Chaayos - Review

Delhi NCR is known for numerous eating joints and variety of food. Delhi-tes are passionate about food and are constantly in pursuit of good cuisines. So hubby and I carry forward the legacy by keep trying out new restaurants or food corners, to refresh ourselves and to quench the thirst of the foody within us.  And this time it brought us to Chaayos, in Galleria Market, Gurgaon.

What attracted me the most was the concept of a huge tea variety in a comfortable tea-shop. Having tried tea from small tea stalls by roads, this one seemed to be a hygienic idea of sipping tea. Considering my love for tea, I was instantly hooked to the tagline “Experiments with chaai”. As we entered Chaayos, the ambience with warm lighting, wall graffiti of old times, tea glass holders used as bulb holders appealed to us.

The menu had a large variety of tea. Beginning from kullad and masala chai to chamomile tea, ice tea and English tea, they had an amazing variety. Masala or desi chai had options of spices to choose from. The menu had a decent number of snack items as well.

 

The staff was quick in taking orders and suggested us the tea that we wanted.  We choose kullad chai, kadhaai paneer wrap and keema paao. To our disappointment, the waiter came back with an apology as they had run out of kullad. We settled with Desi tea choosing from spices of ginger, basil, cardamom, cloves and fennel seeds (saunf).

The order arrived after  20 minutes. Tea was served in a good quantity and smelled of nice flavors. I loved the

tea! Sugar was not added by the staff. A plus point for that! However, snacks were utterly disappointing. The kadhaai paneer wrap filling was partially uncooked. A layer of aloo bhujia and mayonnaise wwere big turn offs. Never had such a bad veg wrap ever! I hate to waste food but I left half the wrap uneaten on the plate.

Same was the case with keema paao. With the first bite, husband’s smile vanished and he reluctantly finished the rest. “Barely any keema filling in the paao, tasteless” was his feedback.

While the waiter claimed that they were short of kullad, he brought our bill in a kullad! Heights of irony. Post a bad eating experience, we paid around 500 INR! It was way too high for snacks.500 INR can feed thali combos to three people. Come on! Just because you are located in a posh area, doesn’t mean you get the right to plunder customers. We landed up paying for 4 tiny items out of which we hated 2. High taxes, VAT and what not. An overall below average experience it was. We liked the tea but everything was overpriced. Who wants to burn a hole in their pocket like this? Atleast I don’t.

• Ambiance- Good
• Service- Slow
• Tea- Excellent, Quantity- Good
• Snacks- Extremely poor, Quantity- Okay
• Price- Too high
• Repeat visit for me- YES, Only for tea