Located on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, Bambusa will be his first café venue and will predominantly offer take away dishes. It will initially be open for breakfast and lunch from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
It will serve modern Asian food inspired by Chugh’s travel and work for several years in Japan, Singapore, Laos and across Asia. Dishes are described as ‘home-style’ and will be based on recipes shared with Chugh by friends and their families.
Open for breakfast, coffee and pastries, lunch and dinner, the breakfast menu will include egg scramble buns; Kewpie omelette sliders and fresh pastries from London bakeries, such as east London Galeta. Bambusa will feature a coffee and pastry counter to the front of the restaurant and a separate counter for customers to build their own breakfast and lunch to go.
The all-day menu of build-your-own lunches available from the counter will include options such as sushi rice; ginger shoyu chicken; chilli bean tofu; kimchi BBQ jackfruit; orange sesame slaw and furikake (Japanese seaweed seasoning).
The café’s interior has been designed to reflect textures and tones found across Asia, with wood clad walls, bamboo green tiles, polished plaster and metalwork. The venue is geared towards take away but will have seating for up to eight people.
Food and drink will be served in sustainable sugarcane packaging and there are plans later in the year for the cafe to provide a delivery service for offices and residents in the surrounding area.
As well as Roti Chai, which opened in Marylebone in 2011, Chugh also runs restaurant and toddy shop bar Chai Ki, which he launched in Canary Wharf in 2015.