Cha bar, a cosy little chai shop inside the premises of The Oxford Bookstore can officially stake claim to being the best chill out zone in town. The place has literally no competition as far as its genre goes - its a chai shop inside a book store where the chai shop makes as much money (or even more) as the sale of books! With food coming from The Park, you can expect some good food here, but invariably the bar stomps you for choice and quality!
The Ambiance is amazing and if you are book lover, this is by far THE BEST place for you! Its not a library, its not a coffee shop, its not a browsing center, but a some kind of a mix of the above in the right proportions! The staff are as friendly as ever and all the books are yours to sample (or read them fully) (except magazines)! There was a time when I had to, well, kill time and saw a sealed book that caught my attention. I asked the guy if he has an opened copy of the book and he promptly said 'No problem sir, you can open it'
Coming to the food, its very good here. Especially if you consider that it is just a small shop inside a book store, it is amazing. The food can compete and win against most coffee shops in the city! The best teas here are the fruit melange, which is served in a press and is just a brilliant tea, the masala chai is a nice one, while the lemon tea is pretty good. Apart from these, there is just a wide variety of teas to choose from and most of them are brilliant! Depending on the tea you choose, they are served in interesting glasses as you can see from the picture! Among the foods, the sandwiches here are nice, the quiche is just brilliant, the salads are filling, large portions and good, though not great, and the best dish on the hot side is the masala chicken fingers which are is just too too good here! The assorted fries dish is a large portion of various shapes of potatoes fried to glory and a good time pass if you are group of two or more, but could be too large for one person! You have to finish anything here with their chocolate truffle cake - a super soft, super tasty cake! The sandwiches are priced around Rs 50, the teas between Rs 30 and Rs 100, the quiche at Rs 75, the chicken masala fingers at about Rs 100 or so!
With great ambiance and super food at reasonable prices, this is a lesser known, but brilliant spot to kill time, read books and eat well!
Food 8/10
Price 9/10
Ambiance 9/10
Service 7/10
Cha Bar is the eat out inside the Oxford Bookstore, on Haddows Road, Nungambakkam.
Coming to the food, its very good here. Especially if you consider that it is just a small shop inside a book store, it is amazing. The food can compete and win against most coffee shops in the city! The best teas here are the fruit melange, which is served in a press and is just a brilliant tea, the masala chai is a nice one, while the lemon tea is pretty good. Apart from these, there is just a wide variety of teas to choose from and most of them are brilliant! Depending on the tea you choose, they are served in interesting glasses as you can see from the picture! Among the foods, the sandwiches here are nice, the quiche is just brilliant, the salads are filling, large portions and good, though not great, and the best dish on the hot side is the masala chicken fingers which are is just too too good here! The assorted fries dish is a large portion of various shapes of potatoes fried to glory and a good time pass if you are group of two or more, but could be too large for one person! You have to finish anything here with their chocolate truffle cake - a super soft, super tasty cake! The sandwiches are priced around Rs 50, the teas between Rs 30 and Rs 100, the quiche at Rs 75, the chicken masala fingers at about Rs 100 or so!
With great ambiance and super food at reasonable prices, this is a lesser known, but brilliant spot to kill time, read books and eat well!
Food 8/10
Price 9/10
Ambiance 9/10
Service 7/10
Cha Bar is the eat out inside the Oxford Bookstore, on Haddows Road, Nungambakkam.
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