Mister Chai — Restaurant in New Delhi

Mister Chai is a cosy open tea coffee lounge inside of Hotel SHANGRILA, Ashoka Road. Its nice hotel very well decorated for xmas and new year. We were looking for a tea coffee shop that is open 24*7 or around 4 am and mister chai popped up on google. The lounge is open but has a nice comfortable seating. Over the phone I was told that there is a cover charge of Rs 500 per person , which was very surprising for a tea coffee lounge. Their night menu is limited. No bakery items are available before 8 am. We took a kettle of cutting chai which serves 3-4 in very small cutting glasses. The tea was nice with good amount of ginger so much so that it had gone bitter. He made another small amount but not for all only fit one. They serve it with namak para and shakkar para. Costs Rs 500. Tea quantity is very less. The glasses are too small and narrow. Barely a few sips. Namak para was real good , fresh and crispy. Then we had a plate of aloo pyaaz paranthas. Two paranthas with curd, pickles & butter. These were good. Soft & tasty. We sat, enjoyed, chit chatted in the wee hours of morning. Most of the items in the menu are around 500-600 Rs. they don’t have any discounts. They ddnt even give any complimentary gesture for a birthday...

I thought that five star hotels were done with snooty behaviour but many thanks to Shangri-La's Mister Chai coffee shop for giving me a reality check. I went one afternoon and ordered a cup of coffee and a paneer kathi roll.

The lady who served me informed me that I had picked something from the midnight offering and she graciously offered to check with the chef if it could be done - cool, I thought, a paneer wrap is basic stuff at a cafe. However she came back and said - the chef has said that “he can make a wrap but it needs to be more expensive, and so that roll which originally cost Rs 700 will now cost you around Rs 1250”.

I was taken aback and was almost about to start laughing but I also didn’t feel like getting her to remove the condescension on her face. I declined obviously - who in their right mind would agree to pay almost double for something they knew the original cost of! And hotels are known to accommodate such requests all the time!

Also Shangri-La team, if you’re planning to serve cold vada pavs - just please say that they are not available - no need to completely ruin my...

Good chai and food! Overall it was a very poor experience, when you’re paying a premium price in a 5 Star hotel you expect a 5 Star service but this was not the case in Mister Chai today. They’ve written in the menu “cutting chai” “one pot for two guests at Rs 999” and “one pot for one guest at Rs 599”. I’ve ordered one pot for two and one pot for one guest accordingly. Restaurant staff was trying to cheat by serving 3 cups from the same one pot for 2 guests and said these are your 3 cups until I asked them about where the 2nd pot was for 1 guest, only then they brought the 2nd pot. I could’ve asked to divide one pot chai for 2 guests into 3 knowing the fact that usually in a pot you’re getting more than just 1 or 2 cups chai but I respected the menu card and ordered accordingly. I expect the same from the restaurant to provide the service in the same way. Nobody expects such a low and cheap behaviour from a 5 Star restaurant. I don’t even understand why even try to cheat customers for 1 pot when we are paying such a high...