Thattu Chicago: Last Weeks of Avondale's Kerala Restaurant

On a quiet corner of Fletcher Street in Avondale, Thattu has spent three and a half years cooking the food of Kerala, India’s coconut-and-curry-leaf southwest coast, with a warmth few Chicago dining rooms can match. Porottas arrive flaky and layered, the appam is lacy at the edges and soft in the middle, and the beef fry comes dark and peppery with a squeeze of lime. Regular dinner service ends soon. Thattu serves its last dinners on Sunday, December 27, 2026.

Chef Margaret Pak and her husband, Vinod Kalathil, announced the closing on November 9. Regular dinner service at 2601 W. Fletcher St. ends on Sunday, December 27, 2026. They will host classes, private events and pop-ups in the space until the lease ends in April 2027, then rest, travel to India to see family and plan what comes next. Until the last dinner, the dining room is open Thursday through Sunday from 5 to 9:30 p.m., and reservations are on OpenTable.

Chef Margaret Pak and Vinod Kalathil smiling side by side behind a row of covered pans — Chef Margaret Pak and Vinod Kalathil, the couple behind Thattu. Photo: @thattuchicago on Instagram.

Six weeks to eat at one of Chicago’s most celebrated Indian restaurants

Thattu started as a love story told through recipes. Pak, a Korean American cook who spent years working in tech, fell for Kalathil’s family cooking and learned it from his mother, then took it to pop-ups around the city. In 2019 the couple opened a stall at the Politan Row food hall in the West Loop. That counter was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2020, and Food & Wine named it one of its Best New Restaurants that year.

The food hall closed during the pandemic, and in April 2023 Thattu reopened as a full restaurant in a brick building in Avondale, across the street from Guild Row. That same year The New York Times put it on The Restaurant List, its ranking of the 50 best restaurants in America for 2023. The room is bright and relaxed, with an open kitchen, a deep green tiled bar and colorful art on the walls.

The kitchen today runs with Chef de Cuisine Camilo Barrientos alongside Pak, and the menu keeps the Politan Row classics next to newer dishes. That mix is the reason to go now: these are the plates that made Thattu, cooked by the team that built them, for six more weekends.

What to order: porottas, kadala curry and the Kerala fried chicken

Start with the bites. Kerala fried chicken bites ($15) are spicy and “naked,” with yogurt sauce and pickled vegetables, and the kudampuli chicken wings ($15) are smothered in a cambodge barbecue sauce with cucumber raita on the side. The puff of the day ($6) is flaky pastry with a rotating filling, and the mushroom mezhukkupuratti ($17) brings seared oyster and button mushrooms over pea puree with shishito peppers, chili oil and coconut chips. Koonthal roast ($16) is pan-seared squid in tomato gravy.

Sauce poured from a small metal cup over a plate of chicken wings — Kudampuli chicken wings with cambodge barbecue sauce. Photo: @thattuchicago on Instagram.

For mains, the beef fry and porottas ($26) is the quintessential Kerala street food order: stir-fried beef with two flaky flatbreads to tear and scoop. Kadala curry ($19), black chickpeas in a roasted coconut gravy, has been on the menu since the food hall days and comes with an appam or jeera rice. Chicken mappas ($21) simmers boneless chicken and potatoes in an aromatic coconut gravy.

Kerala beef fry in a green bowl with lime and diced red onion beside flaky porottas — Beef fry and porottas, Kerala street food on a plate. Photo: @thattuchicago on Instagram.

The bigger plates show how far the kitchen has taken Kerala cooking. Meen pollichathu ($33) is Atlantic cod steamed in banana leaves with coconut gravy, fenugreek rice and thoran. Chemmeen and kappa ($33) pairs seared jumbo prawns with cambodge, coconut milk and a coconut yucca mash. The Malabar bone-in goat biriyani ($28) is the Northern Kerala style, with the goat and basmati rice cooked separately, then layered and baked with cashews, raisins and fried onions.

A bowl of black chickpea kadala curry in roasted coconut gravy topped with microgreens — Kadala curry, black chickpeas in roasted coconut gravy. Photo: @thattuchicago on Instagram.

The pork chop peralan ($38) is the showpiece: a bone-in chop under a tangy, spicy peralan gravy, set on collard greens braised in coconut milk and tomatoes, with a cake of smashed yucca and grated coconut. The lamb ularthi loaf ($29) gets a raisin glaze, a sweet and spicy date korma sauce and black-eyed pea hummus. Sides run $5 to $8, and the appam ($5) and rasam ($6), a fiery tomato sipping broth, belong on every table. Much of the menu is gluten free, with clear vegan and vegetarian choices.

A bone-in pork chop glazed in dark peralan gravy on a gray plate, with juice and small bowls behind — Pork chop peralan over coconut-braised collard greens. Photo: @thattuchicago on Instagram.

Save room for falooda and a banana old fashioned

Dessert tells Thattu’s story in a bowl. The forbidden payasam ($9) is a Korean Indian black rice pudding with jackfruit, coconut milk, jaggery, cardamom and dried persimmon, a dish that reads like Pak and Kalathil’s marriage. Naadan falooda ($14) layers passion fruit juice, basil seeds, vermicelli, fresh fruit, lychee and mango sauce under nannari coconut ice cream, with a vegan version on request. The plantain and date bread pudding ($14) comes a la mode with coconut ice cream and mango caramel.

The cocktails are built for the food. The Pazhanjan ($16) is a banana old fashioned with Bulleit bourbon, mango and torched plantain, the Konkanita ($16) is a margarita with kokum and kokum salt, and the Madras ($13) spikes filter kaapi with vodka and coconut. Beers come from Marz and Azadi, including a Thattu and Marz black tea and mace saison ($8). For a zero-proof pour, try the kokum sarbath ($8), or finish with a South Indian kaapi ($5).

Thattu's bar with a deep green tiled front, five wooden stools and pendant lights under exposed ducts — The bar at Thattu on Fletcher Street. Photo: @thattuchicago on Instagram.

Monday Night Foodball: the pop-up nights still on the calendar

On Mondays, when the dining room is dark, Thattu’s kitchen hosts Monday Night Foodball, the Chicago Reader’s weekly chef pop-up. The next one is Monday, November 16, starting at 5 p.m., when Chefs Tony B and Tazm (Tony Balestreri and Stephen Reyes) bring a Mexican barbecue menu: forearm-length birria-rubbed beef ribs with handmade tortillas in limited numbers, al pastor baby back ribs with pineapple, and smoked turkey legs under a Oaxacan mole made with dried mango, apricot and banana. Happy hour runs until 7 p.m. with $5 beers and nonalcoholic drinks and $12 cocktails from bar manager Melanie Hernandez.

The rest of the year’s lineup: Más Maíz and its regional Mexican cooking on November 23, Crustco Pies on November 30, Raza’s Pizza and its wood-fired Neapolitan pies on December 7, Butcher Shop from the Staton brothers on December 14 and Sonora Dogz on December 21. Foodball is set to return to Thattu’s kitchen in 2027 and stay through the end of February before moving to a new home. Chef Marko Milunovic opened the fall season in October with a preview of Amara, his pan-Balkan restaurant in Fulton Market.

If Monday barbecue is the plan, Friends of Friends in West Town has its own pit night with Lucy’s BBQ the same evening.

When to go, and how to get a table

Thattu is open for dinner Thursday through Sunday, 5 to 9:30 p.m., until the final dinner service on December 27, 2026. Reservations are on OpenTable, and the restaurant recommends booking ahead, especially on weekends. For walk-in availability or pickup orders, call (773) 754-0199. Delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats has ended.

Bring friends. The menu is meant for sharing, and a table of four can cover the bites, two curries, the beef fry and a biriyani with appam and rice on the side. Avondale sits just west of Logan Square, so it pairs well with a nightcap in the neighborhood; for another Logan Square table, see Lula Cafe.

Thattu Chicago at a glance

Where: 2601 W. Fletcher St., Chicago, IL 60618 (Avondale)
Hours: dinner Thursday to Sunday, 5 to 9:30 p.m.
Final dinner service: Sunday, December 27, 2026
Classes, private events and pop-ups: in the space until the lease ends in April 2027
Reservations: OpenTable; call (773) 754-0199 for walk-ins and pickup
Prices: bites $6 to $17, mains $19 to $38, sides $5 to $8, cocktails $13 to $16
Monday Night Foodball: Mondays from 5 p.m., next on November 16 with Chefs Tony B and Tazm

Thattu Chicago FAQ

When is Thattu Chicago closing?

Thattu in Avondale serves its final dinner on Sunday, December 27, 2026, and is open Thursday through Sunday from 5 to 9:30 p.m. until then. Classes, private events and pop-ups continue at 2601 W. Fletcher St. until the lease ends in April 2027, after which Margaret Pak and Vinod Kalathil plan to rest and visit family in India.

How do I get a reservation at Thattu Chicago?

Thattu takes reservations on OpenTable and recommends booking ahead, especially on weekends during its final weeks in Avondale. For walk-in availability or pickup orders, call the restaurant at (773) 754-0199. Delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats has ended, so dinner is in the dining room or by phone pickup.

What should I order at Thattu Chicago?

At Thattu in Avondale, order the beef fry and porottas ($26), the kadala curry with appam ($19), the Kerala fried chicken bites ($15) and the pork chop peralan ($38). Add a side of rasam and finish with the forbidden payasam, a Korean Indian black rice pudding, or the naadan falooda.

How much does dinner at Thattu Chicago cost?

Dinner at Thattu runs from $6 for the puff of the day to $38 for the pork chop peralan, with most mains between $19 and $33. Sides are $5 to $8, desserts $3 to $14 and cocktails $13 to $16 at the Avondale restaurant, so sharing several plates works for most budgets.

What is Monday Night Foodball at Thattu?

Monday Night Foodball is a weekly chef pop-up held on Mondays in Thattu’s kitchen at 2601 W. Fletcher St. On November 16, 2026, Chefs Tony B and Tazm cook Mexican barbecue starting at 5 p.m., with happy hour until 7 p.m. Nights continue weekly through December 21, 2026, and Foodball returns in 2027 until the end of February.

Has Thattu Chicago won any awards?

Yes. Thattu was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2020 and one of Food & Wine’s Best New Restaurants in 2020, when it was a Politan Row food hall stall. In 2023 The New York Times named the Avondale restaurant to The Restaurant List of America’s 50 best restaurants.