The blog has seen a rash of posts on visits recently to Indian Sub Continental places and, rather than the British traditional (slightly outdated and overrated) late night curry, these visits have been for lunch. To be honest at my age and without a gall bladder (good riddance to the accused thing that gave me years of acute pain before they finally whipped the bugger out), late night eating of rich, spicy, food is a bit of a non starter.

Next on the list for a lunch time trip was the recently opened Vijay Yadav (whom I remember as an Indian one day cricketer – a keeper who could bat a bit – I strongly suspect there is no link) Kitchen which I clocked on the way back from a night out at Neighbourhood.

As I amble in there, my initial thought was that a good chaat always does one wonders.

The place is what I would call functional, with no frippery

and certainly no flock wallpaper. It was pretty busy (contrary to the impression, perhaps given by the photo there were plenty of people to the side and behind me) though, with a good flow of lunchtime customers and people coming in to book for the evening.

The menu covers curries, veggie and non veggie,

as well as rice dishes, wraps

breads etc.

I was, however, there for the chaats and bites element of the rather expansive menu.

On the chaat front, I think we should give the Indian subcontinent much more credit for/talk more about their contribution to the roadside/street food scene, with chaats possibly the original street food. Dahi vada has, for instance, been referred to in literature as far back as 500 BC

To me this sort of food makes for the perfect snack, with the likes of panipuri and dahl puri ideal for that “just pop into the gob” flavour hit.

I decided on a trio of  chaats (a group chaat if you will), because I am a pig and it seems my eyes are bigger than my stomach.

I enquired as to the special chaat (not sure if that is a good thing – if someone said to me I thing we need to have a “special chat” I would be very worried indeed)

and was told it was chickpeas.  Despite the  rather non descript descriptor, I (perhaps unwisely, more so that it didn’t have a price tag) thought I would give it a go. To that, I added a dahl puri and the samosa chaat.

The dahl puri (£4.50) were the bomb,

consisting of 6 (nice to see none of this odd number bollocks, although with me dining solo that would have been fine) delicate yet crunchy gram flour spheres packed  with layers of tangy and sweet flavour which imploded in the month as the shell was pierced.

Lovely contrasts of texture (with the crispy shell and serv as against the soft yoghurty interior) and flavour (sweet and tangy). Good value for the price tag (75p a pop), I thought, especially as there being 6 of them suggested they were meant to be shared (unless you are a pig like me)

The samosa chaat (£4.50),

was equally as good.

A sauce, with tamarind to the fore, was sort of reminiscent of HP (a refined and rather more sophisticated version, but I do love that HP tamarind tang) and was studded with soft yielding chickpeas that had absorbed a fair quota of said tangy sauce.

The samosas, whilst semi – submerged, retained an element of crisp crunchiness. Yoghurt added more tang and coriander freshness citrus herbiness  Really enjoyed this and again a big portion for the rather dimunutive price tag.

The final dish was the special, a garam channa chaat,

which certainly was a big old portion.

Not entirely sold on this dish, which looked disconcertingly like the kibble my dog eats

Nice flavour to this, but it all got a bit samey by the end and the pulses were a bit dry and cloying.  Based on the bill this seemed to be about £7 which felt a bit spenny in comparison to the other dishes I had. 

Unlike the other 2 dishes, this defeated me and I would not be inclined to order it again.

On the drinks front I was tempted by the lassis,

but it was a bit baltic on the day of my visit so I wanted a hot drunk.  Their masala tea (£2.50 – forgot to take a picture, but it is milky tea so I’m sure you get the picture even with the lack of one) hit the spot very nicely, being creamy and heady with clove and cardamon. I added two sachets of sugar to sweetness things up as against the spice. 

The verdict

I rather liked Vijay Vadav Kitchen, which offers (based on my visit) good value and well flavoured food.

The quality of the chaats (well two of them) bodes well for other dishes on the menu and people around me were certainly enjoying their curries and Indo-Chinese dishes

Adding nicely to the mix,  service was very amiable. I like that water (in a place that doesn’t sell booze) was provided without the need to ask.

With this place being walkable from town (5 mins from the train station), this makes for an interesting lunch time spot for the non working from home workers. With the size of the chaats, one each or maybe 3 shared between 2 would make for a reasonably substantial, yet filling and flavoursome, lunch at a bargain price.

If J could have been bothered to come (she had to do some work – wonders will never cease – apparently), we could have shared the dahl puri and had a further chaat each. This would have been (with a drink) less than a tenner each. Solo, if I had stuck to water and just a quick chaat I would have had change from a fiver.

Certainly warrants  return visits and replace Cheers with Chaats, and you get a place where everyone knows your naan (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

The details

Address: 68 Tudor Street, Cardiff, CF11 6AL.

Website: Can’t find one

Opening hours: