We were introduced to Chat Masala by our friends some time ago and visited the place numerous times since. Nowadays it ranks among our top favorite local places to enjoy a great lunch. Chat Masala is the restaurant that showed me how amazing Indian vegetarian food can be (opposed to some other vegetarian places in KL I have visited). The restaurant is located in Brickfields, also known as Little India (a 2nd Little India as there is also one in the Merdeka Square & Chinatown area). The restaurant is in walking distance of KL Sentral, right next to Chat Masala is a KFC. We always find the service very good, staff is always friendly and there is no difference in treatment if you are local or tourist. I think the place is mentioned in a travel guide (Lonely Planet perhaps?) as nowadays we see much more tourists in the restaurant.
Chat Masala serves numerous chicken, fish and mutton dishes; all are very delicious and sometimes you don’t even notice that you are eating a vegetarian version of these typical Indian dishes. Our personal favorite dishes are; Paneer Butter Masala, Collieflower Gopi 65, Gopi Machurian, Chicken Manchurian, Chilli Chicken, Mutton Varuval and Chicken Masala. Next to that they also have nice roti canai and thosai. You can also choose to eat their standard banana leaf briyani rice set.
The negatives
The only things we can think of are the lousy traffic conditions around Brickfields. Many times a day there is a traffic congestion right in front of the restaurant, which makes it not so easy to reach by car or taxi. If you are traveling by public transport, this is not a problem though you have to walk about 10 minutes from KL Sentral (or monorail stop KL Sentral) to the restaurant.
Another thing that might be interesting to know is that many of the spices used in the typical Indian dishes come directly from India. Especially tourists might not have the stomach to deal with these spices. Still we think the food is worth it :).
The positives
So far every dish we tried was very nice. We never ordered something that we liked less. When we first came there our local friends introduced us to some of the more popular dishes. Later on the staff also advised some nice dishes. The atmosphere is nice, and the quality of the food is great. Chat Masala itself is a pretty simple and basic restaurant; you’ll have a nice local experience. Prices are very decent; most dishes are RM6, while its bigger version costs RM12.
Verdict
We love Chat Masala and never miss a chance to bring people we know to the restaurant. Coming with more people has the benefit that you can share more dishes, though you can easily have a nice lunch with only two persons. The friendliness of the staff is also a great plus, but most of all we really like the fantastic Indian vegetarian food. We rate it a very nice 8/10.
Contact details
Restaurant Chat Masala (halal)
259G Jalan Tun Sambanthan
Brickfields
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-22603244
Opening Hours: Daily from 7.30am to 11.30pm (Wednesdays 3.30pm – 11.30pm)
Website: http://www.mychatmasala.com (Facebook)
Map
Note: Reviews are subjective in nature. What we find fantastic others may find atrocious. Some don’t mind waiting for a few minutes, others would have left by then. Some don’t care about a minor mishap in service; others don’t visit the place ever again. Try to read through the subjective parts and decide for yourself whether you do or do not want to visit the place!
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13 years ago
August 5, 2011 at 9:56 am
Yesterday i n my fiancee had our dinner at CHAAT MASALA BRIECKFILEDS and find a very lousy servcice. We ordered pani poori,mutton kottu parotha n bombay parotha n masala tea. the best thing was,when my fiancee ate the parotta n he found a piece of plastic bag wrapped with the parotta.we have to wait for few minutes to get a waiter to come.when ask abt it to the waiter smiled n he jus sd will change to new one but we refused as dont hv the appetiate to continue the dinner there. And the best part was we went to the counter for the bill the restaurant manager nvr apologize abt the incident happen n maintain like nothing happen.we jus pay the bill n leave the CHAAT MASALA with a really bad experience
Ilya
13 years ago
August 5, 2011 at 10:35 am
That is lousy indeed, but surely not something people experience daily as I would probably have heard more of this. We’ve been there quite often, but never had similar experiences as you had. I can imagine that must have ruined your dinner yes.
Mohan
13 years ago
September 18, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Well, I am surprised to hear this. I’ve been a constant visitor to Chat Masala for the past few months when my office shifted to Sentral recently. The food is awesome eventhough there is room for the service to improve. However I find the parking to be difficult and the road is always jammed to enter. Besides that however, Chat Masala is worth the visit for their food.
Ilya
13 years ago
September 18, 2011 at 1:45 pm
We always seem to be in luck when we visit the place, most of the times we are able to park just in front of the Maria church. But we are usually not there during lunch time. Overall they redid Brickfields, but forgot to find a solution for the people that actually visit the area.
About Chat Masala’s food; we love it. We bring our friends over and they usually love it too. I might not experience the service part the same as others do, as we (look like) are westerners and they always love having us over…
Becca
13 years ago
October 17, 2011 at 2:31 am
Chat Masala is one of my favorites too. I love how they get the texture so real(istic) of their main dishes. I agree with your paneer butter masala and gopi 65; both really great dishes :). Too bad Brickfields is always jammed, especially during weekends there is just no way to park over there. Love Chat!! 🙂
Ilya
13 years ago
October 17, 2011 at 3:07 am
We went there yesterday with some of our Dutch friends that started their holiday in KL. We brought them to Ming Tien, and also to Chat Masala. They had an awesome lunch at Chat Masala :). They liked the food very much. They were also amazed that nobody was looking weird at us (a bunch of ‘tourists’ in that local place :)). We ordered our favorite dishes and they loved it. Because of Deepavali there was a very crowded day market with loud music and a very nice atmosphere. All in all a very nice day :).
anonysubscribe
9 years ago
July 22, 2015 at 8:59 am
went to buy a take away banana leaf meal. well groomed manager spoke good english and told me it cost RM8.50. I saw the menu and it showed RM7.40. when I asked he told me the cost of wrapping it in newspaper and plastic bags warranted a 50sen surcharge. when I said it was a 90 sen surcharge he justified it. my mistake. It was a RM1/10 surcharge for a takeaway.
He made a big deal about the many dishes he was giving me. The sambar was watered down runny soup with no vegetables. The rasam was too sour and skimpy. The tamarind puli kuzhambu was also watered. The beans . The 3 veg curries were skimpy. The beans were yellow, tired and had seen better days. I got their leftovers from lunch. The worst veggie food overcharged compared to Pandian and Najib’s corner is not a good advertisement for vegetarians or vegans. My Malaysian friends insisted I post this as they felt I had been taken for a ride as a foreigner. Vewgetarian cuisine is a labour of love which I support. himsa to customers negates any ahimsa from not cooking meat. The bad karma from such careless acts outweigh any sanctimonious vegetarian ethos.
Kitchenhutt Spices - indian masala
2 years ago
May 24, 2023 at 7:37 am
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