When I walked down Lincoln Avenue and saw Ghareeb Nawaz for the first time, I was intrigued by its storefront. The neon colors and the photo-realistic images of meals reminded me of small Mediterranean restaurants I encountered while walking in Paris. I was intrigued to find a similar place in Chicago. As soon as I noticed the restaurant, I knew I had to try it, and I wasn’t disappointed.
When I go to Ghareeb Nawaz, I often get a Butter Chicken Paratha. It includes a small but filling quantity of the chicken, along with a large paratha flatbread, a side of onions, and sauce. My favorite part of this meal is the chicken, and the flavorful, creamy, slightly spicy sauce compliments the tender meat so well. It is a delight to my tastebuds. I also enjoy the bread which can be eaten in combination with the chicken or dipped in the sauce which provides relief from spice. Additionally, if you order the meal to go, the butter chicken is wrapped in the flatbread, sort of like a burrito. This makes it, in my opinion, even better.
This meal keeps me more full than any Parker cafeteria lunch special, and it is almost $2 cheaper than the latter (no hate to the cafeteria of course). Junior Lincoln Hamid, a Ghareeb Nawaz savant, said that the food in general is “really cheap” and that “they also give you a lot of food.” There are also so many other varieties of filling meals in the same price range. Senior Davu Hemphill-Smith enjoys the chili chicken paratha and says that “although it is a bit spicy, the chicken is very tender and delicious.”
All of this, along with Ghareeb Nawaz’s close proximity to the school, makes it, in my opinion, one the best restaurants for Parker students. It is a perfect place to go on those long Tuesday and Thursday breaks, especially when the cafeteria serves anything that’s supposed to be Mexican food. All of these attributes have given students an appreciation for the restaurant. Junior Gabriel Vilus said that the food “gets made very fast, and I appreciate that,” and junior Alexander Chaouki said that “the food is amazing, the staff there are very friendly to us, and they have the best lassi.” Junior Graham Ranney says his favorite meal is the chili chicken paratha “because it has an amazing mixture of flavor but also spice, and the sauce they put on it just tops everything off.” Former Parker student Sloan D’Souza is a massive fan of Ghareeb Nawaz and said, “I always loved goingthere. I’ve gone there for a year or two.” Since last year he has gone “at least once a month,” and his “favorite food is 100 percent the butter chicken.”
Despite all of this, not many Parker students are aware of Ghareeb Nawaz. It is a hidden gem among the Parker student body. Out of 25 students I asked, only six people were aware of the restaurant. I believe that many more people would start utilizing their off-campus privileges if they learned of Ghareeb Nawaz’s exquisite cuisine. At the moment, they opt for Starbucks which has become much worse since it became to-go or Angry Octopus which is mediocre and gave me food poisoning last year. Ghareeb Nawaz is amazing, and more people should go there.
