In a NUtshell

Very good global food, special menu pop ups are interesting , they mostly use produce of Auroville farms, nice outdoor & indoor seating, mixed service – some staff are unenthusiastic & cold, more like in old government run eateries, while other staff are warm & interactive.

Address & other details: the right path cafe

Meal for 2: ₹400 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry

We were at Auroville to attend a workshop named Givers Meet Edition 2 – An event where everyone participating explores ways to give back to the society. This was organised by exotic echo, the organization whom we came across in late 2018 – in the last decade they have revived a dying tribal weaving art, loinloom weaving. One lunch & a dinner (Korean food pop up) was organised by team exotic echo & they paid for it to the restaurant. We, the guests, paid an overall amount to exotic echo.

The restaurant is located in the visitors center. Payment can be made by Cash, Aurocard, or transfer from Auroville account.  Discount is offered for Aurovillians, Newcomers, and Volunteers.

The outdoor seating area is nice. Just that in peak summers it might be a bit too much.

The indoor seating area had two sections. Natural light inside the dining area was abundant during the day.

Seating was basic, wrought iron.

Service, as I mentioned above, was mixed. For some staff (Korean dinner) it seemed Smiling costs them money. I came across emotion drained, Stone faced guy at counter who exudes that vibe that he is giving free food in charity to guests (which is surely not the case). The other staff members (day 1 lunch) were warm & enthusiastic.

The menu of the day was written on a black board – just names of dishes. There was a QR code pasted on the board, to scan the menu on smartphone.

Food was very good, but we have had better (in the same genre).

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

Day 1 we went to have lunch – we were a group & we ordered mostly European food, few Indian dishes.

Day 2 was a Korean pop up by a Korean lady who stays in Auroville

Day 1

Here is the description of dishes we tasted. Rest of the dishes we did not try but other guests in our group did. So some items appear in the receipt but they are not present in the description.

We started with Healthy plate. It had 5 items – Carrot soup, Baked potato with spinach sauce, Mixed salad, Black dhal, Watermelon

The carrot soup was thick & smooth & had full flavors of cooked carrots. Liked it very much. Rate it 4/5

Baked potato with spinach sauce was excellent. Loved the texture of the potato & the cheesy spinach topping. Flavors of spinach were enjoyable. Rate this dish 4.25/5

Mixed salad was fresh & crunchy. Rate it 4.25/5

Absolutely loved the black dhal – perfectly cooked, perfect texture, perfectly seasoned. Rate it 4.75/5

Watermelon was as red as it cud be, ripe , sweet & really good.

Overall healthy plate rating is 4.3/5

Fish baked was excellent in texture, great in taste & flavors of herbs nicely complimented those of the fish.

Rate it 4.25/5

Potatoes were crisp outside, soft within, perfectly seasoned, good balance, great texture. Rate it 4.5/5

Salad was fresh & very enjoyable. All ingredients were crunchy and good. Rate it 4.25/5

Fish baked platter rating averages out to 4.3/5

We also tried Chicken roasted – it was very good. Juicy, great balance of taste, slightly charred outer layer, robust flavors of meat. Rate it 4.5/5

We took a bite of the Mini meal. It had rasam, sambar & a curry with red rice & normal white rice. Very basic but very good meal. Rate it 4.5/5

Grape juice was very enjoyable. Loved the balance of sweet & sour. Rate it 4.5/5

Guava juice was thick. A bit of rock salt & maybe chilli flakes could have lifted it. It was good as it is too. Rate it 3.5/5

Overall rating of day 1 averages out to 4.2/5

Day 2

We had Korean food at a pop up by a Korean lady who stays at Auroville. The food was good but they were not the best Korean I have had during my numerous trips to Far East Asian countries (never been to Korea though). Was the recipe tweaked a bit to suit Indian palate? Maybe.

We also had very good company that evening – new guests had joined. So we paid relatively less attention to the food & more on the conversations. So we will not be doing a detailed description of the same.

Overall rating of Korean pop up averages out to 4/5

Overall rating of the restaurant averages out to 4.1/5

This restaurant will be my fall back list when I revisit Auroville.