Chowrastha - Indian Eatery — Restaurant in Nashua

My experience at Chowrastha Indian Eatery in South End Nashua was quite pleasant, and cultural. Be aware that the vast majority of patrons here are of India and South Asia origin, and that, coupled with the fact that the menu has only meal titles with no description as to the contents (I had to Google everything to figure it out), tells me that this is the real deal; what you may find at their homes or on the street. There is plenty of seating, both booths and tables. The menu is on the wall above the counter. The people here are very friendly if you are comfortable with engaging them. They answered my questions with zeal although there were moments when it was difficult for me to understand. Place, and pay for, your order at the counter, pick a seat, and wait for your name to be called. The wall menu states that the average wait time is about 25 minutes but my food was ready in 15 to 20 minutes; quite reasonable for all that I ordered. Most everything I had was quite spicy, as expected - and desired - with flavors that are unimaginable if you’ve never given this type of cuisine a try in the past. For me, I started with Samosa Ragda Chaat and Garlic Naan Bread. I’d never had Chaat before but I certainly will again. It has many layers of different textures and is amazingly flavorful. The Naan, my only familiarity here, was soft and delicious. Next up was Paneer Tikka Kebab from the Tandoor. The primary source of protein in this dish is what was described to me as “Indian Cheese” (paneer). This was most incredibly flavorful. Finally came the Onion Spinach Pakora which was the only item I kind of considered meh; not bad, just meh. This Pakora is a mixture of deep fried onions and spinach, and along with the Naan, was the only thing I had that was not spicy. In case you are interested, the word “chowrastha” is a Hindi word that translates to "four paths" or "intersection of four roads". It often refers to a public square or a place where four roads meet, implying that this is a crossroads for all people to meet and eat. Very much...

The question is whether I will visit this place again? I would say highly unlikely. Let me state my experience with the food. The place is new and buzzing with the ‘street crowd funnily enough all homeless looking crowd found their way to the restaurant. We found a place to sit in the restaurant so we ordered plain and masala dosa, chicken 65, stuffed chilli, masala chai, chicken dum biriyani and schezuan noodles. The plain and masala dosa was served non-crispy with sambar and two chutneys. The dosa and sambar tasted ok, the red chutney was ok too but what was that white chutney? There was no coconut or dal or anything that resembled a dosa chutney in appearance or taste.

Masala chai- was ok but if you have tasted chai from Patel Bros you don’t want to order here. The stuffed pepper looked very special but it had an extra dose of baking soda and fluffed up, tasted ok but nothing special. Be careful of consuming food containing lot of baking soda as it will cause bloating and make you feel fuller, not good for your health overall. Chicken 65 was disappointing not crispy and did not taste anything like the chicken 65? Why serve soft chicken pieces and call it chicken 65? It’s not! Schezuan noodle is my fav dish and it looked great but the taste was disappointing ! It did not taste like schezuan noodle at all. I brought it home so that I could add some taste to it. After all these disappointments, 😮‍💨 I finally tried the dum biriyani. It was ok, medium hot is actually very hot even for Indian taste buds, so besides that I got no taste. Comes with 2 pieces of chicken and no egg or potato. My recommendation is save your money and go to a decent restaurant. The whole experience was like drinking flat soda drink without the fizz. If this place claims to cook Andra dishes then they better have some taste and not just taste hot. I had some decent faith based on how crowded this place was but it fell short of impressing me...

I have been to this restaurant more than 5 times so this review is my collective experience of all visits. There are lot of hits and misses with this restaurant.

Good - Some of the food items are tasty. I specially dig their peanut chutney and dosas. Plenty of seating. Wide variety of options for vegetarians and vegans. Home made Indian style desserts and cake pastries.

Bad - Sambhar (lentil stew) is not consistent. Sometimes it's too thick like "daal" and sometimes it is watery like "rasam". Utthapam was overcooked and had a rubbery texture. The restaurant can be very busy on weekend evenings and they don't seem to manage the crowd well. There isn't any place for customers to stand while they wait for pickup or when they are in line to order. They use paper plates and plastic utensils and plastic glasses. Even if it is being recycled (I am not sure if it is), the usage of single use plastic should be eliminated for dine-in and in the long run, even for pickup orders. No cold water or ice. The drinking water faucet does not provide cold water. I have never been to a restaurant in my life that did not serve cold water. On a 82F day (5/28/2023), the air conditioning wasn't running and the restaurant was boiling up inside closed doors. Not sure if their air conditioning is broken or if they are trying to save money. The direct afternoon sunlight through the glass wall doesn't help either. I recommend they buy shades and get their air conditioning serviced for the upcoming warm season. They don't promptly clean the seating area. Every time I have been there, I see dirty tables or floor, which I have to ask to get cleaned before seating or wait until someone comes to clean them up. Pani puri uses hot steamy chickpea stew, instead of spicy mashed potato/chickpea mix. I have not had pani puri in India with this hot stew, so this must be a specific...