Chaiiwala

You walk into Chaiiwala on the High Street and immediately get hit with the smell of cardamom, ginger and something that smells like home—even if home's never been India. It's the kind of place where you can tell the owners actually give a toss about what they're serving. The chai's the real deal: properly spiced, properly hot, and it'll cost you about £3-4 for a cup that actually means something. They've got street food too—samosas, pakora, that sort of thing—and it all lands with proper flavour. The space itself is intimate without being cramped, and there's usually a good mix of people in here, from students to regulars who've basically adopted the place as their second living room.