Marigold

The only reason they get 2 stars was because the bartender was super awesome.
The food was like minus 2…
The bartender. 5 stars.
so it balanced out to the 2 stars.
First, I ordered slider. they were so burnt and dry. I couldn’t even take more than one bite. I asked for a sauce. and then upon closer inspection. the other two sliders were burnt even worse than the one I bite into.
I was worried the kitchen would spite in anything else. and said as much to the bartender. her ordered my replacement without letting them know how crappy the first dish was. or so we «think».
The drinks were spot on. and we also got a bottle of Pinot Nior. yet even the second dish after three glasses of wine was just not even worth it. Chicken Tikki kebobs. WAYYYYYY too spicey. and dude. I heart Indian food.
This place just sucks at food… and in Andersonville. I’m still shocked at how crappy the food was.
I have never written a review RIGHT when I got home. but here it is.
If you want drinks. awesome.
If you want food. uh. WALK ON BY. there are
lenty of WAY better places.

I love Marigold and can’t wait to go back! I love the staff and the food is out of this world. Get one of everything!

I am a fan of Indian food and I had the Saag Paneer and Murgh Makhni. Paired with the garlic Naan, it was a really tasty meal and I really enjoyed it. The crowd was nice and the place is quiet so you have a chance to have a nice meal and converse without having to yell over loud music or a bustling environment. I’ll be back.

We were visiting in Chicago for a few days and followed KT and bf to Marigold for some Indian. They had been there a few times before and liked it. We had a very good meal and excellent service. I would certainly go back and am a little jealous that they have such places that they can walk to in Andersonville.
Marigold is described as «concept Indian» which sounds like «modern Mexican» and I was expecting things to get fru-​fru. They did not however, stray from good Indian traditions. KT and bf had had the fried calamari appetizer once before and loved it so that was a definite for all of us. Ms T and I eat fried calamari in St Louis all the time, mostly in Italian restaurants and this is much better. I liked the fried onions mixed in with it and eating it with the spicy chutney was perfect. Great choice and highly recommended.
For sharing at the table we ordered Rogan Josh, Dal Makhani and a Seafood special of the evening. All were very good. The Rogan Josh was more brothy than I have had, but this is perfect with plenty of rice. I always like to try dal makhani to see how each place makes it. This was a little more tart and less loaded with cream than some and was very good with the other dishes. The seafood special had shrimp, mussels and calamari all in a coconut milk sauce, sort of like a Thai dish but not sweetened as a Thai chef would. It was delicious.
We broke from the usual naan and ordered the chile spiced parathas with paneer which were a nice change although the chile is pretty mild. I love Indian cuisine but am not qualified to judge. All in all I would definitely return.

Update: The owner called me today to apologize for the lack of communication. He claimed Jennnifer and I were the only patrons who claimed to have gotten ill that night. I was assured they took the appropriate steps and tested the suspect meat. He was very kind and offered sincere apologies and asked if there was anything he could do to make it up to me/​us. Although I can’t/won’t go to Merigold ever again — I will say that an attempt at appropriate amends were made.

Boyfriend and I dined at Marigold a few weekends ago, our first dinner out as official new Andersonville residents.
I had not had Indian in a while and was not too thrilled to hear the waitress say this was «concept» Indian, or fusion Indian. Whatever that means, I just want good, classic Indian food! Well regardless of what they call themselves, Marigold is definitely good and worth going back to.
They are on the pricier side, which I will chalk up to the reality of living in glamorous Andyville. Because of price we kind of ordered entrees that were their cheaper options, the Chicken Tiki, which I normally would never personally order, chicken on the bone just ain’t my thing, and the Saag Paneer, a personal fave. Both were very good, but the Saag was awesome for sure. I judge harshly when it comes to the Saag and it was darn good. The real show stopper was the appetizer though, we got the calamari bhaji. I have never seen calamari on an Indian menu. May I say it was one of the greatest impulse orders I’ve ever had. Calamari with Indian spices and fresh cilantro and a spicy chutney, masala dip is OH MY GOD SO SO SO FREAKING GOOD. The chickpea flour breading on them was so light and crispy too, it was amazing. No way I can eat regular ol’ calamari anymore and enjoy it.
The only misstep we had was the gulab jamun. I really wanted something sweet after all the savory but something was very much not right with these balls of dough. I don’t know if they just prepare them differently than what I’ve eaten my entire life (and its been a long life of gulab jamun, let me tell you) but they were hard, like undercooked, or maybe very very overcooked, or OLD? and they were cold, I have always had them served warm. One bite and I thought, Oh heavens NO. So I did what I have never done in my life. I sent it back. I felt so bad about it I was apologizing to the waitress. Either way she was cool about it and took it off the bill. So I was happy.
We will definitely be back to Marigold. This might be a generous 4 stars but 3 stars just isn’t quite enough, especially when I think about that calamari bhaji. If you like calamari you must try it.

Here’s what you need to know about Marigold: It’s really good. I don’t know what exactly I ate because I’m not familiar with Indian food, but I loved it all. I enjoy trying foods that don’t taste like anything I’ve eaten before and the food here definitely falls under that category (Order the Mirchi Shrimp appetizer — trust me). The question now is whether I like Indian food or I just like Marigold’s Indian food.

Visiting friends in Chicago and had a great dinner here. Wait staff and bartender very friendly and willing to please. Food had really good flavor and great drinks.

This review is mostly for Marigold, in that I hope the management reads these reviews and responds, and makes positive changes. First of all, the food is amazing, so it has that going for it. We also had good service, so that was nice, too.
But, I have an issue with everything since it moved from the Uptown location, and I think I’m not alone. The Uptown location was obviously not in the safest area of Chicago, but the restaurant space was very nice and aesthetically pleasing. Marigold brought our business to the Uptown neighborhood. At the Uptown location, we loved the food, the (free) appetizer of the Poppadom chips, and the nice environment. We were repeat customers.
In contrast, the Andersonville restaurant is missing something. It now charges for the Poppadom – I understand there is a «business» component of decisions, but we CAME to (the Uptown) Marigold over the 100s of indian restaurants in the city because that was one of the things we thought was «cool,» like a Mexican restaurant addition to its menu. We also liked the various dishes (plateware) and presentation at the Uptown location. I used to describe it as «Indian food meets Crate and Barrel.» I also loved the American/​Indian fusion menu, including the spicy crème brûlée.
Contrast to this visit, and the poppadom is now an extra charge (our waitress didn’t even offer it to us), the dishes did not have the presentation component at all, and the desserts were not enticing whatsoever – carrots? (which admittedly was a very good dessert, but you say crème brûlée vs. carrots, and count the number of tables that order dessert…) I also think the ambience in the space that used to be Olé Olé needs some work. I think the restaurant should be darker, and a better «mood» needs to be created – tablecloths, even the paper covers that go on top of tablecloths I think would make a nice difference? I am not a fan of the light wood I think.
Disclosures – I live in the Andersonville neighborhood, and I’m of Indian descent – I WANT this restaurant to succeed! Please consider these suggestions!

Okay, first off I love Indian food. I lived in London for many years and ate as much great indian food as I could from Brick Lane. In the states, it’s been harder to find good indian food, but there are awesome places. Unfortunately, Marigold is not one of them. I have been to both locations and both times, the main problem for me is this: they try to modernize indian food in an effort to be trendy and it backfires. The food is really average. An indian restaurant that is located so close to Devon ave needs to step it up.
On a different note, I also experienced the overbearing waiter that others have. The guy clearly didn’t know good indian food as was evidenced by the fact he came over every 3 mins saying «this is the best indian food you have ever had, right?» He brought over the popadums, but not the sauce until we had finished them.
If you want good Indian food, get yourself down to Cumin in Bucktown or anywhere on Devon Ave.

No, the service was okay, the food was not okay. The bill was way too much, $ 60 was too much for such a mediocre meal. I am so glad I have a favorite Indian restaurant in Warrenville, IL as my favorite with my 3 feet wide dosas!

Beautiful space, mediocre everything else. The menu is sad. For vegetarians, you have 3 options of Lentils served different ways, 1 option of chick peas, and only 1 other option. Spice level was insane, and only meant you couldn’t actually taste your food. The chick peas in my thali were definitely canned. The place isn’t cheap either, so I think this place might only be good for meeting friends for drinks at their cute bar. Other than that, I hope they step it up and work on a more creative menu. Indian food is my favorite and I’ve had a LOT of it; just wouldn’t rank this as true indian cooking based on the overall taste and presentation of my dish. Service was fine /​friendly and prompt.

Awesome murgh mahkni

Good ambiance, good friendly attentive service. A restaurant that fits well with the other neighborhood restaurants.
But to me, it fails in the most important category for a restaurant — the food! the menu gives a variety of choice but the taste! The best description i can come up with is that the food tasted like airline food. very bland, very tasteless. The chicken tikka tasted exactly like the kalonji chicken — basically grilled chicken with some spices/​sauce
rubbed on it after the grilling process. Even the mint chutney that our chicken tikka appetizer came with had no taste — it tasted suspiciously like the stuff i get from grocery stores on Devon. Overall definitely over priced foe the quality and quantity of food.
A good place to go once. If you are not from India or haven’t had good Indian food before (to compare) you may like the food here. It certainly was not awful by any means.
P. S. something strange — when they bring out the entrees, they don’t give you dinner plates, they just replace the (much) smaller appetizer plates if they are used!

Lets start with the positives. The food was amazing and the Saag Paneer was one of the best I’ve ever had and garlic naan is always a personal favorite. The mango chutney was also pretty spectacular. My friend and I stopped in early on a Saturday after a 20 mile bike up to the Baha’i temple and bake again. It was only 4:00 pm and we were ridiculously hungry, but it did mean that there was no wait and we had the place almost to ourselves.
The issues. Everything has a charge; rice, naan, another basket of chips, each individual chutney, etc. I mean, you kind of expect it, but when our waiter delivered those chips thingies and chutneys without our ordering them, we assumed they were complimentary, like the Indian version of chips and salsa. We were surprised to see them appear on the bill.
Which brings us to the last thing, the waiter. I am sure he meant well, and he was perfectly polite, but he was so intrusive and overbearing. I understand that we were pretty much the only people in there, but he made us crazy. If someone could be overly helpful, he was it. He stopped to ask us how everything was about every 3 minutes and when he wasn’t at the table interrupting our conversation, he hovered nearby, making sure our water never got more then a half inch below the top of our glass. In fact, once I accidentally made eye contact with him, and he came bounding over to make sure we didn’t need anything. For the love of God, just let us eat.
I am hoping that they are simply working out the kinks since they are still fairly new and perhaps that waiter can get some in-​service training. I would come again simply because the food was really really good.

I wasn’t sure to expect when coming here. I don’t have a lot of experience with Indian food — but really enjoyed my meal here.
The service was excellent which I think is key — if you are unfamiliar with the spices and foods listed on the menu. Our server explained everything well — and we were happy with all choices. However suggested as a «sharing» menu– my party decided to each order our own dishes. We had very little left overs — 4 ppl. each ordered their own main dish and we had (3) apps. I’d love to come back and try some of the other dishes.
I also liked that laid back style — some ppl. dressed and some not so much. No community seating which is always a plus in my book. We didn’t have reservations and were seated right away on a Saturday night.

Yay for an Indian restaurant in Andersonville!
Indian cuisine is one of my favorites. I don’t eat it often enough, because the spouse has only recently decided that he likes Indian food, and I don’t want to push my luck. Even so I always cross my fingers and hold my breath when he orders. A bad experience could set us back months! Happily, he enjoyed his dinner at Marigold, perhaps even more than I did mine.
The menu seemed a bit limited, at least in vegetarian options. Some of my favorites were missing. (No bhindi masala?! Pout!)
For starters we got a basket of papadum and a couple of samosas. Both were good. I ordered a couple of extra chutneys to go with them. Good move. They have a spicy, roasted mango chutney that I could eat with a spoon.
For entrees, spouse ordered the Murg Makhni and loved it: flavorful, but not too spicy. My chana masala was okay, not great. I’ll probably order differently next time. Yes, rice and naan are extra. But that seems to be the trend at a lot of the Indian places I’ve been to lately. And they aren’t that much extra. For dessert we shared a bowl of kheer. Super yummy and more than enough for two!
Service was great, and the restaurant itself is warm and inviting. Cocktail list looked intriguing, and really well priced for Chicago.
All in all, a pleasant experience. While I’m not going to abandon the lunch buffets up on Devon, I think that this is a great «date night» option. It’s a nice to have in them in the neighborhood.

Love their take on Indian food. Enjoyed our cocktails. All of the dishes had great seasoning without being overly spiced.
Minor complaints… The waiter told us that they had begun to emphasize lighter wines as they thought that was a better complement the spicy food. At the time of this review, we felt that the wines were quite heavy.
Additionally the waiter made a number of misstatements about wine in general (for example talked about the amount of «sugar» in a semi dry white that in fact had no residual sugar). I understand that not everyone can be experts on the subject but these misstatements annoy those with more experience, and mislead those with less.
Those minor annoyances aside we are happy to have Marigold up and running again. The food was spot on, and the new interior is beautiful.

The food was fantastic, espcially the duck. The server was and nice and prompt. My friends and I had a geat time.

The Indian cuisine at Marigold is a welcome addition to the expanding global menu offered by the restaurants in Andersonville.
On my first visit, I ordered the Chicken Tikka and the Saag Paneer with Garlic Naan. The chicken was flavorful, charred, and cooked to perfection. It also came with a tasty cilantro sauce that complimented the spices.
The Saag Paneer was the main attraction. This creamy spinach dish is subtle and hearty. It tasted amazing on the Garlic Naan.
While the food was delicious, I wish the portions were more generous. The Naan had to be ordered separately from the Saag Paneer. The Saag Paneer should at least be served with a bowl of rice. Also, the menu offers family portions of the entrees but nothing smaller. I felt like the menu was better suited for a large group of diners rather than two.
Overall, it’s great to have an Indian restaurant in Andersonville and the quality of the food trumps any problems I have with the menu.