Nadu Brings Regional Homestyle Indian Cooking to Lincoln Park

The menu hopscotches across India

If you’ve not traveled to India, you’ll be forgiven for not being able to pinpoint Kerala, Delhi, Bangalore, or Goa on a map. At Nadu, each menu item is followed by the city or region it hails from listed in parentheses, along with a detailed description of the dish, making it easier for guests to understand the dish. 

There are tiger prawns cooked in tangy masala with fermented chile paste as it’s done in Goa, and Irani-style keema, a savory minced lamb served with pao, from Mumbai. Kerala-inspired crab milagu fry consists of whole Dungeness crab cooked with fragrant Tellicherry peppercorn, shallots, tomatoes, and garlic. It’s an excellent choice for larger groups, with pre-orders recommended.

Sahu brought a half dozen team members from India to man the kitchen, and weekly tastings with servers ensure that everyone is knowledgeable about the menu.“We invite them to sit down and eat like a guest,” Sahu says. “Once you taste it, you’ll know how to talk about it.”

The tasting menu is a steal

Sahu says that around 80% of guests opt for the $55 tasting menu, which begins with papad, chutneys, and Delhi-style dahi bhalla (soft lentil dumplings), followed by your choice of a small plate, large plate, side, and dessert.

“I think the tasting menu is a beautiful entry point, especially if you aren’t familiar with Indian cuisine,” Sahu says. “We want to showcase how people in India eat at home and we want everyone to come and try our food. I’m not putting caviar or shaving truffles over it – our food is for everyone.” For solo diners and couples, the tasting menu is the best way to try more dishes, since a la carte portions are rather large — though Sahu says the tasting menu portions are still big enough to share.

Vegans and vegetarians are more than welcome 

Sahu explains that while North Indian food often includes cream and dairy, once you make your way down the tropical southern coast, a lot of dishes naturally become vegan, enriched with coconut milk instead. For example, one popular plant-based main course is Sahu’s jackfruit kosha, inspired by a traditional dish in West Bengal.

“Kosha is traditionally done with goat’s meat, but there are a lot of days that we don’t eat meat in India too because there is some sort of puja [religious rite] happening,” he says. At Nadu, Sahu boils raw jackfruit, then slowly braises it with shallots, mustard oil, ginger, garlic and curry spices for several hours to allow the flavors to deeply permeate  the fruit. “People think it tastes meaty, but it isn’t,” he adds. 

One of the restaurant’s bestsellers is the benne masala dosa dish representing Bangalore, with a crispy exterior and soft, airy interior stuffed with spiced potato and served with both coconut and tomato chutneys.“While it’s a common man’s food, ours is super rich and buttery,” Sahu says. (Benne means cultured butter in the Dravidian language Kannada, not to be confused with benne seeds.) He also recommends the aritha pundi, a rice dumpling from Mangalore, as a sleeper hit. “Even some Indians are not familiar with it,” he says. At Nadu, they pan-fry the dumplings (which are traditionally steamed) with ghee and gunpowder masala for a little extra flavor.

A talented young artist made the Chicago-meets-India art centerpiece

The focal point in the lively and inviting 90-seat dining room is an 11- by 10-foot oil painting on canvas titled “The Chicago Durbar” by Abhay Sehgal, an emerging Indian artist and graduate from the Art Institute of Chicago. Sehgal was given complete creative freedom for this commission and blends Chicago culture and Indian motifs in a royal court setting. Indian deities mingle with basketball players shooting hoops in front of the Chicago Theatre, and an Indian king presents a Christian Dior Nike sneaker as a gift, while a nervous immigrant couple looks on.

Try Indian cocktails and spirits 

The beverage program at Nadu is equally dedicated to Indian flavors and ingredients, with Indian gins, whiskeys, and regional spirits like cashew feni liqueur on the list. Cocktails and spirit-free mocktails incorporate traditional Indian ingredients like curry leaf, palm jaggery, turmeric, saffron, and ginger. The wine list is color coded by flavor notes, like bright and elegant, or textural and rich, for a more approachable way to find the right bottle.