Chaat Cafe is an Indian restaurant and bakery that emphasizes street food, including its namesake, chaat. It’s a good place for takeout but not eating in, as there’s no atmosphere in the open and stark dining area.
Chaat is a snack that’s typically sold at road-side food stalls or carts in India and has several variants, depending on the base (e.g. rice), sauce (e.g. chutney) and toppings. Here you can find five kinds of chaat plus a special.
I tried the dahi bhalla ($5.99), which is deep lentil balls served cold and topped with a semi-sour yogurt sauce, a little green chutney, boiled potato cubes, cilantro, grated carrots and various spices. You’ve got a lot of different flavors coming at you in the chaat, which I would classify as a refreshing snack. I was impressed that the lentil balls didn’t get soggy at all from the sauce.
If you’re looking for something milder in flavor, the parantha (typically spelled “paratha”), another street food, is a good bet. It’s a pancake-shaped bread that’s soft and carries just a hint of the fried flavor. I got mine with mooli ($5.99), which meant it had shredded daikon radish inside. This parantha reminded me of a cross between a Chinese turnip cake and a scallion pancake.
Chaat Cafe also serves “burgers” (e.g. chicken burger), paneer (cheese) dishes and chicken dishes. From the wraps section, the Manchurian chicken wrap ($7.99) is messy goodness. It’s double-wrapped in foil to help hold in the spicy, tomato-y sauce, which tastes like sweet and sour and drips out both sides of the wrap. The chicken is tender and comes in tiny pieces, and I liked the diced onions and green peppers inside that provided contrasting crunch.
The lamb korma ($13.99) is hearty and the priciest item on the menu. The braised lamb is tender, and its flavor, along with the cumin, easily stick out. It comes with rice and for some reason, lettuce, tomato and onion. This dish has some heat to it.
The bakery features both sweet and salty goods. I loved the vegetable puff ($2.99), which has a golden-fried shell that would rival any empanada, and a puree of mostly potatoes and spices on the inside. I similarly enjoyed the veg roll ($1.99), as it has the same ingredients as the puff.
Chaat Cafe is open for lunch and dinner Sunday and Tuesday-Saturday.
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See more photos in our Chaat Cafe Flickr album.
