Chaat Bhavan - Sunnyvale — Restaurant in Sunnyvale

After a gap of over 5 years, upon a friend's recommendation I started coming here since the last 3 months during lunch for the 'House Thali' that's currently priced at $11.99 (as of Oct 03, 2024) - and that's splendid in this overinflated and exploitative market.

The food is consistently good: the paratha is soft and substantial in size, the curries are decent, and they give you two sweets (more than I care to eat in one sitting, so I usually take one home with my leftovers- usually rice; more on that below).

About 5 years ago, I had an unpleasant customer service experience which led me to stop coming here.

When I came back 3 months ago, I talked to the manager (owner?) in the front, who acknowledged that things used to be different but they've now changed the layout, menu, and at least part of the management and most staff since then.

It's been a good experience so far ... until today. I'm disappointed to say that I had another bad experience today.

My waiter was friendly to those around me, but cold with me for some reason. After taking my order, he asked for my menus, so I gathered them and placed them at the edge of the table - where they remained till the very end, along with the default plate (which isn't needed for Thali).

When I was done eating, I asked for a box for the leftover rice. As he was bringing it, I realized I wasn't going to finish the two sweets, so I asked for another box for the kheer (rice pudding).

The waiter told me that I'm only allowed to take the rice in the boxes he had available as it's too big for the kheer. That sounded so absurd that I blurted out wtf (the whole phrase), and he promptly scolded me to mind my language. Then he told me again that I can't get another box for my kheer as they had run out of stock of the smaller boxes, and I'd have to pay 25 cents to use the "bigger" box for kheer. Or wait 10 minutes, as they had sent a kid to get more leftover boxes of the right size for my kheer!

We had an altercation where I asked him if he thought he was doing me a favor by letting me take my leftovers home, and I also questioned him if this was the management policy of the restaurant or a decision he was making by himself? I also asked him why they didn't buy the smaller containers before running out of them, and why he thinks it's ok to make it the customer's problem/fault by asking me to wait 10 minutes or pay $0.25?

He muttered something, then pouted and said "fine" and agreed to allow me to take my leftover kheer in another precious plastic container of his without charging me.

It's never getting old, this attitude problem amongst waiters that clearly stems from an utter lack of training that could polish off these rough edges and coarse communication that accompanies an inability to handle exceptions and customer...

Wow Wow Wow !!!

Ordered their House Thali.

Yummy divine, tasty, hot and finger licking food. Every item in the Thali was as if it was made in leisure.

To go into a little more specific in the House Thali, the paratha ( There was a choice between one whole big paratha and 2 rotis, I chose the patatha ) was extremely hot, soft, tasty and yummy ( No Trust me you definitely cannot get it this soft at home ) Their sabzis or their gravies also hot, soft, tasty and yummy viz. Mattar Paneer, Dal Makhani and Aloo Gobi were made with extreme love and it tasted so good that I felt that no way you could get this divine taste if you make it at home. Their Raitha was top of notch which made me believe that I had never tasted anything like this anywhere. There was Papad which was fried to perfection and also tasted yummy and tasty. Their Punjabi Salad and Achaar was at it's tastiest best. The Yellow Dal was made with such perfection that you feel like ordering one more order of House Thali but unfortunately my eating capacity is limited. Their Kheer or dessert was so welcoming and sweet after a good hearty workout lunch. The quantity was suffice perfectly. Please Please Please get their Sweet Paan and do not miss it, after the meal ( You have to buy it seperately )

I have a feeling that Godess Annapoorna herself would have come down and prepared the meals with her divine own hands to experience this sort of divine food.

Customer support ( Kuljeet Paaji ) was extremely prompt, courteous and warm and made you feel at home rather than a restaurant. I would give a Shout Out to Kuljeet Paaji for rendering such a warm, hearty, courteous and home like feeling service

5 stars (*) for a wonderful eat out. Will cherish this memorable experience for ever and last but not the least my heart feels totally satisfied and my stomach through my heart shouts "Go Chaat Bhavan Go". Chaat Bhavan deserves to have the slogan "Come Hungry Go Happy" rather than IHOP ( I guess )

--- Extremely Happy and A...

The order name was Ankush Kala or Ashish Aggarwal. We went in and were seated. The waiter came and had a lot of attitude. He was telling us to pass the plates and glasses down in a manner of attitude. We ordered bhel puri, house thali, 2 channa batura(beans with Indian bread), pav bhaji (mixed vegetables with Indian bread). The bhel puri came first and they added sprouts on it, which was not said in the menu. We complained about this because they did not say in the menu about adding sprouts on it. Who knows what other ingredients which are not on the menu are added to other foods. They were saying that they usually add sprouts which is not true because that was not our first time eating there, and they also did not say it on the menu. They said they will replace it with a no sprout bhel puri. After that, the rest of the food came. The house thali had 2 dals, 2 rotis, loki (bottle gourd), paneer, raita, papadam, the dessert of the day, rice, and a choice of soda, tea, or chaas. The roti was very dry and was like it was pre-cooked. The loki didn't have much loki in it, there were only 2 big pieces and a few little pieces. The channa batura was not as tasty as it was before. The channa was very bland for some reason. The pav bhaji was good. The atmosphere was really hot. The day we went was very hot and inside was very hot. We asked if the air conditioner was on, and the waiter said yes, and we asked them to lower the temperature. It didn't really change the temperature of the restaurant, so it was very hot the whole time. We asked he water many things, like where is the replacement bhel puri, can we get some ice, and many other things. It took us so many times to remind him to get the things and after a while, he did. The bhel finally came at the end, we also ordered aloo paratha (Indian potato bread), which was good. The waiter was not good, the atmosphere was not good, the...