Mona Lisa Cafe — Restaurant in Uttar Pradesh

BAD BEHAVIOUR OF THE WAITER

Recently two female friends of mine from the Northeastern part of India went to this cafe and faced the most blatant display of RACIAL and REGIONAL PREJUDICE from one their waiters! The guy came up to them and asked them where they were from, and then made very offensive remarks about the native state of one of the girls.

He rambled on about how the people from her state are bad and its not a good place at all! She tried to tell him that its not right to generalize like that and good and bad people exist everywhere but he denied and kept insisting that her people were indeed bad people and that he was certain about it! Infact, her friend tried telling the guy that he was wrong, but the guy refuted saying, "you wouldn't know. Since you are from her neighbouring state" And he began comparing how Benaras has 100% only good people and people are ALWAYS welcoming. But people in her state and unwelcoming and bad and its not a good place!

My friends were taken aback by his remarks and felt very UNCOMFORTABLE, UPSET and INSULTED. Is it right to walk up to someone and randomly speak ill about their native place, community, or their people ? That's the worst thing to hear from anyone and the last thing you would expect employees at a cafe to say to you, who are supposed to be nice and hospitable to you.

Especially considering people from so many states, so many different countries enjoy food in this cafe, one would assume its a welcoming place with open minded people. But the reality is something else. That person should be ashamed of his behaviour and change his mentality! The owners should be aware of the way the waiters are treating the customers. Very disappointing and...

Just opposite the Brown Bread Bakery, this little place came as a savior when we found out that BBB is closed for renovation. We had tried the Shiva cafe as well, which is a 1minute walk from BBB, and it was closed as well, and will open after 15th August. Honestly, we entered the shop just to eat something as we had planned to have breakfast at BBB and was exhausted with the meandering walk up, down and around the (in) famous Banaras ki gali. Local people are as usual very warm and helpful and directed us to this place because Google GPS gets confused as well when it comes to these tricky little by lanes of Varanasi, lol. Now, the food. The menu was a normal cafe menu and we ordered the English breakfast, coffee and fries. Staff are very helpful. Food was good. Am actually writing this live as I munch on these perfect french fries. We are also packing Chinese for lunch because we have a flight later today. Price is cheap and there's a roof top sitting arrangement as well. Heads up to Bengalis, sobai Bangla bojhe ekhane. 😁 I almost forgot, the coffee is good. Two espresso-s cleared my migraine hangover, if you know...

Food: ok Atmosphere: ok Service: 👎👎👎

This place seems to be one of those "tourist-friendly" spots, and hence popular. But the young guy serving didn't look like he wanted to work there, he looked indifferent and bored and gave zero shit about serving customers at all. Also another older guy sitting at the counter, I don't know if he is the owner or one of the staff, but he seemed extremely arrogant. Only cared about the bill. I said "thank you", but no answer back. There are other local restaurants in the city run by people who are much more humble and know how to be appreciative. I don't know how long this place will last under the current conditions. But I can say not for long, unless there is still a constant influx of tourists who, unlike me, don't care much about hospitality...