Aroma Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Vernon Hills

For posterity sake: Lake county just entered phase 4 with indoor dinning.

My wife and I ordered a smorgasbord of different dishes. First was the vegetarian combination platter. It was a good tasting menu of their various veggie appetizers. My favorite was the pakora which is mixed crispy fried veggies--it paired extremely well with the cilantro dipping chutney.

For our mains we ordered the paneer naan, goat curry, saag paneer and saffron peas pulao. The paneer naan had an excellent soft chewy texture to the naan with paneer throughout. The goat curry was rich and the tomato base paired nicely with the stronger flavors of goat. The saffron peas pulao was delicious all on it's own, but other-worldly when it had a curry ladled over it. Finally the saag paneer was my personal favorite. The paneer's creaminess was balanced by the rich spinach--I'm a meat-loving Midwesterner, but while eating this I contemplated becoming a vegetarian.

Finally for dessert we split the rasmalai and gulab jamun. The rasmali provided a nice creamy cool dish to cleanse the palate and the gulab was a light soft doughnut in a simple syrup that leaves you feeling refreshed after a large meal.

The only issue was the time it took for dishes to be prepared, but that's expected given the variety of the menu and customization each dish allows.

The staff was excellent and attentive. Jay, the owner, was very personable and checked on us and our experience. Jay and his team at Aroma are taking COVID-19 precautions seriously (hand sanitzier, masks, social distancing). Because of this, the plates and utensils are disposable. On top of all this, the price is extremely reasonable especially given the variety, freshness and service. We can't...

My dinner here was one of the best meals I had while in North Chicago!

I started off with the Vegetable Samosa, these were quite large and very flavorful. The stuffing was smooth and blended quite well. As well the sauces they served with them were very tasty.

They brought out some Naan with a dipping sauce that was made tomato based as a free snack while waiting on the food. The naan was very good and the sauce was excellent!

The Butter Chicken Makhani I had as the main course was extremely tasty. The sauce was velvety smooth and the heat was spot on as requested. There was a fair amount of chicken in this dish as well. Some restaurants skimp on the chicken on this dish but not here.

I also had the Chicken Biryani and I enjoyed this dish as well! There was a fair amount of seasoned chicken in the dish and the spices and heat were very well done!

The Garlic Naan serving was quite large and very much on the garlic side which I enjoyed very much. Those not a fan of garlic should stick with the Naan. If you love garlic though indulge yourself with this treat!

All in all, I was extremely pleased with the service and portion size for the meal. This restaurant meal value in my opinion is hard to beat! I truly wish this restaurant was in my home town. If you live in North Chicago and want to try Indian or enjoy Indian, give this little gem a visit!

I want to note that some Indian restaurants put the bones and meat in the dishes but this one does not. I actually prefer Aroma Indian Cuisine and they way they cook their dishes...

I informed them that I would be arriving at 8:00 P.M. During a call, I spoke with a South Indian student girl working at the cashier on Sunday, and we confirmed that there would be 13 of us. I asked her to reserve a table for us so that we wouldn’t have to wait once we arrived. However, when I got there on time and mentioned my reservation, she told me to give them 10 more minutes to prepare the table. Honestly, that was a disappointing first impression.

The second issue was the poor and slow service. We had clearly stated over the phone that we were vegetarians and needed food. After waiting for 55 minutes, the only thing we received was some papad. We ordered onions, which arrived very late after I had to ask multiple servers. The drinks we ordered were unavailable, and the Punjabi curries came out an astonishing 55 minutes later, leaving my kids very hungry. We even asked for another order of papad, but it never arrived, despite me saying we would pay extra because my kids were starving. Overall, the service was abysmal, and there seemed to be a lack of management.

To make matters worse, they charged an 18% service fee, which is outrageous considering the level of service we received. I will not be returning to this restaurant. Please be cautious if you decide to visit. The owner was incredibly rude, and I found myself having to discuss the issue with him over the phone. I suggest avoiding the 18% service fee; there should be an appropriate gratuity based on the service quality. Instead, they simply want to take 18% of my bill,...