Café ParvanehEst. 1958 · Camp, Pune Call

Irani café & bakery · Since 1958

Chai, bun maska and seven decades of Camp mornings

Marble-top tables, bentwood chairs and a clock that runs five minutes fast. Three generations of one family, pouring the same strong, milky Irani chai off M.G. Road.

View menu Order bakery boxes on WhatsApp Call
  • Open 6:30 am – 10 pm
  • Fresh bakes at 7 am
  • Chai from ₹30
1958 CAFÉ PARVANEH IRANI CAFÉ · BAKERY · CAMP IRANI CHAI BAKERY MAWA OPEN
An old building with ornate plasterwork and tall teal-green window frames, a cyclist passing on the street below
Upstairs is still the family home. The plasterwork is original; the paint is not.

Our story

Three generations, one kettle of chai

Parvaneh means “butterfly” in Persian. Grandpa said the café was named for the way customers flit in for a chai and somehow stay all morning.

  1. 1958

    Four tables and a brass kettle

    Khodadad, twenty-three and newly arrived from Yazd, rents a corner room off M.G. Road. Chai, bun maska and a house rule or two.

  2. 1984

    The oven goes in

    His son Jehangir builds a wood-fired oven out back. The butter biscuits sell out by eleven. They still do.

  3. 2019

    Shirin takes the counter

    His granddaughter swaps a bank job in Mumbai for the cash drawer, keeps every recipe, and adds exactly one rule to the board.

  4. Today

    Same chai, new tricks

    Same marble tables, same clock (still five minutes fast), plus bakery boxes on WhatsApp and a QR menu on every table.

The classics

What Camp has ordered since 1958

The short list our regulars could recite in their sleep. Prices include taxes. Dunking is encouraged.

Since 1958

Irani chai

₹30

Brewed long and strong with full-cream milk and a little mawa. Served in the gold-rim cup.

Bun maska

₹40

Soft, sweet bun split and loaded with a thick slab of salted butter. Made for chai.

Brun maska

₹45

The crusty cousin. A crackly, flour-dusted brun with butter. Dunk it; that is the rule.

Kheema pav

₹180

Spiced mutton mince with green peas, two buttered pav, onion rings and lime.

Akuri on toast

₹150

Parsi-style soft scrambled eggs with onion, tomato, green chilli and coriander on thick toast.

Sundays only

Chicken dhansak

₹320

Chicken slow-cooked in lentils and vegetables, with caramelised brown rice and kachumber.

Caramel custard

₹110

Silky, wobbly and properly bitter-sweet on top. Grandma’s recipe, baked every morning.

Mawa cake

₹35

Dense, buttery, cardamom-scented little cakes with an almond on top. Warm before 9 am.

See the full menu
Golden almond biscuits in a dark bowl with lemon slices and daffodils on a dark table

The bakery counter

By the kilo, by the box

Everything comes out of Jehangir’s old oven at 7 every morning. Take a box home, send one to your office, or ship a tin to the cousins abroad.

  • Butter biscuitsShrewsbury-style, short and crumbly₹480/kg
  • NankhataiGhee, cardamom and a crackled top₹420/kg
  • Mawa cakesBox of six, packed warm₹200/box
  • Plum cakeRum-soaked fruit, pre-orders open 1 DecemberDecember
Order a box on WhatsApp

Order by 8 pm, collect after 7 am. Gift tins for Navroz, Diwali and Christmas.

House rules

Every Irani café has a board

Grandpa chalked ours in 1958, and it has been rewritten, word for word, every Monday since. Most of it still holds. Some of it we are still negotiating.

Rule no. 8 is Shirin’s. Grandpa would have approved.

House Rules

by order of the management
  1. No combing hair.
  2. No discussing betting.Yes, even on race day.
  3. No credit. Ask tomorrow.
  4. Pay at counter.
  5. No sitting long after one chai.Unless it is raining. Then stay.
  6. No bargaining. The price is the price.
  7. No feet on chairs.They are older than you.
  8. No laptops at lunch hour (12 – 3).

— The Management, 1958 (& 2019)

Things we’ve kept

Some things never change

A cup of milky tea on a red table, seen from above
Chai, the colour of 1958
Close-up of an old black-and-white clock face
Five minutes fast since 1962
A weathered carved wooden double door set in an old stone wall
The bakery door, open at 6:30 sharp
A green door and a window with white curtains on a yellow-painted wall
Back lane, where the bread cycles wait

Reviews

What regulars say

4.8 average from our regulars

“My father brought me here for bun maska in 1979. Now I bring my grandson. The chai has not changed. The clock is still wrong.”

MeherRegular since 1979

“Sunday dhansak is worth planning your week around. Get there by one, it runs out. And read rule no. 2 before you talk about the races.”

AdityaSunday lunch crowd

“Ordered a kilo of butter biscuits for the office on WhatsApp. Gone in ten minutes. One star off because they wouldn’t let me open my laptop at 1 pm.”

TanviOrders a box every month
M.G. ROAD EAST STREET MAIN STREET CHURCH ROAD CLOCKTOWER LANE Old Market Garden Chapel 2 min walk N CAMP · PUNE Café Parvaneh
12 Clocktower Lane, Camp
Two minutes off M.G. Road. Look for the maroon sign and the cat asleep on the step.

Timings & location

Pull up a bentwood chair

Café Parvaneh
12 Clocktower Lane, off M.G. Road, Camp, Pune 411001Street parking on Clocktower Lane. Step-free entrance through the side door; just ask at the counter.
Monday6:30 am – 10:00 pm
TuesdayClosed · the oven rests
Wed – Sat6:30 am – 10:00 pm
Sunday6:30 am – 10:00 pm
  • Bakery counter opens at 7:00 am
  • Sunday dhansak from 12:30 pm, till it runs out
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