by Steve LaRosa
photography by Dave Brooks

Good food, sane prices, friendly owners are a formula for success.

Chaat Cafe is not about chattin’, it’s about chaatin’. Loosely translated, chaat is a broad term for snacks and appetizers.

Travelers to the Bay Area may be familiar with Chaat Cafe, a small chain of casual restaurants that serve up fast Indian food with contemporary flair. Owners Harpal and Gurprit Paintal opened the Roseville location in summer 2003.

From the chaat section of the menu, we recommend pani puri, a hollow, deep-fried shell about the size of a charcoal briquette. Crack a hole in the top of the puri and spoon in a potato and garbanzo bean mixture, then dip the whole concoction in the pani, or spiced water. Or try the tasty samosas: fried pastry shells stuffed with cumin-roasted potatoes, served with tangy chutney for dipping.

Chaat Cafe features a great selection of wraps made with tandoori meats, marinated in yogurt and spices and cooked in a mesquite-fired clay oven. Worth trying is the wrap made with spicy chicken tikka, which bursts with flavor from its marinade of ginger, green chiles, garlic and yogurt.

Prices are gentle: less than 10 bucks for a full dinner, including rice, bread, soup and vegetables. And the owners are friendly. “If I have the time, I have a conversation with every customer.” says Harpal. “I feel guilty taking money if they haven’t enjoyed themselves.”

By the way, don’t forget to order the Indian flatbread called naan. Stuffed with onion or pesto, it’s killer. There’s also a sweet naan, created by Harpal himself, made with brown sugar and melted butter. To paraphrase the Rolling Stones song “Brown Sugar,” how come you taste so good, just like a sweet naan should?

7452 Foothill Blvd., Suite 100, Roseville; (916) 782-5885; open 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Sunday–Thursday, 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Look for Steve LaRosa’s restaurant reviews the first Friday of every month at 11 a.m. on “News10 Midday.”