News / New Openings
Chai Pani relaunch on Cotham Hill
Chai Pani Indian Kitchen recently celebrated their reopening with a intimate event in their small, family-run restaurant on Cotham Hill.
(Full disclosure: I got the invite as I live next door in Easton to the Bangladeshi family who are the restaurant’s owners. The smells that drift into our garden regularly draw us to the wall where we’ve received many a bowl of delicious home cooking.)
The premises have an American diner feel about them with a bright, open layout and comfy upholstered bench seats. But it is India on the walls – one side boasting a colourful montage of Bollywood posters and the other enlarged black and white photos of a bustling Mumbai street scene of yesteryear.
And it’s street food that dominates the menu.
We start with a delightfully light and moist chicken pakora and delicately spiced pau bhaji. The veg in the bhaji is subtlety sweet and the chick pea batter on the pakora is wonderfully light and crunchy.
Each course at the launch is punctuated by some Bollywood dancers who have been flown in from exotic Newport for the event. They do a great job squeezing their broad smiles and snake arms into a very tight space but the smells from the small open kitchen have me willing the dance to end and the mains to come out.
I’m having the Lamb thali and she the fish. Both are wonderfully spiced, mine with those comforting northern Indian flavours of chili, cinnamon and ghee; hers with the zing of curry leaves and tamarind that have us transported back to our time in the south of the subcontinent. Both are served with dhal, rice, bread and a vegetable side curry.
More dancing followed by galub jamun and ice-cream, which can only be described as an Indian sticky toffee pudding. It has the same sweet, syrupy naughtiness but with the gentle hint of cardamom which changes its complexion completely.
There’s a wonderful honesty and authenticity to the food at Chai Pani. The flavours and textures are a world apart from those in most Indian restaurants in this country.
When we’re not lucky enough to be benefiting from the excellent cooking and generosity of our neighbours we’ll be seeking it out again at Chai Pani.
Read more: Your Bristol Favourites: Indian restaurants