Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm  

If you’re Indian or a lover of Indian food, you know “chaat” are Indian snacks, traditionally roadside bites, and are often sorely missing from US Indian restaurants where addictive but common curries and tandooris reign. In Hindi, “chaat” translates “to lick”, recalling days when chaat were served on banana leaves that were licked clean.

“Berkeley-ites” and Indian food fanatics around the Bay, know the institution that is Vik’s.  It’s not only an eatery but an extensive warehouse carrying dals, flours, rice, nuts, spices and all kinds of Indian cooking items.  Much is sold in bulk so restaurants can stock up on 100 pounds of lentils or basmati rice, or you can prepare your own home-cooked Indian meals.

No visit to Vik’s warehouse is complete without a stop for chaat. I wager once you’ve tasted, you’ll go out of your way to eat at this cheap chaat haven. It’s only open during the day so come for lunch or early dinner (before 6pm). 

The environs?  Not appealing. It’s like a cavernous school cafeteria, an extension of the warehouse next door. Utilitarian and lacking in aesthetic value, Vik’s is always crowded so surveying a free table can be a fruitless pursuit.  There are counter tops to stand and eat, and turnover is frequent, so hover, then descend on the next available table or take the food to go.  Somehow the dull surroundings actually highlight the ideal “fast food”, letting it stand on its own, while keeping prices low.     

Items are usually listed by name only, so unless you know what they are, take a look online beforehand (there are helpful photos) or just point at what looks good.  Almost everything that passes by makes my mouth water: from the giant, puffed puris coming out of the fryers (fried and hollow white flour breads to dip in sauces, chutneys and the like), to large dosas (crepes made of rice and lentil flour, stuffed with potatoes, served with coconut chutney and lentil soup)… it’s all authentic, delicious and satisfying.  I can’t get enough of the Dahi Papdi Chaat, flat, cracker-like wafers (a type of puri) to scoop up potatoes, garbanzos and lentil dumplings in a creamy yogurt, tamarind, mint sauce.  Wash it down with a lassi or Indian sodas.