David P.
Yelp
Let me start by saying that, ever since they opened over a year ago, we've been loyal customers who have come in at least once or twice a month. We've always loved the food, the people, and the convenience of being able to get groceries and takeout from the same place. We've come with friends so many times and we've always had a good time.
But we will not come back after today's experience.
My wife and I have talked about coming to their Wednesday chaat mela ($5 per chaat instead of $7) for a while and get a bunch of chaats to try out, and we got a Groupon of $40 to spend, so we thought this would be an amazing meal at a place we've loved for so long.
We got 3 chaats (aloo tikki chaat, samosa chaat, and papdi chaat), a vada pav, and two Hakka noodles (veg and chicken - our previous favorites).
We took them home as we've done many times before - less than 5 min drive, and we opened the containers and the disappointment began:
The vada pav, always the highlight before, was soggy, greasy, and tasteless. It was not as crispy and flavorful as before, but still, even a bad vada pav can't be that bad. 1.5/5.
The chaats, for some reason, are almost IDENTICAL. Different bases (samosa vs aloo tikki, etc), but identical masala on top. Ok, fine, plenty of restaurants do this, what do I have to complain about for $5 per chaat - then at least give it FLAVOR, spice, heat, salt, tamarind chutney - anything that's not this warm-ish soggy mess of brown goop with neither texture nor flavor. We've had their chaats before - it was NOT like this!!! 1/5, because at the end of the day, it was food.
Then we thought, at least there's the Hakka noodles. Not this time. They look like overcooked spaghetti marinara - soggy, vaguely ketchup-y, and... that's it. Medium spicy? I don't think a single chili flake kissed the pan in the making of this dish. There was, again, neither texture nor flavor - though I did taste quite a bit of some kind of alkaline-y substance in my Hakka noodles that left behind a vaguely bitter and soapy aftertaste. This was not the Hakka noodles from this exact same store that had me coming back time and time again. 0.5/5.
I don't know what happened since our last visit, which couldn't have been more than a few weeks ago. Was it because we used Groupon? Was it because it was Wednesday chaat mela? Did the kitchen staff change? Did the recipes change? But, seriously, whatever it was, it's not what it was before, and we will not be back.