Jay cafe

Shalabh Vyas 17 months ago

(If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, jump to the ‘Worth the price?’ section)

I usually don’t leave long reviews of places I visit but I feel obliged to do so here. Sharing a broader perspective of my experience at Jay’s Cafe from a few days ago.

Before I share my review, let me state that Bundi happens to be the place where my grandparents lived all their life and I spent most of my childhood summers in Bundi. I grew up in Mumbai - one of the most expensive cities in India if not the most. I have lived internationally for more than a decade and traveled quite a bit in India (including the rest of Rajasthan). I am sharing all this to let a review reader know that I have eaten a lot of different cuisines around the world and have a sense of food quality and what it’s worth.

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How I’d rate Jay’s Cafe -
Worth the price? - 1/5
Taste of Food - 2/5
Hospitality - 4/5
Ambience - 2.5/5

Worth the price?

(Rates we paid on Dec 21st, 2022)
Unlimited Thali - Rs.350/- (crazy expensive)
Dry-Fruit Lassi - Rs.150/- (crazy expensive)

The thali you see in the photos was served as an unlimited thali to us for INR 350 (Rs. 350/-). I’ve personally had better tasting unlimited thalis for Rs.100 or less just a 10-15 min walk from the fort in the main Bundi market. There are so many restaurants that will serve you better taste and that too unlimited for literally less than one-third the price of Jay’s Cafe. I acknowledge that other restaurants in the area are also expensive and as an Indian, I can see so many foreign nationals visiting who are the target audiences of these restaurants (sad state of tourism in India). So foreign nationals, please be warned. If you’re eating at Jay’s Cafe, you’re paying 3 times or 3.5 times the food you can get at a 10min walk in the main market (which is worth visiting anyway).

However, the difference between those restaurants and Jay’s Cafe is they are serving western food (pizza, lasagna, etc) so maybe that’s the cost of wanting to have a pizza in a small place like Bundi. But an Indian restaurant couldn’t possibly be charging such exorbitant prices for Indian food in a small city like Bundi.

We also ordered special lassi with dry fruits that cost us Rs.150/- per glass. As other reviews have mentioned, you can get the same thing for Rs.50/- or less 2-3 shops down from Jay’s Cafe at a dairy or lassi shop.

Interestingly enough, unlike other restaurants, Jay’s Cafe doesn’t have its menu posted online (likely because people will know how expensive they are) and they don’t have a menu in the restaurant either. So you order, and at the end of the meal, receive the shock of your life with their prices. To make it worse, **they take only cash**. In a country where I can now pay for a cup of tea worth Rs.10/- with Google Pay, how the hell can you not accept any form of digital payment (CC/Paytm/UPI, etc) for such high amounts?

Because of my connection with Bundi, I keep visiting Bundi with friends and family often and Bundi Fort is a must-go. I am making a point to not go back to Jay’s Cafe and warn anyone in my circle visiting to not eat at this place because of the unjustified prices for otherwise mediocre food.

Taste of Food -

Food is cooked by Jay’s family so you’re getting home-cooked food. The taste is not that great - doesn’t have the signature Rajasthani taste in it if you’re looking for that. If home-cooked food is your thing, I guess you could go for it. But Rajasthan is known for delicious food and you can taste the range - from small restaurants to fine dining. This is not that.

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Please don’t get me wrong. Given my ancestral connection with this city, Bundi has a special heart in my place and I always try to support local businesses as much as I can. If l eat or shop in Bundi and get charged 2X for what I think it’s worth, I happily pay. But if you’re charging me 3X (or 3.5X in this case), that’s where I draw the line. Sharing pictures we took of the food we were served so you can get a sense.

Iris Reef 16 months ago

If I could give Jay more than five stars I would give him more. Jay is one of the kindest people I have ever met. He has a restaurant with the best Thali we had in India. But he also recommended us what we could do in Bundi and showed us the city after we had lunch at his place. He arranged flowers, a flower necklace and some other presents for us. He is very enthusiastic anf a lot of fun to hang out with. We are so happy we met him and his family and had the best time in Bundi because of them. Thank you so much. And if you read this please go to his restaurant and enjoy it!!

Ratnadeep Paithankar 12 months ago

Jay's café is not actually café. The host has kept a table on terrace. Jay is really welcoming person. He helped us for sight seeing for free. Guided us well for the places to see nearby.
From Jay's place, a good view of fort is visible.
Coming to food, as Indian, I felt food was not that great still it was quite costly. Lassi was 150 (it wsa the diluted shreekhand), pkaoda was 200 per plate (basen, potato, peas; quantity was good enough), the dinner thali, we did not had as we were already full due to pakode. Still the unlimited thali has puri, bhaji, dal, rice, gulabjamun and kadhi. The thali cost 300rs which is again too much for the food.