Canteen Review

Some days are happy, some are sad. Some days have hectic deadlines and some have club events. Some days you’re rushing to class, having woken up three minutes prior, and other days you lazily walk back to your hostel in the afternoon sun. There is one constant, however – food. And food on IIIT’s campus runs synonymous with the canteens here. The choice is good, but this review will help you gain some insight.

An average day of a student here revolves around the three canteens – VC, BBC, and JC.

VC – Vindhya Canteen

Conveniently situated around classrooms, the library, workspaces and labs, the Vindhya Canteen attracts professors and students alike. Since it opens relatively early, usually students come here before classes, between consecutive classes, and after their classes are over.

VC serves a wide variety of food items. Most popular among them include tea, coffee, puffs, omelettes, and sandwiches. However, known to very few, there are other items not mentioned on the menu which this canteen offers. These include pav bhaji and papdi chaat. Although I revealed them right now, I urge the reader to keep this secret information a secret ;).

A concern for some students regarding VC is its pricing. Even though the food quality and taste are great, some of the items are too expensive to eat on a frequent basis. While it is true that the cost required to make the food items is probably equally high, lowering the prices a little will not hurt its customers.

The sitting area around here is easily one of the prettiest places on campus, and especially when it rains, the lush greenery around this place makes it very lively, making it a convenient place to conduct events. Recently, the Geoguessr tournament and Music Club’s Unplugged were conducted here.

BBC – Basketball Canteen

The Basketball Canteen being in close proximity to most hostels – Bakul, Parijaat, and NBH, especially attracts a lot of students for breakfasts and for quickly just grabbing snacks when you are working from the room. The seating arrangement also makes it convenient to relax with your friends on a lazy Sunday morning. Since it is close to the amphitheatre, BBC is often open late at night when there are events at the amphi.

BBC is known for two items only, and rightfully so – dosa and maggi. BBC Maggi and Dosa are known campus-wide. This may seem like less variety to you, but the sheer number of permutations and combinations within these to tap into will ensure that you’re never bored. PS: Personal tip from the author – the extra masala cheese maggi is by far the BEST.

JC

This article is about the complex that is commonly understood to include four independent canteens. For the individual canteen, see below.

The JC complex, next to the guest house, is home to the (actual) canteen JC, Tantra, the Frankie roll stall and Devid’s Bakery. It’s the standard midnight-birthday-celebration spot, because cakes and candles are available at Devid’s and no other canteens are open at midnight. (JC treats are also practically currency on campus.)

JC itself (the individual canteen) is best known for its oreo shake, but its timeless watermelon with extra ice, seasonal and luxurious avocado honey shake and all-time favourite nimbu soda are iconic. 

Frankie’s roll stall has the most descriptive canteen name on campus. It is exactly what it proclaims to be – a roll stall. You name it, it’s there (as long as “it” is paneer or chicken).

Devid’s Bakery has the most reasonable timings of all the canteens on campus – 4 PM to 4 AM (if it surprises you that this is “reasonable”, read this again after your first semester). Although slightly overpriced, their ice cream brownie is worth having. It’s also the only place open past 2 AM (again, this information will be more useful than you think).

Tantra is the place where people go to make up for missed meals (this is getting cliché, but again, much more common than you think). It’s the only place which sells meal-sized portions, but its menu has some interesting typos – ”chicken moms” among them.

So, if you’re coming to IIIT, you should know that you will be spending a lot of your time at these canteens. While this article mentions some of the popular favourite food items at these canteens, you should certainly try out the other ones too ;).

Editor: Nanda Rajiv