Halal Chai and Desserts for Moor Park

The running order is Moor Park, then Northwood, then Northwood Hills, so it is two stops in the London direction. The one thing worth knowing is that not every Metropolitan line train stops at all three. Some services run fast between Moor Park and Harrow-on-the-Hill and pass straight through Northwood Hills, so glance at the platform indicator and check Northwood Hills is listed as a calling point before you board. Get that right and the rest is simple, because the shop faces the station exit and there is no walk at the far end. By car it is a short run south and you want Joel Street, where parking is free or pay-and-display along the parade and the side roads behind it. The H11 and 282 stop on Joel Street outside the door, though from Moor Park the train or the car is usually the easier choice.

Moor Park has almost no high street of its own, so the useful thing here is not speed, it is somewhere to actually be. The interior is warm rather than bright: a preserved foliage wall, pendant lighting, herringbone flooring and dark seating, closer to an evening room than a coffee chain. It works for the conversation you want to have properly, whether that is a catch up, a bit of work or a family sitting down together on a Sunday. Because no alcohol is served anywhere in the building and the entire kitchen is halal, it is also a straightforward suggestion to make to almost anyone. Weekday afternoons are the quietest window by some distance. Weekend evenings are the busiest and service slows then, which is worth planning around rather than being surprised by. Opening is nine in the morning until eleven at night, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Pink Kashmiri chai is £3.25 for a small and £3.50 for a regular, and it is the drink to order when you have time to sit with it: green tea leaves brewed long and aerated until the colour turns pink, then finished with milk, traditionally served salted or sweet. The matcha drink is £4.95, Japanese green tea powder whisked with milk, and there is a matcha cheesecake at £5.95 if you want the same flavour twice. Chai latte at £3.25 and £3.50 is milder and creamier than the karak. On the food side, milkcakes are £6.95 in pistachio, Lotus Biscoff or Oreo, and £7.50 for kunafa, and the pistachio is the one that comes up most in reviews. Gajar halwa with ice cream is £5.95. If you want something savoury with your tea rather than after it, a cheese paratha is £5.95 and the masala omelette is £4.95.

The other shape this trip takes is breakfast, because breakfast runs all day here and the shop opens at nine seven days a week. The Desi Breakfast is £8.95: one fresh paratha with chana, halwa, salad and pickle, and an omelette for £1.95 more. Halwa Puri and Chana is £8.95. Plain paratha with two eggs, scrambled or fried, is £7.95, and the English Breakfast at £9.95 is there for whoever in your party wants it, halal like everything else. Freshly squeezed juice is £4.95 in orange, apple, pineapple or watermelon. Coming out from Moor Park early on a Sunday is the quietest the shop ever is, which makes it the best time to come if what you want is a table by the window and nobody hurrying you. If you are bringing more than a few people, ring 01923 918456 first.