Going for a wander around the Cambridge city centre can be a treat for all the senses, from the smell of the florist in the market, to the tastes of flavours from far flung regions.

We've got Japanese food, traditional Italian pizza, freshly roasted coffee, eastern European cuisine and now our very own branch of Bath's number one Indian restaurant, Chai Walla.

The teeny Indian takeout scores a full five out of five on TripAdvisor with 695 reviews, with the majority of them glowing. This places the restaurant as number one out of 393 restaurants in Bath, currently.

Taking up residency outside the Metro Bank on St Andrew's Street, by the Christ's Lane passage through to the bus station and Christ's Pieces, Chai Walla already seems to be going down a treat.

After their second day of trading yesterday (July 31), joint owner Niraj Gadher, 25, told Cambridgeshire Live: "The response has been really good, some people get us confused with the hot dog van still because it looks a bit similar.

"We sold all of our samosas we had today. It's quite steady because not everyone knows who we are but whoever has come has been really happy. Some people have even come twice!"

Niraj Gadher, 25, outside Chai Walla's new Cambridge location

Niraj opened the first venue in Bath three years ago, saying: "It's just really busy, there's a queue every day basically and then on the weekends it's just crazy, which is what we hope for here."

This venture into Cambridge will be overseen by Niraj's co-owner, his cousin Smeha, who lives in Cambridge.

Explaining why he decided to go into business with his cousin, Niraj said: "We get on and why not I guess? She helped me loads in my Bath shop, whenever I've been short staffed she came and helped me out, she cooks good food. She knows how to cook better than me, and she's really friendly and nice."

The inspiration behind Chai Walla comes from Niraj's mum.

He said: "She always used to cook these foods and people used to come round and be like 'Oh I'd pay loads for this' and then I just started selling it. We're in a small shop in Bath now, but we started out on a stall as well, similar to where we are now in Cambridge."

Chai Walla hopes to bring something a bit different to the streets of Cambridge with their mouth-watering onion bhaji wraps and mostly vegan menu.

From Bath to Cambridge

Niraj (left) with his cousin Smeha (right), who will be in charge of the Cambridge branch

But why choose somewhere 150 miles away from their original restaurant?

Niraj explained: "My cousin lives here, and we've always come to the markets and stuff and we thought there's nothing like it really is there? It's all hot dogs and ice cream.

"Cambridge is a bit of a similar city to Bath so that's why really, and I'd rather have it somewhere I'd like to visit, Cambridge is cool."

We agree Niraj, and it's just got even cooler.


While they find their legs, Chai Walla will be open Tuesday to Saturday, from around 11am until 5.30pm.

Niraj said they plan on: "starting just building our customer base and then once we've got that we can maybe slowly get people on board and be able to open more."

While they make themselves at home here in Cambridge, it seems as though there aren't massive ambitions to expand beyond their two small locations.

This looks beyond delicious

He said: "Even in Bath people always ask when we're getting a bigger place, and when we're getting seating, and we've always just stuck to good, simple food delivered quickly and freshly, and not over complicating things.

"In Bath we stuck by it, and at first people were confused because the menu was small, but once they got it, they realised 'I'd rather have a few things and it be good' and you can see items being made fresh which is special."

With their Bath location being described as not much bigger than their new Cambridge location, the menus are both pretty similar - obviously there are some dishes which just don't transport as well when you're serving out of a small outlet on the street.

But for Niraj and Smeha, it's not about having a big fancy restaurant.

As Niraj said: "The best bit is talking to all the people and getting to meet people and having those interactions. It makes it fun, if it wasn't for that it'd be a different story."

Now that's a wrap!

As for their plan to draw in new customers, and keep bringing fans back, Niraj said: "We make it the best and try to give the best service and hope everyone comes back.

"You know you go to some places and you can see they don't care if you come back or not, but because these are small businesses we want people to come back."

With their focus firmly on the food, which looks pretty delicious, we're sure Chai Walla will have people coming back time and time again.