Restaurant - Vik Chaat Corner (Indian/インド料理)
Location - Berkeley, CA/バークレー、カリフォルニア
Score - 3/5
Dish of recommendation - Paneer kathi roll?
Comment - My first comment on the Bay Area restaurants! It's funny to start with Vik, because there are other restaurants in the area that I know much better. Maybe I'm overall missing Indian food?!
During my visit to the bay area over the President Day weekend, my friends and I stopped in Berkeley on the way from Sonoma to SF. One of the reasons I suggested to my friends about stop-over at Berkeley was food:) Berkeley has quite a few noteworthy restaurants from top-notch places like Chez Panisse (gosh, why it's so hard to book a table there!) to casual daily-use restaurants. Missing Indian restaurants in the Bay Area (which clearly has far better choices than DC), Vik was on one of my wish lists.
I was very lucky to go to Vik with three Indian friends, who chose all the dishes for me:) On the various gourmet websites, Vik seems like one of the most popular Indian restaurants in the area of plenty of Indian/Pakistan places. Vik's exterior/interior soon reminded me of the college cafeterias for undergraduates, and its counters of three people taking orders were like McDonald's. It's not a pleasant feeling, is it? Still, seeing so many Indian people in the restaurant convinced me that Vik is at least a fair choice. What my friends ordered were:
Dahi Papdi Chaat
Crisp flat puris with potatoes, garbanzos and lentil dumplings covered with yogurt, tamarind and mint
Dahi Batata Puri
Crisp puffed puris stuffed with potatoes and garbanzos covered with yogurt and tamarind
Dhoka
Steamed chick pea flour cake mildy spiced served with mint chutney
Idli Samber
Steamed rice and lentil cakes served with lentil soup and coconut chutney
Chicken Kathi Kabab
Cubes of boneless chicken with onions and cilantro rolled in a bread served with yogurt and mint chutney
Paneer kathi roll
cottage cheese
And I may be missing the name for lamb plate in the photo.
My favorite was Paneer Kathi roll, followed by Chicken Kathi Kabab. I wasn't sure if I would like Paneer Kathi roll - I don't know the exact description, but it was made in the similar way to chicken kathi kabab with cottage cheese - because I am not neceesarily a big fun of cottage cheese. But once I had a small bite at this Paneer Kathi roll, I literally digged into it (I'm sorry for my friends who couldn't eat much of this!). The cottage cheese's soft texture matched the crispy texture of the bread, and curry flavor harmonized the cottage cheese well. I can eat it once a week for my lunch.
Among the other dishes, Dhoka had a very interesting texture. It was made of chicken pea, but tasted more like dry rice or couscous. Both Dahi Papdi Chaat and Dahi Batata Puri were yummy, with light yogurt flavor.
Overall it was a nice "premium Indian fast food". I wouldn't go all the way to Berkeley for Vik, but if I live there, I'd do take-out often (we don't need to eat there. It's too crowded and messy).
Vik Chaat Corner
724 Allston Way Berkeley CA 94710
510-644-4412
★ - 3/5 とにかく安い！で、これだけの味を提供するのだったら、混んでいて当然かな。まさしく、｢インド料理の高級ファーストフード店｣です。
