Where Does One Eat In Varanasi?
 

Our trip isn't until February, but I've been looking in my guide books and it seems like slim pickings. We'll be staying at the Rashmi Guesthouse so if you have any suggestions of restaurants nearby, we appreciate it. So will suggestions of places where we shouldn't eat. Thanks.

Ask your guide!!! I was super cautious in Varanasi.. We had a nice meal at the restaurant at the Taj Ganges Hotel.

Ask at the guesthouse. I remember eating one reasonably edible dinner at my hotel, the Alka, and one at a place nearby that's probably closed by now. I avoided street food in India, but otherwise just took the normal Asian precautions.

You should be cautious anywhere you eat in India. I concur with Thursday to not eat food from street vendors - tempting as it may look and smell.

Go with upscale restaurants and hotels or even McDonalds, Pizza Hut or other familiar names if they are an option.

Hopefully the Guesthouse staff will give you good (safe) recommendations.

Bread of Life on the Main street, about halfway between Main Ghat and Assi Ghat is very good. Try their version of nachos for fun. Bakery goods are very good too. when my daughter lived in Varanasi for a while she and her friends ate here often.

Kerala Cafe is also excellent south Indian food. I'll have to look for the address. It's always crowded with locals.

We mainly ate at the Rashmi Guesthouse, as breakfast was included, and in the evening it was convenient to eat there...We went to the Bread of Life Bakery, which was alot of fun getting there by Rickshaw..but they only had a few menu items available, and the restaurant was empty.

We saw several restaurants while roaming around, but never ended up trying any..

If u end up using Pappu for a guide (if he still works out of the Rashmi), he will have lots of suggestions for u.

The restaurent of Hotel Meraden Grand is also very good for middle rage priced.
Raju India.

I really, really, really, do not connect with this question at all. Just go out and look. Been to Varanasi twice and that's what I did. Wasn't ever poisoned.

I mean do you really have to know where you are going to eat four months down the track? Isn't the whole point of travelling to face the unknown?

Well I guess that rhetoric question says it all. It is for me; it clearly isn't for you.

Hope you find the best places possible and that you have a great time. But I would be interested in your response to my way of doing things.

Geez afterall. I think you are reading way too much into my simple question. There are other joys to traveling besides "facing the unknown." For example, a big part of the way I like to get to know a country, its culture and its people is through its food. If that isn't how you do it, it's fine with me. But for those of us who care about food, we try to seek out good dining experiences which often means asking in advance for recommendations and not necessarily going to the "place around the corner," when going just one block further might lead to a fantastic experience.

Besides food, I also try to seek out in advance other experiences of things I want to do or see when I get there. It was a lot easier to fly by the seat of pants when I was younger and traveled for two months at a time, but now I can travel for just 2 weeks at a time and I want to have a good idea of what I want to do when I get there. And that doesn't mean I don't allow time for new opportunities or ideas that arise when we get there. It just helps to know what I'll be giving up if I can't fit everything in. Besides, I am an information junkie and reading and researching extends the enjoyment of a two week trip and for me, maybe not you, adds to the richness of my travels.

So there you have it. And thank you everyone else for your responses.

Well last time i checked, i thought the forums were for asking questions, and it seems to me, alot of the questions are restaurant related, so i don't seen the reason for ur owliness afterall...

But having said that...i too prefer to face the unknow myself...but if someone has a good recco for a restaurant, most definately would check it out..

Afterall is, (in the words of the very diplomatic Kathie)

"one of the few posters on this site that seem to express contempt for fellow posters on a regular basis. I respectfully suggest that you (afterall) lighten up.

The mere fact that afterall is here asking questions (rarely, but asking none the less) indicates he isn't as "seat of the pants" and he'd like to pretend.

lol - I kinda like afterall - he/she/it brightens the boards. He/she/it is just a Grumpy Old Man/Woman/Thing with a tendancy to post in here BEFORE the sedation has kicked in..

I'm a curmudgeonly bugger too, when confronted with idiocy. But what's an idiocy to you, afterall, may have a pretty good rationale behind it.

But, hey - different strokes - I think it's great that he/she/it ain't scared to speak his/her/its mind. Even tho he does piss people off.

You go,gal/guy/ err.. git.

He/she/it...you make me LOL Dogster.

But pray tell, you were in Varansi, where did you eat???

I stayed at Rashmi too [Dogster Suite wj1, Room 304] - I just ate there all the time. The food was fine.

wj1 is kinda right - nuttin' took my fancy around the ghats. I'm a 'play it safe' guy where my tummy is concerned.

Oh, I did have lunch at my rickshaw driver's house.

I spent a week hovering over a Kathmandu lavatory with explosive and spectacular results as my penance for that.

Nothing makes one say "let me just die right now" faster than a bad case of what you had in Kathmandu.

One needs to be careful at what you imbibe anywhere while travelling & Varanasi is no exception to the rule. Rashmi GH, Ramada, Taj Ganges which also had a bar, Clarkes have fine vegetarian restaurants.

I also stayed at Rashmi Guesthouse, which has a nice little restaurant on the roof with good food. If the weather is nice, you can sit out on the rooftop terrace overlooking the Ganges. I also had one of the most tasty vegetarian thalis I had in India at a restaurant in the bazaar not far from Rashmi. I'm not exactly sure but I think it was Keshari. There was a bakery across the street. Someone at Rashmi can probably direct you. Have a great time!

To those who would snipe at others' travel styles (afterall Oct 30)- there are many paths to Nirvana, and a rich travel experience. After 40 years of international travel, I've allowed myself to try different styles and levels of travel from $10 a day, for two, to $250. To those who smugly turn up their noses at reservations, tour guides or- gasp- air conditioning, remember the following quote- "In the fine art of crap detection, remember the greatest source of crap is yourself". Insisting on being a traveler rather than a tourist benefits your own economy- not the one that you are visiting.
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Lynn, you joined Fodors to snipe at a 4 year old post? wow.

Lynn, what moved you to create an account find this old post?