Roti Chai’s split personality garnered rave reviews. The relaxed street food upstairs and the more intimate formal dining downstairs means it caters for all, but was it any good? Time to find out…
Ideal for:
Satisfying Indian street food cravings
Dinner with mates or dates
Curry lovers
Ambience & Décor
The street food haven upstairs has the utilitarian décor of a street café. This is becoming more and more commonplace for Indian establishments but it works. The only sort of quirk were famous Indian posters painted on the walls. The upstairs was heaving and therefore the ambience was quite lively. Thankfully conversation was easy to maintain.
Service
Service was unspectacular. It was good without enhancing the experience. I think a minor improvement point would be to ensure the staff know the menu better.
Food
Given the sizable nature of the dining we managed to cover off a fair few dishes in this review.
One of the star dishes was the Parsi Chicken Farcha (left). What the dish lacked in authenticity, it made up for it in flavour. The crispy coating was sublime and the curried ketchup gave the dish some zing. For the price, the portion was good.
The winning dishes kept coming with the Chicken Lollipops. This Keralan classic was packed full of flavour, spice and heat, but the mint chutney tempered this perfectly. This was my favourite starter.
Contrastingly, the Bombay Bhel Puri and Bun Kebab were a bit of a let-down. The Bhel (puffed rice) had gone too soft and no amount of tamarind nor potato could rescue the dish. The Bun Kebab butchered good quality lamb by putting in excess chillies and spice, obliterating any subtleties the meat or the dish had.
Roti Chai’s sister restaurant Chai Ki made the worst Chilli Paneer I have ever had. This was better but the paneer needed to pack more of a punch and vegetables were used to mask the dish’s inadequacies, which infuriated me.
To round off the smaller plates, the Idli Sambar was pretty standard and a tad expensive for £7.50. The final small plate was worth the wait. The Agni Fire Wings were just as chilli as advertised with the bright red colour indicating the levels of chilli in the sauce. Not for the faint hearted. Despite this, the sauce made the dish with its intriguing flavour tones and combinations. Delicious.
The two big dishes ordered where hit and miss. The Manchurian Chicken sounded good given its Indo-Chinese prep, but was so underwhelming. The flavours were not gelling on my palate and the chicken was a tad overcooked.
TheRailway Lamb Curry (bottom right) was very tasty. The ample lamb portion was “melt in your mouth” soft. The gravy accompanying the lamb was stunning, as it was the right amount of spice but bags of flavour. The lucid viscosity of the gravy was mopped beautifully by the accompanying chapati. Good finish to the meal.
Roti Chai delivered a mixed bag tonight. The dishes ranged from the fantastic to the feeble. With the nonchalant service and nondescript interior, the only saving graces from a C were the Parsi Chicken Farcha, Chicken Lollipops and Railway Lamb Curry. Overall B- Rating.
Photos of Roti Chai and more can be found on Instagram here.
Final grade: B-
Final comment: Roti Chai had the blueprint to be an Indian hit, but misses the mark
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