Chalait, West Village

Back in December, my sister and I stopped by Chalait for a casual weekday brunch. This adorable matcha cafe was made for Instagram with its latte art, marble tabletops, soft wood textures, chalkboard menus, and almost too pretty to eat tartines. There’s not much seating, but we managed to grab one of the little tables for two.

At Chalait, their specialty is matcha, but there’s coffee and tea on the menu too if that’s your thing. It’s not a full service cafe, but they do have a good selection of tartines and sandwiches, plus a handful of baked goods upfront.

Naturally, we both got a matcha latte ($4.75). It was 50 cents extra to get mine made with milk that doesn’t come out of a nipple. The latte art is spot on. My sister said the milk overwhelmed the matcha in hers, but I found my matcha soy latte just right. At some places (*cough*, Starbucks) they use so much matcha, it feels like I’m choking on it. Definitely not the case here.

I got the avocado sunrise ($11) tartine. The name may be cheesy, but this had many of my favorite things stacked together: poached egg, avocado, arugula, tomato, roasted pepitas, and chimichurri sauce. Pretty and tasty, but a bit steep at $11. The egg, even though it was nicely poached, and avocado were both icy cold. Maybe they were having an off day?

The miso butter toast ($8) came with a soft boiled egg, avocado, sesame seeds, and arugula salad. Wen said the miso butter flavor was salty, but very good with the toast. Unfortunately, the soft boiled egg was cold too, but it’s a nice little bit of yolk porn, isn’t it?

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