There are lots of good restaurants. What kinds of places are you interested in? Off the top of my head, Koshy's is good for old-time indian classics and the coffee and the atmosphere, Coconut Grove for coastal food, Ramana's for north vegetarian, Nandhini for thalis (veg. combination meals). I also like the lunch buffet at Sikander, inside the Garuda mall.

For non-Indian, there's the Only Place for a good burger, Sunny's for expensive mediterranean. The Vietnamese place at the Taj West End is prob. very good. I haven't eaten there though.

Mavalli Tiffin Rooms
Lalbagh Road
Tel: 080-2220022.

This is a kind of a Bangalore institution and would be first on my list. Great food, supposedly the best dosas in India. . I think there is one in the Hyatt in New Delhi as well.

Olive Beach
16 Wood Street
Ashoknagar
Tel: 5112-8400.


This is a branch of the restaruatns in Delhi and Mumbai. Very good Italaian, what they are calling “Mediterran-fusion”. Nice lively atmosphere.

The Italia Restaurant in the Park Hotel is quite good, and the hotel has the very popular i-bar too. I also think all the restaurants in the Leela are good, both western and India.

Most of all, however, try to get invited home by colleagues. India is the one place I have found in almost 20 years of living in Asia where you are likely to be invited to someone’s home for a meal, and you should say yes at every opportunity. Almost always excellent food (often different regional dishes) and an opportunity to meet people.

Cicerone, I must confess that MTR is high overrated. It is also located in one of the most unappetising, noisy of places in the city.

New Krishna Bhawan in Malleshwaram is an old Bangalore institution for vegetarian S Indian food. On Sundays they make unusual traditional items. In Indiranagar, South Indies provides an interesting vegetarian buffet for 200 rupees. There are a la carte options as well.

At the high end, the restaurants at The Oberoi to be excellent.

Thanks agtoau.

Headed there next month. Looking forward to that Thai place.

I love Karavelli in the Taj Gateway. It's specific to keralan food and terrific.

I second Karavalli and Olive. I'm a big fan of Sunny's tho would do it for lunch. The Oberoi Hotel has some good restaurants. If you like spicy Andhra style food there are some great options.