In Desi food parlance, the term chaat refers to a wide variety of delicious roadside snacks that are served throughout the Indian subcontinent. Apart from a few dishes here and there served at local Indian restaurants, the exciting genre has been woefully underrepresented in Cleveland.

Until now.

Bombay Chaat (2044 Euclid Ave., 216-225-4191), a brand new restaurant near Cleveland State University, is devoted to the food category. The Indian-owned operation asserts on its website that “If the student, teacher or a regular Cleveland Joe can’t go to Mumbai, Mumbai will come to them.”

The menu ticks off a staggering variety of dishes hailing from New Delhi to Mumbai, with roughly 75 different items in all, much of it finger food. Options range from classic chaat dishes like samosas topped with chickpea gravy to Indo-Chinese favorites like Chicken 65, a spicy dish of fried chicken pieces in a crimson, chile-laden sauce.

For a perfect primer on chaat, order the pani puri ($4.99), which arrive crispy, tangy, sweet and spicy. Puffy fried dough balls (puri) are filled with “flavored water” (pani), a chutney like gravy with yogurt, chickpeas and cilantro. Unless you want that flavored water all over your lap, it’s best to pop the whole thing in your mouth in a single go.

Bombay Chaat also sells idly ($5.99), the spongey, steamed rice patties that are dipped into sambar, and uttapam ($7.99), a massive crispy pancake/crepe studded with herbs and onions that also gets dragged through chutney.

A whole category of dosas – those wafer-thin, griddle-fried crepes – offer versions filled with potato curry ($7.99) or topped with egg ($6.99). All come with chutneys and sauces.

For now, the main menu is only offered after 3 p.m. During the day, a large and well-stocked lunch buffet ($9.99) is the only option. But staffers say that that policy will change as soon as the kitchen gets a little time under its belt. Let’s hope that happens sooner rather than later.

This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

8 replies on “Bombay Chaat Brings Mumbai Street Food to Cleveland”

  1. Would have been nice to be mentioned in the article considering I painted the mural that you photographed for the article.

  3. Scene Mag — Who painted the Mural? Com’on people, let’s give recognition to a Local Artist!
    You should know better!

  4. I’ve already eaten there– awesome
    food, friendly staff! Great atmosphere including a beautiful one of a kind mural! Any info on the artist?? I heard the artist is a Clevelander!!!

  6. You photographed this extraordinary mural but failed to mention the artist who painted it. If you photograph something you should mention the artist responsible for creating it…don’t you think?

  7. Yes Erin! They forgot to mention you who painted it Nd me who created the mural and the interiors!!! Nice article but lacks details!!! I think the interior makes a big part of your eating experience!

  8. All the hard work and time that this girl put into the mural. You steal a picture of it and can’t even give her a shout out on her mural. Stay CLASSY Cleveland Scene. Article was good overall besides that stunt your company pulled. I have to say the painting makes the place. I’ve been there.

Comments are closed.