Halal Chai and Desserts in Northwood Hills

The shop sits on the Joel Street parade, so for most of Northwood Hills this is a walk rather than a journey. Northwood Hills station is straight across the road, which matters more than it sounds: you can come out of the barriers, cross, and be sitting down with a drink before the next train has left. The H11 and the 282 both stop on Joel Street outside the door. If you are coming from the far side of the area or carrying a big order home, there is free and pay-and-display parking along Joel Street and on the side roads around it, though it fills up in the evening like any parade does. There is a halal roundel on the entrance door, which saves the conversation some people have to have every time they try somewhere new. Northwood Hills sits in the London Borough of Hillingdon, and the shop is registered and inspected here like every other food business on the street.

Breakfast is served all day, which changes how the place gets used. The Desi Breakfast is £8.95 and comes as one fresh paratha with chana, halwa, salad and pickle, and you can add an omelette for £1.95. Halwa Puri and Chana is also £8.95, with sweet semolina halwa, chana masala and three puris. If you want less, a plain paratha is £4.95 and an aloo or cheese paratha is £5.95, all rolled and griddled to order and served with yoghurt and pickle. The masala omelette at £4.95 is eggs with onions, chillies, tomatoes and coriander, and it is the thing to order when you want something hot and quick rather than a plate. Being able to walk in at half eight in the evening and order a proper desi breakfast is the sort of small thing that turns a cafe into a habit, and it is why the tables here look different at nine at night than they do at ten in the morning.

Karak chai is £3.25 for a small and £3.50 for a regular, and there is a sugar-free version if you ask. It is brewed strong and milky rather than served as a teabag in hot water, and it is the drink most people order without looking at the board. Pink Kashmiri chai is the same price and worth trying once even if you think you will not like it: green tea leaves brewed long and aerated until the colour turns, then finished with milk, traditionally served either salted or sweet. Masala chai, also £3.25 and £3.50, is aromatic rather than strong, brewed slowly with whole spices. Karak coffee puts karak and coffee in the same cup for people who cannot choose. Worth knowing as a local: the shop gets genuinely busy on weekend evenings and drinks take longer then than they do on a Tuesday afternoon. If you want a quiet cup and a table to yourself, come mid afternoon on a weekday.

The donuts are prepared fresh in store and they are the single thing reviewers mention most. One is £1.95, a variety box of five is £7.95 and a box of twelve is £14.95, which is the one people carry to other people houses. Milkcakes come in pistachio, Lotus Biscoff and Oreo at £6.95, or kunafa at £7.50. If you want something hot, the Matilda cake is £6.95 with custard or ice cream for £1.50 more, and there is gulab jamun or gajar halwa with ice cream at £5.95. Gelato is £2.50 for one scoop, £4.50 for two and £6.00 for three. The late close is what makes this useful to people who already live here. Eleven at night Sunday to Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday means dessert after something else, rather than dessert instead of it, and you are not driving anywhere to get it.

The tables have ludo and snakes and ladders printed onto them, which reviewers bring up unprompted, usually as the reason they stayed for a second drink. It makes the room work for families in a way a quiet cafe does not, and it is the reason a lot of local parents end up here on a wet Saturday. If you are bringing a group, the room has big tables and booths, and the Family Lunch at £29.95 covers two jackets with two toppings, any two paninis, four canned drinks and two cookie doughs. The Family Platter at £49.95 is the bigger one, with samosas, seekh kebabs, biryanis, loaded chips, parathas and mocktails. The kitchen also does catering, platters and Iftar boxes. For any of that, call 01923 918456 or use the enquiry form on the contact page, and give as much notice as you can. If you would rather stay in, the menu is on Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats.