Tatva Cafe — Restaurant in Ellisville

Heard about this new veg place - Tatva Cafe in Ellisville and we were excited to try it! Especially because they seem to have chaats and a thali, beyond the usual dosas etc. Very pleased!

Thali was banging. The best bits were the thick daal and the chhole. Thoughtfully placed items including the achar and barfi.

Idli was fluffy and nice. The lemongrass-type chutney was novel to me.

Dosa - the sambar was not as thick and lush as I personally like, and the dosa was not as thin/crispy as the Curry Club in Chesterfield. But I later came to learn this is their specific style. Paper dosa would be an entirely different dish.

Pani puri - so hard to get it perfect especially if they're doing it full Gujarati style. This was a simpler style. Pani seemed fresh and good.

There's no question that we're coming back. Next time we'll attack the chaat-type dishes and I was stuffed so got a pau bhaji takeout.

The wooden spoons were eco and a good idea, but not deep enough to hold much. A tiny thing but it adds up. Larger paper napkins would be good too.

For a bit of context we are from London, and nowhere matches the quality of Gujarati food in NW London. We came to STL a decade ago to launch our workflow app - Tallyfy. So relative to great places in London it's obviously not a fair comparison.

But this place fills a large gap in the Guj/chaat restaurant category...

Tried this new restaurant. Here are some pros and cons we have as feedback:

Pros: -The menu is all veg -The curries for thali were fresh and simple cooking, they’re great for when you want to eat Indian food outside but don’t want the heavy North Indian curries filled with butter and cream -The actual dosa was the amongst our top favorites in the area -It was clean and very visually appealing -Service was nice

Cons: -A lot of waste; everything is served with paper products like plates/bowls/cups/spoons/etc and gets thrown in the trash after the meal. Also the spoons are hard to eat with. -The menu is hard to read as it’s on a screen that rotates and you have to take pictures of each screen to really be able to stop and read the full menu. -the chutneys and sambhar with dosa were okay; we didn’t like that they combined the coconut and peanut chutney flavors together -The chapatis are bought premade from a bag and not made fresh -chai was not tasty (but this is a matter of preference) -the trash can to throw away your food and plates has a very small opening and the plates are much larger and don’t fit.

Overall we enjoyed the experience, and will probably return every now and then, but we wouldn’t make it one of our go-to restaurants. We like the thought process and idea for the restaurant, but there were some issues with the...

I’ve been to this place twice, and both times were a complete disaster. The service is beyond incompetent. The person at the counter couldn’t even remember(there was no rush at that time) if I had placed an order—she kept asking me the same question over and over like it was my fault she couldn’t keep track. After finally placing the order, she tossed the item into the air fryer and then vanished. I waited over 20 minutes with zero communication. When I asked what was going on, she had the audacity to claim she’d already served me. I insisted she check the air fryer, and sure enough—my food was still in there, completely charred and inedible. The level of negligence, arrogance, and sheer lack of accountability was infuriating. It’s not just bad service—it’s outright disrespectful. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone, ever. Save yourself the frustration and go literally...