3 Best Restaurants in Pushkar, Rajasthan

This spacious lake-view restaurant with white brick walls has a mix of regular and low tables (with ground seating on mattresses), vintage curios scattered about, and a small religious shrine in one corner. It is a popular evening hangout for locals and tourists, who come for freshly made vegetarian fare, both Indian and international, although the latter (pizzas, sandwiches, and pancakes) is more in demand.

A favorite with backpackers, this quirky vegetarian restaurant in an old whitewashed-blue building near the Brahma Temple has chilled trance music in the background, and reasonably quick and attentive service. The lengthy menu has everything from pizzas, thalis, extensive breakfasts (fit for a king) with Italian espresso, grilled sandwiches, soups, many flavors of lassi (chocolate, rose, mixed fruit), pasta (a favorite is ravioli in sage sauce), Mexican favorites, and Israeli and Middle Eastern food like falafel, to crepes (vegetable, sweet, or salty) and apple pie. You can eat downstairs in a/c comfort or head to the rooftop and have a meal with a view.

If you like to people-watch, this small terrace restaurant with lovely lake views is the place to be—expect to see an eclectic mash-up of dreadlocked backpackers, ornately adorned desert dwellers singing and dancing, and plenty of local priests eager to perform pujas (Hindu ceremonies). The menu mixes Indian (stuffed parathas or a thali), Italian (pizza, lasagna, bruschettas) and Mexican (enchiladas), though the international dishes aren't quite what you are used to back home; the veg sizzlers, lasagna, and banana pancakes are particularly popular here.

Come in the early evening, when scores of tourists and locals gather in front of the restaurant on Pushkar Lake's eastern shore to watch the sun set.