Ahmedabad’s Lucky restaurant lets you enjoy your cup of chai and a plate of bun maska with the dead. This might leave you startled but the Lucky restaurant popularly known as the graveyard tea shop lets you literally dine with the dead.
Walk into the cafe opposite Siddi Sayeed Mosque in Lal Darwaja, this restaurant serves food right beside coffins, which are carefully maintained and decorated with flowers every day. This out of the box space has seen many summers in a city that loves its share of chai. Over the years, Lucky restaurant has its regular visitors who love to linger with a cup of chai and bun maska amid the graves. But there’s nothing morbid about this space. It is a place that celebrates life, laughter and camaraderie.
The uniqueness of the Lucky Restaurant Ahmedabad lies in its interiors. The restaurant is built around the 12 graves and has been gathering attention from locals, tourists and others. It is believed that these graves belong to the followers of a 16th-century Sufi Saint.
Lucky Restaurant in Ahmedabad is much more than just a restaurant, it’s considered as an iconic gastronomic destination of Ahmedabad. It represents the city’s deep-rooted rich heritage and its open-mindedness to explore new horizons. Spending time here with a cup of chai and bun maska is about celebrating life, accepting diversity, and connecting with history even as the city goes through massive transformation. It’s an experience you won’t forget, and that’s what makes Lucky Restaurant a special place.
In many cultures, this concept of having a meal amongst the deceased seems next to impossible. However, the Lucky restaurant in Ahmedabad, does not buy this view. Rather Amdavadis believe that dining in the Lucky restaurant with these dead people brings people good luck and prosperity.
As per city legends, many people visit this restaurant to have a cup of tea before starting an important day in business, personal life, or before an important exam. The journey of Lucky restaurant said more than 50 years ago when KH Mohammad from Calicut (now Kozhikode) came to Ahmedabad and decided to open a small tea stall near the graveyard in the Lal Darwaaza area of Ahmedabad.
This tea stall soon became a hit, as the locals around loved the tea served there. Slowly it developed its loyal patrons and this inspired Mohammad to acquire the space and transform it into an iconic place.
India’s celebrated painter M F Husain loved drinking tea at Lucky and every time he visited Ahmedabad, he would make sure to visit the restaurant. Husain once mentioned in an interview that Lucky Restaurant gave him the “feeling of life and death”, which is simply commendable. On the walls of Lucky, you can see a painting by M F Husain which he had gifted to the restaurant.
Moreover, Lucky Restaurant was also featured in the famous Bollywood movie – “2 States”, which is based on a novel of the same name by Chetan Bhagat.
Arshad Khan, a 45-year-old entrepreneur, is a regular at Lucky restaurant. “I simply love coming here and it feels like my second home. There is a sense of peace in this space and I have been coming here since my college years.”
Shubhra Sengupta, a tourist from Kolkata had read about Lucky restaurant on social media. During her recent visit to Ahmedabad, in between shopping for cotton fabric at Teen Darwaja, she took out time to have a cup of tea and bun maska at Lucky. “When I had read about this place on social media, I was quite intrigued about this whole concept. And now I am really happy to be here and experience this unique space. And needless to say, I enjoyed my share of chai and bun maska. There is a sense of history in this space which makes it so different from sanitised swanky coffee shops.”
If you’re looking for a unique dining experience in Ahmedabad, Lucky Restaurant is the place to go! Apart from the unique graveyard setting, it also offers food ranging from popular snacks like pav bhaji, masala dosa, cheese sandwich, chilli paneer and the like.
So, if you want to have your share of quirkiness then Lucky restaurant with its tables next to coffins is the place for you. And you will always have its famous chai and bun maska to soothe your soul.
Deepika Sahu has been a journalist for 30 years and she has worked with some of India’s leading media houses. Right now, she is independently engaged in content creation and curation.
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