“Navdanya” – we thought meant “new grains”. A visit to their website http://www.navdanya.org/ reveals that this means “nine grains’.

Navdanya is an organisation that promotes organic farming. Hence when we ordered at their outlet, we expected healthy – nutritious – pesticide free food. We did not expect  that the fare would be so delectable ! We were completely floored with the sabudana vada – this was crisp on the top and tender inside. This was followed by sattu (chick pea flour) ka paratha that was served with raita and green chutney. The raita had a unique heavy taste because of the seasoning – this required some getting used to. Most important – the food was easy on spices and  mirchi free 🙂

We finished dinner with masala chai that was lightly flavoured with fresh spices – we could identify clove and cardamom. Along with tea, instead of white sugar, they served Boora- a less refined variety of sugar. For the benefit of the uninitiated, Boora is a kind of sugar, light brown in colour, slightly course in texture and is pleasantly mild than regular sugar in taste.  Boora is widely used to sweeten desserts in North India.

Seating arrangement is comfortable and staff is courteous. The food is affordable and their menu includes quite a few offbeat options for diet conscious people.