My wife Jun and I are always eager to check out new Indian restaurants around where we live, so I was super excited to hear last year about the opening of a DC branch of Chai Pani. The restaurant, based in Asheville, North Carolina, winning the Outstanding Restaurant award at James Beard Award a few years certainly opened my eyes at the time, and I couldn’t wait to check out the Indian street food-inspired dishes from the DC branch, located in the increasingly crowded (restaurant-wise) Union Market. Jun and I have rarely had a bad Indian dining experience in our culinary journey together, but Chai Pani unfortunately fell short of our sky-high expectations.

The chaat section of Chai Pani features a variety of street food dishes with fried ingredients. Jun’s general impression of the dishes we tried was that, after a few delicious bites, they became overpowering with flavor, almost to the point that her tongue got numb. The SPDP, a toasted puffed up puris flatbread stuffed with potato, red onion and cilantro, raised our anticipation at first but by the time we got to the third bite, the seasoning from sweet yogurt, tamarind and green chutneys became almost oppressive. Same for the kale fritter chaat that was described by the restaurant as “iconic” in its menu; knowing how much we enjoyed kale-based chaat at other places like Rasika, we wished we had enjoyed the version from Chai Pani more. The okra fries, tossed with salt and seasoning, were surprisingly pedestrian (despite the menu’s colorful description of “okra like you’ve never had it”). For the larger dishes, the tamarind-glazed pork ribs braised with ginger, garlic, soy and star anise were delicious but again the tamarind-ginger glaze required us to eat a decent amount of rice to compensate for the aggressive flavor. On the other hand, the slow braised lamb shank in a  blackened onion masala with green chili was somewhat muted in the flavor by comparison; it might’ve neutralized all the overwhelming flavor from the other dishes but I couldn’t say it was on its own a standout dish that we would be happy to come back for.

Not surprisingly, thanks to its profile and the general love for buzzy Indian restaurants in the DC metro area, Chai Pani has become one of the harder tables to get a reservation, especially during primetime weekends. As we headed to the restaurant, Jun and I encountered a line of people who didn’t have reservations to try their luck at the bar or walk-in tables. The bright dining room with various objects inspired by Indian street food culture seems to be another attraction to the eager diners, but the visual sensory overload further added to our disorientation from the food. We were also somewhat confused that our server would bring dishes in the order they were prepared so we got the larger lamb shank much earlier along with a few chaats. There is full bar with cocktails inspired by Indian ingredients; you will certainly need one or two drinks to calm down your palate. If you are looking for a fun dining environment with friends and family, Chai Pani may fit the bill. As it comes to whether Jun and I would be back for the food, we were not sure after drinking copious amount of water on our way back home.

KenScale: 7.5/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.5/10)

Address: 1325 5th Street NE Suite A, Washington, DC 20002

Website: https://chaipani.com/dc

Reservation via OpenTable