Going Out No. 6: Apna Chat Bhavan
Grocery store Indian food in Beaverton.
Welcome! This is the “Going Out” edition of Riley’s Recs, where I review a restaurant, bar, or activity here in Portland. Every Sunday, I also share “Staying In” recipe recommendations for your week. What should I write about next? Feel free to leave a comment on this post or submit your idea here. And don’t forget to check out pdxrecs.com for even more recommendations and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
Meal: lunch
Price for two including tip: $42.62
To eat: pav bhaji, paneer tikka masala, onion pakora, and two samosas
To drink: mango lassi x2
What is it about eating where you shop that’s just so enjoyable? Is it the thrill of eating somewhere off limits like breakfast in bed? Vertical integration? The illusion of farm-to-table?
Whatever the reason, the combination-grocery-store-cafeteria business model holds a special place in my heart.
Portland has several examples. First, Tienda Santa Cruz, the hidden gem of St. John’s. To get to the restaurant portion of this Mexican grocery store, you must first make your way past aisles stocked with imported candies, beans, and spices, and glass cabinets filled with pan dulce. You’ll then find a handful of tables and a counter-service restaurant serving everything from tacos to menudo to mariscos.
It makes you feel like you’re in on a secret.
In SE, there’s Providore and Montelupo, with their specialty goods and wine pours. You can eat a charcuterie board and sip on a Riesling while watching people buy milk. What a treat.
All of this in a state with tight liquor laws. In Texas, you can actually crack open a beer and drink it while you shop. Whole Foods calls them “walkin’ around beers.” It’s the modern-day road beer, and Texas in its truest form.
You cannot walk around with a beer at Apna Chat Bhavan (ACB), the Indian grocery store housed in the Twin Oaks Business Park on NW Cornell Road in Beaverton. But you can buy specialty imported products like mango pickle and curry leaves, and then eat a full meal for under $15 dollars.
The challenge is deciding what to order. ACB’s menu is huge and divided into vegetarian and non-vegetarian sections. It includes a wide selection of Southern Indian curries, dosas, noodles, rice dishes, and desserts, all of which are made in the tiny kitchen behind the register.
A singular copy of the menu is taped to the counter, meaning you have approximately one minute to order or risk holding up the line. There is technically a TV nearby that scrolls through each section of the menu, but the font is tiny. I recommend making quick decisions or looking up the menu ahead of time.
To start, you could pick out a handful of $3-4 fried snacks housed in the glass cabinet next to the register, including crunchy onion pakora, samosas, and egg puffs. These have been hit or miss for me, with the occasional pakora tasting stale, but generally if you want something to munch on while waiting for your main, you can’t go wrong with a samosa.
You could also start by ordering from the chaat portion of the menu. Chaat is essentially Indian street food. Read: fried food and bread. This includes dishes like bhel puri, a puffed rice tossed in cilantro, onion, and chutney, and my personal favorite pav bhaji, a weekend-only stew of vegetables served with glossy brioche buns, red onion, lime, and cilantro.
For entrees, although ACB is known for their goat biryani, I typically opt vegetarian because I love paneer cheese and other “meaty” vegetarian options like eggplant. I don’t pretend to be an expert on Indian food and typically choose familiar dishes like chana masala or dal. Next time through, I’m going to switch things up and order one of the dosas, which are essentially large, thin pancakes that can be filled with potato or served plain alongside curry or chutney.
If you’re having trouble deciding, get the daily special or the thali. Offered every day at lunchtime except Sundays, a thali is a selection of dishes served in tiny silver bowls atop a single platter. This usually includes a dal, vegetable, chutney, raita, pickle, and grain like rice or dosa. Like most menu items, the thali ton of food so you could probably pair this with a few appetizers and feed two comfortably.
Whatever you do, along with your meal please order the mango lassi, a yogurt-based drink that is borderline dessert. Supposedly, ACB serves alcohol in the back room where they stream Bollywood films, but I have yet to do anything more than peep in there so can’t confirm.
After you order, you’ll be handed a buzzer, which will eventually be exchanged for a cafeteria platter piled with paper plates of food. I will say that it can take awhile to get your order, but just get over it! Get an appetizer! Do your grocery shopping!
ACB carries everything from whole spices to frozen flatbreads to flavored yogurts. There’s also a freezer near the front door that carries to-go versions of many of the restaurant’s entrees. These make the perfect weeknight meal when you’re in a pinch. Every time I go, I buy a handful to keep in my freezer.
I typically go to ACB on the weekend, which happens to be the busiest time to visit. There are tons of families eating leisurely lunches, watching children run around the movie theater, or stocking up on groceries for the week. It’s a reminder that although I can’t find any major writeups of ACB online, there are more than 1,000 Google reviews and this grocery store/restaurant is no secret.
Not that it needs to be. It’s just good.
