Craveyard Café in a crunch: walking distance from insti, a warm and quirky ambience, lovely food, board games, and 30% discount for insti students. Still not convinced? Read on!
It was pouring heavily on the evening that I set out to Craveyard Café, a home-turned-café located in Gandhinagar. The house is brightly painted and looks very inviting. When it is not raining, the swing set outside hosts pets of customers (yes: a pet-friendly café! The last time I’d visited the first thing I saw was the cutest poodle of all time being pampered by a lot of kids outside).
Inside, the first thing you notice is the dessert counter. Yum. The café has a really quirky but bright décor; there are strange and pretty things everywhere you look. Chandeliers made out of graters and glasses, a string of little wooden elephants by the door, and a shelf (or several) full of oddities.
The staff are really friendly and prompt and the menu offers quite a decent amount of choice. For starters, I would highly recommend the delicious ‘starters platter’, which includes fries, wedges, nuggets and cheese balls. The home-made cheese wedges are also very good. Craveyard Café also offers a reasonable selection of sandwiches, pastas, pizzas and burgers, which are homemade and extremely tasty. The red veggie ball pasta has a unique Indian masala tinge that instantly drew me in, while the pizzas are thin crusted and quite heavenly in that warm, homemade sort of way. They also have a good selection of desserts, but these tend not to be very fixed — indeed, most are not on the menu — you’ll have to pick from what is (left) on the dessert counter. Here, I would very strongly urge you to try out the choco-hazelnut cake — it will transport you to another world — and the chocolate smoothie, which on a hot day is absolute salvation.
Hmm. It is probably unprofessional to say only nice things about a place you are reviewing, but sadly I really don’t have anything negative to say about the food. I’ve been there thrice till now, and everything I’ve eaten so far has been utterly delicious!
The place is stocked with books and board games, which means that on a slow day you can easily spend 5 hours at a stretch (either alone or with friends), stewing in the AC with Monopoly or Pictionary, or savouring a nice book. This also means it’s a great place for fun group outings, although the indoor tables would probably not be able to seat very large groups. And finally, it’s also a really great place to study, because you’ll easily find plug points for your laptop, and also there is free wifi. The food will keep you happy and sane while you struggle with the mugz.
The staff have recently opened up the terrace too, and all accounts so far seem to suggest that it makes for really lovely dinners (of the candlelit variety or otherwise!). Sadly, I could not check this out as it was pouring with rain throughout my visit.
Finally, one of the best things about this place is that you can eat like a monster but leave without a gaping hole in your pocket: Craveyard Café offers a 30% discount on the bill (unless you are doing a take-out) for all IITM students on weekdays. Which is why I was able to enjoy 2 starters, a main course and 2 desserts, all well portioned, with a (non-insti) friend for a mere 450 bucks. Definitely paisa vasool! I for one can’t wait to go back again.
Craveyard Café is located on 2nd Canal Cross Street, Gandhinagar, Adyar. It’ll be open between 11 am- 10 pm and the staff can be contacted at 044 30205506. You can easily get there by cycling or walking up from the main gate.
