Indian street food
Gujarati street food, explained.
Gujarati food leans sweet, with sour and spicy notes, and is almost entirely vegetarian. Its snacks are light, tangy and often made from gram flour.
From the Tapri Chai kitchen · November 2026 · 1 min read
Style
Sweet, sour, spicy
Famous
Dabeli, dhokla
Base
Gram flour
At Tapri Chai
Dabeli
01
Dabeli
A bun from Kutch, filled with sweet-spicy potato, peanuts and pomegranate. It is the best-known Gujarati street snack outside the state.
02
Gram flour snacks
Dhokla is a steamed, fermented chickpea flour cake. Khandvi is a rolled gram flour snack. Fafda is a crisp, thin gram flour snack, traditionally eaten with jalebi on Sunday mornings.
03
Breads and sweets
Thepla is a spiced flatbread eaten on journeys. Sweets such as mohanthal and shrikhand are served at festivals.
04
Sweet and sour balance
Gujarati cooks balance jaggery or sugar with tamarind, lemon and chilli. That balance is what dabeli, with its sweet filling and spicy chutney, is built on.
05
The farsan tradition
Gujarati households keep a stock of farsan, savoury snacks served with tea at any hour of the day. Fried and spiced, they sit beside sweets on festival platters and in the lunchboxes of travellers. The habit of a small, crisp bite with a hot drink is the same one that chai and snacks follow at a tapri.
A traditional Gujarati meal, called a thali, brings sweet, sour, salty and spicy dishes onto one plate, which explains why the state’s street food is so layered in flavour.
06
Try it at Tapri Chai
Our menu includes a Gujarati favourite and other snacks that share its flavours:
- Loaded Dabeli, $5.49
- Vada Pav, $5.49
- Pav Bhaji, $13.99
Questions, answered.
What is Gujarat’s most famous street snack?
Dabeli, dhokla and fafda are among the best known.
Is Gujarati food sweet?
It often uses a touch of sweetness balanced with sour and spicy notes.
Is it vegetarian?
Largely, yes.
Can I try dabeli in Ottawa?
Yes. Tapri Chai serves Loaded Dabeli for $5.49.
At Tapri Chai
Taste it for yourself.
Our kitchen in Barrhaven is 100% vegetarian. 200 Kennevale Dr Unit 104, Ottawa. Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 11pm. Closed Mondays.