Ghandi India, the first Indian restaurant opened on Devon, is still cooking and serves both Northern and Southern dishes prepared in the tandoori (clay oven) style. Desserts include payasam, or thin noodles cooked in milk and honey with nuts and dried fruit.

The best Indian buffet in the city, complete with a steaming plate of tandoori chicken served at your table, is found at India House. The restaurant brings some additional interesting twists to its menu. "Khadhai" dishes are prepared in a khadhai iron wok and served in a mini copper wok, while lamb and various organ meats are cooked on a tawa, an iron plate griddle. Wash it all down with a mango shake.

Tiffin stands out with its fancy decor and its "frontier" cuisine. The word "Tiffin," which means "light midday meal," is British colonial slang current in India and neighboring Eastern countries. The restaurant, with its circular interior and hollowed out "lid," is shaped like one of the stacked metal dishes that tiffinwallahs carry through the streets of Bombay at noon for lunch. Tiffin serves dishes from the various borders of the subcontinent, including Afghani chole peshaware (a chickpea and potato combination), south Indian paper masala dosai (rice crepes filled with spicy onions and potatoes served with sambar and coconut chutney), northern Indian Mughal specialty murg shai korma (chicken pieces simmered with almonds in a cream sauce), Kashmiri rogan josh from the northwest (lamb pieces cooked in Kashmiri masala with saffron and yogurt), and hot-and-sour goan lamb vindaloo, a west coast specialty favored in Bombay and the former Portuguese territory of Goa. While standing in line for the buffet, you can watch a chef wrapping frisbee-shaped pieces of dough around his "pillow" and dropping them on the cook fires to make naan.

Dasaprakash, part of a family chain of restaurants with a half-dozen locations throughout India and one in Dubai, specializes in southern Indian, but the street's king of hot-and-spicy Southern cooking is Udupi Palace, which serves "pure vegetarian" South Indian dishes. Try the curry with spicy okra, Madras-style cashew pakoras (savory vegetable fritters), dosai crepes made from rice, wheat, or lentils, or thicker uthappam pancakes. Entrées are garnished with sauces, chutneys and sambar.

Pakistani eateries serving the traditional dishes of Northern India, as well as Assyrian and Middle Eastern establishments, are interspersed among the Indian buffets. A melding of cultures can be found at Hashalom, which offers Israeli and Moroccan specialties at rock-bottom prices. Try the Israeli combination plate featuring hummus, baba ghanoush, falafel, Israeli salad, warm pita and the best Moroccan eggplant in the city. The specialty of the house is bourekas, triangles of phyllo dough filled with a choice of feta and onions, feta and spinach, potatoes and onions or ground beef and pine nuts. $4 gets you two bourekas served with sliced tomatoes, tahini sauce and a sliced brown egg.

Once home to nearly two dozen synagogues that relocated from Maxwell Street and North Lawndale, Sabbath traditions are still evident as you head west on Devon to the strip between California and McCormick Boulevard, where Hebraic bookstores, delis and small retail shops are closed on Saturdays and families adorned in traditional garb walk to worship. Although many of the original Jewish residents have left for the suburbs, West Rogers Park has become a port of entry for a new wave of Jews and other immigrants from the former Soviet Union and various Eastern Bloc countries. The Croatian Cultural Center has established itself at 2845 West Devon, while the Argo Georgian Bakery occupies a storefront a few doors down. Opened in early 1997 by a former surgeon who emigrated to the U.S., the Argo is a small storefront that's a single room dominated by a large brick, kiln-like oven in the middle of the floor. The Argo bakes round, cheese-filled hachapuris as well as two kinds of Georgian breads­long-thin shotis and round breads. Patrons relax at two small tables and sip strong coffee while watching the dough being kneaded and prepared for the fiery depths of the bee hive-shaped oven.

Argo Georgian Bakery, 2812 West Devon, (773)764-6322. Daily 9am-7pm except until 5pm Sun, closed Wed. No credit cards.

Dasaprakash, 2511 West Devon, (773)465-DASA. Mon-Fri lunch noon-3pm, dinner 6pm-10pm (except closed Wed), and Sat-Sun noon-10pm. All major credit cards.

Ghandi India, 2601 West Devon, (773)761-8714. Sun-Thu lunch 11:30am-2:30pm, dinner 5pm-10pm, Sat until 11pm. All major credit cards.

Hashalom, 2905 West Devon, (773)465-5675. Mon-Fri noon-9pm. No credit cards.

India House, 2548 West Devon, (773)338-2929. Daily lunch 11:30am-3pm, dinner 5pm-10pm. All major credit cards.

Tiffin, 2536 West Devon, (773)338-2143, Daily Lunch 11:30am-3:30pm, dinner 5pm-9:30pm, dinner until 10pm Fri and Sat. All major credit cards.