We were in the holiest city in India and it was hot as hell. We had read about a great German Bakery with great bread and great quality western food, we were in need of some non-local delicacies so on the day of arrival we headed for the bakery down the small winding alleys of Varanasi.
We headed down the alley we were directed to and we went passed one bakery looking place, but we were accosted by someone to come in so we went passed and then we saw huge signs for the bakery and the NGO associated with it, so we headed in!
We climbed some stairs and entered the seating area, it was not quite like we had expected from the review or description but it had information on the NGO and the menu was as described with all the breads, cheeses and western foods we had been promised.
So we selected and began to order. First order the waiter said “sorry we’re out of that”, next try “sorry we’re out of that”, next try “we don’t have ham”. We finally found something they had that we wanted, frustrated at the lack of menu items, but we accepted his excuse of it being busy over the weekend and they were waiting for delivery, it was Indian after all and some of these items were probably not that easy to pick up from the local supermarket! We thought it was odd considering the review we read and discussed possible reasons, maybe even the fact we had the wrong one, but lets face it how many German Bakeries can be in an Indian city!!
Our cheese and salad baguettes arrived and were swiftly demolished, they were fantastic and greatly appreciated, we were happy and left. On the way back we passed the shop that someone had tried to coax us into, we stopped to look, it was a bakery, it had bread in the window and had a much better décor, we went into the shop, the man gave us a menu….it was exactly the same! We were confused the man said he had a roof terrace if we wanted to eat up there.
We asked if they were a German bakery, he said yes, we said we just went to the German Bakery down the road, he said we had just been to the copy bakery, this was the real bakery we were in, they even had all the items we had wanted in stock….we had been duped, we had been caught up in the Real Fake Bakery Scandal, we felt used!
Needless to say we came back the next day and even though the Fake Bakery had done good food, this was even better, and we could get ham and cheese baguettes with real cheddar!!! Mmmmm and enjoyed the roof top view of Varanasi by day and night
As for the Fake Bakery this was a serious matter, the owner one night we were there had a local politician in to discuss over dinner the issue, it was even in the process of going to the high court, we had been caught up and used in the scandal!