Any search for a pure vegetarian restaurant ends at Jyothi Cafe, situated right in front of Shivajinagar BMTC Bus Stand, where people get to savour authentic South Indian food and snacks.
The cafe was started in 1960 by Subba Rao, who worked hard to develop his business for years. Now, the cafe has two branches. One place has seating facilities while the other one is a self-service darshini style restaurant. Venkatesh and Ram Krishna have been looking after these hotels after Subba Rao.
Like any other South Indian restaurant, one can savour dosa items, puri, idli-vada and rice items in this eatery. However, the customers love dosa items more than anything as they are soft and crispy.
Rice items like vangi bath, puliogare, pulav, rice bath also have a loyal customer base.
“From my father’s time, we are known for our dosa items, especially masala dosa, onion dosa and set dosa which have been a favourite of our loyal customers.
Inspired by the popularity of Jyothi Cafe, we decided to open another hotel nearby and thankfully we are doing good there also,” says Venkatesh, the owner. Interestingly, the hotel doesn’t offer elaborate meals, except anna sambar during lunch time.
“Actually, people are happy with what we offer. I don’t have any plans to extend our menu in meals section. We want to provide limited items so that we can maintain
quality as well as quantity,” adds Venkatesh.
At any time of the day, the hotel bustles with customers thanks to the busy market area.
“Most of the time, I order puri along with a cup of coffee in this hotel as I am
addicted to its taste and aromatic sambar. When I come with my friends, my choice is masala dosa and sometimes I eat more than four dosas and my friends give me good competition in that,” says Manikantha, one of the customers.
