For our latest executive lunch in Norwich, James suggested chaiiwala, which it transpired was yet another one of his good ideas. Chaiiwala is a British chain of Indian street-food cafés which started in Leicester in 2015 and has since expanded across the UK and has now reached Canada and the UAE. Its signature drink is karak chai, a rich, milky spiced tea, served alongside food including curry bowls, naan wraps, snacks and desserts. It’s an arrangement that I very much liked the sound of when I saw the options.
The external menu board shows the range of food and drink available, with the prices seeming to be quite reasonable.
The counter area was neat and organised, with a friendly team member coming over to help. He talked me through the loyalty scheme arrangement and so I signed up immediately, with James tutting behind at the wait, and I noticed that there are numerous offers available.
The dessert counter.
I didn’t notice this initially as I’m not always very observant, but there were self-service kiosks and customers could also order using the QR codes on the tables.
A little bit of localisation, it shows willing.
Not all the tables were free from food debris and empty plates, but this seating area at the front looked clean and comfortable.
The team member shouted out the order number and I went to collect my butter chicken rice bowl and chicken tikka pasty. It came to just over £11, which didn’t seem unreasonable considering the amount of food that was served. I was surprised and delighted by this arrangement. The chicken was tender, the basmati rice was well cooked and there was plenty alongside it, including a chickpea and potato salad, crunchy house slaw and spinach. The spinach added colour, the slaw added texture, the rice added body and the chicken added some spice. I liked the variety of textures and tastes, which made this a more interesting bowl of food than I’d expected. The chicken tikka pasty was also generously filled, with gently spiced chicken inside a pastry that had enough firmness to hold everything together. Ordering a pasty alongside a substantial bowl of food had proved an entirely sensible decision on my part.
James went for the Wala Box which was £10.95 and got him a chicken wrap, a Punjabi samosa, loaded chicken fries and a chilli & garlic dip. I can say that he was surprised and delighted as well, there was plenty of food here for the money and he commented positively on the flavour. He’s often hard to please in terms of food, so this was rather lovely.
Someone came in with some food from a nearby restaurant and sat at the front near us, then decided to play her music loudly on her phone. The team members noticed relatively quickly and they dealt with this in a sensitive manner, namely reminding her that she should actually order something. She left soon afterwards.
Anyway, this was better than I expected and I liked the whole set-up. The push towards getting the app is clever, especially as that opens up a series of deals. I am quite likely to come back to try their Bombay fish and chips, it sounds suitably interesting. Definitely a sensible and inspired suggestion from James and we left having achieved everything on the agenda, which was lunch with perhaps a little gossip.