Review of Cafe Natrani, Ahmedabad: My cherished memories

Natrani Cafe in Ahmedabad is Nostalgia Cafe for me. I have been coming here for more than a decade, and still every time I visit the place again it woos me back like a seductress. The cafe is so much more than a cafe - its a place where like minded people conglomerate and do some absolutely amazing stuff. On any given day you can find writers, performers, photographers, designers and all sorts of other crazy people doing their crazy shit!

Hanging menu

My companion at the cafe - Dr Rashmi Aradhya :)

Seating at Natrani Cafe 

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My first visit 

I still vividly remember my first visit to here. My very close friend’s brother was doing his MBBS but also used to be a part of a local rock band, and he was performing there right at the cafe. Back then I think I loved the cafe even more because I had an instant crush on the lead singer - the girl with groovy voice and short hair. But after that first visit I was hooked to the place  At that time the thing that impressed me the most was the iron gate to the cafe though unfortunately I do not have a great picture to share here.

The main door - look at the curved iron!

Over the years I kept coming back to the place, sometimes for coffee but most of the times for various performances at the open-air amphitheatre of Darpana Academy. One of the memorable ones was the Kathak performance by Sanjukta Sinha. I wrote about it on my blog and she saw it and actually wrote to me that she loved the pictures. I was besotted and shared all the pictures. Eventually we wrote more to each other and became friends on Facebook. But I think things like these happen very frequently at this place because of the openness of thoughts which I think magically gets fostered in anyone who visits.

I introduced it to anyone I could, including many friends from NID. 

Stairway to guest rooms

Coffee and Food

Of course, Natrani cafe is also about coffee and food. The coffee is pretty decent but somehow it tastes really good to me. The food menu is not huge but you can get simple meals and some snacks as well. Sandwiches are good and so are cheese chilly toasts.

My favourite is basic cold coffee (though at most other cafes I prefer Americano), but the cold chocolate is also very good. 

To reach

The cafe is located a little off Ashram Road. You need to drive upto Hotel Fortune Landmark and take the right just before the hotel (the hotel would be on you left if you are coming from Paldi). Just walk/ drive down the lane and you will find the cafe on your left about 200m ahead. Google maps also works well to bring you right to the door of the cafe.

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The Natrani cafe as well as Darpana Academy is run by Mallika Sarabhai, who describes herself as a communicator before anything else. She is also an accomplished dancer, actor, a political activist and much much more. She was born to two very famous personalities - Vikram Sarabhai and Mrinalini Sarabhai, but over the years she is name by herself. 

Selfie at Natrani Cafe