India’s Vada Pav

Vada pav is a vegetarian Indian snack. Hailing from Mumbai, where millions are sold each day, it consists of batata vada, a filling of smashed potatoes, seasoned with herbs, coated with a batter of chickpea flour and fried until crisp, which is then stuffed into a pav, a type of Indian bread roll emblematic of Mumbai’s street food, and dressed with a variety of chutneys.

This is a vada pav. It says so right there on the label.

I get these on the regular from my local Indian market Swagat Foods in Oak Forest, IL. They’re damn tasty–I like the dabeli they sell a bit more than I like these so I tend to get those instead, but when they’re out of dabeli or if I’m just more in a vada pav mood, I go for these instead.

I’ll admit, it doesn’t look like much–just a hamburger bun that’s got some unspecified gunk in it and has been griddled and squished into a plastic deli container. Let’s take a look inside.

That is a potato fritter with a chickpea flour batter–batata vada, or just vada for short. It’s dressed with a couple of chutneys and stuffed into a hamburger bun that in this case is standing in for the pav, an Indian bread that’s similar to a dinner roll. Until this month, this is the only kind of vada pav I’ve ever had. It’s fine. If I happen to eat one while I’m in just the right mood, it’s a thing of beauty.

As vada pavs go though, it can’t be on the upper end of the spectrum. Made hours ahead of time and sitting out at room temperature, the vada loses its crispness, the chutneys soak into the bread, all texture is lost. In a metropolitan area like Chicago, where we have one of the largest Indian populations in the US, or North America for that matter, surely I’d be able to find a better one.

I started the month not in Chicago though, but in Champaign, IL, at local Indian fast-casual restaurant Signature Grill, a favorite of students at nearby UIUC. We were in town bringing our eldest, a senior at the University, back after Christmas break. We stopped by on our way in to town, but Signature Grill only sells its fast-casual steam table fare during its slow period between the lunch rush and dinner rush and nothing requiring any prep work, so we returned on our way back out of town, by which time it was after 6pm and there were cooks on hand.

I was not favorably impressed by Signature Grill’s vada pav, though that may be in part due to my own lack of knowledge. The vada was extremely light, offering little to no resistance when biting into the sandwich. It could have been made with mashed potato flakes for all the texture it provided. The sandwiches came two to an order, haphazardly strewn with diced onion, thin slices of leek, sweet and spicy chutneys, and what appeared to be very fine slivers of dried coconut.

I’ll take a moment now to explain that dried coconut is not actually an out-of-place ingredient for the vada pav, but in a different form. What may be the defining flavor of the vada pav, and I’m not sure this ingredient is regularly used in any other dishes (though I’d love to hear about them if it is!), is a dried garlic chutney made with garlic, chili powder, dried coconut, sesame seeds, and peanuts. It’s fiery orange in color, delicious, and utterly unique.

I didn’t detect any of this on the Signature Grill version of the sandwich, and if that’s what the weird squiggly little off-white bits were supposed to be, I don’t know. Regardless, I wasn’t a fan of the sandwich. I didn’t let that put me off trying other versions though.

Though Chicago’s desi corridor on Devon Avenue is one of the densest concentrations of businesses serving ethnic South Asians in North America, there are many other pockets of Indian population in the area. One such concentration is in Naperville, IL, where Devon Avenue stalwart Patel Brothers recently opened its new flagship market. There are a multitude of vegetarian Indian restaurants in and around Naperville, many of which serve vada pav. I visited a small selection of shops, starting with Gujja’s Chaat House, a small, dimly lit strip mall storefront.

Gujju’s vada pav was, at that moment in my life when I first bit into it, the best vada pav I’d ever had. It was a revelation. The pav, glistening from ghee, dusted with dry garlic chutney, absolutely inundated with chutneys and ghee yet warm and retaining crisp edges from time on the tava. These vada pav again came two to an order, with a dish of tamarind and mint chutneys on the side for dipping. The batata vada itself, pressed flat and bursting at the sides, green from herbs and with visible shreds of actual potato, was itself not as crisp as the pav, but flavorful and hot.

From Gujju’s Chaat House it’s a short drive on Ogden Avenue to the strip mall where the new Patel Brothers market is located. Directly next to the market is HONEST, a vegetarian restaurant chain from the state of Gujarat in India that has expanded to locations in Thailand, Canada, and the US.

HONEST serves a menu of dosas, rice dishes, sandwiches, chaat, and other vegetarian fare, as well as a listing of interesting “juice cocktails” such as a beet, orange juice, and turmeric drink that kind of blew my mind when I tried it.

The pav from HONEST was not as heavily dressed or griddled as that I’d had at Gujju’s, nor the vada smashed as flat. The vada was, however, almost miraculously crisp, with a similarly herbed and textured potato filling. There was a good presence of the garlic chutney in the sandwich, and it was served with a roasted chili and a dish of mint chutney on the side. After the initial stop at Gujju’s it wasn’t as much of a revelation as it could have been, but it was absolutely a good version and Mindy and I plan to stop back in to investigate some other dishes on the menu.

Just across a very busy stretch of Rte 59 from Fox Valley Mall is Mumbai Cafe, an interesting counter-order snack shop with a row of what appear to be richly colored cots along one side of the dining area.

Mumbai Cafe’s menu offers several takes on the vada pav–a butter vada pav, masala vada pav, and a cheese vada pav. So when I ordered vada pav, I was asked whether I wanted the butter version or the masala version. I opted for the masala vada pav, which again came two to an order and was served with wavy masala chips, sliced red onion, and a small pile of dry garlic chutney.

This pav had clear grill lines and was nicely toasted, with a solid presence of both spicy and sweet chutneys in the sandwich. The vada was clearly hand-formed, with a thinner batter covering the potato filling. The extra dry garlic chutney on the side was appreciated, as I am growing slowly addicted to this stuff–I dabbed a few bites of the sandwich into it, and scooped more of it onto the already-spicy masala chips.

Notched into the corner of the Springbook Prairie Forest Preserve is a small strip mall containing Dalicious, yet another attempt at a fast-casual concept for an Indian restaurant, with a cute punny name and the standard fast-casual step-by-step menu–choose your protein, choose your bread, choose your sauces and other accoutrements. I’m not a fan of these types of restaurants in general, and I’m even less fond of it with the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. My favorite Indian and Pakistani dishes have been stews where bone-in meat has cooked slowly for hours, imbuing a sauce with flavor and gelatin. Taking a selection of dry-cooked meat cubes and combining them with sterile sauces has in my experience made for uninteresting results. But Dalicious also offers an a la carte selection of snacks such as the vada pav we stopped in to order.

The vada pav was similar to what we’d had at HONEST and Gujju’s Chaat Palace, though the execution may have been slightly less conscientious. The pav was griddled with garlic chutney, and the vada were competently fried perhaps but appeared to have spent time under a heat lamp as well. They were served on a sectioned plastic plate, with sweet tamarind chutney and spicy green chili chutney, but taken all together, the sandwiches were less effective than anything else we’d seen that day. I was getting tired of vada pavs, truth be told.

Yet we didn’t want to end our Naperville crawl on a low note, and we had just enough daylight left to hit one more spot. We opted for Bollywood Bistro, which we’d driven past twice on our way to some of the other places we visited that day. Entering the store, we found the owners in an animated conversation with some folks who had finished their meal, packed up some leftovers to go, and had stopped to chat on their way out. As they left, the proprietors’ attentions turned to us, and soon they’d learned all about our vada pav crawl, and told us their vision for creating authentic Indian 100% vegetarian cuisine, but also adding their own inventive touches.

In addition to their regular menu of snacks, chaats, and meals, there was a small handwritten lightboard of daily specials, from which Mindy elected to try the Tandoori Paneer Flatbread, a piece of naan with tomatoes, onions, herbs, and fresh Indian cheese baked on top. It was intensely savory, “meaty” yet meatless, a tasty snack for 2 to share.

At Bollywood Bistro, I chose the cheese vada pav this time, which came festooned with a drizzle of slightly sour Indian cheese on and around the sandwich. They also provided me a container of their dry garlic chutney, and threw around some ideas for possible alternative uses of the condiment other than vada pav.

Cheese aside, the presentation of the vada pav here seemed most like what I’d read about from Mumbai, the pav slit partway open with a hinge left on one side, the cut sides of the bread encrusted with the dry garlic chutney and a round unsmashed vada placed inside. Bollywood Bistro was a great stop to finish our Naperville crawl, and we thanked the proprietors, taking a menu and promising to return.

After my day in Naperville, it was going to be a long time before I wanted another vada pav. Yet I felt that I owed it to Chicago to try some of the vada pavs that were offered along Devon’s Desi Corridor. Many of the restaurants in the area are more Pakistani-oriented, serving stewed and tandoori-cooked meat dishes. Yet vada pavs are available at a number of snack shops and vegetarian restaurants along that stretch of road as well. I’m certain, once again, that I did not hit all of them.

We started our day with a visit to Kamdar Plaza, where Mindy and I had stopped a few years ago when searching for the elusive naan sandwich, and I had noticed at the time that vada pav–or “Pav Wada”–was on the menu.

Unfortunately, the vada pav from Kamdar was not great, featuring a generous helping of the garlic chutney on an ungriddled cheap hamburger bun with a warmed but not particularly fresh vada. Better was our order of “aloo tikki,” another type of potato fritter containing peas, bread crumbs, and curry spices, served with the ubiquitous tamarind and mint chutneys on the side.

While disappointing, I have liked other things I’ve bought at Kamdar Plaza in the past, and I’m sure I’ll be back. Also, I was to find that the experience would not be an isolated one that day on Devon, though our second stop provided the best vada pav of the trip.

Uru-Swati is a full-service, sit-down Indian restaurant on Devon known for their paper-thin and crisp giant dosas and other vegetarian cuisine, as well as the motto on their awning, “Healing Through Food.” We sat at a table near the window and ordered only the vada pav.

Served on a brioche-like bun with an abundance of wet chutneys that I found surprising, this was still the best vada pav we found that day, the cut edges of the bun toasted, the vada fried fresh and crisp, full of herbs and nicely textured chunks of potato. I was legitimately sorry to not finish it, but these sandwiches are quite filling and I was not planning a carb overload that day.

Sharing a building with the original Patel Brothers location, Annapurna is a counter-order vegetarian snack shop with the usual array of dosas, chaat, vegetable dishes and snacks, as well as a selection of sweets. Mindy ordered a frozen cardamom, saffron, and pistachio treat while I had yet another vada pav.

This vada was clearly hand-made, with dribs of crisp chickpea batter protruding from the main fritter and a decent level of spice. However, it was served indifferently on a stale pav, bordering on inedibility. I woud certainly order just the vada in the future, or explore other parts of their extensive menu, if there weren’t so many other better spots nearby to return to.

The place that really convinced me to give up, though, to stop eating vada pavs and instead go get some biryani and chicken boti at Khan BBQ, was Sukhadia’s. Another counter-order snack shop, with an extensive selection of sweets, snacks, and refrigerated and dry goods, Sukhadia’s is inviting looking, with an attractive dining area. That vada pav, though.

Once again we are presented with a normal hamburger bun, if anything staler than the pav at Annapurna had been, dried and cracked around the top and sides. In addition to the normal garlic chutney and a large crisp vada, the sandwich was filled with pungent diced onions, glued in place with extra vada filling, whether squeezed from the oversized vada or inexplicably added deliberately I could not tell.

Though I don’t imagine I’ve eaten my last vada pav, I am thankfully done with them for the month. It was interesting to me to see the difference in effort and care between those I tried in Naperville and the ones I had on Devon Avenue. It’s certainly not an apples-to-apples comparison–most of the places I went in Naperville were sit-down type restaurants, against which a fast-service snack shop should probably not be compared. On a different day, another person might try all these places and have a completely different experience as well. Yet I still found it striking that the vegetarian Indian restaurants in Naperville were on average offering a much more consistent and quality product.

Or at least offering more consistently good vada pavs, on these January days I visited. Neither Naperville nor Devon Avenue are particularly convenient for me to visit, and while I know that I’ll be back to Devon Avenue–it’s one of the more interesting streets in Chicago to meander and nosh along–I find myself wanting to revisit HONEST, Bollywood Bistro, even Gujju’s Chaat House in Naperville. Next time, I’ll try something other than the vada pav.