Bombay Chat

It’s a quick stop for fast food. Ask specifically what you want in your chaat and you’ll be happy. Kinda crowded but then it’s a small joint.

Had samosa chat, medium spicy. The samosas, be honest, are kind of bland, but the sauce is really tasty. The chutney and yogurt are perfectly balanced, neither too salty nor too sweet.
They have no menu, and their place is pretty tiny and old. It is quite clean though.

This Jackson Heights eatery is the last 20 years of the neighborhood in miniature, I don’t just say that because the place eats just over a dozen in the back of a phone card kiosk. It’s run by a Tibetan augmenting the Nepali cuisine of his former home with a buffet serving the street food of Central India.
This is food that looks back on the days when this area was exclusively an Indian street. Now many of the Indians are in their second and third generations, and have moved to fancier, more tony residences in Queens or out on Long Island. The Indian places here are becoming drive destinations, while the Himalayan migrants of Nepal and Tibet are taking over.
For almost all Tibetans exiles of a certain era, Kathmandu was a necessary and virtually required stop when fleeing the People’s Republic. The goal was usually the court-​in-​exile in Dharamsala, but it could take months or years to assemble the cash and contacts necessary for the journey. So migrants settled in and learned how to make the local curries and chutneys. Eventually, many made their way to India, where they learned new traditions. Some headed further afield to the United States and Queens.
Thankfully all of that migration means that even the chaat novice is in for an easy time here. The proprietor is more than happy to explain the various ingredients (something I did together to my mother, who was with me for our visit). I assembled a pretty traditional combination of chick peas, yogurt, onions, a spicy masala and crisp topping, which I later ate for a cold, spicy dinner later in the evening. My mother took a couple of samosas and a pakora to share with my father on the drive back upstate.
There are more Nepali and even a couple Tibetan specialities served at the steam table part of this tiny eatery, but considering it’s name, I’d like to think that this is best fare the chef can serve up after all of his travels.

I found the chaat here to be pretty subpar– my bhel puri was stale, though it came in a large portion for $ 6. Good amount of spice. The pani puri was expensive ($ 4 for 4) and totally lacking in filling– only a tiny bit of potatoes in each puri, and I could barely taste mint in the pani.

From all the fancy, big name restaurants around the Jackson Heights area, this joint surprised my taste buds the most. The chats are great and the Tibetan Mo-​Mo they randomly sell taste delicious as well. I need to hit up this place again.

Good Indian chaat/​chai in a somewhat ramshackle place next to the Roosevelt-​74^th St subway. My wife and I ordered my favorite dish dahi puri, which are fried hollow chips (or beggars purses), stuffed with cooked chickpeas and potatoes, smothered in yogurt, tamarind, and cilantro chutneys, topped off with fried bits and fresh coriander. The flavors didn’t disappoint, although I would have liked it a bit more spicy and with more chaat masala. Despite the Indian-​evoking name, the guys who run this place seem to be Nepalese/​Himalayan, as further evidenced by their unexpected offering of momos and other regional snacks. While I was satisfied with my Indian chaat, I may have been more wowed by the Nepalese offerings. I give this place 3 stars for being good but not outstanding. What is outstanding, however, is the chai: sweet, hot and milky. Amazingly authentic to the stuff you’d buy from a chai-​wallah in India. Do your next Indian tea-​time at Bombay Chat.

I’m sure you’ve noticed from my reviews by now that I like a good chat, and boy, oh boy, does this place deliver! So far I’ve sampled the samosa and bhel puri chats with medium spiciness — which is plenty spicy for me, thank you very much. Not only were they tasty, they were gigantic! They also serve momos and other Nepalese snacks, but I haven’t gone for those yet.
The one weird thing about the place is that there’s no menu. Everything is on display, though, so if you know your Indian snacks you can just order them up. If you don’t, the staff is super-​friendly, so I’m sure you can ask them for advice.
The chats are around $ 6, which seems like a lot for a snack until you factor in the meal-​sized gigantic-​ness. It’s a great addition to the ‘hood, and I can’t wait to pop back in.