We were on a spiritual cum pleasure trip recently to Varanasi. It was our 2nd day in Varanasi, post a decent Indian style breakfast at our hotel, we decided to visit the Ramnagar fort. While returning from the fort we decided to visit the New Vishwanath temple at the BHU (Banaras Hindu University) campus.
Once we reached there at around 11.50 am, we realised that the temple closes at 12 noon for an hour and would open at 1.00 pm. So we had a lot of time in hand as we didn’t want to visit the temple in rush and yes there was crowd too.
We got a sketch (portrait) made by an artist who was doing it for Rs. 300.00. Once he finished, we decided to have something to eat and drink. There are many small outlets outside the temple complex (a shopping complex outside the temple, with properly assigned shops selling items for worship, food, handicraft items and books – including academic books and photocopying shops).
Some of these shops were selling Lassi. There were 2 major shops Baba Cafe and Om Cafe (open when we went) which had an elaborate menu. Baba cafe was mostly selling variety of drinks – from shakes to sodas, lassi and cold coffee. We opted for Baba Cafe. The outlet has small seating space and we were lucky to get space. These outlets are very popular with the local student community and we soon knew why.
The pricing for most of the items was Rs. 30, 40 and 50. We ordered for a mango shake (without ice cream-Rs. 30), a cold coffee with ice cream (opted for a chocolate ice cream – Rs. 40) and a blueberry shake with ice-cream (Rs. 50).
Within a few minutes of ordering we got our Mango shake and Cold Coffee. The place was crowded and people were mainly ordering cold coffee, mango shake and banana shake along with Lassi.
It took some time for Blueberry shake, but we got bonus in this – as we were the only once to have ordered it, the leftover (almost half the glass) was also given to us without any extra cost. We also got 2 helpings of ice-cream.
As we say Value for Money or Total Paisa Wasool.
There was no issues in terms of quantity (it was being served in the regular Beer Glass – which one finds at Juice shops) and quality (branded milk, branded coffee powder and branded ice-cream (Cream Bell). We asked if they had sandwiches (in there menu) but were informed that they were over.
We came out, still feeling hungry, we started looking out for food options. We had choice of having Samosa (with Chola / Chutney) and Tea or food items at Om Cafe. We decided to try Om Cafe. This place was crowded, no space to sit inside, so we sat outside under a Banyan Tree (this was also crowded and we just got lucky) opposite the Cafe. This cafe had decently priced food items – from Pizza to Dosa, to basic road side Chinese dishes, sandwiches and combo meals – like chola rice, paneer rice, daal rice. We opted for a plate of Chola (chick pea) and Rice. The price of the plate was Rs. 70.00 and the quantity was decent (it would have been good for 1 person with decent food eating capacity, but for 3 of us it was enough).
Taste wise also it was decent, nothing extraordinary but good just like one gets at many student populated joints across India. It reminded me of my college days and the food options. It was not very spicy (that was the best part), not very oily.
Post this we visited the temple. When we came out, we saw many other shops also opening up. There was one which was serving only Dosa (and probably other South Indian dishes).
Please note, there may be many other options in BHU, but if you are visiting Bharat Kala Kendra, Library or the Vishwanath temple in BHU, this place is good to satiate those hunger pangs.
Pravāsavarṇana 