Mirra, Lilac Tiger and Sarima Cafe in Chicago draw on historic and mythic cultural threads to create a stunning Indian Mexican restaurant, a convivial South Asian cocktail bar and an ambitious Filipino Indian coffeeshop.
Chef Zubair Mohajir connects all three culinary enterprises. He may be best known now as a contestant on “Top Chef” this past year. You might know him from the Coach House, his pioneering South Indian-inspired tasting menu restaurant in the city.
Sarima Cafe
Mohajir opened his newest business with Coach House chef Jacob Dela Cruz as co-owner. Sarima Cafe debuted in Wicker Park in July. The crowds came for the breakfast sandwich, but discovered an ube crinkle cookie too.
Opening pastry chef Reema Patel, one of our cookie contest judges this year, left in November. Also gone are the early creative pastries, which I missed, including a calamansi shrikhand doughnut with its tart Filipino citrus and spiced Indian yogurt flavors.
The house-made ube crinkle cookie, which I had, has remained. Photogenically purple, the jumbo bake offers a secret cheesecake filling reveal. It’s become a softly sweet, albeit basic, bestseller.
The Thicc Sando, indeed a thick, fantastic breakfast sandwich, rivals the famous one at Kasama. It’s a dupe with an important difference. Instead of longganisa, at Sarima, they make a halal sausage.
“I don’t eat pork,” said Mohajir. “So that’s why we made a halal tocino, using halal chicken and halal beef bacon, and with spicing like Jacob would in the Philippines.”
They layer the beautiful fatty patty with a slice of egg soufflé, a crispy hash brown and distinctive hot and sour achar aioli on a Martin’s potato roll.
The cafe shares a utilitarian space, previously Beard Papa’s, with SALT burgers + fries.
But the name Sarima comes from colorful folklore.
“Sarimanok is a mythical bird from the southern Filipino villages where chef Jacob’s dad is from,” said Mohajir. Southern Filipino cuisine, he added, was also influenced by the Indian spice trade.
The breakfast dosa holds Indian and Filipino-inspired fillings that change seasonally, most recently sweet potato and mushrooms.
“I’m South Indian, and dosa is a very sensitive subject for me,” said Mohajir. “Because my mom makes it every Sunday.”
Unfortunately, when I went to Sarima, the griddle behind the front counter was alarmingly hot and the ghee was smoking. My dosa edge was delicate, but the center was underdone.
While service was sincere, they were struggling and understaffed with a very limited menu, with no idea if and when any ice cream would return. The chef said they have just bolstered the staff.
A dirty chai, which I had hot, uses another family recipe with far better results.
“My grandmother’s chai recipe,” said Mohajir. “That is served in every single spot that I am part of every single day.”
The kaaju latte, a fan favorite that my barista rightfully recommended iced, was delicious with cashew milk and date syrup that recalled the richness of South Asian mithai. It’s priced relatively high, however, at $7.75 for a somewhat surprisingly plain cup.
An important reminder that our rating system ranges from zero stars for unsatisfactory to four stars for outstanding. We also make multiple visits, in this case, by me and my editor Kayla Samoy, who’s Filipino, plus my colleague Zareen Syed, who’s Indian. So when we rate a restaurant at one star that means we still think it’s good.
1924 W. North Ave.
Open: Wednesday to Sunday from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. (closed Monday and Tuesday)
Prices: $5 (ube crinkle cookie), $7.75 (kaaju latte), $11.50 (Thicc Sando breakfast sandwich), $12.95 (breakfast dosa)
Sound: OK (70 to 73 dB)
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restrooms on single level
Tribune rating: Good, 1 of 4 stars
Lilac Tiger
Mohajir transformed what was the home of Wazwan, his original halal supper club, into a full-on tropical bar with a street food-inspired menu. Lilac Tiger roared to life in Wicker Park in September 2023.
Executive chef Mohajir and chef de cuisine Dela Cruz not only kept the signature tandoori hot chicken, but evolved and expanded the THC alongside drinks by beverage director and business partner David Mor. Kimski chef Won Kim and hospitality veteran Ty Fujimura have remained partners behind the scenes.The new identity was somewhat random, but rooted in shared history.
“The tiger was representative of India for me,” said Mohajir. “In the Philippines for Jacob, for Won in Korea, and Ty in Japan.”
And the Coach House in back is represented by the saffron flower, which is part of the lilac family.
Ultimately, it was important to change the name.
“Wazwan was a very old-school historical culinary tradition from Northern Kashmir,” said Mohajir. “But there’s no alcohol involved, and I’m a big believer in not self-appropriating ourselves.”
The THC sando, their popular spicy fried chicken sandwich, has changed dramatically since I first had it in its OG incarnation. Craggy and outrageously crunchy, the secret spice mix now features Sichuan pepper. The electrifying mala numbing heat sensation can be overwhelming. Get a side of the terrific Tiger fries, their variation on disco fries with beef gravy laced with jalapeno pepper jack cheese, to tame the numbing fire.
“It starts with a chicken thigh that we marinate for a minimum of 48 hours in a tandoori chicken marinade,” Mohajir said.
Their tandoori spices include chile powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and Sichuan pepper, plus the marinade with yogurt and lemon juice. They dredge in corn starch and flour before frying. A finishing Indian-style Nashville dip adds more spices (coriander, cumin, cardamom and clove) with a house-made chile crisp.
The tandoori honey chicken with scallion corn hoecake, as seen on “Top Chef,” was actually the original dish.
“It was the Daniel Boulud brunch episode that we won,” said Mohajir. “Once we did that, the OG came back to the Lilac Tiger menu.”
The hoecake, a cornmeal pancake, was inspired by a scallion pancake one of his cooks had ordered for family meal back in the Wazwan days.
The vibe they were going for was chicken and waffles, said the chef. My flavor memory was of a wonderfully fluffy cousin to the Chinese cong you bing meets Korean pajeon.
The Ferrani Special is the nugget variation of the tandoori hot chicken named after Mohajir’s son, Ferran, who’s now 8, but has been fed the bite-sized chicken since he was 2 years old.
That’s a lot of chicken on the menu. But the kid is right with the nuggets, because for me, fried chicken is all about the crust. My ideal tandoori hot chicken order would be the nugs and hoecake.
A spectacular Singaporean-style black pepper crab noodle was loaded with the saucy crustacean throughout satisfyingly thick rice noodles. The golden vada pav offers a perfect pair of potato fritter orbs on soft slider buns.
The Chettinad masala with mushroom was also nicely saucy, but served lukewarm. A happy hour paneer dip with eggplant, on the other hand, had flatbread that was scorched. The Thai tea tiramisu was a generous slab, but needed far more of the defining tannic flavor.
The elegant Coconut Lady Colada cocktail, with two kinds of Planteray rum (Cut & Dry coconut and Stiggins’ Fancy pineapple) mixed with an intoxicating pandan coconut milk, has become the signature drink. A delightful nonalcoholic pink lassi drink with beetroot and a cashew orgeat was a pretty pairing to all the spicy food.
The great Lilac Tiger team makes the dark and moody space cozy in any weather, with Mor and his genuinely friendly team of bartenders who work from a comically tiny corner bar, until the return of the Division Street patio season.
1742 W. Division St.
773-697-8794
Open: From 5 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday until 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m. (closed Sunday and Monday)
Prices: $22 (tandoori honey chicken with scallion corn hoecake), $13 (Thai tea tiramisu), $16 (The Coconut Lady Colada cocktail), $10 (pink lassi nonalcoholic drink)
Sound: OK (70 to 73 dB)
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restrooms on single level
Tribune rating: Very good, 2 of 4 stars
Mirra
The Indian Mexican restaurant in Bucktown by Mohajir and Mor, with executive chef and co-owner Rishi Kumar, defies definition and belief.
Their story begins with the legend of a girl born in 1607 or so to Indian nobility as Mirra. Harrowing tales tell of her kidnapping, enslavement and eventual sainthood in Mexico as Catarina de San Juan. She’s also known as the China Poblana.
Somehow, the chefs found beauty in her history. They focused on bringing together their two favorite cuisines with storytelling that’s authentic to them.
“India meets Mexico in a crossroads cuisine,” said Kumar. “Both cultures cook from a cultural standpoint, be it religion, or where they were growing things before creating a cuisine.”
Mirra, the restaurant, opened in August 2024 and began creating its own culture and cuisine.
The impeccable crispy taco with pristine bay scallops in a feathery roti shell may be the restaurant’s most emblematic dish.
“We take fenugreek roti and punch it out and make mini crispy taco shells,” said Kumar. “And raw scallops, chopped, marinated with nopales pico de gallo and a touch of dehydrated lemongrass powder.”
They’re finished with a piped coconut fluid gel and Mexican green curry emulsion.
“No visit to Mirra is complete without eating a crispy taco,” said the chef. He eats one every day for quality control.
It’s about playfulness, added Mohajir, and their culture is intertwined into every single dish.
“Zubair and I trained in different chefs’ kitchens,” said Kumar who’s ethnically Indian, but born and raised in Singapore, where he worked for Michelin chefs there and also in France. He came to Chicago in 2014 to work for chef Rick Bayless, first at Frontera Grill, then Topolobampo, where he first experimented with fluid gels, and eventually helped conceptualize and open Bar Sótano.
Meanwhile, Mohajir was born in Chennai, India, but raised in Doha, Qatar, before moving to Palos Hills with his family at age 11 in 1997. He worked in finance before the Great Recession in 2008 led to a layoff and a career change at The Pump Room by Jean-Georges and Bouchon in Napa Valley under Thomas Keller. Mohajir also staged for five months at the Michelin two-starred modernist Indian restaurant Gaggan in Bangkok, Thailand.
The compelling chaas aguachile with hamachi, a garlic serrano achar, fried curry leaves and a breathtaking buttermilk lime pour is the dish that started them on this journey.
A small linguistic difference was revealing.
“Chaas is something I say,” said Kumar. “Zubair uses a different word.”
“Chhachh,” says Mohajir. “From South India.”
“But it’s the same buttermilk that we drink,” added Kumar. “It’s spiked sometimes with black salt or mint.”
The Mirra mezze is another absolute order with more house-made achar, fire roasted salsa tatemada, pumpkin-seeded sikil pak and guacamole plus crackling shards of papadam and tlayuda.
I could have been blissfully happy with just the mezze and Mor’s guava margarita cocktail infused with curry leaf, or his nonalcoholic Marg drink mixed with aromatic Seedlip Notas de Agave.
The Ōra King salmon mango ceviche is another item I highly recommend with silky slices, tiradito or lightly cured sashimi style, and a house-made Nichols Farm strawberry achar plus passion fruit mango leche de tigre sauce.
The dramatic lamb barbacoa biryani, baked with a buttery roti seal, serves two to three people with saffron and mint-laced basmati rice and millennia of history.
Before Mirra the restaurant, Mohajir visited the home village of celebrated chef Norma Listman of Masala y Maíz in Mexico.
“The whole soul of the mountain is in these 700-year-old barbacoa pits,” said Mohajir. “What’s going to stand up to something that is rich in history, that rich in flavor? And being Indian, biryani was the obvious answer.”
They braise halal leg of lamb on the bone, pull the meat, then reduce the braising liquid with house-made tomato masala, spice and yogurt to a yahkni.
“Then we layer the rice with the lamb and yahkni,” said Kumar. “And poblanos, caramelized onions, saffron water, fresh mint, shallots, wrap it up and then we bake it.”
It is a showcase dish, with meat that’s lean, which you may prefer, but I wanted a touch more fat.
The ras malai tres leches, another showstopper with what seems like a whole loaf of olive oil citrus cake soaked in saffron cardamom milk, is generously pleasant, but I wish dessert was as inventive as the rest of the menu. An avocado chocolate mousse cup did not dispel my desire. A brunch pastry trio by consulting pastry chef Karen Trejo begins to explore the missed opportunities with a nicely spiced chai concha, a subtly spicy mango habanero roll and a flaky kheer danish filled with arroz con leche.
The lion’s mane norteño was one of my favorite dishes, or platter really with grilled lion’s mane mushrooms, blue corn tortillas, frijoles charros, tinga masala, nopal poriyal or stir fry and salsa macha. It’s a great example of unexpected intentional creativity.
“We made sure there was a physical vegetarian menu,” said Kumar. “That makes you feel like this is a thought-out process and not a substitute menu.”
When they changed the steak preparation, they decided on inspiration from northern Indian and northern Mexican culture for the marinated and slow-grilled mushrooms, too.
The outstanding service staff will carefully explain the many elements of every dish, and you should surprisingly be able to hear them well in the airy and busy dining room.
“We’re trying to be sustainable and pay people a good wage,” said Kumar. “Since we’ve opened until now, I think all our prices went up just by a dollar or two at most, because of insane tariffs.”
They’re very conscious about pricing comparably to similar restaurants in the neighborhood.
“It’s also breaking this whole stigma that anything Southeast Asian or South Asian, or something that is not French or European, is not supposed to cost that much,” said Mohajir.
Many other restaurants before them have slowly broken that wall down, he added. Mirra also offers a chefs’ counter seven-course tasting menu.
“We owe it to our guests to give them more than something $12 in a gold bowl and call it an experience,” he said. “For us, that’s why the dishes are so innovative.”
“That’s why we’re experimenting.”
Mirra
1954 W. Armitage Ave.
Open: Dinner, Tuesday to Sunday from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Brunch, Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (closed Monday)
Prices: $16 (crispy taco), $19 (chaas aguachile), $46 (lamb barbacoa biryani, serves two to three people), $35 (lion’s mane norteños), $14 (ras malai tres leches cake), $16 (guava Margarita cocktail), $14 (Marg nonalcoholic drink)
Sound: OK (68 to 70 dB)
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restrooms on single level
Tribune rating: Excellent to outstanding, 3.5 of 4 stars
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; zero stars, unsatisfactory. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
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