Jivana — meaning life in Sanskrit — is Ekaanta's riverside Ayurvedic restaurant. Sattvic cuisine prepared without onion or garlic, from locally sourced seasonal ingredients, served on the banks of the Ganges. Open to retreat guests and day visitors.
Sattvic & Ayurvedic
Riverside, Ganges view
Guests & Day Visitors
Jivana is built on a single conviction: that food prepared with the right intention, from the right ingredients, in alignment with your constitution, is as therapeutic as any treatment in our programme.
Every meal at Jivana is prepared without onion or garlic in keeping with Ayurvedic and yogic principles that identify these as rajasic and tamasic foods that disturb mental clarity and digestive balance. Every ingredient is locally sourced. Every dish is designed in consultation with our wellness team to complement your dosha and programme phase.
The design of the dining room itself reflects this intention – ceilings of blue wooden panels that echo the Ganga, inverted light bulbs reminiscent of floating diyas, and floor-to-ceiling views of the river through glass walls.
Prepared without onion, garlic, or any ingredients identified in Ayurveda as disturbing to mental clarity. Food that calms as it nourishes.
Ingredients sourced from the Garhwal region — millets, winter greens, mountain herbs, seasonal produce. Nothing out of season. Nothing from far away.
For retreat guests, meals are calibrated to your Prakriti (constitution) and current programme phase in consultation with your Ayurvedic physician. The kitchen and the clinic speak the same language.
Cooking methods, spice combinations, and meal timing are all designed to kindle and support Agni — the digestive fire — rather than suppress it. Warm, well-spiced, intentionally timed.
At most wellness retreats, food is an afterthought — something healthy-ish served between the therapies that matter. At Jivana, the meal is the therapy. The choice of ingredients, the cooking method, the spice combination, the timing of the meal in your day — all of it is calibrated in the same conversation as your treatment protocol.
For retreat guests, your dosha-specific meal plan is agreed between the kitchen and your Ayurvedic physician at the start of your stay, and evolves as your programme progresses. If your Virechana day requires a liquid diet, Jivana prepares it. If your Rasayana phase calls for specific nourishing foods, they appear on your plate.
Breakfast: 7:00 — 10:00am
Lunch: 12:30 — 2:30pm
Evening tea: 4:30 — 6:00pm
Dinner: 7:00 — 9:00pm
Open 7 days a week to retreat guests and day visitors.
Retreat guests: meals are included and timed as part of your programme.
Day visitors and non-guests are warmly welcome but are encouraged to reserve in advance, particularly for dinner and the Ganga Aarti evening experience.
Evening dining under the stars by the Ganges is available on request, weather permitting. A private outdoor table at the ghaat is one of Ekaanta’s most requested experiences — particularly for the Ganga Aarti evening package.
