Bagels, nachos, a ‘full English’: these are not what you might expect from somewhere called Chai Green. The newly-opened Albany Road branch is their third in total, and first outside their native Birmingham. Those bagels are stuffed with masala omelette or spiced chicken, though, because the “all-day breakfast and street food” menu here has clear Indian roots. This isn’t your usual Albany Road setup.
My uniformed server takes my order on an iPad: she is knowledgeable about the menu and charming, and my food arrives quickly. It’s all very slick and rehearsed, even so close to opening. The ‘desi’ breakfast’s masala omelette, spiked with green chilli and red onion, is a perky thing: you can have it with chickpeas, keema or masala beans, and with paratha, fluffy puri or toast. The paratha are pleasingly irregular in shape and made here, they tell me (less common than you’d hope), with the lamb a rich mix.
The house chai is excellent, fragrant with cardamom, thick and luxurious, the sort of thing that’s easy to order again and again. A butter chicken bowl is similarly very capably done, heavy with meat and carrying a charge of heat while delivering that creamy undertow of sweetness.
Chai Green faces stiff local competition in Cardiff: it’s a crowded marketplace for these kinds of flavours, with the immediate area waist-deep in shawarma. Up on Whitchurch Road, Anand George’s hotly-tipped Tukka Tuk Canteen is imminent. But Chai Green does what it does rather well, and it’s easy to see why the place has quickly become popular with students, young groups and families. Fun and glossily presented, it delivers memorable flavours at an accessible price.
Chai Green, 2 Albany Road, Cardiff.
Info: 029 2280 5992 / chaigreen1823.com
words JONATHAN SWAIN
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