Chatz is a newly opened little café in Horton place. They have a wide range of things to eat – from lamb chops and grilled prawns to mutton kotthu and buriyani (asian) to nachos and fajitas (Mexican). They also do some salads, soups, burgers and pizza; no shortage for choice really.
We went there and ran through most of their desserts. We got the chocolate biscuit pudding for Rs. 375, an avocado panna cotta for 275, a black diamond cake for 250 and the chatz special bread pudding for Rs. 175.
Personally, a perfect biscuit pudding would have to be creamy and chocolaty thick, with crunchiness from the biscuit. Instead, it was half perfect – a soft chocolaty goo, lacking in any real crunch. It’s still really good, a 3.6/5.
We got the black diamond cake because it looked deliciously rich and chocolaty, but it turned out to be nothing more than mediocre, probably not worth the extra calories. The chocolate isn’t very rich and the cake a bit flaky, like something you would expect from a short eats bakery and not a semi posh café.
The avocado panna cotta was recommended to us by the manager himself. This, unfortunately, was not a good recommendation.
The Chatz special bread pudding was very tasty – warm, rich golden bread speckled with nuts and raisins dipped in caramel. It was really good; perhaps the most skillfully prepared dessert there and it also happens to be one of the cheapest.
Unfortunately they didn’t have any cheesecake that night, which was quite disappointing because I was hoping to try their baked blueberry cheesecake. The service was really good though; as we walked in we were greeted very warmly by a gentleman wearing a shirt, who we assume is the owner. He was apologetic about the cheesecake not being there and was happy to talk us through the rest of the menu.
The choice of food is quite extensive and they’ve also got a large screen outside. When we walked in they were showing gladiator. The place is really chilled out and I like the dim red lighting they have outside – a nice ambience if ever you decide to sit and try something off their menu.
I should mention that it isn’t as elegant or comfortable as Commons, but Chatz is far less crowded and if the food is as impressive as their menu, you can expect them to stay open for a while (we will update on the food asap).
