Chaia Tea Bar, Newcastle

The other day, I found I had the morning off after all failing to drag all my hungover friends out of bed and so decided to make the trip to Gosforth to try this little cafe that a friend and I had stumbled upon on a previous trip to lunch at Greyjoys. I remembered that this cafe was particularly vegetarian and vegan friendly and good value so was quite excited to have a quiet little lunch there by myself.

It was certainly a cute, cosy interior, although absolutely tiny. I can imagine that on the weekends it would be a challenge to obtain a seat. However, they did have tables spilling outside which would have been nice if it was a sunny day.

I have to admit that the food did not completely live up to the expectations I had. First of all, it was more expensive than I had seemed to think it was. I ordered the vegan salad bowl, which was very simple - something I could easily have made at home. Mixed leaves, olives, red onion, grated carrot and falafel with humous and pitta on the side. Luckily, I had ordered the jalapeño relish to go with it, which added a bit more flavour and variety. However, if I had known the ingredients would have been so basic, I would have opted for something else. On the menu, it was simply called ‘Salad bowl’, which I assumed to be something a bit more interesting, exciting and filling. Perhaps I am a biased critic, as I am used to going to places that offer all sorts of spectacular, abundant ‘bowls’, and so in comparison this ‘salad bowl’ was verging on disappointing. ‘Chopped green salad’ would perhaps have been more apt.

Perhaps it is one of those cafes that rather specialises in cakes and it is true, there was an impressive selection of cakes, both normal and vegan. I was tempted to try the vegan blueberry and cream tiered cake but was reluctant to spend more money so decided to leave it at that.

I know that Chaia offer a vegan afternoon tea, which definitely sounds more appealing and is a rarer occurrence in Newcastle, so I can imagine that if I ever return it would be for that. I have seen on Canny Food’s blog that they jazz it up with pink metallic tea sets, which is also pretty cool and quirky!

Chaia Salad Bowl with pitta and houmous: £8

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