Chaat Cafe

Ambiance: The original Chaat Café, so it has a little more charm than the newer cookie cutter locations. Plenty of seating including some booths. Clean dining room and super clean bathrooms.
Service: Fast and friendly.
Food: followed the suggestion of the counter guy and got a Bhel Puri. Basically rice crispies tossed up with potatoes, some other savory crispy things and some sauces and spices. Sounds weird right… it was amazing!!! A flavor explosion of sweet, sour, salty, spicy, crunchy… it was great. And it was pretty light so I could still crush my butter chicken and naan which nobody does better than Chaat Café.

Had the Karahi lamb with garlic naan. Loved it, spiced just right and a flavorful garlic naan. Will definitely come back.

Yummy food! The food looks and tastes rich. Service is decent. You should definitely try the garlic naan pesto.

Consistently great food since my two visits here. There are a lot of food options to choose from to include street food. I’ve had the wrap and combo plates since I’ve been here and although both are good, I would suggest getting a good combo plate!
Not sure why reviews are so low here but the food is definitely worth it if you’re downtown in Berkeley.

I’m always picking up orders from here. They are fast and nice. I got a chicken wrap and it was extra delicious

I moved here from Sunnyvale where chaat cafes like this are plentiful. Not so in the East bay. I don’t want to rag on any other restaurants nearby that serve chaat (there’s basically only one other), but this place is for me the clear winner. I used to drive all the way back to Sunnyvale when I wanted decent chaat and chai. Now I go here, from Oakland.
I usually get pani puri and sev puri.

I’ve been here a few times now, and I’m always solidly satisfied and impressed! I just finished up a plate of the molai kofta– Excellent, so filling, too. They don’t phone it in, there’s a lot of love that goes into their food and you can taste it. Excellent balance of sweet to savory, generous portions, good prices. Check them out the next time you’re in Berkeley looking for a good, warm meal!

This is probably my favorite Indian restaurant right now it’s actually really good and the staff is really nice too and it’s not expensive!

This place is deceiving, in a good way. Chaat looks like a fast food place of sorts, mainly because of its proximity to the college campus as well as a busy grocery store. That being said, the food is made fresh, all of it. They even have a wide open window where you can see the food being made in traditional Indian style ovens. The skilled shots in the back here to make everything from scratch as well, they even make their own naan. The music inside is also fun, Indian pop of sorts. And it smells great!
I’m just going to throw this out there. There wraps are underwhelming. They are terrible, they just are very good. But their meals are exceptional. The wraps are predominantly a meat or veggie of your choice, and then one or two toppings inside. Its not that they are bad, just a little pricey for what they offer. But again, their meals are priced adequately, and are very powerful in authentic spice. I wish they would make some super spicy dishes, but it’s not bad at all.
All in all it’s worth trying. Just take the time to sit down with joy up rather than eat it on the go. Totally worth it!

The worst chaat I have ever had. Ordered Bhel Puri, Sev Puri and what I got back was not anything close to the real thing. Clearly the staff had no clue what chaat looks or tastes like. We returned every single dish and they did not even offer to compensate us. We walked away in 5 minutes. Please try other chaat places if you are really interested in tasting this fabulous Indian street food. Awful… awful food!

The food was just eh.
We ordered pani puri, a veggie wrap, and a veggie plate.
The food was just not that great. Like maybe next time I’ll try a chicken wrap.
The pani puri was good. It was the only dish that stood out to me.
The veggies wrap was okay. It would definitely be the second best item that they sold.
The veggies players was okay. Just seemed like regular food. Nothing special at all.
I will give this place one more try. I want to believe that their food is better than it was this time. So one more try it will be

I got a chicken wrap, which was actually very good. It was a little small, but the spice level was perfect. I had the spicy potatos on the side — they seemed like they were out of a box and I wouldn’t recommend them.
I also couldn’t figure out the wifi, but that wasn’t a huge issue.

The chaat here is so much better than Vik’s!
The place itself has a lot of seating — tables, booths and bar stools, equipped with a flat screen TV and hindi/​punjabi tunes.
Food-​wise they have a good selection of chaat, wraps, kulfi, entrees and wine/​beer. We all shared the papdi chaat, samosa chaat (huge portions) and the masala fries. All of our food was out in under 5 minutes and everything was so flavorful and filling! The masala fries could use a little bit more seasoning, but other than that I have no complaints.
Takeaway: Probably the some of the best chaat you can get in Berkeley!

I love eating here for work lunch! Their chicken tikka masala is tasty, there naan has enough chew, the masala fries are tasty, and the place is clean and I usually always get seating. One of my fav Indian places to eat in downtown Berkeley!

I had high hopes of getting the same quality food that I ate at the Chaat café on 3^rd Street in San Francisco, but unfortunately, those hopes were dashed when I ate here.
I had the chicken tikka plate, which tasted ok. The texture wasn’t good and it wasn’t seasoned properly. Instead of having a delicious, distinctly Indian taste, it was somewhat bland. It’s unfortunate that all of the Chaat Café’s don’t have standardized recipes and cooking processes. It would be nice to have a consistently good dining experience at each one.

I was craving some sev puri and so we came here with my friend. It was pretty decent and they served quickly

This place is like a university dining hall. Ordered the veg thali. Tasteless food is given in quantity and flavorful food will take up ¹⁄₅ section of your plate. So, think pounds of rice and cucumbers and overly salty no spice dahl…
Ordered roti and was given naan made with wheat bread. Roti and naan are totally different things. I went to staff and told them «sir, I’ve gotten naan by mistake.» He said «no, this is roti! It’s very good roti!» As if telling me it was good would convince me that it didn’t matter that it was wrong. Horrible food. Never again.

I’ve always been curious about this place but since Udupi Palace (which is across the street) is one of my favorites I was reluctant to come here when in the neighborhood. Recently a friend brought me to Chaat Café and I’m glad he did!
Wow, the food is absolutely perfect in taste and you get a lot of it. I ordered the tikka plate and it came with lots of rice, naan, a delicious pea/​paneer curry, dal and refreshing diced cucumber. The amount of sizzling chicken was generous.
My friend got the butter chicken, extra spicy (which came with all of the above except the cucumbers). It was velvety with a tang of citrus. Get this if you like saucy things.
I think each meal was something like $ 10-​$ 11. I can’t believe it was practically deserted inside! This is the best deal on Indian food short of a buffet.
It’s possible it’s under new management. The guys at the counter all seemed young and a bit confused by the register, like they were just learning the ropes. However, they definitely know what they are doing in the kitchen!

I love Chaat Café and have lost track of how many visits we’ve made to this neighborhood joint!
See, I grew up in the East Bay, and my touchstones were Vik’s, Milan, and back in the day, Maharani. My parents would buy shingara (samosas) and other Indian grocery staples, but we never went out for Indian fast/​casual food. So– despite the overwhelming popularity of Vik’s– I’ve never really thought of it as a go-​to spot for a meal.
Anwyay, despite all the Berkeley schooling, Chaat Café never registered on my radar until I started dating the guy who I’d eventually marry. He is friendly with one of the chefs, who is Bangladeshi, and was always a fan. I instantly became one too; Chaat Café is both our «special date night but on the cheap» spot as well as «we’re in the neighborhood and kinda hungry and don’t want to drive 1 mile home to see what’s in the fridge» place.
We always order some selection of the wraps, and they’re always yummy:
Boti wrap (well, until I stopped eating red meat)
Tandoori chicken wrap
Desi chicken wrap
Salmon wrap
Before we discovered willpower (what’s the point of all that YMCA-​ing if we eat more calories than we burned), we would also occasionally order samosa chaat, dahi vada, and/​or mango lassi. The flavors are right on and the prices are friendly.
I’m too chicken (mmm, chicken) to eat street food in India, so I don’t have a ready comparison. All I know is that I always enjoy Chaat Café’s wraps. Most of the time, I try to remember portion control, and eat only half of the wrap … but that just means I get to finish the rest later and prolong the tasty meal.
Service is fast, and we usually get to see the chef and share a smile. I always like looking at the photographs on the walls (of Indian street scenery), and though I don’t read the «India West» newspaper, it gives me a feeling of solidarity with, you know, the diaspora, to see the stacks of papers and the freezers of kulfi.
Indian comfort food. Solid. Take a break from Vik’s and give this place a shot. I think you’ll like it.

I don’t understand why this place is not popular. The quality of the food here is surprisingly good and delicious! I walked in around 5pm and was hoping to get some early dinner. The system is that you order first at the cashier and then you choose where you want to sit. The server was very friendly and gave a lot of suggestions. There are a lot of seatings inside so I sat one table beside the window.
I ordered a Chicken Tikka plate with rice and cucumbers (~$ 10). The wait time was about 20 minutes so I felt a bit impatient about my food. But when they served it to me, the the chicken bites were still sizzling on the plate and steaming off heat! You can tell that it’s made just now, and the naan smells warm and soft like it just came out of the oven.
Now judging the taste. One word: Appetizing! The chicken was so juicy and flavorful. The moment I took a bite I felt so energized and excited about the rest of the evening! The naan also tasted amazing! Very soft and chewy and garlic-​y. It also has some fresh herbs on it so it was just very balanced and flavorful.
Loved this place! Definitely will come back here if I have indian cravings (quite often actually)!