Bawarchi Biryanis Schaumburg — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

Not all franchises are created equal and in the case of Bawarchi in Schaumburg, this one missed the mark, by a whole a solar mass! Where do I being? My first experience with Bawarchi was in Chandler, AZ and let me tell you, it was THE best butter chicken I have ever had in my entire life. It was so good, that I went back again and again until my trip there was over. The butter chicken was amazing and the naans were incredible. The chicken lollipops I had were flirting with the line of being called chickens, that is how big they were. I also had Rasmali and it melted in your mouth with each bite wanting more and more and more.

Now let's talk about this Bawarchi in Schaumburg. What a mess. From the moment I walked in, I was not even greeted properly. The associate at the front desk looked at me like I was in the wrong place, dazed and confused. I informed him that I was picking up my order. Not just a small order, I had 2 orders of butter chicken, 2 orders of rasmali, 2 orders of gulabjumen, 5 orders of garlic naan, and 1 order of chicken lollipops. I tried asking him questions about their offerings such as the buffet, when does it start, what times, how often, and literally some of the questions he didn't even bother to answer. Just silence. I should have known this place was a disaster, only had 1 couple in for dinner at 7pm on a Friday night!

I got my order home and immediately knew this was not the same Bawarchi I had come to know and love. The chicken lollipops were laughable, I literally think they took a drum from a wing and made that into a lollipop, what a joke. Forget the size, on top of all of that, INEDIBLE! So burnt, so hard, to the point where it felt like eating concrete. Ok, so I thought maybe that was just the appetizer gone wrong, let's move onto the butter chicken. I took a whiff from the container and immediately could recognize the stench of older chicken. Old chicken has a certain smell to it and this was definitely just that. I still didn't want to believe it was going to be bad. So I made a plate of garlic naan and butter chicken, took a bite of chicken and naan and instantly knew that this place is garbage. The butter chicken was the worst butter chicken I have ever had. Ever. It had a funky taste to it, just like old chicken, the sauce was very very very sweet. The chicken was hard and rubbery, and it instantly made my tummy hurt as it went down. I am Indian btw, so I eat a lot of Indian food, and this made MY tummy hurt. The only thing that was somewhat decent was the naan. Even that I would only give a 2.5 out of 5 on. It is no wonder they are dead on a Friday. Horrible food, horrible service, horrible staff. I would stay away and save yourself some money. I am out 90 bucks and possibly some Pepto money with potential food poisoning. Again just save yourself the trouble. I have no clue how they have gotten so many positive reviews. Maybe they were good at some point, not sure, but in the current state of things....

Update on my review as of September 2025. This place has gone downhill. The quality of food and service is terrible now. I went for dinner and the place was empty. We tried to order several dishes but each time the server had to go to the kitchen to ask the chef. Eventually they said they don't have any lamb or goat items. All of the food we ordered tasted like it was cooked earlier and just reheated. The Royala Vepudu (shrimp fry) was stale. The flavor was decent but it was overcooked and overheated. The Egg Masala had the same issue. It was stale and definitely was cooked earlier in the day and seems to have been sitting out for a while. It was overcooked and overheated as well which gave it a tough and rubbery texture. The garlic naan was definitely left out for hours and then reheated. It was stale and hard and heated to a crisp when it was brought out to us. The boneless chicken biriyani was not good. The boneless chicken was cheap tasting chicken thighs. The chicken was undercooked and pink in some pieces. We wanted to complain, but the service was so bad that no one even came by after they dropped off the food. We just wanted the check to leave at this point. Very disappointed. This was one of our favorite go to spots for authentic tasting Indian food. We recommended this place to many and brought many here before, but now it has left us disappointed. All of the latest 1 star ratings seem to be true with our experience. I don't know if it's new ownership and gross management, but they need to change the way they conduct business and serve food. Food is excellent! Everything we ordered was fresh and delicious. Service was great. Attentive waiter. All of the staff were friendly and welcoming. Everything we ordered was flavorful with the right amount of spice. We ordered spicy for our dishes and they had some heat coupled with great flavor. Restaurant is clean. Restrooms were clean. Ample parking available. Many options on the menu. I would recommend this place and will be visiting again. We ordered the egg vindaloo, Amravati mutton, shrimp curry, garlic naan, poori, and chicken 65. Everything was delicious...

We were visiting Chicago and were very excited to have Bawarchi biryani after a long time.

So as soon as we reached, we visited the Bawarchi Restaurant at Schaumburg, IL on July 3rd, 2025 and ordered a Family Pack of Veg Dum Biryani.

We were shocked beyond belief when we opened the box to find that it was made using Broccoli and carrots, that too big pieces of them. These pieces looked similar to those found in frozen packets. There was hardly any Dum layer in it. It was completely tasteless. Also there was no Salan given, they gave something similar to Manchurian sauteed with Kadi patta tasting weird too.

We have had Bawarchi Veg Dum Biryani in different cities and it is totally different. In all other cities, the taste was consistent and the one we got here was totally different.

So we went back to the restaurant and the head chef came to speak to us. He said they have stopped making Veg Dum Biryani for a month now but the person who took the order forgot to tell you the same. Then he changed to saying that we just make Dum Biryani on weekends. So we just asked for a refund. On that he said he agreed that it was communication failure from their end but refund was not possible, then he said refund will take 2-3 months to process.

Next, Dhiraj, the restaurant owner spoke to us, but I guess he was misinformed that we are complaining about the quality of the veggies. Looks like the chef is not giving the right picture to Dhiraj.

The main crux is that the Biryani was nothing but some colored rice with Broccoli and carrots with no Dum layer making it tasteless. This is not Bawarchi style Veg Dum...