Fancy a plate of kanda bhajia for Rs 50? Or a samosa sandwich that costs Rs 135? That’s what you’ll get at the day-old Chai Coffi started up by Basilico’s Farhan Azmi, a cafe where street food gets a prized place, but not without a price hike. bpb swung by this Versova joint on opening day to see if it’s worth your while. You’re bhel-come!

New Tenant

Chai Coffi replaces the iconic Yaari Road Barista which shut down over a month ago, leaving scores of college students and lovers, actors and casting agents homeless. So is this cafe anything like its predecessor? Not really. If first impressions are anything to go by, Chai Coffi can well be mistaken for another outpost of Cafe Basilico with purple boundary walls and a wooden door. On the inside, under shaded trees we found a pretty al fresco area with white walls, predominantly black and brown furniture and a live pizza counter. It’s here that we spotted a piece of the past: orange table umbrellas just like the ones at Barista. Despite the opportunity to reminisce, we decided to ditch the sun and sit indoors, where the wooden interior is rather unremarkable, saved only by the natural light.

Drink Till She’s Biskoot

Considering its moniker, Chai Coffi’s tea and kapi selection doesn’t impress. Neither is it vast nor very exotic. From the list of usual suspects we picked the cutting chai and toffee-flavoured frappe. The former was served in a typical cutting glass, but lacked the punch of our neighbourhood tea stall’s shots. The frappe on the other hand was deliciously rich, but would have been far superior with a swirl of whipped cream. Fun accompaniments with hot beverages include old-school snacks like naan khatai and milk rusk.

Going Up(ma)?

While the food selection (favours vegetarians) at Chai Coffi has obvious street food influences, they also serve European breakfast items, pizza (not available during our visit), salad and deli sandwiches, all freshly made after you order. No soggy off-the-shelf sandwiches here, thank God! And brownie points for the super bread counter.

We started with the waffles - warm, crispy and topped with loads of honey, but no maple syrup. Then came the pesto cheddar in brown bread with an additional accompaniment of chicken. Although the dish was served in white bread instead, it turned out to be yum and filling.

Toast!

From among the street snacks - vegetable sandwich, onion bhajiyas, couscous upma, – we went with the samosa sandwich, which looked and tasted exactly like the aloo toast prepared at home during snack time. Our maharaj would however, love to know what goes into their spicy green chutney.

Sweet Talk

The dessert here at Chai Coffi is quite pricey (Rs 240 for a slice of Philadelphia cheesecake), but we couldn’t resist ordering a plate of the gooey chocolate cake. This would have tasted better had the staff remembered to pop it into the microwave. Teething problems, we hope.

Bread broken, cake eaten, we reflected on our experience at Chai Coffi. And the moral of the meal, as it turns out, is order deli wraps (and other European treats) and leave the samosas to the cook at your street nook. No more roadhouse blues for us, please.

Getting there: Chai Coffi, Beach Queen, J.P Road, Versova, Andheri (W), call 66714141, Rs 800 for a meal for two.

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