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2019-07-22
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Summary: Variety, tons of food, and a cool, colorful vibe. Chaiwala's Indian brunch is a great change of pace from Eggs Benedict and Avocado Toast, packing a great sampling of Indian cuisine, with great service to boot. The only issue is quite limited mains, but you’ll be so full by then you won’t care. Nothing here will blow your socks off, but quality across the board for a very reasonable price. I'm not a big fan of Chaiwala for dinner - i went here when it was newly opened and was not impres
I'm not a big fan of Chaiwala for dinner - i went here when it was newly opened and was not impressed by the flavors (pretty standard Indian) or value (something like 500 p.p. and we were not nearly full). It's basically the opposite experience for Brunch. Here's the menu:
The restaurant, if you’ve never been, is deceptively huge, meandering and decorated with Indian knick-knacks, it’s especially colourful for brunch – check out the chaat bar:
One note: the food at the chaat bar isn't that thrilling – I wasn’t very familiar with the concept of chaat, but they’re more like snacks, lots of tiny crunchy things, which are tasty with the chutneys they provide. I didn’t take a picture, but they have a plain yogurt, beetroot-yogurt, Mint-yogurt and tamarind chutney, and you'll be thankful for the variety, as the slightly tart yogurts are a perfect complement to the curries and tandoori.Since we had a large group, they helped to assemble some of the chaats:
The service is excellent; attentive and knowledgeable, they were constantly wiping the moisture on the ceiling AC to prevent it from dripping, as well as refilling the chaats as they depleted. Thanks Alonso!In addition, for each pair of people, you also get a freshly made aloo masala (potato) dosa, which was excellent – crunchy and warm, with a spiced potato mix inside.
The Pani-puri were also terrific:
Compared to the limp offerings at Envoy, these are a world apart. Tasty egg, potato and onion filling that you drizzle (or drown) with tamarind-infused water in a perfectly fried shell, it’s a perfect appetizer. I think I ate 4 or 5.According to our server, they are experimenting with a Biryani rice dish, which they were offering as part of this week’s brunch, luckily for us.
Beautifully spiced, the cardamom and anise-infused flavors keep rolling in as you eat, and while it’s slightly spicy, it doesn’t take away from the dish. I had multiple servings of this.Finally, you get to the main courses. The only real knock I have against this brunch is that there isn’t a ton of variety in the main courses, unless you’re willing to add to the bill.
We tried everything basically that didn’t require extra:
Tandoori Chicken
Tandoori Salmon
Chicken Murg Malai Tikka
I’d never seen this before – lightly spiced, they marinate this in buttermilk, grill it in the tandoor and then melt some cheese on it. Very unusual, and tasty, but no one really loved it.Vegetarian Platter
Don’t bother with this unless you’re vegetarian – nothing was particularly deliciousSo we’d been eating for like 90 min at this point, and we were stuffed… THEN they brought the curries. We tried the fish curry for an extra $80, since there are just 3 choices for curry dishes: it was good but not worth the extra money.
Butter Chicken
Saag Paneer (Spinach with Paneer)
Both were kind of standard, though standard butter chicken is still incredibly good. While I always love Saag dishes, I didn't see any Paneer in the spinach at all... maybe i didn't dig deep enough? seems like it was melted in if it was there at all. Another problem was that we had 7 people, so 3 butter chicken, 3 spinach, and just 1 fish curry. Too much of a good thing. However, the Naan needs a shout out– fluffy but not overly doughy, crunchy yet still chewy inside, not too greasy – one of the best Naans I’ve had in HK.
They end this ridiculous meal with some small desserts – ice cream, an Indian sweet, and a raisin cake. Simple and sweet.
Overall, Indian food for me is about variety – each dish is so heavy that you need to balance it out with other flavors and chutneys. I love when restaurants offer a Thali, basically a sampler with many small dishes, so you get as many flavors as possible with each meal. While Chaiwala didn’t go that far, I really enjoyed the brunch variety – there isn’t the largest selection of mains, but there are enough, and with all the chaat to stuff your face with, you won’t go home unsatisfied. I’m not sure what actual Indians think of this food, but I thought it was delicious.
I recommend this colorful brunch strongly for Indian-food newbies, or if you just want to try a bunch of things without assembling a giant crew (in fact, large groups are counter-productive since there are so few options for mains). If you only like specific Indian dishes and nothing else, this might not be the place for you. Then again, with a $180 drinks offer which gets you a sub-500 free-flow brunch, it's a bit hard to go wrong isn't it?
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