Chaat Cafe Swindon — Restaurant in England

Overall Verdict:

100% to be avoided if ordering online.

Might be decent if eaten on-premises, with very carefully selected choices from menu.

Full feedback:

The kari dosa I ordered was one of the speciality items (and priced accordingly) yet came with so little filling that I might as well have ordered a plain one - The only real "filling" was the sambar which apparently comes with all dosa anyway.

From my own experience dosa are normally fair thin pankcake like breads - this thing was more like a thick chewy flatbread. Not unpleasant, but not sold as really as described.

The pani puri themselves were crispy and fresh, but the provided sauce (described by menu as "Tangy water"?) was unpleasantly sweet and stone cold - as in, recently removed from fridge and not heated at all kind of cold. Ended up being thrown away entirely.

None of the food received was particularly hot, for that matter.

There are only two reasons why this review is three stars, rather than one star:

The temperature of the food may have been partially down to delivery / collection method used by Just Eat and may be better if visiting in person - So I can't confidently state this was a fault of the establishment in full.

I say only partially as this was ordered on a hot summer's day, and only lukewarm by the time it reached me. Sso I can't really say I believe it was overly hot when it left the kitchen.

And secondly, while the dosa had very little of it's described filling, the provided sambar did taste good and made a nice filling for it - once microwaved to a suitable temperate. Chutney too did have a nice taste.

Everything else was essentially...

Poor communication. Given the wrong item in my collection order today. They don't know what they are selling. Menu item online under the Tandoori Grill section says "Chicken Tikka". I called asking for "Chicken Tikka" (I think most people know what that is - its pieces of grilled chicken - screen-print attached of their menu) and the lady said she doesn't know what this is and they don't sell it. Then later she said oh she found it.

We clarified the order and she read off the two items I ordered (1 Lamb Biriyani and 1 Chicken Tikka) and when I eventually got home with it, they had given me some kind of buttery watery curry with a few small pieces of chicken tikka at the bottom of it which could not even be seen in the tub of watery curry. The word curry was never used in my order.

The lamb biriyani also had too many pieces of the cinnamon wood stick pieces in it, that was all I was chewing on, too much, had to put maybe 10 small pieces of this bark in the bin, half of that picked out of my mouth. That was all I could taste, even after the meal.

Their soft drinks are over priced for basic cans you can buy in the shop.

In the past I have asked for other things on their menu online which they say they don't sell. Waste of...

Sadly I will not be recommending this place. A friend took me here and the food came out and tasted off. Thankfully she asked for a new plate and when they brought it out it did taste very different and very good.

As a result of how nice It tastes I ordered from them 2 days later. After I had paid I was told there were no drivers I had to go and collect which was irritating as it's very out if my way but ok fine, but then proceeded to end up with food poisoning! Please note I was about 4 months pregnant at the time. The baby had reduced movement which was very worrying (first baby so didn't know what to expect)

I contacted the restaurant to let them know and at least get a refund as everything we ordered we had to throw away. I missed out on two days if work. I was told to email in and it's been several months; I wanted to give them the chance to respond and ice heard nothing. It's such a shame because I really liked the Tate if the food but I WILL NOT be going back and WOULD HIGHLY recommend you stay away. I will also be informing the chaps down at food hygiene as I really wonder if they hear and reheat...