Chaat House
$ - inexpensive
Indian (Southern)
All vegetarian Indian
Chaat House serves all vegetarian Indian food. The atmosphere is fairly spartan, with seating that seems to be straight out of a fast-food restaurant.
You place your order at the counter, pay, and then they serve you. You serve your own water from pitchers near the counter.
The menu does not include descriptions of the dishes, so you may want to ask what's what, and if you're vegan you'll have to ask to figure out what dishes have dairy.
Also note that rice is not included with your order. One order of rice is enough for two people, however, and it's only $2 extra.
The restaurant is in the middle of a small strip mall just off the street.
Added by Dave Rolsky on Mar 6 06 (updated Mar 6 06)
Reviews
When I went, my friend and I were the only non-Indian people there when we walked in, which I figured was a good sign.
The lack of descriptions on the menu was a little initimidating, but the guy at the counter who took our order was friendly, and helpful when we asked for a recommendation on a dairy-free dish.
The food was excellent, and I look forward to returning on my next visit to Palo Alto.
This review is for Chaat House #4. The place looks like a converted Burger King from its seating to its order counter to its exposed kitchen. There are nice touches from the Indian subcontinent though including a fountain and statues of Hindu gods, Bollywood film playing on dual TVs, etc. The place is fairly noisy and certainly not romantic, but it's fun. The food was ready pretty quickly. All the dishes I had, bindhi masala, benghan bharta, and basmati rice, were very nicely flavored. The roti were tasty too. In particular it was nice to receive an order of rice that was well cooked and included subtle spices when many of the local south Asian restaurants serve plain white rice of lesser quailty. The entrees were also hotter (in terms of spice) than those usually served in local restaurants, again a big plus for me. Menu is all vegetarian, nice!