South Bay: New India Chaat Cafe

In my neighborhood, there's this one storefront location that's never been able to last. Multiple businesses have tried to open a restaurant there and all of them have closed down within a year or two. So when we saw that New India Chaat Cafe had moved in and that it offered lunch and dinner buffet, we knew we had to take action.

Or I should say I knew my sister had to take action. Since I'm living in Chicago and my sister was still in San Jose at the time, I made it her personal mission to keep New India Chaat Cafe alive. And she did. She and her friends went so regularly that they should have been given special discount privileges. She continued to keep tabs on the place even after she moved to Baltimore for college. When I recently found out that there had been a change in owner, I immediately alerted my sister, who then sent out a mass text to her friends still in the area to figure out what'd happened.

Over winter break, my sister went with her friends to personally check on New India Chaat Cafe. When she came home to report that the food was even better than before, I knew I had to go. So on my last day in California, I gathered up my family and my ahyi and made them take me:

I was aghast when we arrived to an empty restaurant:

But by the time we'd gotten our food and sat down at our table, people started coming in and the place started to fill up. Whew!

There are 3 buffet counters. The first one includes tandoori chicken, fried fish (which I've never had in Indian cuisine), and an assortment of curries (ex: butter chicken and goat curry):



Next is the salad, chutney, and dessert bar:

Last but not least is the veggie counter:



My dad really knows how to fill a plate at buffets. That's where my sister and I get our skills from:

Fresh naan baskets are brought to the table:

The staff are extremely attentive and come by periodically to ask if you want a naan refill, which we always did. The naan comes hot and fresh from the kitchen at your request.

There's also a little chaat station, which really tickled my ahyi's fancy. My sister likes to fill a cup with just sugar and bring it to the table. She's smart like that.

I'm so glad New India Chaat Cafe has lasted so long compared to its predecessors. Prices have gone up a little from before, but there's more food now and it's $8.99 for BOTH lunch and dinner. Still sounds like a good deal to me!

New India Chaat Cafe

1645 Flickinger Ave

San Jose, CA 95131

(408) 251-6600

http://www.niccafe.com/