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

Web - http://www.poojasweets.com/