INDIAN KITCHEN (PUNJABI DHABA)

Being close to Chicago, you'd expect authentic food experiences. This place is exactly that! It's located right off of I-94 and the food is amazing. It is spicy- which I love! And flavorful. We came at a very busy time (lunch) and had to wait a bit, but they gave us a chai tea while we were waiting, and that made up for the delay. There was no less than 7 people preparing the food and attending to customers. The. place. was. buzzing. Kudos to whomever is running this establishment! You can clearly expand into more locations and you'll most likely thrive there too. The menu is from March 2026.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the best Indian meals I’ve had in the USA! We stopped here while traveling from PA to Chicago, around an hour before reaching Chicago, and it turned out to be an amazing find. The food was absolutely delicious, fresh, and full of authentic Punjabi flavors. The quantity was unbelievable for the price— very generous portions, excellent quality, and great value for money. It had been a very long time since we enjoyed Indian food this much. Everything tasted fresh and homemade, and the overall experience exceeded our expectations. It is very rare to find such a perfect combination of taste, quality, quantity, and reasonable pricing. Anyone traveling through Merrillville or heading toward Chicago should definitely stop here. Highly recommended!

Good authentic Indian food at a reasonable price. It's a Food truck with limited seating and fans, so don't expect a fancy dining experience. Most customers seem to order takeout. We tried the Kadhai Chicken, Chicken Pakoda, and Tawa Roti everything was fresh, flavorful, and worth the price. Would definitely come back

So I have never been to India but I have tried what I consider good authentic Indian food in NYC, London, Baltimore and now today I had some of the best authentic Indian food from this food truck in Gary Indiana. So for my friends who have not tried authentic Indian food, I would say it’s an acquired taste. It wasn’t till I graduated from college that I started to truly appreciate good Indian cooking and by “authentic” that means expect the cooking to be extremely potent in strong Indian spices like cumin, coriander, curry, cinnamon, cloves and fennel seeds. Most of the people I know from India and Pakistan have a very strong tolerance for these “authentic” Indian spices and if you’re not in a full sweat with your pores feeling like a mentholated cigarette after your meal, then chances are that cooking has been watered down to fit the pallet of non Indians. So with all I have just said in mind, I called ahead to order the chicken saag which is white meat chicken with spinach and a number of other green veggies and most importantly I requested that they “NOT” make it too spicy. The person I spoke too on the phone doesn’t really understand much English. So when I arrived the other worker who does speak a little bit better English said they were out of the ingredients to make chicken saag but said they could make chicken tiki masala. So I asked them, what can I order that is “NOT” spicy and so the cook said he can make butter chicken not too spicy. So when you order an entree it seems to include everything shown in my photo except for the salad dressing which real Indian restaurants might offer a little yogurt for the fresh onions. So I am happy to say that everything was super delicious, not too spicy as I requested but spiced enough that I was sweating and knew I had just had some of the best authentic Indian food I have had in a very long time. I will literally return to Gary which might not be the safest neighborhood just so I can eat some authentic Indian food from this food truck! Also I learned something new that the flatbread included was as another reviewer described as paneer paratha and not naan as I originally mistaken it for. 10/21/25 Made a return trip tonight and ordered my favorite Indian dish chicken saag. If I could increase my review to 6 stars then I would, because the chicken saag was made just how I like it and after a week of hard work, getting to enjoy chicken saag from Punjabi Dhaba makes me so happy. 10/23/25 - Today I returned to takeout lunch and after my previous order which cost almost $18, I thought I would try to see if this place even offers anything inexpensive because I don’t mind paying extra for dinner but I don’t like spending a lot for lunch. Anyway I ordered the Yellow Dal Tadka which is a vegetarian dish of lentils in a soupy, almost puréed sauce that is strong with Indian spices. This is a dish I have seen served for free in some Hindu temples. According to ChatGPT, Hindus believe… Seva (selfless service): Serving food to devotees and visitors is seen as an act of service to God, since all living beings are considered divine creations. Prasadam: Food offered to the deity is believed to be blessed. Sharing it with people distributes divine grace. Dharmic duty: Feeding the hungry is considered a noble duty (dana) in Hindu scriptures and an important part of living a virtuous life. Needless to say this meal was not free and in fact I still had to dole out $13.90 for this lunch and as you can see from my photo, I think they forgot to include paneer parathra (bread). So I change my mind about thinking they deserve 6 stars but the food has been super delicious 3 times in a row and so to me that consistency still deserves 5 stars!

Awesome food truck serving Punjabi dhabha food. Place didn't look much when we pulled in but the food definitely made up for it. This is going to be a must stop for me every time I drive by. The staff is very courteous and friendly. Decent prices with generous portions.

A food truck with some charpai to sit around. Kadhai paneer was bad. Chaach was good, dal makhani was decent. You could say it’s authentic but taste could be better. Rotis are very big so order properly. We could finish only 1 p.p.

My first time here I ordered lamb biryani it was a little on the orange side as far as color but overall it was very delicious meat was very tender too, the prices are very reasonable they made it like I asked not to spicy it came out perfect! The service was great as well! I'll definitely be back to try other things on the menu! Thank you! I ordered from here the other day and had to try it again! This time I ordered on DoorDash and got something different I got the butter chicken, it was really tasty! All condiments came with it ready to just eat!