10 Best Restaurants in Kerala, India

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.

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.

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 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.

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).