34 Best Restaurants in Kerala, India

Alongside traditional Kerala fare, here you’ll find unusual dishes bearing the stamp of the Middle East, Portugal, the local Jewish community, and the days of the British Raj with some age-old recipes having been passed on to the restaurant by more than 20 local communities. The lofty, elegant dining room of this fine-dining restaurant is windowed on all sides, and capped with a gabled wooden ceiling (resembling an upturned ship) supported by massive wood beams.

A favorite hangout for artists and young tourists, Fort Cochin's Kashi Art Café is about as funky as Kerala gets. The front room hosts rotating exhibitions, primarily of South Indian contemporary art, and light continental fare and Western-style coffee is served in the garden café at the rear. The real treat is to experience this tiny little pocket of Kerala subculture.

Located inside the Malabar House, this elegant alfresco restaurant with red and white walls spreads out to the patio near the swimming pool. The menu is comprised of a mix of regional specialties and Mediterranean plates. The seafood is always fresh and perfectly cooked, and if you’re craving Italian, the pastas are quite good as well.

This plush restaurant, which has windows on three sides, is long and shaped like a traditional wooden boat and is a favorite among Kochi's well-to-do crowd. The menu stresses seafood, as you might expect, with much of it often caught just a few hours before meal time in the Chinese fishing nets or in boats nearby. Kerala specialties are made with saltwater, and the local freshwater fish are grilled and cooked in traditional curries.

This former 18th-century Dutch mansion with its lush garden courtyard, classical architecture, and ancient art and relics dotting the grounds, once served as an arumana ammaveedu or home of the consorts of the king of Travancore. Regarded as Trivandrum’s finest restaurant, this oasis in the heart of the city features an eclectic collection of dishes from Kerala, as well as Morocco, Mexico, and Italy. It serves beer and wine.

Like the rest of the resort, the Ambadi's multi-cuisine restaurant has a rustic feel and is decorated with lots of wood. Head here for well-executed North Indian staples like butter chicken, as well as Indo-Chinese options, Kerala specials, and Western dishes, including fish-and-chips and some pastas.

Specialties at this popular chain restaurant include biryani, a flavorful rice cooked with chicken or mutton, and kuthu paratha, a Kerala Muslim delicacy of flatbread stuffed with minced fish and served from 4 pm onward.

One of three restaurants at the Taj’s sprawling 15-acre property, Bait is known for its fresh seafood cooked in local Keralan spices and international flavors; ask about the catch of the day, which comes straight from the local fishermen’s haul. The open-air dining room with views of the Arabian Sea make for an unbeatable dining location, especially at sunset. The restaurant serves wine and beer. 

A cobblestone pathway, fountain, and exposed brick walls set the tone for this pretty garden café, which has an alfresco dining area, a garden courtyard, a co-working space, and a private dining area. The menu includes Mexican, Mediterranean, and Southeast Asian cuisine, and the café serves single-origin coffee sourced from Chikkamagaluru in the state of Karnataka.  Its location in a residential area might make finding it a bit tricky; get good directions before heading here.

This restaurant offers a flavor of Fort Kochi both with its food and with its location overlooking the beach and sea. While the property has become a little dilapidated over the years, the views at sunset make up for it. A la carte options include stuffed red snapper, seafood platter, Alleppey fish curry, karimeen pollichattu (fish wrapped in banana leaf), and jumbo prawns in tomato sauce.

At Canvas, you can sit on a wooden bench to taste sumptuous pizzas that emerge from a massive, wood-fired oven. The restaurant's two eco-conscious owners use solar energy to run the restaurant, grow their own herbs like basil, and concoct authentic Italian flavors for the menu that includes homemade pastas, pizzas, and risottos.

Raheem Residency, on Alleppey's main beach, is in an elegant old British-built bungalow dating from the 19th century, and its partially alfresco restaurant serves a variety of cuisines—Kerala, North Indian, and some Western dishes. Try the Alleppey fish curry, the Kerala prawns roast, or a chicken biryani (served only at lunch) and enjoy the beach view from the upper floor. Alcohol is served.

This popular resort is known for its relaxed vibe and some of the freshest seafood around, including its butter-garlic crab. It serves wine, too, along with delightful views of the sea. It is open throughout the year. Italian, Indian, and continental meals are also available.

Open all day, and with an open-air patio on the cliff, Coastal Kitchen may just be Varkala's best restaurant, serving all regional and Kerala specialties as well as vegetarian options like eggplant curry. Don’t miss the karuvepilai prawns, spicy and fried up with a lot of curry leaves, or the meen polichathu, fish fried in a wrapped banana leaf. The desserts are good, too.

Located inside the luxe Fragrant Nature hotel, which formerly housed the East India Company’s Kochi office, this quaint, colorful café, complete with its own red London telephone booth, is a cheerful place for a meal. The menu focuses mainly on classic British pub fare---they even have a small kids menu.

Located in Eighth Bastion Hotel, East Indies specializes in Dutch-influenced fusion cuisine served with a view of the swimming pool and garden. The varied menu offers a range of dishes, from classic pastas to pollichattu (roasted fish wrapped in banana leaf).

With a great location on the jetty, this open-air restaurant doesn't skimp on quality or authenticity. The menu is almost entirely seafood---there is a seafood platter for those keen on variety---with some dishes presented in a clay vessel.

The food and buffet selection at the Hilton Garden Inn’s all-day dining restaurant is varied and delicious, with everything from Kerala classics like meen manga curry to North Indian specialties, Italian pastas, and pizzas, and even a fresh salad counter. Beyond the food, a major draw is its staff; executive chef Asmic Raj pays careful attention to diners' likes and dislikes and makes sure to stop by every table to ask about their dining experience.

This restaurant serves a range of local, Chinese, North Indian, and continental dishes; popular choices include squid tawa peralan (a dry curry prepared with numerous spices), prawn biryani, and chicken malabar biriyani. The place gets busy for dinner, especially on weekends, and as a result the waiting time can vary and service can be slow. The restaurant does not serve alcohol, which is common in this largely Muslim part of Kerala.

The airy, glass-roofed Hill Spice, at the Tall Trees resort, is a more elegant alternative to the restaurants in Munnar's main bazaar. The Kerala dishes are your best bet, though the restaurant offers thalis and buffet meals along with Indian, Indo-Chinese, and continental food.

Known for its biryani, a rice dish cooked with meat and spices, this very modest restaurant is the original, and people say it’s the best, with some of the most authentic and lip-smackingly good Kerala food you will find—but be ready for serious spice. There’s usually a line for lunch on weekdays, and the menu may become more limited if you arrive late—they run out.

Housed in a 400-year-old whitewashed building, this café has walls clad in paintings by local artists and offers a mix of continental and South Indian cuisines---expect burgers, sandwiches, curries, and rice bowls. They have a great selection of coffees as well.

As Kochi's first vegan café, Loving Earth offers a 100% plant-based menu amidst a quiet, lush setting. You can find cold-pressed juices, salads, sandwiches, pastas, and all-day breakfast items, as well as a selection of condiments for purchase.

A fine tribute to Cochin’s rich Jewish history, Menorah is in the former mansion of one of the city’s best-known Jewish families, and the fine table linens and stately surroundings recall the royalty, prime ministers, and dignitaries that once dined here. Traditional Cochin-Jewish cuisine is served—try the chemeen ularth, a prawn fry, or plav, a rice and chicken dish, and the mutta roast (eggs cooked with a variety of spices).

This eatery's claim to fame is the sadya, a traditional vegetarian meal of rice, curries, vegetables, pickles, and desserts all served on a large banana leaf. The restaurant also offers 100 varieties of dosa. If you go for lunch on the weekend, be prepared to wait in line. It serves traditional local dishes for breakfast.

This former Dutch home now serves as an art gallery, David Hall, displaying the work of contemporary Indian artists, and a spacious garden café extending out to a large back lawn. It serves all-day breakfast, delicious Italian pizza, panini, rice bowls, cakes and pastries; try the kombucha as well. The coffee menu is quite extensive. 

It's not much to look at, and it can get noisy when crowded, but this Calicut stalwart has been serving tasty food since 1939. The chicken and the prawn biryanis are both excellent (come early for these), as is the prawn thattukada, an unusual fried shrimp dish that goes well with parathas (a flaky flatbread); other favorites include the prawn pepper fry and tamarind fish curry. The biryanis may run out on the early side, but the restaurant is open quite late.

This all-day restaurant located in the Spice Village resort serves some of the best food in the area, including not-to-miss Kerala specialties. You can choose to eat inside the thatched main building, decorated with a colorful selection of cattle masks, on a veranda overlooking the pool, or in the garden.

This quirky two-story café, off Princess Street and near the harbor, has teapots and kettles decorating every available space, including some dangling from the ceiling; some tables are made from wooden tea chests. There’s a fair selection of both Indian and continental food—roast chicken and potatoes, prawn moilee (in a coconut curry), vegetable stew—but the café is best known for its sandwiches and freshly baked cakes and for being a terrific spot for sipping away on a cup of tea for an hour or more.

This immensely popular place is Kerala’s first Thai restaurant—so don’t be surprised if the waiter explains each dish to you—and it has plentiful seafood as well as Vietnamese and Chinese dishes. The dining room is done up in warm woods, with silver and rich red accents on the ceiling and chairs, plus colorful murals and beveled glass windows that give you a glimpse of the Arabian Sea.