Bun Kebabs in the Desi Corridor, Chicago

Often at the Tribunal, when presented with an unfamiliar sandwich originating in a far off and exotic land (e.g., Buffalo, NY), I’ll have no choice but to try and recreate that sandwich myself, from whatever descriptions and recipes I can find online. Chicago is a big city with a lot to offer, but not every item in every type of world cuisine can be found. Sometimes, though, I get lucky. Chicago has a pretty good-sized Indian/Pakistani population, and a stretch of road on the far north side full of businesses catering almost exclusively to the tastes of those cultures. If I couldn’t find a bun kebab there, I doubt I could find one anywhere.

The bun kebab consists of a patty of ground meat in a bun with onion, tomato, and lettuce with condiments. Basically a Pakistani hamburger, no? That’s what I expected anyway, as we drove up to Chicago’s Desi corridor on Devon Avenue to try the 3 or 4 places I’d found online that served the sandwich. All of them were within 2 blocks of each other on the far end of the corridor, east of Western Avenue. I’d brought my 17 year old son Damian along, to practice his driving but also because out of the five members of my family, he and I are the only two who I thought would enjoy these reportedly spicy sandwiches. We were so laser-focused in our quest that we didn’t even cross the street to visit Khan BBQ, an old favorite of ours, restricting ourselves to the 2200 and 2300 blocks of Devon.

The Indian subcontinent is a big place, and the term “Desi” comprises a lot of cultures, but this particular 2-block section of Devon is very strongly Pakistani Muslim. Even the non-Pakistani restaurants know their clientele, proudly boasting their Zabiha Halal status.

Based on Google results (largely Yelp reviews), I had identified 4 places that I thought would serve bun kebabs. My plan though was simply to walk into any Pakistani snack shop we saw and ask if they served bun kebabs. This mostly worked, apart from the mildly embarrassing mistake of inquiring at an Afghani place instead of Pakistani (though the proprietor was very friendly and helpful, making multiple suggestions for places I should try–I will definitely be back, Kabul House Express!)

After that, we found that our projected first stop (Karachi Chat House at 2245 W. Devon) no longer existed–I’d seen a notice on Yelp that it was closed but had held out hope. In its place was another sweet shop, but they did not serve what we were looking for, so we headed to King Sweets for our first bun kebabs of the day.

King Sweets, and most of the other stops we made that day, had a variety of colorful Desi treats on display.

I have many Indian coworkers and we all bring in snacks to share from time to time, so I am familiar with some of these items; however, the majority are completely unknown to me. Some of them are basically sweetened nut pastes cut into attractive shapes, or cakes made of sweetened cheese and milk

Others are basically donuts that have been soaked in fragrant syrups (Gulab Jamun, and they’re tasty as hell)

We were here for the sandwiches, though. King Sweets offers bun kebabs in both beef and chicken, and we ordered one of each.

The King Sweets bun kebab came on a toasted sesame seed bun that was light and very much like a standard hamburger bun, apart from the size. All the sandwiches we encountered that day came on buns with diameters of 5-6″, which is bigger than a standard burger bun but not outlandishly so. King Sweets served their bun kebabs with tomato, lettuce, onion, and a tart tamarind chutney.

I tried the chicken first. This is a spicy sandwich, not only from the chutney, but with quite a bit of heat and flavor in the patty itself. Texturally, I was reminded more of a Mexican torta than a hamburger–the patty is not pure cooked meat, but contains vegetables, egg, and I suspect some legume, likely coarsely ground chickpea or lentils (though the very helpful staff at King Sweets told me only meat and egg, I’m pretty sure they were not as privy to the recipe as they held forth to be), which gave the patty a consistency more like a thick batch of refried beans than the meatloaf analog I’d been expecting.

The beef patty was thicker and looked more solid but had a similar consistency. The beef flavor and other toppings did make this more burger-like, complete with a mustard-like flavor from the tart chutney. Damian and I both agreed that we liked the chicken flavor better though.

We walked west along the north side of Devon to Western (and even north on Western to Punjab Sweets, just in case), stopping in a few more places to inquire after bun kebabs, but we did not find any places that served them, though one of the places on my list, Clifton Grill, simply hadn’t opened yet. We stopped back by after their posted opening time of 4pm and there was still nobody inside. Next time, I hope, as they carried a veggie bun kebab that I’d been looking forward to trying.

Returning to the east along the south side of Devon, we immediately encountered a place that hadn’t been on my list, but looked promising (even though the facade and interior make it look more like a bank lobby than a restaurant), Tahoora.

There were even roped-off lines like a bank. The dining area was dimly lit (and one area near the back wasn’t lit at all, which seemed strange, but people were still sitting there), but attractive, with tempting menu items displayed on high-resolution flatscreen monitors both behind and in front of the counter. There were multiple parties with large orders ahead of us, but after a 20 minute wait or so, we were able again to order bun kebabs in both chicken and beef, which we took to the front window to try and get a little light.

This bun kebab was served in a crustier roll that from its crimped appearance seemed to have spent some time in a panini press. It was a very decent piece of bread.

Again, the sandwich was served with onion, tomato, and lettuce, with a chutney that could have been tamarind as well. However, the chutney was much less distinctive than that at King Sweets, and the patties were saltier, so the chutney basically disappeared, a big disappointment to both me and Damian.

Also, the layer of iceberg lettuce in this sandwich was much thicker. Though we liked the bread, and the kebab itself was tasty, we felt like the sandwiches we’d had at King Sweets were superior.

A few doors down from Tahoora was Spinzer Fast Food, part of my original list but also suggested (though I should note not necessarily recommended) by food writer Mike Gebert of the Beard-nominated Sky Full of Bacon blog and several other publications.

@JimTheBeerGuy @ProjectTermina I think this place has them: http://t.co/wZwr7aTPFp

— Michael Gebert (@skyfullofbacon) February 22, 2015

Spinzer had more of the look of a typical family-run Chicago fast-food corner joint, filtered through Pakistani tastes…

..complete with specials posters on the interior walls, done in a very Chicago-typical Vienna-Beef-yellow, some of which I hope to check out on another trip.

The most promising thing about Spinzer was how busy they were. Every table in the (admittedly small) dining room was taken, and there was even a small crowd standing around waiting for spots to open up. Once again, beef and chicken bun kebabs were on offer. We ordered both, though this time we had to take them to go.

The Spinzer bun kebab came on a well-griddled but otherwise unnoteworthy hamburger bun. The patties on the cross sections appeared very similar to the others we’d had, but displayed thin yellow leaves of egg coming off the sides, though not unappetizingly.

Spinzer used a green cilantro chutney in their rendition, which was better than the undetectable chutney at Tahoora. It had a great flavor that complimented both beef and chicken well, though falling just short of the fantastic tamarind chutney at King Sweets.

These patties seemed looser, less able to retain their shapes than the ones we had at either Tahoora or King Sweets, though maybe it was just the fact that we had to eat them on the go that made these sandwiches more difficult to handle. They were definitely cooked to order, and apparently with a lot of care. I’m still looking forward to exploring Spinzer’s menu further.

Damian and I both agreed that each of these versions of the bun kebab had something to recommend it, from the excellent bread of the Tahoora version to the fast food mastery of Spinzer, but overall were won over by the King Sweets version, which used an excellent chutney, had a nice-flavored patty, a well-toasted bun, and was overall the best balanced of the sandwiches. On the way back to the car, we stopped back by King Sweets and picked up some of their tasty treats before the 40 minute drive home. There are a couple places we didn’t get to try–Clifton Grill, who I mentioned already, and Nirala Sweets, who had them on the menu but not on Sundays–but overall, if I were to head back to Devon Avenue with bun kebabs on my mind, King Sweets would be my likely stop.