-Grubbing in Chicagoland
Five of a Kind: Pakistani Sandwich Shuffle
Middle Eastern and South Asian tea and coffee houses have really taken off in the Chicagoland area where we have large populations with connections to both regions. So I read this is part of a broader shift in U.S. beverage and social culture. This trend combines immigrant cultural influence with changing American tastes, community-oriented spaces, and evolving preferences around tea drinking. Tea has shifted from another drink to an experience, this as alcohol sakes continue to slide. I’ve noticed quite a few of these places in the western suburbs where there’s already a good number of South Asian restaurants. I also noticed a good chunk of them were Pakistani and also offered sandwiches and such which is much more up my alley than tea so I set out to check some of these spots out and in doing so got a little more familiar with Pakistan’s interesting sandwich culture.
Chai Ho Jai (Naperville)
Chai Ho Jai is a casual South Asian Tea Room in Naperville. It serves flavorful chai drinks and desi style comfort food - a mix between traditional Pakistani/Indian street flavors and café style snacks. It opened to big crowds back towards the start of 2024. I visited one Sunday afternoon and it was packed with families. Chai is the big draw especially Karak Doodh Patti Chai, Mumbai Cutting Chai, and a Pink Kashmiri Chai brewed with spices like cardamom and saffron. I’m not a big tea (or coffee) guy but you know I’m always on the prowl for good food so I stopped in to try a Special Anda Wala Bun Kabab. This is a Karachi street food classic made with a dal patty (Split chickpeas) in a whipped egg coating and seared on a tawa and slathered with green chutney with heaps of red onion, tomato, cucumber in a toasted white bun. I don’t have a ton of previous experience with Bun Kebab but this one was similar to a Vada Pav which is a potato patty sandwich in India. Sometimes Bun Kebab is made with beef but the ones here are vegetarian. I also noticed how every table had paratha which they list as a signature item. It’s flaky and buttery and popular to eat with fresh sugar and raw honey.
Bun Kebab and Parotta at Chai Ho Jai
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Niwaala Street Food (Lombard)
Next we head off to Lombard to Niwaala Street Food. The first of three spots in the area. It’s not a tea house but places like Niwaala are becoming common in cities across the States. They mix South Asian and Americanized dishes. Picture quesadillas, sandwiches, and wraps filled with popular South Asian flavors. They have options like a chopped Chapli Kebab sub and a smashed Chapli Kebab slider. I tried the ladder as I love the disc shaped kebabs popular near he Pakistan and Afghanistan border and would gladly return to try something else next time I’m in the area. I was intrigued with the Makhani sub which is described as “ground beef drenched in our house-made butter chicken sauce, white cheese and onions”. I picture it as some sort of chopped cheese and Sloppy Joe hybrid.
Chapli Smash Slider at Niwaala Street Food
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Addah (Lombard)
The idea of Addah began on Devon at Usmania which is owned by the same family. They dreamed of a spot that brought the lively streets of Pakistan and India to the Chicagoland area. The menu is made up of popular tea drinks and street food favorites from both South Asian countries. Halwa Puri, Haleem, and falooda are most commonly mentioned in the Google reviews. I visited a year or so ago when they first opened and tried a few of their sliders which seemed popular based on what others were ordering that day. I think they may have expanded the menu since then but I was particularly impressed with the Hunter Beef Slider which comes with fries for $4.99. Hunter beef is a Pakistani style of cured, salted meat, similar to corned beef or pastrami, with roots tracing back to British colonial era in the Indian subcontinent. The Hunter Beef sandwiches I’ve tried over the years have been a bit different from spot to spot. At Addah it’s made from a stringier cut than typical corned beef but it basically melts in your mouth while giving off a ton of flavor from the spices.
Hunter Beef Slider at Addah
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Cafe Bethak (Lombard)
Last stop in Lombard is Cafe Bethak. This Pakistani style halal cafe serves chai along with snacks and sweets. It’s a relaxing space where families can sit and sip tea and just kind of hang around for a little bit. They even have a little play section with toys for the kids. I stopped in here for their Chicken Club Sandwich which is a double decker sandwich made with pan seared chicken plus omelette, cheese, mayo, lettuce, and tomato. Club Sandwiches like this are very popular in Pakistan but they’re never made with bacon for obvious reasons. I returned here to try the Viral Paratha Smash Burgers which are big in Dubai and starting to make their way onto menus in the states. The Tribune listed it among their favorite dishes of 2025 but the extra compact previously frozen patty was a big letdown.
Chicken Club Sandwich at Cafe Bethak
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Halal Smash Burger & Phillies (Chicago)
For our last stop we head into the city where Halal Smash Burger and Phillies has two locations. One is up north in West Ridge while the one I visited is in Lincoln Square. Smash burgers, cheesesteaks, chopped cheese and spicy fried chicken sandwiches are all very American as is the idea of a guy from Pakistan serving them up. As the name suggests they do smash burgers and Cheesesteaks here but I stopped by to try a Zinger Burger which is what they call a spicy chicken sandwich in Pakistan. The history of the Zinger Burger traces back to when KFC put a spicy chicken sandwich on their menu in Trinidad & Tobago. The Zinger as it was called was very well received and started to appear in other countries too but none of them adopted it quite like Pakistan did. KFC opened its first Pakistan location in 1997 in Lahore and the Zinger quickly became one of its most popular items, but it didn’t just stay a KFC product, it became a category of sandwich in of itself. A Zinger in Lahore is as common as a Chicago style hot dog in Chicago, they can be found all over. Same goes for the States where fast food grills like this are often ran by people from Pakistan. The Zinger is straightforward from spot to spot in that it’s a typical spicy chicken sandwich. So it depends on the quality of the chicken and breading and spicing and most spots that serve these seem to do a good job with all three things and that includes the version I tried at Halal Smash Burgers and Phillies on Western.
Zinger Burger at Halal Smash Burgers & Phillies
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See ya next time @chibbqking