Cafe Karma – A Great Place for Breakfast in Rishikesh

What makes Cafe Karma a great place for breakfast in Rishikesh?

Café Karma isn’t blessed by having the banks of the Ganga on its doorstep as some other Rishikesh Cafes are. But with huge windows surrounded by verdant greenery on all sides, calming Indian music to relax and settle your nerves and most importantly: some really decent breakfast options to fill you up for your day in the holy city on the Ganga, it would be a shame to skip out on Cafe Karma.

The Location

Café Karma may not be near the river but it is near a lot of the big hotels and hostels in upper Tapovan. If you’re staying in Upper Tapovan on the West side of the Ganga, chances are Cafe Karma is only a short walk from you.

The Food

Café Karma has a great breakfast selection. It’s eggs galore with a variety of omelettes to beat out most average places in the U.K. The mushroom omelette, the masala omelette etc. They’re always delicious and cost only between 100 and 120 rupees. (£1-1.20) On top of this you can get egg parantha, something I saw much less often in India compared to other paranthas. Parantha – for anyone who doesn’t know – is a sumptuous Indian flatbread that typically has a filling baked into it. I like to describe the bread itself as a cross between a naan and a pancake. The egg parantha is okay, but I found the aloo parantha and the cauliflower parantha to be better quality food. The egg parantha always tasted drier than the other paranthas, and sometimes the egg filling thins out around the edges of the flatbread. Nevertheless, Café Karma’s egg parantha is still a tasty breakfast, especially when they cost less than a pound each! I pretty much always ordered two… Just make sure you request some spicy sauce unless you’re content with the pickle they provide. You can also ask for curd – though they’ll charge you extra for that. (at least 80 rupees)

Café Karma’s banana pancakes are a definite win. They’re all wrapped up, nicely packed with banana and oozing syrup. I can only assume that their banana Nutella pancakes are even more of a delicious treat.

While the omelettes are always tasty, if you walk into Cafe Karma damn hungry like I often did it may not be enough to fill you up. This is why I always ordered parantha with my omelette. That way you get a decent amount of bread with your eggs and it guarantees you leaving Cafe Karma comfortably full.   

Very surprisingly, Café Karma doesn’t serve lattes. However, if you need your morning dose of milky brew you can get yourself a cappuccino. I got into the habit of ordering two every time I went in there. If you want a healthy drink, you can also get yourself a fresh juice, like this spinach, tomato, beetroot and carrot concoction…

While I only visited Cafe Karma for breakfast, they also serve curries and dals ranging from 140 rupees to 220 rupees. That’s good value, and I can only assume that a lunch or a dinner at this place would be just as tasty as their breakfast. Though sadly I cannot attest to it.

The Service     

Service at Café Karma is fine. Sometimes they can take a long time to come and take your order, but they are very friendly and this was never a big deal for me. Well… almost never. As I said, some days I walked into that place damn hungry…

The Ambiance

While it sometimes might be a while to wait for food, the calming Indian music they play is always relaxing, making for a tranquil atmosphere, and whenever I breakfasted there, it made me feel tranquil too.

Ambience 9/10

Food         7/10

Service     6/10

Cafe Karma is located on Main Badrinath Highway, Tapovan, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, 249192, India.

Take a look at their full menu on Zomato or check out the full list of my favourite cafes & eateries in Rishikesh here.