If you, like me, are a fan of the Apple TV+ series Silo, then you probably give fewer props to the wooden acting and slow plotting than the amazing set design. In it, nuclear fallout shelters are subterranean cities that extend 144 levels underground via a spiral staircase and are decorated with a hyper-specific and aesthetically pleasing palette of colors. 

I recently returned to the River North restaurant Indienne for the first time since reviewing it two and a half years ago. About midway through the seven-course tasting menu ($145) I had an aha moment: I felt like I was eating inside the Silo. It wasn’t just the color scheme of dusty rose, taupe, slate gray, and verdigris. It was also the curved-edged portals, the shelving filled with obscure books and knickknacks, the warm glow of indirect lighting. Indienne sets a stage that feels timeless and sequestered from the outside world as a backdrop for Sujan Sarkar’s precise and cleanly articulated Indian fine dining. 

Two years ago I liked it pretty well. The cocktail program played a bigger role but the drinks themselves were sweet and a little silly. The food was lovely to look at but unevenly executed and felt more decorous than soulful. This time, every dish was on point and a showcase for the kind of technique that few restaurants today attempt. If a laser-cut rhombus of layered truffled chicken mousse set dead center in a silky cheese sauce sounds good to you, then this is your special occasion restaurant. 

Now factor in pitch-perfect seasoning built on the freshest-tasting Indian spices — flavors that percolate through a yogurt chaat with a million tiny fried sweet potato threads collapsing at first bite. This is a tasting menu all about taste. My favorite dish — a play on Goan xec xec curry — featured one large, meaty sea scallop seared and sliced through with a corn sauce and caviar. You pull the slivers away, swipe them through all the goodness and…aaah. 

The fact that Indienne prices its standard non-vegetarian meal at $145 — no bargain but a good 50 bucks less than the going rate — only adds to the allure. It has emerged, in my opinion, as one of the top three or four best tasting menus in the city. 

Growing the brand

Sarkar has his hand in a burgeoning group of local restaurants. Sawadesi Cafe in the West Loop makes some really tasty and original coffee drinks and chai, as well as a chili cheese toastie that was one of our favorite bites at Chicago last year. Later this month he will open another restaurant, Nadu, in Lincoln Park where the menu will offer dishes from different regions of India, including southernmost Kerala, which is having a moment thanks to Thattu and the newer Trilokah.

Sarkar is also, with chef Sahil Sethi, a partner at Sifr — the Mediterranean restaurant around the corner from Indienne. I tried this place once when it opened in 2023 and recently returned to sample the $60 tasting menu, a new option that offers four courses with a few choices along the way. 

TL;DR: Did not love. 

The first course that everyone receives is the best: a rich, creamy green chickpea hummus with a ballooned pita hot from the oven and a dish of house pickles. Yumz. 

For the second course, a couple of wiggly scallops (not the same quality as around the corner at Indienne) came with an $8 upcharge, a little too much char debris from the grill, and a lovely pepper sauce. We liked it better than the underseasoned lamb kebab set over tzatziki. 

The third course was a double bust: first, a dry and flavorless branzino fillet that seemed indistinguishable from the individually quick frozen ones I bought once at Wild Fork; then, a desiccated chicken leg over a pilaf screaming with saffron and scattered with pomegranate seeds and coconut shreds. Somehow this was called “fasenjan” — the Persian stew of chicken in a walnut-pomegranate molasses gravy. The Ayatollah would like a few words with the chef. 

Sticky date pudding for dessert ended things on a high note, but I’m only going back for hummus. 

Also one note to the overworked person at the host stand: Don’t leave us standing in front of you for over two minutes and then greeting us with “What’s the name?” without ever looking up. First impressions matter.