Saturday 15 August 2015

Pooja, Indian sweets and chaat house, Cardiff


To the novice Indian sweet shop and Chaat house goer (me), Pooja doesn’t exactly make itself accessible.

A couple of printed sheets of A4 on the wall and in the window name the available dishes. There are no descriptions.

Some items are familiar- samosas, bhajis, bhel puri, curries (oddly takeaway only) and barfi (the milk-based Indian sweet which tastes like its name sounds).

However, there are other items which have me baffled - batata vada, pease kachori, dahi puri and aloo tikki to name a few.


I stick to the known.

Pani puri (£2.50 for 6) are great - six crisp parcels filled with soft potato and chickpeas, coriander and red onion. They’re accompanied by a little pot of spicy & fresh pani water so you can fill the puri at the table and keep them nice and crisp. 


A paneer tikka roll (£1) is a comforting deep-fried pastry filled with well-spiced paneer and vegetable curry. It’s microwaved to order so is inevitably lacking on the crispness front. 


Dessert is an excellent gulab jamun (£2). Served at room temperature and lightly fragranced with cardamom, it’s accompanied by a scoop of smooth Sidoli’s vanilla ice cream.


Pooja is a different, tasty, cheap and cheerful lunchtime pit stop. If you fancy something different to the usual cheese sandwich and sausage roll then give it a go.

Update 26/03/2017:

Soon after my first visit, Pooja introduced a much clearer menu with visual prompts and a number of bargainous meal deals. I've been back for countless plates of pani puri and paneer rolls.


Their samosa chaat (£2.50) comprised of a broken up vegetable samosa topped with mild chickpea curry, yoghurt, tangy tamarind sauce, fresh coriander and crisp bits of pani. It's a lovely bit of comfort food.


A paneer tikka curry (£3) was well spiced and laden with bits of cheese. It was a bit heavy on the ghee but I'm not complaining at this price. A pair of soft chapatis were warm and super fresh.


The Details:

Address - Pooja, 3 Albany Road, Cardiff CF24 3LH
Telephone - 029 2021 4987

2 comments:

  1. We Thank you for coming to our shop and liking our food. We have changed our menu so now you will see the ingredients and prices both. We appreciate your feedback.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's great news! I'm looking forward to visiting again.

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