Great, affordable Indian cuisine at Chana’s
Chana’s, tucked away in a small but convenient location down W.A. Silva Mawatha serves up some delicious and flavourful Indian fare, whilst also providing great value for money.
Reputed for their chaat, which are savoury snacks or street food sold alongside roads in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the restaurant does a decent take on it. The pani puri is easily the best chaat option and features crisp, firm papadam-like shells stuffed with spiced potatoes and served with a little jar of tamarind sauce, meant to be poured over each shell before devouring it. The flavours are spot on, with the chillie from the potatoes and tangy flavour of the tamarind sauce coming very well through. It’s not as authentic though, lacking chopped coriander and little slivers of boiled egg but nonetheless a great starter. Each portion serves five.
The menu consists of typical North Indian fare – naans, dum biryani, and chicken, beef, mutton, seafood, egg and vegetarian dishes, in addition to samosas and kebabs for appetizers.
Moving onto the mains, we decided to go with butter naan, the garlic kulcha, and a garlic chicken masala curry, planning to order a vegetarian dish in a little while if what we ordered at first didn’t suffice. The food arrived in under 15 minutes, which was good considering there were two takeaway orders in addition to another table being served next to us. The butter naan was great, and didn’t fall short of anything in terms of flavour and portion size. Crispy, buttery and warm, it went great with the garlic masala chicken curry (we opted for a boneless chicken curry here, but there’re curries without the boneless option). The chicken was cooked in a semi thick gravy which wasn’t too spicy or an overpowering flavour of garlic. And the portion was just enough for three people, which we thought was great considering its price. The garlic kulcha was basically naan topped with a garlic paste, which was quite tasty too.
By this point, we were too stuffed to even think of ordering anymore, so dessert was out of the question. The kulfi served in miniature clay pots comes highly recommended though, and having tried the ice gola on a previous visit, I found it nice and refreshing – a fun and light dessert consisting of shaved ice topped with a syrup of choice. I had mine with a thick grape cordial which made it a bit like a slushie once it was mixed well, while my friends had theirs with a nelli cordial.
Chana’s also does great beverages. We went with avocado juice and a mango juice. Thick, and refreshing, the juices alone could fill you up, because they didn’t include a lot of water like the juices served at a lot of other establishments in and around Colombo. The mango juice even had small cubes of mango at the bottom of the glass.
Chana’s is located at 50, W.A. Silva Mawatha, Colombo 06. They post offers and various specials on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/chanas.lk). They can be contacted on (011) 3 288788, and are open everyday from 11am-11pm.
Text and photographs by Sarah Kellapatha
.jpg)
0 Comments