GOOD KARMA: Pay-As-You-Like Restaurants

When you hear the word Seva, what does it mean to you? Quite literally, Seva means service. In the context of faith, it means selfless service rendered as a community action, done for the goodwill and benefit of others. 

Seva Café is an experiment in the shared joy that comes from humble giving and selfless service. Their wholesome meals are cooked and served with love by volunteers and offered to guests as a gift, paid for in full by previous guests.

As more participate in the joy of giving, the more the experiment thrives. It begins with a single gift: first given, then received... multiplied, and given again, in a growing chain of kindness and care. The hope is that this Circle of Giving leaves one feeling more nourished, and inspired to carry the experiment forward. Locations: Seva Café takes over Zephyr Vegetarian Café 340 E 4th St. Long Beach, CA, 90802 and Shopper’s Plaza, 4th Floor Opp Municipal Market, C.G. Road Ahmedabad, Gujarat India, 380 009

Karma kitchen another Pay-As-You-Wish restaurant. There are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: "Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, they invite you to pay it forward for those dine after you. That's Karma Kitchen, a volunteer-driven experiment in generosity. Run by volunteers, their meals are cooked and served with love, and offered to guests as a genuine gift. Location: Taste of Himalayas Restaurant 1700 Shattuck Ave, Berkley CA.

Other Pay-as-you-like Restaurants: There are an increasing number of pay-as-you-wish restaurant sightings around the globe!

• Better World Cafe: a community kitchen in New Jersey.
• Gift-Economy Cab: in Vermont, a cab driver steps it up!
• Honesty Cafes: 7,456 of them across Indonesia!
• Cafe Kafee Kucch, Chandigarh, India
• One World Spokane: no menu, no prices in Washington.
• City Cafe Bakery (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada)
• Wine Bar (Berlin, Germany)
• No Food Restaurant (King City)
• Annalakshmi (Singapore, Malaysia, India)
• Lentil As Anything (many branches in Australia)
• One World Everybody Eats (Salt Lake City, Utah)
• SAME ("So All May Eat" -- Denver, Colorado)
• TerraBite (Seattle)
• Made with Love Cafe (New Orleans)
• Mother's Kitchen (Across USA)
• Krishnan (Madurai, India)
• Seva Cafe (Ahmedabad, India, also in LA for six months)
• Wednesdays (Santa Clara, CA)
• Vimala Cooks, Everybody Eats (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)