Chai Khana Cafe & Grill (Halal) — Restaurant in Houston

Best thing about this place is the decor. I visited with a close friend and we ordered multiple items including elaichi and ginger chai, chicken biryani, beef samosa, mixed pakora, and beef bun kabab with fries. Not a single thing tasted right. The beef samosa, I was assured was fresh, but the meat did not taste fresh and was not flavorful at all. Most bland samosa I’ve ever eaten. I usually take my chai without sugar and I had to add 4 sugars to my large chai to make it taste good, and it still wasn’t overly sweet. Thankfully they added enough elaichi to the chai. But, I think they forgot what they were making when they made the biryani, because they added more than 10 elaichi in one order of biryani and so much chili that it was hard to eat. The mixed pakoray were undercooked and remade, except when they were remade, they did onion pakora only instead of the mixed pakora. And this time, the pakoray were hard, overcooked, and flavorless because hardly any spices were added at all. I try to be very encouraging about halal food options but I cook Pakistani food at home all the time and am very familiar with the necessary flavors. This food had no flavor and now I’m just hoping I don’t get a...

We were in the mood for Chai Shai but they were closed even after 10:15 AM so we decided to come here instead. We ordered Halwa puri, chai, Mal pura, chicken and veg puff pastry and Keema paratha. Apart from the halwa puri (which was more like aloo ka salad and so much gravy, it seemed like cholay and aloo were swimming in it), puris were 2 but so small), everything else was pretty good. Puff pastries had pretty good and tasty fillings, keema paratha was very tasty and malpura was delicious. Haven’t seen many places offering that. Food was prepared fresh. Seating and decor is very basic and it is self service. Definitely dont recommend the halwa puri. I also hope that they add some Raita / chutney with the aloo or keema paratha rather than just the plain yogurt. Price point is decent. Also, they charge for water. There is no tap water available which is...

Really wanted to love the place but we won’t be back. The two of us ordered a meal each and then ordered two chais. I noticed that when he rang up the order, he charged both of us a meal with tea and two chais to go. We started eating our meal when it came out but no tea ever came with our meal or at all. Our chais came out and was hot. Never did we ever get the tea with our meal. Also when we left we drank our chai teas. My chai was so bad it literally tasted like dirty bath water. The ginger chai was ok but when we got home I had to add more to it to make it taste ok. Not only was I disappointed in the drinks but also that we were charged for the tea that was never brought out. I left a gracious tip ahead of time as well and instantly regret that. Needless to say we will not return...