Chai
Properly made masala chai (tea, milk, spices and sugar boiled together, not a syrup pumped into steamed milk) is still harder to find outside South Asia than it should be. These are spots actually known for it, rather than a chai latte tacked onto a standard café menu. Worth confirming a spot is still open before making a special trip.
London
- Dishoom: its masala chai (Assam black tea with fresh ginger and cardamom) is modelled on the old Irani cafés of Bombay, and the chain has become one of the most visible places to try it in the city.
- Chaiiwala: started in Leicester and now with several London branches, built specifically around South Asian street-chai culture rather than a wider café menu.
- Chai Guys: a smaller chai-focused operation with locations at Spitalfields and Covent Garden.
Brussels
- Chai and Thali: an Indian street-food restaurant that serves masala chai alongside its food menu, one of the more specifically chai-focused options in the city.
Paris
- The Crossing, Galeries Lafayette Le Gourmet: a chai counter built specifically around Indian tea culture, brewed with cardamom and slow-simmered milk.
- Krishna Bhavan and Saravanaa Bhavan: South Indian restaurants in the La Chapelle area (Paris' "Little India"), where chai is part of an everyday menu rather than a novelty.
New York
- Kolkata Chai Co: a chai company with a New York café that sources its tea from Assam, chai's birthplace.
- Punjabi Junction, Upper East Side: known specifically for its chai, balancing spice, sweetness and aroma.
- The Chai Spot, Mott Street: a small, dedicated chai counter rather than a restaurant that happens to serve it.