Indienne is one of Chicago’s newest one-star Michelin Restaurants, and they focus on vegetarian and vegan preparations, although they have a non-vegetarian tasting as well. We came here on a Thursday evening in February, and we tried all three tasting menus on offer here, since we came with one of our vegan friends. I opted for vegetarian, and Brian got the non-vegetarian.

The space is beautiful with soft hues of pink, taupe and gray. Everything is modern, clean, and fresh, and I was happy to find that all of the seats were extremely comfortable. We were seated in this great little booth off to the side of the bar, and we had plenty of space, which we needed for this very long meal. I really enjoyed the ambiance here.

Michelin inspectors claim that they only focus on the food when determining star status, and if that is truly the case, then I can definitely agree that the food here is of extremely excellent quality. I loved every single one of my courses, and each course was full of surprises. The Indian flavors did shine through, although in a subtle way, generally, so it was a unique flavor profile for a tasting menu. Our vegan friend was thrilled that the courses were original and well-thought-out, rather than just having some ingredients removed from the vegetarian menu.

Our service could have used some polishing, however. After we ordered our food and advised which wine pairing we were going with, we had to wait over 30 minutes for any food or drink to come out. We did have water on the table, but if I knew it would be 30 minutes, I would’ve ordered a cocktail for sure. This was a bizarre start to the evening.

Additionally, if you’re doing a wine pairing, that wine has got to be poured before the food comes out. Often times here, the wine was being poured as the food was being served on the table, or sometimes after, making for a bit of a confused service. One time, a mostly empty bottle was brought to the table, and only one glass was poured. The second glass was poured only halfway and they had to leave to go get a fresh bottle to top off the rest of us. This is a big no-no service wise, and they recognized it. For the next course, they brought us a bottle from the “reserve” pairing list, rather than the regular pairing, so that was nice. Since we’re talking about the wine, we all agreed that each wine on its own was delicious, but they didn’t actually pair very well with the courses. We chose the pairings because we didn’t really want to think about choosing a bottle or two to go with the meal, but I would recommend against the pairings. I think they need a little work to get them more on point.

Finally, for one of the courses, there was an upcharge for a bread accompaniment. Besides the upcharge being a bit tacky, they advised that they would bring our vegan friend a vegan roti, rather than the Chili Cheese Kulcha, however when the course came, they failed to bring it, claiming the chef figured that there was more bread with later courses and she didn’t need the extra? So bizarre. They did go back and bring the roti, eventually. Strangely, ALL of us had other breads, multiple kinds, with later courses, making this explanation/oversight even weirder.

None of these faux pas were detrimental to the evening, however, as the food and flavors really shined through. Here, I will take you through the vegetarian tasting. First, we had a few snacks, which I really loved! There was a Blackberry Pani Puri in a buckwheat tart, and a Mushroom Galouti or eclair with goat cheese and truffle which was amazing.

The next course was called Dahi (Bhalla) which they describe as a Lentil Donut. My friends agreed that calling it a donut gives you unreasonable expectations about what the course will be, but I didn’t really let that cloud my judgment. I loved the presentation of this dish, and I thought the flavors were great. There was a combo of tamarind, mint and raspberry that I really enjoyed.

Next was the Avocado Kebab which was surprisingly amazing. The avocado was grilled which gave it a really unique flavor that I loved. This came with the aforementioned Chili Cheese Kulcha (an extra $6) which was flaky, slightly greasy, and a really great accompaniment with this course. Honestly, I don’t know why they don’t just automatically serve this with the bread.

Next was the Jackfruit Haleem (which came with an onion brioche roll). This was most likely my favorite course of the night. It included a potato mousse, and caramelized onion, and this was just a really nice, flavorful dish. We also ordered a supplemental course ($19) which was Butternut Manti, which was also delicious and a close second to the Jackfruit course. It was covered with shaved black truffles – yum!

For the final savory course, and I was really getting full here, as all of the courses were quite rich, was the Paneer Roulade which was presented beautifully, and had many flavors going on here. This came with a Black Dairy Dal, which is like a lentil pudding, which was amazing, but I was really getting too full to eat much more. It also came with galric naan, which was great to sop up all of the sauce.

Finally was the dessert called Carrot Halwa, which I was pretty excited about since it had pistachio and was more of an unusal dessert, but I found it kind of bland. There were also some post-dinner treats including peanut fudge, a mango tart, and a sesame cracker, and I really enjoyed all of these.

Every course was a surprise, and the food quality, plating, and taste was extraordinary. Apart from the dessert, which wasn’t bad, it just simply wasn’t super flavorful, everything really sang. I can see why this restaurant earned a Michelin star in its first year, but I’m hopeful that they do iron out some of their service issues. If you are looking for very elevated Indian cuisine in a modern atmosphere, I would recommend coming to Indienne. If you are looking for elevated Indian cuisine without the massive price tag, I would recommend going to Rooh, one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago!