Aur Irani Chai – West Pune meets Iran!

Aur Irani Chai, Aundh

Irani chai is ubiquitous with old pune. Vohuman, Good Luck, Kohinoor, Diamond are some of the classic age-old Irani chai joints. This was something the residents of Baner, Balewadi, Aundh, Wakad, PS etc. were sorely missing. Aur Irani Chai does well to fill up that gaping hole.

Nestled away in a corner across Nagras Road, near Rahul Restaurant, Aundh (click here for G-Maps), Aur Irani Chai is a cozy little joint with brick walls and stone tables. Shaded by trees around the perimeter, they do a surprisingly good job at isolating the noise from the very busy junction just outside. Apart from the huge menu board, its a very chilled out atmosphere.

 

Irani Chai and Bun-Maska: An obvious start to any meal at an Irani Cafe. A typical Irani chai – light, sweet and milky. Super soft bun. Gloriously lathered with butter. I was dipping the bun-maska into the chai, and had the time of my life. My chai-loving wife ended up drinking 3 cups!

PS: The bun-maska found on the streets of Vadodara or Ahmedabad are far more generous in terms of the maska. But then that’s Gujarat!

Bun Maska

Bread Butter: 2 slices of bread, generously buttered. What more can you expect?

Bread Butter

Bun Cheese Omlette: You can’t go to an Irani Cafe and not have the Omlette! Oodles of cheese trickling out! Super soft bun, lots of butter, loads of melted cheese.

Bun Cheese Omlette

Kheema Pav: The pièce de résistance. Light, flavorful, perfectly cooked mutton kheema. Not overloaded with spice or oil. Absolutely perfect for breakfast (or any meal!)

Overall, I love this place! Nice ambiance, good service, and excellent food. The trifecta of a great restaurant. Oh, and to top it off, entirely budget friendly. The entire meal cost us less than 300/- bucks!

Definitely a place I am going to be visiting again and again.

#baconbaba khush hua!!!

Vohuman Cafe – The fabled Irani chai

Vohuman Cafe

-Sangeeta Majumdar

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Pune has its own share of Irani and Parsi food establishments such as Goodluck cafe, Kayani bakery, Dorabjees, Blue Nile and George restaurants. Vohuman cafe along with its bun-maska, chai and cheese omelette are a long lasting part of this illustrious list – a bite out of Pune’s food legacy.

This was my first visit to this iconic eatery (thanks to my dear friend Payal who literally kidnapped me at 6.30am to drive there for breakfast!)

We started off with the double cheese omelette and toast butter. The omelette was yummy! I liked the distinctive masala that they used in the omelette, plus who doesn’t like cheese!

Cheese Omelette

Toast butter – generous enough with the butter!

Ordered the fabled Irani chai – nice and light. This was round one.

Then we ordered the double cheese toast, and another round of chai, both of us being chai lovers 😉

The Irani Chai

The double cheese toast had a thick slab of cheese sandwiched in between the slices of toast and I gobbled it down it by dipping it in the hot tea, guess that is the right way to have it. My only gripe – I wish the cheese was melted instead. The cheese slabs made it a tad dry

Double Cheese Toast

Mounds of ‘maska’

At the end of this all, we were quite full. but yet, we had to have another round of chai. Or maybe just an excuse to sit for a bit longer at the legendary place…