See Anu-La 1979’s post #27 above. Chopped coriander leaves are cilantro.
In any event, the place didn’t bill itself as fusion or anything other than “authentic Indian curry.”
::shrug::
Do you have any of Madhur Jaffrey’s books? I know she uses chopped coriander in several of her recipes. If you don’t have any of her books, go and buy them now! 
They are pretty much indispensable for the aspiring Indian chef.
Incidentally, LifeonWry, I’d recommend the following dishes
chole or rajmah: chickpea/or other type of dried bean in a tomatoey spiced sauce (very common for them to sprinkle coriander on top of this so if you hate the leaf, perhaps ask them not to). I’d say if you like chili, you’d probably like this dish
bhindi masala: a bit more problematic because it’s a dry stirfry so it might have the spices that give you a dusty taste. Will usually be served with big chunks of chopped tomatoes and onion chunks.
baigan barth: Punjabi eggplant curry. Mashed eggplant in a tomatoey onioney slurry.
aloo gobi: frankly I cannot STAND this dish but a lot of people like it. It’s a dry spiced potato and cauliflower dish. Will probably have a lot of whole mustard seeds in it, and I know this one usually has asafoetida (Indian word for that is “hing” btw)
saag whatthehellever: saag with chunks of paneer (that’s a fresh cheese made by curdling milk with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, with the curds filtered out and hung to dry, then shaped into cubes). Saag or palak is basically some sort of green leaf, generally spinach, that’s basically cooked into either a plain or creamy sauce. Most places serve it with cream because cream is yummy. Will taste like an Indianed-up creamed spinach.
navratran korma: I can’t imagine anyone hating on this one. It’s a very very delicately spiced korma (so cream + almonds and yoghurt as the curry base) with 9 types of veggies in it. The vegetables WILL be soft, though.
Here’s one thing to keep in mind, if it’s in a sauce, the veggies will have that “mushy” texture you don’t like. One thing to ask the waiter is if it IS served in a sauce-because stuff like aloo gobi, aloo sabji, bhindi masala and some different eggplant dishes are NOT cooked in a sauce but are “sukhi” aka “dry”. They’re cooked at high heats very quickly, a bit like a stirfry, not simmered down like in a “patal” aka “wet/loose” vegetable dish (any type of vegetable dish is referred to as a sabji in the Norf, bhaji in the Souf).
I’d also recommend that you try South Indian cuisine, since some people simply do not take to the spices or combinations of spices they use in North Indian dishes. South Indian food will have a lot more of the spices you say you haven’t had-curry leaf (aka kadippata, which will be thrown in whole), asafoetida (hing), many many many mustard seeds, fenugreek and other regional ones (for instance, in Maharashtra and Goa we use something call “teppal” or “trifal” which is related to Sichuan peppercorn, but not exactly the same). South Indian cuisine seems to be almost 100% veggie, except for the people from southern Maharashtra and Goa, who gave themselves the right to eat fish by fiat like a 1000 years ago or something (I’m part of that group :))…not much agricultural land in those parts as it’s quite mountainous. There will be more of a focus on rice dishes here and they make AMAZING spiced rice-including a delicious tamarind rice you might possibly hate, but also a really good lemon rice. Here try dosa, which is basically a crepe made with rice flour, filled with a spiced potato sabji, idli (steamed rice and lentil cakes kinda) and wadas (will be sold as wada sambaar, sambaar is the soup that a lot of this stuff comes with), which are a deep fried lentil something or the other donut. Although I’ll warn you that in that last one they’ll stick in the curry leaves WHOLE and South Indians adore chopping coriander over everything so you might have to ask them to hold it.
Again, you may just hate the spices in Indian food. But based on what you said you disliked, I’d urge you to tell them you have an allergy to chopped coriander leaf and focus on things that aren’t simmered in a sauce, if you don’t like softened textures.
Good luck!
Anu.
Nope, but that’s been on my to-do list for a while as well. Lately I have a hard time getting anyone to go with me for Indian food - some of my friends aren’t crazy about it, and the two I used to be able to rely on to go for Indian food now have a small baby and rarely go out past 7 pm anymore. I suppose a weekend lunch could work, though - or maybe I just need to make some more friends. 
For a quick chicken paratha roll, though, I like Ravi Kabab House. IMO it’s better for a quick takeout sandwich than a full sit-down meal, though. But it’s nice in the summer if you just want to grab a sandwich and a mango lassi and stroll down Devon Avenue.
Oh thank you! That is far more informative than much of what I have seen, and you’ve listed many things which I haven’t necessarily seen in combination before, but wouldn’t be at all afraid to try. Thanks also for letting me know HOW prevalent the cilantro/coriander thing is - I’m willing to try coriander seed beause I have heard it has no similarity to cilantro leaf in flavor, but I WILL go out of my way to avoid cilantro.
I’m going to see if I can gather a small group of friends to go with me to the Indian resturant pulykamell recommended in Schaumburg sometime next week. The invitation’s open, if any local Dopers want to join me!
Try anything you see Korma - it’s velvety and heavenly. One of my favourite veg dishes of all is Malai Kofta. They say they’re ‘vegetable balls in sauce’ which makes them sound dull but they are anything but.
Dang but I’m getting awful hungry.