BAPS Shayona Café — Restaurant in Chino Hills

First, I love Indian cuisine. When I was transitioning from meat eating diet to non meat eating diet, Indian vegetarian food helped me a lot with the savory craving.

My first experience with vegetarian Indian food was in Vallejo, CA. Vaishnu vegetarian Cafe. ❤️❤️ It is closed now. Maybe the owner is too old to manage. Sad. Everyone in my family loved that place! So my Indian vegetarian experience ever since will always be biasedly compared to the taste I acquired from that place.

Hahaha. Ok.

BAPS Shayona Cafe is not that bad. It has a lot of Indian food and desserts. Having learned how to make many of them myself (Vaishnu inspired), I bought a few and didn't really enjoy them much. There are A lot of deep fried foods.

The roasted poha is good, but is a little bit spicy.

I've been here a few occasions and always wanted to try the thaali ($10, 5 items meal). The picture looks good. Apparently, it is only offered Thursday through Sunday, according to the staff. It can be busy on weekends, so get ready for long lines.

For the thaali:

Big portion of plain basmati rice, good old rice without cumin.

A piece of Kopra paak (I don't like this one because the coconut is dry. I bought a whole container once, and it has a weird fat smell. I don't know what it is),

sambar, medium thin consistency and has a hint of either tofu or coconut milk resembling Vietnamese vegetarian Curry soup. It is on a sweeter side to me. Has a piece of curry leaf floating.

three roti, kind of transparent. I don't like them.

and the main dish. It is like veggie korma without the yogurt. It has paneer cubes, beans, peas, bell peppers. It's not bad.

I would recommend to check the cafe out. 👍🏼

And they accept...

This casual eatery is located within the BAPS Temple grounds and connects to a small snack market.

A typical visit would include visiting the BAPS Mandir (which is GORGEOUS) and wandering over here to the Shayona for a snack or meal.

This isn't just "Indian food," but more based on a Hindu vegetarian diet and expresses the concept of purity, devotion and nonviolence. You will not find Chicken Tikka Masala here or the typical Indian foods you might be used to. This is a sanctified cuisine where no meat, onion, garlic, or alcohol are used nor have they made contact with the food/utensils.

The line to order was long on a Saturday but the menu board is clear and and descriptive, so you'll be able to save time by knowing what you want before you get to the front.

We ordered:

-- Thali - $10 A little bit of everything. This is great to share as it has yogurt, their version of a flatbread, a mini soup, 2 mini vegetarian stews, and some sweets.

-- Cheese Dosa - $6 This was like a ginormous rolled crepe that had delicious melted cheese inside. You dip this in a rich green sauce.

-- Mango Lassi - $3 Pretty sweet version. Not sure if they can make it less sweet.

-- Chai Tea - $1 for a small cup of spicy milky tea.

The wait time for the food could be a little long on the weekends, but half of the fun is getting to people-watch and being within this culture. Out of the 2 food items we ordered, our favorite was the cheesy Dosa and would come back to try more of the other menu items. It's a great way to help support the Mandir financially as well.

For those not interested in the Hindu cuisine, they do offer 2 American items, Nachos and...

Don't bother coming on a week day.

We came from out of town, really excited to have some good food but we're left severely disappointed. The cafe itself is actually closed. There is no one there.

The shop attached to the cafe is open and they had limited food options available, maybe 2 or 3 prepacked things. This was the really disappointing part. We didn't have breakfast, and were expecting a hearty meal. We checked the web for information and it said the cafe opens at 1130.

Upon reaching the cafe, we found it abandoned. There was only one person in the attached store, and he informed us they have a "limited menu" on the weekdays, while pointing to the fridge and the food cabinet next to it. They couldn't even offer the tea.

As someone who is visiting from out of town, it's really disappointing to see such an established organisation to provide misinformation as such. While we sat and ate from the limited menu options, we noticed a large number of people who came in to have a meal also left disappointed, so this is not unique to just out of town folk.

Please update your website and say the cafe is actually closed. "Limited menu" would refer to maybe 50% of the main menu. Not 2 or 3 options from a food warmer.

The food would taste nice, but there is an extraordinary amount of cilantro in the dish which overpowers the actual taste of the dish. I understand everyone has different taste buds and preferences, but for anyone who cannot handle cilantro, definitely always ask for the...