Chaiiwala, the Leicester-founded Indian street food and karak chaii franchise, has opened a new flagship café in the city where the brand began, unveiling a larger store format designed to shape its next phase of UK growth. The new Granby Street site combines expanded seating, self-service technology and a redesigned customer journey as Chaiiwala scales beyond its established high-street model.
Founded in Leicester in 2015, Chaiiwala has grown from its first café into a multi-market franchise business built around Indian street food and its signature Karak chaii. The brand now has more than 120 UK sites and is targeting 500 locations globally over the next 10 years, with its expansion strategy spanning high streets, drive-thrus, travel hubs and other high-footfall locations.
The new Granby Street flagship marks an important step in that strategy. Chaiiwala has relocated its existing Granby Street operation to a significantly larger 2,000 sq ft premises, with capacity for up to 60 customers. The site introduces an evolved café design that the company plans to use as a reference point for future openings and refurbishments across its estate.
The format includes self-service ordering kiosks, stadium-style bench seating designed to support social dining and changes to the way the brand’s signature chaii is served. The focus is on creating a format that can deliver a consistent Chaiiwala experience while also improving ordering speed, customer flow and the use of space.
“Granby Street is an incredibly important café for Chaiiwala. Leicester is where our story began, so it is fitting that this site should become the flagship for our next stage of growth,” said Sohail Ali, Co-Founder of Chaiiwala. “This investment is about much more than creating a bigger café. It is about continuing to invest in our hometown and giving the Leicester community a more spacious and elevated environment where they can enjoy their Chaiiwala favourites,” Ali added.
He said the new site also reflects changes across the customer experience, “from the way customers order and move through the space to how they sit, socialise and enjoy our chaii.” “As we continue to grow in the UK and internationally, our cafés need to be efficient, scalable and unmistakably Chaiiwala and Granby Street brings those priorities together,” Ali said.
The flagship retains Chaiiwala’s core menu, led by its Karak chaii brewed on site using a seven-spice blend. The food range includes breakfast roti wraps, Bombay Bowls, Wala Wraps, The Wala Box, Family Platter and salad bowls, alongside desserts and cold drinks.
The opening comes during a period of continued expansion for the brand. Chaiiwala has recently added cafés in Bristol and Woking and expanded its presence through its partnership with Roadchef, taking the brand into UK motorway service areas. It has also opened a concession at Birmingham Airport, broadening the formats through which it reaches customers.
For Chaiiwala, the Leicester location is particularly significant because the city remains central to its brand identity. The company’s own history traces its first store to Leicester in 2015, when its founders introduced the karak chaii they had grown up with to the British high street. Chaiiwala says it has since expanded across the UK and internationally, with its own corporate history page currently listing 140+ stores worldwide and operations extending beyond the UK.
The company has built its growth largely around franchising, with the business continuing to develop different formats and locations as it pursues its longer-term global target. Its current expansion model includes traditional cafés alongside drive-thrus, travel locations and other high-footfall sites.
