Took my teenager out to Marigold Restaurant as we are visiting ALL the Indian restaurants in Chicago - since we love that cuisine! This is the 19th restaurant we have visited thus far. This was hands-down one of the worst experiences we ever had. We ordered a chickpea dish and the tandoori chicken. We were told there was no point in ordering basmati rice additionally as the chicken came with rice. The chicken was about $17 and you won't believe for that price we got a piece of chicken about the size of the palm of your hand resting on a small portion of rice. it took 42 mns to get it as well, by which time we were almost ready to leave. Part of the experience of eating Indian in our view is the sharing of food - you order a few selections and you share. It is impossible to do that in this restaurant unless you forked out $80 for two and shared 5 very small portions. The chicken was dry and awful compared with the succulent tandoori you get in many other restaurants around Chicago. There were possibly 5 mouthfuls of rice. Because I wanted my son to enjoy his time, I let him have most of the food, so I doubt I got more than 3 mouthfuls myself. The nan bread came 15 mns after the food (which itself took three quarters of an hour) - it was not its usual fluffiness, but bread so crisp we almost broke our teeth on it. It was cooked with fennel seeds if memory serves, or another spice, which was original but the texture prevented us from enjoying that otherwise unique taste. The chickpea dish was not bad. It was not awful, it had a rich taste, though it was hard to distinguish the mango that was part of its description - overall I would say that was about average compared with other Chana Masala we have ordered. It was clear from the decor, prices and portion size (and again that comes from two people who don't usually stuff ourselves - we are thin people who stop eating when we are no longer hungry) that this was an attempt to create an upscale Indian restaurant to a population deemed to have money (not true of everyone living in this area). I am sure the money does not go to tripling the waiter's pay, that much I am sure. The problem with this approach is that you lose the authenticity of the Indian restaurant experience, and the food is about average. I think the good reviews must come from cognitive dissonance, a psychological theory that shows how two dissonant ideas must be reconciled in the mind by changing one of them, e.g, 1) the prices are very high; 2) the portions are ridiculously small and the food is only average. Therefore, to reconcile the huge prices I paid I must change my evaluation to suggest that after all the food is rather excellent and makes up for everything else! That is often what does happen in overpriced shi-shi situations like this. We will not be returning but enjoying the more traditional Indian gastronomic experience at other Indian restaurants. Out of 10 we rated this one a 4 for overall experience, including quality of food, where 5 is average.
Pros: Nice waitress, average food
Cons: Super high prices, poor portions, stuck up place
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