Charista / The Best Bangladeshi Cafe In London?

As a proud Bengali, I love to devour on Bengali foods such as ‘chotpoti’ or ‘biryani’ (if you know, you know). So this half term holiday, when my sister found a Bangladeshi cafe serving one of my favourite foods, I just had to go!

In this article, I will be sharing my review of Charista, a Bengali cafe in Bethnal Green, London.

What is Charista?

Charista is a restaurant that is known to be the ‘home of chai nashta’. It is a small cosy place and they also say they brew only ‘organic tea from the gardens of Bengal’.

What I Ordered And My Opinions On It:

Fuchka (£6.50)

This was my favourite food from here and one of my all-time favourite foods! The presentation of this food was gorgeous – there were around 5-7 of these puris in one plate! I loved how we could place the tamarind water inside ourselves which made it like a DIY experience. The tangy tamarind water gave it that kick of flavour and the challenge is to put one fuchka into your mouth straight away. The crunch of the puri and the softness of the egg makes this so tasty! An Asian delight that was 5/5 for me!

Papri Chaat (£7)

Yet another food that was Asian. This was quite unique to me. On the outside, it looked colourful and fun and it hid all the ingredients on the inside. When it came to taste, I thought it had different flavours happening which combines quite well together for me. Altogether, it was a 4/5 for me.

Chilli Paneer (£7)

Next up is the chilli paneer. Because I chose mild spicy for the foods, I thought this wouldn’t be too spicy but this paneer was a bit too spicy for me. I also didn’t enjoy the texture of the food that much. It was a bright red colour, which gave off the spicy vibes. I am not really a paneer person, so I would rate this a 2/5 but my sister really enjoyed having this!

Murghi Biryani (£9)

Biryani is yet again one of the top foods on the list! The biryani was presented in a cute small bowl. It had some toppings on top. In terms of taste, I thought it was executed just as it should be perhaps, but perhaps not restaurant quality as I found it a bit dry to eat. Despite the good taste, the dryness made it a little difficult to eat so I would rate this a 3/5.

Charista Special with Gurer Chai (£3.20)

This tea was good! You might think how does hot tea go with spicy Asian food? It did hurt my taste buds at first but then I tasted the tea and it was sweet and delicious. It had the nice brown colour of tea and I really liked the overall taste of this tea.

The Place:

The place was much smaller than I expected but there were only about 2-3 groups of people on average. It was subtly dark but sitting next to the window gave us good lighting. This cosy vibe made me and my sister have so much more fun as we had our girly laughs!

The Service:

The service was pretty good! The staff members served the food and it didn’t take too long. They also provided us with the option to get our teas later on.

Would I Recommend It?

Overall, I think that Charista was a great place to go and as they say perfect for ‘chai nashta’. However, the pricing was a bit in the higher range compared to other cafes like Mi Chaii. For that reason, I would probably only return again to have the Fuchkas as they were my favourite but for no other item.

My Rating: 4/5

My Rating System:

⅕ – was below average and would not recommend even trying once

⅖ – the food was average and would not recommend trying

⅗ – the food was delicious but would recommend trying maximum once

⅘ – the food was really good and would recommend trying here

5/5 – the food was outstanding and is one of my favorites!

Order from here (not sponsored): https://www.instagram.com/charista.shoreditch/

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!