Joney's Place

Joney's Place

Joney's Place is about the size of a large bedroom and has been feeding budget travellers in Taj Ganj for decades. It is the single most-recommended cheap restaurant near the Taj Mahal, with a review count in the thousands that is unusual for a place with perhaps ten tables.

What to order

Banana lassi is the signature and the thing people come back for — thick, cold, made to order. Malai kofta, aloo paratha, dal, paneer dishes and a small range of curries with roti or rice. The menu is short, handwritten, and mostly vegetarian; there is some non-vegetarian food but this is not where you come for it. Portions are modest and prices are low enough that ordering three things is normal.

₹300–500 for two with drinks. In a district where hotel restaurants charge four times that, this is the value outlier.

What it is like

Small, hot in summer, friendly, slow when busy, and social — the tables are close enough that you will overhear other travellers' Taj plans, and the staff will explain the menu if you ask. It is not a romantic dinner and it is not fast. It is a cheap, good, honest meal five minutes from the East Gate.

Practical

• Roughly 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM, so it covers breakfast, which most Agra restaurants do not.
• Cash preferred; small notes.
• It fills up. At peak dinner hours there is a wait for a table. Go at 6:30 PM or after 9:00 PM.
• Near the Taj East Gate, so it is the natural meal before a sunrise visit or straight after one.
• Vegetarian-friendly in a way that matters: Agra's speciality is Mughlai meat, and if you do not eat meat your options near the Taj are otherwise limited to hotel kitchens.

Pair it with Maya Hotel & Restaurant and Yash Cafe, both a couple of minutes away in the same Taj Ganj cluster — that triangle is where budget travellers eat in Agra.