About Jyoti-Bihanga
Jyoti-Bihanga is a vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Normal Heights. They have been there since the 1980s, a restaurant with a reported purpose – all of the staff practice mindfulness while at work and attempt to create an atmosphere of peace in the business itself. The food at Jyoti-Bihanga is actually good, even though it’s vegetarian and mostly vegan (no offense… to vegetarian people). Try their famous Neatloaf and a side of mashed potatoes. The ingredients are fresh and you can feel good about yourself after for eating such a healthy meal in a place dedicated to peace of mind.
Great For
• Lunch
• Mental health days
• New Age woo woo
A Closer Look
Jyoti-Bihanga is San Diego’s oldest vegetarian restaurant – first opening its doors in the 1980s. It is owned by local San Diegan Mahiyan (aka John Savage).
Disclaimer: In learning about the founder and owner of Jyoti-Bihanga we learned that he is a follower of a spiritual leader named Sri Chinmoy. You will see pictures of Sri Chinmoy in the restaurant and the restaurant may still be affiliated with Sri Chinmoy’s spiritual group, we don’t know. When we searched Sri Chinmoy we found that he is a controversial figure – there are accusations of abuse against him and some of his followers and outside experts have stated he ran a cult. We of course are in no way affiliated with Sri Chinmoy’s may-or-may-not-be cult (at least we don’t think, though that is what all cult followers say) and we do not want to promote any business that we feel has roots in impropriety. We will leave it to you to do the research yourself and decide. We just want to put this message out there.
