

Gaze around the room, and you’ll notice most people ordering the chicken express lunch, where you pick between butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, or kadai chicken. You also get a pile of basmati rice, dal makahni, and warm naan. For $15.95, that’s an absolute feast. Plus, that doesn’t even count the basket of crackly papadam that arrives as soon as you sit down.

Just don’t expect any fireworks. The chicken tikka masala features a very mild and creamy sauce, with only a slight background of spice. Still, the chicken is impressively juicy, and the sauce is deeply comforting. The same could be said of the dal makhani, a very rich and silky smooth lentil dish, bulked out with tomatoes and ginger.

Fortunately, on the side you’ll find two chutneys, a bright green and slightly spicy mint chutney and a tangy tamarind chutney. Both work wonders on the milder dishes, adding freshness and acidity.

Things get more interesting with the tandoori chicken special. For $14.95, you’ll get nearly half a chicken that’s dyed neon red by the marinade, along with rice, naan, and a cooling bowl of raita. Though charred aggressively on the grill, the chicken stays astonishingly tender. You can also set the spice level when you order, but know that spicy actually means it.

For whatever reason, the vegetarian lunch specials are less successful. While you’d think they’d be lighter, the opposite is true. The palak paneer is covered with a slick of oil, which might be fine on its own, but when paired with the rich dal makhani, it gets to be a bit much.

But it’s hard not to root for Maharaj. There are some genuinely fascinating Indian restaurants in the Loop, ones that offer lighter and more vibrantly flavored takes on Indian classics, like Bhoomi Modern Indian Kitchen, Saffron Street, and Naansense. But since they are mostly quick-service spots, they lack the cozy neighborhood feel of Maharaj.

Maharaj Indian Grill
333 S State Street, Chicago, IL 60604
https://maharajindiangrill.com