The Clove

-Grubbing in Chicagoland
Excellent Indo-Chinese (and more) in Glenview

The Clove is a relatively new South Asian restaurant in the Northern suburbs but it also has a bit of history in the North Shore area. It opened in Glenview last summer but the guy behind The Clove used to run now closed The Red Hot Chili Pepper in Evanston which I visited Pre-Pandemic. 

Recently Opened in Glenview

The menu is split into two - there’s an Indian-Nepali and an Indo-Chinese menu. This is fairly common but what’s not is having two separate kitchens (and cooks) for each menu. The Clove is located in a large strip mall so there’s a nice amount of space inside including a full bar which along with the food is 25% off on Mondays. The Indo Chinese food at The Red Hot Chili Pepper was the best I’d had in Chicagoland so I had The Clove pretty high on my list but it took some time to find myself out that way. Well that recently happened not once but twice in the span of a week so I got to try a pretty nice portion of the menu and as I suspected it would be - the Indo-Chinese food here is excellent.

Gobi Manchurian

Indo-Chinese food is a blend of Chinese style cooking techniques with Indian spices and chiles. It comes from the Chinese community that was living in India back when it was said to be created in the 1970’s by Nelson Wong, the same guy said to create Gobi Manchurian. There’s a set of dishes you’ll see at every Indo-Chinese restaurant whether it’s in India, Pakistan, or the suburbs of Chicago and Gobi Manchurian is perhaps the most popular of them all. Crispy fried cauliflower is wok tossed in a spicy soy-garlic sauce but despite the name it has nothing to do with Manchuria in China. It’s said to be invented in India in the mid 1970s at China Garden in Mumbai. I’ve had my fair share of Gobi Manchurian over the years and the version served at The Clove sits at the top my list. First off it’s a dry version so it’s not gloppy from a sauce and it’s got a really nice spicing to it while the fry job is also done well. Resulting in a crisp and tasty product. I would highly recommend starting with an order. 

Dry Chili Chicken at The Clove

Chili Chicken is another dish you’ll find on every Indo-Chinese restaurants menu. It too comes served wet or dry depending on the spot but at The Clove they do both. Again I’m a dry guy when it comes to Indo style chili chicken. This can be traced directly to Yueh Tung in Toronto where they serve a legendary chili chicken that I still think about now and then (fyi the Indo-Chinese food in Toronto aka “Hakka Chinese” is as good as it gets). To me dry is better because it’s crisper and tends to be more intense as dry is the preferred way in places like Mumbai. I’ve been searching for something similar to the version served at Yueh Tung for years now and the chili chicken at The Clove is the closest I’ve found up to now. This is in big part due to it being dry when most spots serve it wet but it’s also got great flavor from the ginger and chiles, speaking of which if you order it hot they bring the heat.  

Manchow Soup

Just like its American-Chinese food cousin, Indo-Chinese is popular to eat in large groups. Usually you order for the table and get a few apps plus entrees and sides. For the former Manchow Soup is another one of those standard Indo-Chinese dishes. The soup has a few defining features including a soy-based broth, strong use of garlic and ginger, and lots of chili flavor. It’s thickened with cornstarch and packed with cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, and a variety of other vegetables plus chicken, tofu and other stuff depending on the recipe. Supposedly the name has no meaning other than to sound Chinese. The Manchow soup at The Clove is really flavorful and filled with a ton of crisp vegetables leading me to believe it’s made to order as they wouldn’t be that crisp if it was made ahead. The only thing missing was the crispy noodles on top that typically come with Manchow but all the crunchy vegetables made up for the lack of crunchy noodles (note: they were included on my return visit). 

Hakka Style Noodles at The Clove

The Hakka noodles at previously mentioned Red Hot Chili Pepper in Evanston were among my favorite noodles in town and they’re just as good at The Clove. They get a ton of wok hei in the flavor. You can add chicken or tofu but I like it as is as it already comes with a ton of crisp veggies. I haven’t gotten to try the fried rice bc I can’t pass on the Hakka Noodles but I’m guessing it’s just as good if it’s cooked the same way with lots of wok hei given off by an extra hot wok. Momo Dumplings aren’t Indian-Chinese but the Nepali and Tibetan style dumplings pair well with the rest of the Indo-Chinese food here. I don’t think of Chicago as a great Momo town but the chicken ones at The Clove are as good as I’ve had in the city or suburbs. The wrappers are thin and soft and the chutney is on point. 

Chicken Momo Dumplings

On my initial visit I was with my wife who really likes Dal Makhani and any type of seafood curry. I'm also a fan of these things so we got an order of the Dal and decided to try the Goan style snapper curry alongside it. The former was good though maybe not great, but it tasted even better the next day. The ladder was really good. The coconut based gravy had a sneaky hot spice to it and the fish was perfectly cooked making them the perfect match for each other in the same way The Clove is the prefect match for Glenview. The space is large and clean while the food is fresh and flavorful. 

Dal Makhani and Goan Snapper Curry

The Clove Indian & Nepali Cuisine
1827 Waukegan Rd
Glenview, IL 60025
(847) 999-0862
Website