Bar Goa, an Indian Restaurant & Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Chicago

Nutshell Statement: I will go there again to try some other things out.

Fantastic concept. For my Indian friends, if you have an open mind you will appreciate this. It is a mix of fusion and Indian food.

The space itself is cute and well setup. The turn off for me was the tables being so close together (again, this is me) and the music was very loud. Could have been a few DBs lower but again, it is a cocktail bar/restaurant. Even so, I do want to try some other things here.

Like a lot of places now a days, establishments are having very few workers serving a large number of people and while our server wasn't necessarily the most friendly or efficient, I do feel that lack of friendliness and efficiency may have to do with how many tables she had to handle.

FYI: They do add a 4% service fee which you can remove (I always do as most establishments pocket that; I'd rather take care of my server).

Very weak drinks

The samosa bomb; if you can mentally remove the word samosa from this dish and just think of it as some kind of a cheese appetizer, you might be happier (I wasn't able to). The flavor was good with Amul cheese (Indians will LOVE that) but I just couldn't get the word samosa out of my head. The others we were with did enjoy it a lot though.

Goan Krazy Sampler: This consisted of 2 butter chicken sliders (think of vada pav but instead of the vada, you've got the butter chicken), 4 wings and peri peri fries. The sliders were really good. The chicken was cooked beautifully; flavorful and juicy. The chicken wings on the other hand; they were not terrible but they lacked flavor. The fact that they were overcooked didn't help either. The peri peri fries were good but not fresh out of the oil. I am certain they had been sitting on the plate for quite some time before we were served (again, I think this has to do with the fact that they are understaffed).

We had the malai broccoli. That was a GREAT dish. Again, it's made with Amul cheese fondue. What's not to like about Amul cheese. FYI: Just like what Kraft is to Americans, Amul is to Indians (wanted to share the context with my American friends). The broccoli was cooked just right, had the right crunch and soaked up the Amul cheese flavor beautifully.

The tiger shrimp gravy was EXCEPTIONAL. It was a coconut based gravy with curry leaves and various spices and raisins. It was a wonderful balance of sweet, spice and heat. When you have the gravy on its own, the heat does hit you but it's not the kind of heat that hits you right away. It follows the other flavors and comes in later and hits you. The shrimp while the size was good (we were told it came with 4 pieces but it only had 3), it was overcooked. The gravy was the winner here but the shrimp was an utter disappointment.

Chicken Malai Tikka: This one I have very mixed feelings about (again I think it's partly in my head). The chicken was cooked BEAUTIFULLY. I mean soft, tender and it absorbed the flavor of the Amul cheese fondue beautifully. The sauce itself was great too. However, I did not like the combination of the two and I don't think they go well together. Part of the issue I think is the name 'malai tikka' that I couldn't get out of my head. That with a Amul cheese fondue; not good. However, I'm still going to encourage y'all to try it out. This may indeed be a great dish but just not for my palette.

Mushroom fried rice: This was a great palette cleanser. The flavors were very well blended and balanced. The mushrooms were beautifully cooked.

Grilled Paneer: I think this was THE BEST dish among all of them. It's a ghee roast so there is a heavy use of spices (not heat). The paneer was super soft, succulent and FRESH. This dish I would have in a heart beat again.

We ordered the Malabar paratha and garlic naans. The naans were honestly a disappointment. The Malabar paratha on the other hand were EPIC.

In conclusion, there were a few goods here and a couple misses (overcooked shrimp, incorrect representation of the number of shrimps,...

This was our third visit to the restaurant, and unfortunately, it will probably be our last.

To begin with, the quality of the food was far below expectations. The chili paneer which should have been a flavorful and satisfying dish, was dry and rubbery. It seemed as though it had been made in advance and simply reheated when we ordered it, resulting in a lack of freshness and poor texture. The paneer makhni sauce was another letdown. Instead of being rich, creamy, and balanced, it was overly tangy and lacked depth of flavor. The combination of spices and cream was missing, making it feel more like a poorly executed version of the dish. The saffron cheesecake, which we were excited to try, was disappointingly sweet with no trace of saffron flavor. Instead of a delicate infusion of saffron, it tasted like a generic, overly sugary dessert with no complexity.

We also had high expectations for the filter coffee Unfortunately, the coffee was served at room temperature, and it lacked the bold, aromatic flavors typical of a true South Indian filter coffee. It was a far cry from the authentic experience we had hoped for.

However, the worst part of the visit was the service, which was both frustrating and uncomfortable. The manager came to our table twice, and each time, it felt more awkward than reassuring. The first time, she introduced herself and made an effort to ensure we would have a wonderful dining experience. Unfortunately, this was far from the case. The waiter who was handling our table seemed overly eager to rush us, almost as if we were being hurried through our meal. At one point, he tried to push us into ordering our entrees when we hadn't even finished placing our initial orders, making us feel rushed and uncomfortable.

The second time the manager approached our table, she was even more forceful. She informed us that we needed to leave because there were people waiting for a table. We hadn't even finished our meal, and we certainly hadn’t been given a chance to enjoy our experience. This was not only rude but also completely unprofessional. It made us feel like we were an inconvenience rather than valued customers.

Overall, the combination of lackluster food and poor service made this dining experience extremely disappointing. After three visits, we had hoped for a better, more consistent experience, but it’s clear that this restaurant does not prioritize quality or customer satisfaction. Sadly, this will most likely be...

I still remember this place being the Slurping Turtle, and I don't recall when GOA came to but if you don't care paying downtown prices for food worth half of the that, this is a good alternative to Vermilion down the street. Don't get me wrong the food tastes great like they should, especially the Goa fish curry which is the local specialty. The fried rice, both the Pawn and Chorizo and the Mushroom, were made perfectly in terms of flavor and spice level, just the right amount of moisture without drowning the rice with the sauce, and the rice is not stuck together, that is not very easy to control especially if you are busy. The paneer and the hummus were just ok for me. The clientele is mostly Indian, about 80% when we visited. There is a DJ there from time to time but plays Spanish hippop which is really odd. I think there are good selections of Bollywood music available. We sat at the table right underneath the stairs to the second level. In the beginning we didn't really pay to much of attention but towards the end of the meal there are more people going up and down the stairs, which means everytime someone goes up or down, they are shuffling dirt on your food and your face! Good thing we finished early so we left. I strongly recommend the owner to put up some kind of clear shield blocking of that section of the railing so the table underneath is not exposed to traffic. Also I am not sure what the surcharge is for, I don't see any precautionary measures there. No server wears mask, no social distancing in terms of table space, no special cleaning. The surcharge allowed by restaurants is meant to make up for the extra expenses associated with COVID, now that is over, you need to stop charging people already. The service is very prompt though and the dishes were timed perfectly, but that has nothing to do with...