Chai Shai

Nice place for Pakistani snacks and teas… Very authentic. I liked the kashmiri tea. I’ll definitely go back again to try different foods.

I thought this place was pretty good. The person taking the orders is always doing four things at the same time which can be a little irritating when you’re trying to order. The food took quite a while to come out but tasted good. I’m glad this place is in the neighborhood so we can stop in again at some point. We got the papdi chat with chicken and a hunters beef sandwich. My husband ordered some special pink tea and waited for quite a while and it never showed up. Maybe he’ll try to get it the next time.

Cool hangout space with tea and authentic Indo-​Pak small eats. Friendly staff and great taste.

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!!! VERY RUDE! The owners wife yelled at us like a crazy psychopath just because we told them we don’t like the chicken papadi chaat and want to change it. And when my brother told her to not talk to me like that her son threatened to kick his ass! Who treats their customers like this?!? I will NEVER go there again and would advise people to not encourage their behavior by going there.

Everything is always hot and fresh. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes for the food to be ready, but it’s worth every second! So tasteful and delicious! I’ve tried their quesadillas, chicken papri chaat, chai and Chicken burger and they’re all so good! It’s a family run business, but everyone is always super polite and accomodating!

Kashmiri chai was perfect! Chat is authentic.
Suggestion: When I opened the $ 1 small samosa from the plate of three, I thought to myself ‘where is the beef?’

Amazing eastern fast food café! The man behind the counter was super friendly and acted like He was genuinely pleased that I was there. As a «typical 40yr old white man» I sometimes get odd looks when I venture of the beaten path to enjoy something new, either by the partitioner or other patrons. I immediately felt welcome, by the staff and everyone there.
I ordered 2 veg samosas, one beef pastry and one chicken pastry, an order of mixed chat, and some type of Indian quesadilla. The man smiled kindly and told me I was ordering to much food, and when I told him I wasn’t scared and that «I might not look like it but I can eat» he laughed.
EVERYTHING WAS WONDERFUL!!! My favorite was the beef and chicken pastries! Flaky and amazing!!!
Can’t wait to bring my wife so she can give them another 5 stars! Awesome place!
PS — it is INSIDE THE «WORLD FOOD WEARHOUSE» — I almost missed it and drove away. Great place… You must go!!!

Awesome place the food is excellent. They have a big menu and the staff is real helpful if you have any questions. Try them out you’ll be glad you did

Hunter Beef burger and Zinger is highly recommended here. Kashmiri Chai is OK needs improvement.

My second time here and this place does not disappoint! Food is great! Only thing I wish if it was separated from the grocery store since all the fruit flies are flying all over the place, but they don’t bother you while you eat. Maybe build a wall? The workers are nice too. Keep up the good work!

Turns out we come here more than I thought… Food is just that good! At this point we’ve tried almost everything on menu and it’s now our «go-​to» spot for desi food and chai. They also have delicious Mexican food that really hits the spot. Current favorite is their cheese burger, so fresh and perfect. Have had cheese burgers from two shops in the same complex and theirs is by far the best. Service is very good and we always feel like more than just a customer. You can’t beat their prices either. Really glad to have discovered this place.

I wanted to wait until I visited this place again before posting a review. I thought the first time may have been a fluke, but after visiting chai shai multiple times with my family and picking up Togo orders I can now say that chai shai without fail has consistently delivered absolutely excellent food and impeccable service. AMAZING !!! I have rarely been to a place where the owners make you feel as if you are a first time guest in their home. This place a GEM! The chai is beyond GREAT. No other way to say it. The food has always been hot, fresh and EXPLODING with FLaVOR! Last night my family and I had a bit of everything and thought we would take a lot home for tomorrow lunch. It is tomorrow and I am hungry again and there is little to no take home food so I MUST go back lol. Folks if you haven’t tried this place and heard about it or passed it up, do your self a favor and swing by for a snack. You will probably stay for a while. My compliments to the Chef for not only making a great meal, but also personally checking on us to see if everything was ok. I never thought I would drive 25 minutes in traffic to pick up a cup of tea that would be finished before the car ride home but I can tell you that this has been the case on more than one occasion. This place is definitely an asset to the community. I’ll be back real soon.

Amazing! I had such a wonderful experience!
The owner is a doll and the food was yum! We had the chicken chaat, it was on point!!!

The ambiance of this place is completely lacking… but its also because its inside of an old grocery store. I mostly came in here to grab a hot cup of tea so I decided on the Kashmiri chai. Well the Kashmiri chai was good. Although it did come in a small foam cup. the chai was steaming and fresh. The taste was authentic as well. As far as the food goes. I ordered the beef paratha roll. It was okay. What I liked about the roll was that it was fresh. but it didn’t taste like a beef paratha roll. The inside of the roll was stuffed with strips of beef, cilantro and tomato. This is not how its usually prepared. They also have Mexican food on their menu. so I feel like they just made a fusion style wrap. I’m more used to the original taste of a beef roll without the fixins. My family ordered the chaat but they complained that it was too sweet. Chaat should have a nice blend of sweet and spicy flavors. I’m not sure if I would come back here again unless im in the area. If I do visit in the future I would probably get the Kashmiri chai and something sweet to go along with it.

I had to take the opportunity to update my review. after my first visit I wrote a review about the service I received and I receive messages back from the waitress herself to apologize for the situation and explain yourself I really appreciated that she took the time to do that.
I have been back quite a few times and I have to say that the chicken papri chaat is really really good. the papris are not store bought and actually homemade and you can really taste the difference. This place is really great for take out and I would highly recommend calling ahead to put your order. The uncle who runs it is super nice and is doing a great job.
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I have a lot of mixed feelings on this place — since they are new I will try to give them the advantage of the doubt and skew the star rating towards the food and try to over look other stuff…
Was here with a group so were ordered a lot of different things:
Food:
Hunter Beef Burger — Was good, hunter beef mixed with jalapenos, I would come here to eat this esp since it’s not easy to find in Houston. Not the most amazing hunter beef but it was good enough
Zinger Burger — was also really good. essentialy breaded chicken strips in a burger bun and zinger sauce — it was actually very very good
I liked that the buns were toasted and were not the soggy kind. Sandwiches were served with the shredded lettuce which I also really liked. Fries were all soggyish — not a fan
Chicken Broast — basically two pieces of fried chicken with french fries seasoned with chat masala — the person who ate this said it was fine but not great
Samosas — a bit too light, should have been fried longer
Quesadilla — the person who had this said it was good but a rip off for the price given the small portion size
Atmosphere:
It’s in a grocey store — ok thats fine but that doesnt mean you can’t make an effort
This place has A LOT Of potential, the food is good and with a bit more experience im sure it will get even better. With an attitude change, the service and the atmosphere can surely go from a 1 STAR to higher. Points scored for unique halal menu items not available other places in Houston :)

My friend and I were excited to try out this new place that had a promising menu, but we were left a little disappointed. Unfortunately this place is not a standout in the vast and varied world of Desi (South Asian) food in Houston.
The restaurant is more a quick café, located inside a grocery store, with decent snack items.
We ordered the Karachi hunter beef burger and the bun kabab. The hunter beef burger isn’t really a burger, but a sandwich made with shredded beef and jalapeños. It was tasty but not great, though it is touted as their menu favorite. The bun kabab was really disappointing– a small, dry patty of meat (looked like chicken) on a bun. There was not much chutney or onions on top. The meat itself did not taste seasoned, and it seemed they had just sprinkled some chaat masala on top of the cooked patty. Big thumbs down.
We also ordered french fries which were okay. The special pathani dood patti (a type of tea with milk) lacked flavor and depth– also disappointing.
The service was extremely slow. We placed our order at the counter, but the woman taking down our order took literally about ten minutes to put it into the system. She blamed it on their computer system. Then, when I tried to pay by credit card, the transaction wouldn’t go through and it became a long ordeal. The manager came by and apologized and blamed the Internet connection. While the employees were very nice, the service was slow and inefficient. We were lucky that there was no one in line ahead of us, otherwise it would have taken much longer.
There are so many wonderful desi restaurants in Houston, that based on my experience at this restaurant, I cannot recommend trying it over the others in the area.
FYI– There are only about eight tables, so might be hard to find a place to eat in if the restaurant is busy.

I really did want to like this place :/
We didn’t eat here, but rather got take out. I had heard good things about the hunter beef burger and the chicken papdi chaat, so that’s what we decided to pick up.
I’ve never had hunter beef before so honestly I didn’t have anything to compare it to. The meat was nice & tender and the bun, lettuce, tomatoes all tasted fresh. I just felt like the beef had this really sour taste, like kind of vinegary? I couldn’t pinpoint it but something was off. Maybe if they put like mayo or bbq sauce or some kind of condiment to tone down the flavor of the meat, then it would have been okay, but the burger had like mustard which just completely threw everything off.
Personally I feel like I could have really liked it if they replaced the mustard. But then again I’ve never had hunter beef before this, so I don’t know if that’s how it’s supposed to taste, and maybe I’m just crazy: P Oh and the burger came with fries which were good!
We also got the chicken papdi chaat. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting. I felt like it was a really innovative concept, but it just fell flat. It was like papdis, topped with hot kemah type chicken, and this mango salsa thing. The papdis and chicken was fine, but there was something off about the salsa. It had a weird bitter flavor to it.
My mom said the person working there was really nice & answered all her questions. Maybe they were just having an off day: P

So after hearing a lot of hype about this place I decided to come check it out. Clearly the staff could not handle the extra business. They ran out of their top two signature dishes. Mind you they had been opened for a month already so I hoped they would have had that kink taken care of.
I placed an order. Burger, hunter beef burger, chicken pastries and fries. Chai was ordered at a separate occasion.
It took 35 minutes for our order to come out. I get it. It is freshly made. They arrogantly placed a sign already letting you know that food can take 25 minutes to be ready. But come on.
Burger– It was good. Not spectacular.
Fries– This was even better. Crispy and spicy.
Hunter beef burger– maybe I got a bad one. Flavor was okay. But there was pieces of paper in the burger. I was disappointed.
Chai– So upon ordering I was told that chai was not ready and it would be 10 minutes. I explained that I was in a hurry and would come another day. The lady at the counter asked me to wait and produced a cup of tea. It was the leftover, bottom of the barrel tea. It was cold, tasted like soap (probably because of too much baking soda) and cost me $ 3 for a tiny foam cup. I was pissed. I could have come another day for this tea. A different day when the tea would be fresh. I was so looking forward to being able to drink Kashmiri chai that I didn’t have to make. Instead I got a cup of yuck.
Totally turned me off this place. I won’t be coming again… unless I have a mad craving for fries.

This place has great Pakistani snacks. I tried their hunter beef burger Karachi style, chicken papdi chaat and mix chaat. Everything was delicious. I highly recommend the hunter beef burger. The sitting area leaves a lot to be desired because it’s in the middle of a grocery store. I hope they drum up enough business to open up their own store front.

I came here with my family on Saturday evening after we got done doing some groceries at world food. They have a nice menu, we ordered the Kashmiri chai and the chicken papdi chaat.
They are understaffed right now and we ended up waiting more than 30 mins for our chai, the chicken papdi chaat followed shortly.
The Kashmiri chai I’ll give a 6 out of 10, it was not that great. The chicken papdi chaat was really good and something different! I feel that service was lacking very much only due to the fact that they were understaffed.
My advice is, people want quick service at snack/​chai places. Once they are fully staffed, they will recover the long wait times also. Go out and try this place! The chicken papdi Chaat is just delicious!