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Cambridge needs more authentic Indian street food restaurants. Not only because authentic Indian food isn’t very common in the city but also because it is great value, healthy, and is convenient to eat on the go. I myself have always struggled to find a place which can provide a lunch that is nutritious, substantial, practical, and most of all – good value!

Enter Urban Chai, an Indian street food takeaway located on Cherry Hinton Road. Open for only a year, they are reasonably new to the scene but have already been making quite an impression. This is unsurprising, as their chef is Michelin rated and has vast experience working in quality restaurants across the world. With meals hovering around the £5-6 mark, it almost feels like having someone of that skillset behind the scenes is having your food on cheat mode. Consider this price point when reading this review, as this puts most of what you see in the same category as one of those ghastly supermarket ‘meal deals’ that are not only unbalanced but are also processed and void of any flavour.

We started off with a samosa chaat with masala fries, bubble tea, and a peach iced tea. These are all presented in portable packaging which are perfect to eat out and about.

The masala fries were absolutely out of this world! They come freshly cut with onion, garlic, and chives with tomato masala sauce. By eye they looked like they would be quite dry but on the bite this couldn’t be further from the truth. These are bold chips with a gorgeously deep flavour and very succulent. Both Jack and I were in agreement that these were one of the highlights of the meal and we ended up fighting over these by the end. I highly recommend it!

The samosa chaat is made with chana masala (chickpea curry) with two vegetable samosas covered in a tamarind sauce, cilantro chutney, thin sev, onion, and pomegranate. For £5 you get a fair bit and would make an excellent lunch. I must admit, I struggled with the flavour on this take on samosa chaat but perhaps this is made for a different type of pallet? Jack had no quarrels about finishing it off.

My peach ice tea was one of the highlights of my night. This was something that I would never have ordered myself as I am not a huge peach fan but I was amazed at the depth and complexity of flavours within it. I highly recommend this to anyone and for £3.95 absolutely destroys any of those generic Costa Coffee ‘frostino’s’ available for a cheaper price. With summer here, this is something to look out for!

Their bubble tea is sweeter than what I am used to with bubble tea from say, Hitwrap. This was no bad thing as it was delicious and incredibly refreshing, just a different take. My son and I are both big bubble tea fans and this was no exception. Urban Chai do some of the best examples of exploding bubbles which burst with flavour in the mouth more than any other example I have had in the past.

Next up were the wraps (rolls). It doesn’t need explaining that these are also perfect to grab on the go for anyone passing by. Options range from vegan, egg, paneer (cheese), chicken tikka, and lamb kebab. Prices start from £4 and go up to £6.

It’s worth stating that every wrap is made fresh to order at Urban Chai. This is something that is very common in India with their street food where the physical wraps themselves are made on the spot in front of you. This gave my chicken swarama a beautifully soft bite with the lettuce and onion accompanying it with a satisfying crunch. The texture was exceptional and the wrap was strong enough to hold together even with a generous portion of garlic sauce. Perfect!

The lamb kebab was also very nice and came with the same garlic sauce, lettuce and red onion that the chicken swarama did but also had tomato. I was impressed to see two kebabs inside the wrap as they would have easily gotten away with one, so I felt this was a good deal and also something filling enough to keep me going throughout the day.

Naturally, we also had some paratha. This is a South Asian flatbread that is eaten across India and other neighbouring countries. The menu ranges from plain, coming to a mere £1.50, to being stuffed with paneer (cheese), which tops out at £4.45. You can also get ones with aloo (potato) and Gobi (cauliflower) which cost somewhere in between.

Like with everything else at Urban Chai, these are made fresh and it clearly shows. You are rewarded with a thick and incredibly soft paratha which is versatile to go with anything or is delicious in its own right. I was a big fan of these, especially since they came accompanied with two sides and a piece of butter.

It was a miserable rainy day but Urban Chai really brightened it up for us. It was a shame that we could not take advantage of the seating outside (especially considering it’s July at the time of writing 🙄) but I would love to revisit, kick back outside in the sun with a peach iced tea and some masala chips and watch the world go by. There is even parking out front for people looking to visit from outside the city.

Urban Chai offers unique Indian street food at a great price. Perfect for every day visits or a one off treat! I could really see myself using this as my daily go to for lunch if I was commuting past every day.

Thanks for reading!