Red Tomatoes Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Elk Grove Township

We went in for Northwest Restaurant week and it was a deceitful experience. This restaurant was advertised as buy 1 entree, get 2nd for $1 but once there we were told the advertised offer is only good if you also buy an appetizer and also extra bread and extra rice -we are rice intolerant by the way- what we explain but oh well. Not sure if he explained this when we came in and informed we came for the event -we understood food comes with rice and bread- but we learnt that for sure once we were able to place the order after 45 min waiting time to be asked. Place had only 4 and 2 guests eating there at that time and when we left 11 total. The owner is also the only server and he was coming and going non stop. . We were able to order after 45. We called to him to serve us. People who came way after us, were served earlier than us. Once we ordered we got food in a couple of minutes so it is very suspicious how fast it was. Place. Once you open street door, it is a secluded space before you open restaurant room door and bathrooms are in that secluded space so fragrances and other smells are there and once in main room in restaurant a very strong food smell. Not an issue for us but it is stronger than what we have met in other Indian food restaurants in the area. We seated and I noticed among the food smell some fragrance, I was reacting.. I'm disabled from severe fragrance/chemical sensitivity with respiratory and neurological symptoms and despite we tried to make sure there is nothing I might react. I did. I looked around and didn't find anything until how lucky we placed order and see right there at top of the wall a nasty plug in. We needed to leave to avoid more issues later and explained this to owner/server if we could cancel order-1 min since we ordered- and he said too late but he put a table in the same room and distance just different angle from the plug in what is not a difference for someone with MCS so we asked again if we could take the food with us home what he wasn';t happy about but gave in.I felt he wasn't understanding about this health condition and how toxic those plug ins are. Place looks clean and food tasted good but we didn't eat the rice. We mixed it with pasta due to rice intolerance at home. One of the entrees came with bread and rice and we paid for $1 for second entree and also for extra bread and rice plus appetizer so will get 2nd entree for $1 but we never got the extra bread and rice as we paid. Restaurant doesn't have individually or paper menus but a big wall menu without prices at the entrance so it is hard to remember what you want. One of our entrees was mild spicy but once home it was very spiciy for us like the spicy entree. We used the website menu on our phones to figure out some costs but we were not sure about the bread and rice. It is sad this restaurant didn't honor their own advertising offer on the platform for this event and we were forced to order more stuff just to save a few dollars but we ended up paying the same as without the fake offer. It was deceitful and I hope the plug in/ins are removed for better indoor air quality and for people with bad health reactions to them. I spent the night with bad heart palpitations , insomnia and fatigue due to it. But unlike other reviews, we never got any issue with the food. It seems food buffet is just 7-10 items to choose from. So be careful because the offer is not real as advertised. I attached pic of the advertising and thenyou eneded up forced to order 3 more things. Becasue it was late to go and cook at home, if not, we...

How do I start. The immediate smell when you walk in the restaurant doors makes you want to throw up. We almost turned out the door and ran away. But holding my breath until we got to the table, the smell got better. The water cup on my table still had a lipstick stain on it. The water pitcher they give you has no ice and is obviously tap water. The only server is the owner, which is fine. He was nice and pleasant and attentive to our needs. He even smiled at us when he was speaking with us at the end of our visit. The menu has a large variety of yummy options. Our curries were fantastic. We ordered naan that was fresh and delicious. The masala tea was piping hot and also yummy. The rice however… we found out when we paid that it was “special rice for special people”. Whatever that means. It was as if they treated basmati rice as an ice cream sundae. I’m talking walnuts, almonds, other nuts and peas, dried currants and even a CHERRY. A maraschino Cherry. It was very strange and didn’t taste great with our entree options. Turns out Kashmiri Pulao is what it is but it’s not what we ordered and it wasn’t even exactly what the dish traditionally is. He asked us if we wanted rice, not this Kashmiri pulao. We finished our meal, the entrees were great, minus the rice. We got boxes to take the leftovers back to the hotel and paid at the register. The rice dish was $11! An upgraded dish that we didn’t ask for and didn’t realize at the time what we were getting. What other reviewers were saying a dinner for two costed $30-50, ours was $72! He also didn’t charge us for one masala tea and charged us for a more expensive curry that we didn’t receive. Overall, we were overcharged $1. Not a huge deal but still not exactly a customer friendly way of doing it.

Other than the service and food, the atmosphere was strange. It’s an A-frame style building, doesn’t look Indian at all. A building is a building but it’s very unsuspecting for what it was. The inside was dark, nice dark colored wood, tables were set up nice, the lighting was Christmas icicles and a tv. Little natural lighting.

It was an “okay” experience. I would order to-go with NORMAL white rice next time! But I’d definitely come back for that...

Stay with me here. This is going to be a roundabout way to my review. I rarely use my car. I work in the city so I take public transportation to get to work. Separate from my car, we have a family car which we use most of the time. My car is a stick so since nobody else in the household knows how to drive stick, it rarely gets any use. It just sits there, sometimes for months at a time. It came time to renew my license plate sticker. My car failed for a multitude if reasons, all a result of my car sitting for too long before taking it in. I was instructed to drive my car in the city and on the highway for several days before trying again. So I did. Red Tomatoes was one destination of the many excursions I took in my car to get highway miles. Elk Grove Village? Never been there as far as I knew, but I needed a drive and I hadn't had Indian food in forever. We walked in and we're seated immediately. The menus, for us dine in patrons, was a takeout menu. This worried us. We expected at least your standard plastic bound menus. We ordered a few items and then our waiter asked if it was our first time. We said yes and he got excited. Turns out he was the owner! He was very enthusiastic and promised we would not be disappointed. He took our order but then I asked if he could confirm whether I ordered dishes that would represent his restaurant well. He assured us that anything we ordered would be good but he suggested trying some of his better dishes. We were NOT disappointed! All of the food was delicious! He suggested this fish dish that we'd never had before and wow... Great recommendation! The butter chicken we ordered was oh so buttery and the lamb curry was amazing. The naan was perfect and the rice was just as we like it. We wouldn't change a thing and will come back again to probably have the same dishes but hopefully will try others. Almost forgot... Went back to...