Blurb: Best place for meeting a friend for coffee
Cuisine: all-vegetarian café with snacks
Atmospherics: Have you ever racked your brains for a venue at which to meet a friend? You want somewhere around Central or South Delhi, neither of you want a particularly noisy place; ease of parking needs to be a factor, as does practicality: you should be able to run your errands for the day expeditiously. You are not looking at a hearty meal, though a cookie or a slice of pizza would be welcome. Well, the good news is that Eywa caters to that particular segment of the market admirably. In between the shopping centres of Khan Market and Defence Colony, parking is easy and plentiful, the Celeste chocolate boutique on the ground floor looks like a fairytale store with quaint bowls, jars and boxes for the chocolate bonbons. Upstairs, the all-cream interiors with gold cutlery looks soothing and classy and the tree right outside that has been nicknamed Eywa after a mystical tree in the movie Avatar is the focus of the café. Being brand new, Eywa is seldom crowded and because the food that it offers is not of the main course variety, it is an eminently suitable place to spend an hour or two with a friend or alone, in between meetings.
Table talk: The best things here are the variety of platters, served on tea charlies. The English high tea, for example, includes walnut pie, apple cinnamon pie, lemon tea cake, cookies and chips in addition to first flush Darjeeling Tea (Rs 455); the American High Tea (Rs 475) serves cappuccino along with caramel brownie, caramel cheesecake, chocolate brownie, cookies and chips. The most interesting of the tea charlies is the Arabic One (Rs 495): Turkish coffee, cashew baklava, basbusa, Arabic biscuits, cookies and chips. If it is something savoury and more hearty you want, the Caldo Verde (Rs 175) is a thick soup named after a Portuguese classic. This one is made with spinach with a potato base and could have done with some seasoning. However, what vastly appeals to me is the variety of easy to eat finger foods: quesadillas, crostini, chips with salsa, waffles and Pizzas (Rs 125 – Rs 395) to nibble on while you nurse a cold coffee or a Raw Press juice or coffee.
Plus and minus: completely vegetarian, it serves breakfasts too.
Must try: eggs Benedict; banana pancake; Margarita pizza
Food: 3.00; Service: 3.00; Décor: 3.50
Address: 38 Mehar Chand Market, Lodi Colony, Tel: 9873264545, Open from 11 am to 9 pm
No alcohol; credit cards accepted, Meal for two: Rs 800
