Parathas were never my favourite thing to order at restaurants as they can easily be cooked at home and especially without the loads of oil of restaurants. But what I had at Prithvi Café Juhu left me wanting for more and more!

Read on to find out how Prithvi Café and the ubiquitous paratha won me over!

How we decided to meet at Prithvi Café in Juhu

On my recent trip to Mumbai, I was meeting an old girlfriend and after a lot of planning we fixed a date for Sunday lunch. She suggested a few options in Juhu where we were meeting and me being the research buff also searched for a few fancy sounding places online. But she brushed aside most of the choices and said “Let’s meet at Prithvi Cafe!”

And I was like how good will a theatre’s supposedly ‘tiny’ café be. But when she said you might spot some celebs too, I got a little interested and reluctantly agreed.

First Impressions of Prithvi Café

So along came Sunday and the foodie me reached Prithvi Café with absolutely no excitement in my belly. First impressions were nothing great either. It wasn’t ‘tiny’ but fairly large though it looked like the better version of a college canteen. Surprisingly, there was a long waiting. That definitely intrigued me. Nevertheless, I somehow convinced the server to give me a table fast as we didn’t have much time on us and we sat at a corner table with a couple of others.

Prithvi Café Ambience

Sharing a table with a few others is quite the norm here and there is a very relaxed college canteen vibe no doubt.

But as they say looks can be deceptive and this saying proved to be totally apt for this place. The food was extremely yummy and yes the free dessert we got gives them some extra brownie points. LOL

How ‘parathas’ wooed me at Prithvi Café: the Food Review

There were a mix of dishes on the menu from pastas, pizzas, hummus bowl, nachos, sandwiches, burgers and pav bhaji to croissants and puffs. So I was thinking “what should I go for” as I am a big fan of pasta and most international dishes. But I saw that most people in the café were ordering these typical looking plates of parathas and I thought “If everyone is ordering there must be something about it for sure.” So I decided to give it a shot and we ordered the mixed paratha. And what happened next was something I was not prepared for!

I must say I love having parathas at home albeit occasionally but I hate ordering them at restaurants as usually they are super oily and literally fried. But these parathas were lip smacking and pretty close to the home cooked version. They were super soft, crispy and oozing with generous amounts of the chosen paratha filling. I fell in love with them more and more at every bite and honestly can’t wait to go back and devour a full plate this time.

Also worth mentioning are that the parathas at Prithvi Café are served with kaali daal, raita and pickles and are a complete meal in itself! And everything in the plate is beyond delicious.

But I must confess here that I couldn’t resist the temptation of eating pasta and I did order a plate of “Spaghetti Aglio Olio” as well (which is my most favourite pasta preparation). This was good too but it was most definitely nowhere close to the parathas!

The free dessert we got was Vertigo which was an apt name. It was huge and even the two of us couldn’t finish it including me with the big foodie appetite.  Though it was tasty I wouldn’t count it as my favourite dessert.

I want to give a special mention to this refreshing drink we had called Kokum Cooler. Made out of the Kokum fruit, not only did it look very appealing but it was the perfect accompaniment to the sunny Mumbai weather.

Final Verdict

All in all Prithvi Cafe was a very satisfying experience especially since I had absolutely no expectations from it. And now I also know why my friend chose this over the fancy sounding places. Good food does win after all!

Not only that but this experience has now added parathas to my ever-growing list of favourite foods. But yes the caveat is it has to be only Prithvi cafe’s yummy parathas!

Last Impressions

By the time we left, the place was still packed and had an additional queue for the adjacent theatre shows. Incidentally this theatre was opened by the late Shashi Kapoor and his wife and is still run by their children which I had no idea about before this visit. Some general knowledge added to my kitty there!

So have you visited Prithvi Café or would you like to visit it? How did you like their parathas? What was your favourite dish there?

Do let me know in the comments below!

Pictures courtesy: Devpriya Mohata Photgraphy