The Slow Burn Brunch At Chai Ki | Mall Level -1 Crossrail Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AR
So what colours do YOU see? White and gold or black and blue?
We’ve been needing an excuse to revisit the fab Chai Ki at Canary Wharf since we first went last year. I won’t repeat how wonderful we found their modern Indian street food, you can read all about it here. If you haven’t heard of this place, you may have heard of Roti Chai – their sister restaurant over in the west end. They’ve just launched a ‘Slow Burn Brunch Menu’ – chilli does wonders for the metabolism (as well as hangovers), so it has a double whammy effect. Triple in fact, if you count the fact that Chai Ki‘s food is incredibly tasty.
We were pleased to find the restaurant busy and continuing to do well, we do worry about places that we fall in love with, it’s heartbreaking when things don’t work out. Service was just as slick as before, with food arriving remarkably quickly, I’d barely had time to take pictures of our cocktails before it was time to get stuck in.
Here’s to you Gavin… a little strawberry moment and a Mojito just for good measure!
Drinking at lunchtime on a Sunday is a recipe for a sluggish afternoon, but I just had to have a Strawberry chai Bellini (£6). It was what would have been our friend Gavin’s 46th birthday that day, he coined the phrase ‘strawberry moments’ during his cancer battle – those sweet and precious moments we treasure with loved ones. So it was only right that I raised a glass of strawberry fizzy stuff to him.
Right, enough of the sad stuff. Due to the massive strawberry, I was struggling to drink from the reduced opening in the glass. Ade had no such trouble and was knocking back a very good Maha Mojito (£8.50) with ginger-infused rum. They’re ‘restorative drinks’ by the way, if only all booze was intended that way.
Good luck choosing what to eat from this brunch menu, we pretty much wanted it all. The only thing that we didn’t fancy was the pancake stack purely because, from the description, they didn’t seem to have much of an Indian twist to them.
The full monty – Chai Ki style
All bases covered
Ade went for the obvious man choice of the Full Nashta (£11.50) – streaky bacon, miso bhurji, brioche, aloo tikki hash, masala beans, sausage and vine tomato. Basically, a fry up but 8 million times better. With the kind of bacon that could turn a vegetarian, fluffy bubble and squeak esque hash. And don’t tell them I said so, but the beans are better than the ones at Dishoom. That’s me struck off as an Uber Wallah.
Dhal Fry… A distant relation to Stephen
What to do with the leftover brioche? Dunk it into some Dhal Fry (£4.80). We both adore this dish, so comforting and er, again, better than Dishoom’s, theirs is just too buttery for my liking.
Now I really am in trouble.
I feel like chicken tonight this afternoon!
I went for the Bun Farcha (£8.50) – green chutney breaded chicken, ginger, chilli and chaat masala, all tucked into a brioche bun with slaw. I especially loved their Burnt Chilli Chicken on visit one so I knew this would be good. It was. I devoured this burger so quickly that I wanted to do it all over again. At least I had some dhal to finish off with, smothered on some warm Malabar Paratha (£2.50) – layered bread much like a thin sheet of puff pastry.
It’s frustratingly good food, we have too many other places we need to visit without feeling such a pull to return back to ones we’ve already been to. If this brunch menu doesn’t perk you up at the weekend, nothing will. Imagine if they did a Sunday roast! Now there’s an idea…
chai-ki.com
Mall Level -1 Crossrail Place,
Canary Wharf, London E14 5AR
Telephone: 020 7408 7630
Email: info@chai-ki.com
Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 7am-11pm
Saturday: 10am-11pm, Sunday: 10am-10pm
Follow them on Twitter
Nearest station: Canary Wharf DLR (5 mins walk), West India Quay DLR (7 mins walk) Canary Wharf (8 mins walk)
We ate as guests of Chai Ki, this does not affect our review in any way. We always write with complete honesty.
