Cafe La terrace (Solar Kitchen, Anjanaiyar Koviel St, Auroville, Bommayapalayam, Tamil Nadu)

In a NUtshell

A nice cafe with semi indoor (no air conditioning) & also outdoor seating, self service, Staff behaviour like in old government canteens, big plates, very good food.

Address & other details: cafe la terrace

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. The lunch 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 above the super popular solar kitchen on Auroville. The semi open area has a roof that stands on pillars – no walls & hence no air conditioning.

The open area is beautiful – surrounded by trees, beautiful potted plants, great seating for not so hot times.

The menu is written on a board above the kitchen counter

Guests are supposed to queue up at the counter, place orders, pay & wait at their tables. When the meal name is called out (read screamed out by a person from the kitchen), the guest is supposed to go & pick up the food.

The challenge in the above system is :

1. for people sitting a bit far, the sound does not reach. So one has to constantly keep walking towards the counter to check. Quite irritating for both the guest & also the staff member.

2. Since dishes are called out (contrast to guest names in stArbucks), sometimes two guests who have ordered the same dish reach the counter at the same time.

There is no one to seat the guests. So anyone can at at any table. That means one has to secure a table, keep a belonging, go to place order.

When we reached (group of 10), we found there were not enough chairs. We asked the staff members – they said ‘pick up the chairs’. So we started collecting chairs & we started lining them around a large table.

Another staff member arrived & said ‘please put these back. These are indoor chairs’. Really!!!! First no one tells anything & lets the guests on their own. Later they say it’s wrong.

Incidentally I saw few other westerners sitting in indoor chairs in the outdoor area. The same staff walked past but did not say anything. Racial preferences/discrimination ???

The attitude of the staff was like that of old eateries run by government – they just doing a job, they behave as if they are doing a favour, they throw rules at the guests every now & then.

However the best part of the restaurant was food. It made us momentarily forget all the silly disturbances that I mentioned above.

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

We tried a meal called MAGIC PLATE. It had tomato, cheese & olive pasta, a ‘small soup’, salad & bread.

We chose this since we wanted to have a simple meal. Yes, it was.

The pasta was perfectly cooked, had the right balance of taste & was very good to taste. Loved the way the tomatoes were cooked. Rate it 4/5

The soup was simple & excellent. The flavour of herbs made this soup unique. Rate it 4/5

The salad was super simple & really good. Fresh crunchy veggies. Rate it 4/5

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 4/5

Special salad with tuna was excellent. Loved the tuna. Loved the crunchy salad, the perfect balance of taste & just about everything. The only place where I have had tuna salad multiple times in india is at SUBWAY. This one is many miles ahead. Rate it 4.5/5.

Egg & cheese galette was super interesting. The base was made from a millet. It was crunchy. The egg & cheese were soft & YUMM. Overall it was a great dish. Rate it 4.5/5