CHOW NOW: Mood Cafe

It’s Fall semester and guess who’s back? That’s right—CHOW NOW is! After a long and hungry summer away from Philly, you could say I was more than a little eager to return to the city and start exploring new restaurants. If you’re interested in what I was eating during the first half of the summer in Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Jordan, then check out this link here!

But if you’re just here for a solid restaurant recommendation, then here’s the short summary: First Half of Summer = Foreign Food Extravaganza, Second Half of Summer = Midwestern Food Purgatory.

Needless to say when I got back to Philly there was nothing more I wanted than to stuff my face with incredible ethnic food.

Which brings us to Mood Café—probably my new favorite Indian restaurant near campus. Mood Café, not to be confused with its sister restaurant Desi Chaat House on 42nd and Baltimore, serves up freshly made chaats in a shocking number of combinations.

From what I can tell, a chaat is basically a catch-all term for Indian street-side food made with a base of potato pieces, chickpeas, or crisp fried bread. From there the possibilities for flavor combinations and add-ins are seemingly limitless.

The mind-blowingly large menu in Mood Café (which also offers a wide variety of cool and creamy lassis for you to sip with your chaat) overwhelmed my friends and I. Thankfully the welcoming owner seemed to know just what we were looking for. He asked what we liked and then proceeded to make an individualized chaat for each of us—I requested something spicy with chicken.

My chaat was like a symphony of bright flavors and opposing textures. I won’t pretend like I actually knew every ingredient he threw together in that cheap plastic bowl, but I can tell you that the result was incredible. Crunchy and salty Indian crisps sat atop creamy chickpeas, while juicy pieces of chicken hot from the oven soaked up the two or three vibrantly flavored sauces drizzled atop and pooled in the bottom. Chunks of bright mango and pieces of sticky sweet dates studded the mixture, making each bite unique. The dish was sweet, spicy, and savory all at the same time—impossible to describe except for the obvious term “delicious.”

I licked my bowl clean and promised I would be back to try another chaat next week.

So CHOW NOW at Mood Café! I guarantee you’ve never had anything like it before.

-Chase Matecun