The Buddha Bar Cafe — Restaurant in Kerala

From personal experience, I don't suggest this hotel for veg eaters. Except for the varkala cliff view and breeze sea air, this place has nothing better to offer It has a fancy 4 page expensive multi-cuisine menu. Minimum 30 minutes of waiting time for even easy-to-make dishes (ex: fruit salad) They claim that they've live-kitchen and all NV dishes are made on demand, but the food from it makes your taste buds dead.

Having said the above points, here comes my experience with this restaurant.

Being at the verge varkala cliff with an attractive ambience, this hotel captured our view. So, we (4 people) entered the restaurant and ordered a Greek salad Margarita pizza Agilo Olio Pasta with mushrooms Prawn curry (live kitchen item) Prawn briyani (live kitchen item) Fish briyani (live kitchen item) at around 2PM.

After 30mins, we received the salad which was the only tasty dish out of all the ordered ones. 10mins later we received item#2 and item#3. Instead of Agilo Olio, they supplied chicken pasta which we found and had it removed rather than replace. Time passed like tides on the shore. 20mins later received item #4, #5 & #6. They call half- cooked, ajinomoto (some taste enhancer) added, bowl of white rice with meat as Briyani. You can hardly find meat in it. Prawn curry is the top terrible item which resembled panner butter masala with no panner. And they charge ₹500 for it.

Overall, it was an unpleasant experience for us in Varkala, Kerala. We made a mistake by outlook of the cafe. Which is why I thought of posting this comment to help...

An average restaurant having a scope to improve on myriad factors. Let me point out the best thing- which was the service catered by a lady(name wasn't collected), she made sure everything was taken care of. The americano wasn't hot enough to make contact with the mouth. After bringing the matter to her attention she swiftly made sure to add hot water and provide us the refurbished beverage. The french fries and Apple Cinnamon pancakes were above expectations. The cookies were bland and texture/taste could be improved. Being the first shop at the commence of entrance, one could expect more from this joint.

Now coming to the experience, the moment you step in, you could feel an air of absurdity and unfriendliness in the cafe,as compared to the other long stretched cafés at the cliff. This starts right from the person who's at the fish selling counter till the person at the billing there is a resistance to put on a smile. Please know your customers will only acknowledge you by the way you interact with them, and the lady who had served us had more aura, josh and bonhomie nature compared to the working folks at this joint. Please work on this, a small gesture goes a long way!

The karaoke music is cool, as it's a one man show put forth by this person who sings away to ol' hindi, tamil and malayalam sings.

The seating arrangements are well aligned, there happens to be a stairway which takes you to a level up helping you grab some good air and a...

I dropped by this place for both brunch and dinner. It's super close to the beach access point. During brunch, I had to opt for fish since chicken wasn't available. The service was really great; the waitstaff was super friendly and kept checking on the availability of different dishes like Buddha Bowls and chicken steak, which unfortunately weren't on the menu for brunch. My wife, who's a vegetarian, tried their vegetarian sizzler. The fish I had wasn't piping hot, and the taste was just okay. We skipped rice and fries with our order.

Later in the evening, we came back for dinner after strolling along the beach. This spot was more convenient than the other popular restaurants nearby. They had live music playing, setting a nice vibe. We kind of had a romantic candlelit dinner going on. My wife went for the Veg Thukpa, while I chose the chicken steak and pineapple juice. There was a mix-up, and she ended up with a chicken thukpa instead of a veg one. No worries though, they swapped it out for the right order. I specifically requested no mashed potatoes, but they still came with my dish. Considering the place was packed, I figure the chef was under some pressure. But despite that, we enjoyed the cozy ambiance and the delicious food. The only thing was that the order took quite a while, both during brunch and dinner. Maybe a bit longer during dinner due...