Milkshakes in Northwood Hills

The standard milkshake is £4.95 and you pick the flavour: Vanilla, Flake, Oreo, Strawberry, Kinder Bueno, Lotus Biscoff, Ferrero Rocher, Snickers or Millions Bubblegum.

That list covers the two things people usually want. Vanilla and Strawberry are the plain end. Kinder Bueno, Ferrero Rocher, Snickers and Lotus Biscoff are the confectionery end, and they drink like a dessert rather than a drink.

Millions Bubblegum is the one children choose every time.

They are served cold and thick in tall cups with a straw. At £4.95 a shake is roughly the price of two donuts at £1.95 each, which is the comparison most people at the counter end up making.

If you want a shake and something to eat, a Chicken Tikka toastie is £4.95 and Masala Chips are £2.95, and neither takes long.

All of it is halal. There is a full vegetarian range on the food side too, marked with a V on the menu.

The Cha Cha Chai Special is £5.95 and is the house shake. It is starred on the board as one of the things the shop is known for, alongside the karak and the donuts.

Gelato Shakes are also £5.95 and are blended from any of our gelato flavours. That means the shake list is effectively as long as the gelato counter, and you pick at the till rather than off a fixed list. If you like a scoop, you can drink it.

Gelato on its own is £2.50 for one scoop, £4.50 for two and £6.00 for three, with a waffle cone at £1.00 more. So a gelato shake at £5.95 sits between two and three scoops in price, and lasts longer.

The pound between a standard shake at £4.95 and these two is worth it if you are staying in the room rather than walking out with it.

The shakes are the reason one of our straplines is King of Shakes. That is what people call the shop rather than a claim about anyone else.

Two shakes on the cold drinks board come from the chai side rather than the dessert side. The Karak Chai Shake is £4.50 and the Pink Chai Shake is £4.50. Both are starred on the menu.

The karak version takes the flavour of the chai, which is black tea boiled with milk until it is strong and dark, and serves it cold. It tastes like the cup rather than like a vanilla shake with spice added at the end.

The pink version comes from Pink Kashmiri Chai, which is green tea brewed long and aerated until the colour turns pink, then finished with milk. Cold, it is the most unusual drink on the board and the one worth ordering if you have already tried everything else.

Both are £4.50, which makes them the cheapest shakes here.

If you want the hot versions instead, Karak Chai and Pink Kashmiri Chai are both £3.25 for a small and £3.50 for a regular. Karak can be made sugar-free if you ask when you order.

Iced Caramel Coffee is £4.50 and Mango Lassi is £3.00.

A shake is already a dessert, so the sensible pairing is savoury.

Toasties and paninis are all £4.95: Chicken Tikka, Keema, Paneer, Tuna Mayo, Tomato & Cheese and the Fish Finger Sandwich. Paratha and tortilla wraps are also all £4.95.

On the sides, Chips are £2.50, Masala Chips are £2.95, Chicken Bites are £3.50 and Mozzarella Sticks are £3.95. Loaded Chips at £6.95 are the bigger version, topped with chicken, keema or paneer, cheese, jalapeños and house sauces.

If you would rather double down on sweet, a Single Donut is £1.95 and freshly prepared in store, and the Nutella Wrap is £3.95.

For a group, the Family Lunch at £29.95 covers two jackets with two toppings, any two paninis, four canned drinks and two cookie doughs.

Shakes are on Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, though a thick cold shake is one of the orders that is clearly better collected than delivered, and we are thirty seconds from the station.

Cha Cha Chai Northwood Hills is at 56 Joel Street, Northwood Hills, Northwood HA6 1PA, directly opposite Northwood Hills station on the Metropolitan line. From the platform exit it is about thirty seconds across the road.

The H11 and 282 buses stop on Joel Street outside the door, and there is free and pay-and-display parking on Joel Street and the side roads around it.

We open at 9:00 seven days a week, and serve until 23:00 Monday to Thursday and Sunday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Weekend evenings are when the shake counter is busiest. If you are bringing a group and want to sit, come before the rush or expect a wait for a table.

The room is set up for staying, with velvet booths, big tables, and ludo and snakes and ladders printed into the marble tables. A round of shakes and a board game is a normal two hours here, and it is why families keep coming back rather than taking away.